"You're getting to be a good cop. You're even giving me a hard time." - Lt. Mike Stone (Karl Malden) to his young partner, Inspector Steve Keller (Michael Douglas)
The Streets of San Francisco: Season 1, Volume 1 DVD Review
By Jude Clement
Detective Lieutenant Mike Stone (Karl Malden, A Streetcar Named Desire, How the West Was Won) and Inspector Steve Keller (Michael Douglas, Wall Street, Fatal Attraction) of the San Francisco Police Department's Bureau of Inspectors are an unlikely crime busting duo. Stone, a widower, has been on the force for over twenty years. Keller, a playboy, has served for less than five. Stone is street smart and even- keeled. College graduate Keller tends to jump to easy conclusions. Stone has a bulbous nose. Keller has perfectly feathered hair. Somehow, though, they are a perfect match, solving homicides and keeping the City by the Bay safe in The Streets of San Francisco: Season 1, Volume 1.
The series starts out rather unimpressively with its TV movie-length pilot. Robert Wagner (Hart to Hart) guest stars as a lawyer suspected of murdering a hippie chick he met at a party. This extended episode is filled with momentum-killing flashbacks in which Wagner's character reflects on the deceased woman. As Stone and Keller investigate the murder, they come across a Satan-worshipping psycho, a plotline that most '70s crime shows only pursued after every other crime and motive had been exhausted. Here, however, it pops up in the very first episode.
Wagner isn't the only future TV crime fighter to appear in this set. Both Starsky and Hutch appear in episodes from the first half of season one. In "Hall of Mirrors," David Soul plays a rookie cop whose racist tendencies are uncovered when he begins investigating the murder of a Hispanic laborer. The psychology behind this episode is ludicrous (Soul's character hates Latinos because...well, you'll just have to see for yourself) and its resolution is astoundingly bad. Paul Michael Glaser fares a little better in "Bitter Wine" as a young man who is rejected by his father when he is convicted of killing two children in a hit-and-run accident. After serving twelve years in jail, Glaser is released only to discover that his father still doesn't forgive him. There's only one problem - Glaser actually took the fall for his older brother who never bothered to tell pop the truth.
Many of the scripts are hokey and pedestrian. Malden and Douglas are a fine pairing, but they aren't given much to do, and their characters are extremely one dimensional. Although the partners occasionally tease each other, the series lacks the easygoing banter of Starsky & Hutch. The cases lack the hard-boiled punch of Kojak and other "serious" crime dramas of the '70s. It falls somewhere in the middle of these two styles, giving these episodes a ho-hum blandness.
One thing that definitely isn't bland is the city of San Francisco. The series was filmed on location, and the show's creative team wrings every last drop of local color into each episode. From the Hall of Justice to the Garden of Eden strip joint and everything in between, almost every shot has something interesting to look at.
And if architecture doesn't spark your interest, you can play "spot the guest stars" with the familiar faces that pop up on the show. Be on the lookout for Tom Bosley (Happy Days), John Rubinstein (Crazy Like a Fox), Brad Davis (Midnight Express), Eileen Heckart (Trauma Center), Ed Lauter (BJ and the Bear), William Windom (My World and Welcome to It), Dick Van Patten (Eight is Enough), Stefanie Powers (Hart to Hart), Vic Tayback (Alice), Edward Mulhare (Knight Rider), A Martinez (Santa Barbara), Peter Strauss (Rich Man, Poor Man), Bernie Casey (Cleopatra Jones), Booth Colman (Planet of the Apes), David Wayne (Ellery Queen), Ramon Bieri (Bret Maverick), Robert Foxworth (Falcon Crest), Deidre Hall (Electra Woman and Dyna Girl), Harold Gould (Rhoda), Michael Lerner (Clueless), Carl Betz (The Donna Reed Show), and '70s guest star extraordinaire Roscoe Lee Browne.
The fourteen episodes (including the original pilot film) that make up Season 1, Volume 1 are divided onto four discs. The discs are housed in two slim, clear plastic keepcases, both of which hold two discs apiece. The fronts of the cases are dominated by a sepia-toned photo of the Golden Gate Bridge while smaller production and publicity stills line the top edges. The backs of the cases include titles and brief synopses for each episode along with the original airdates. The interiors of the cases include another large sepia-toned photo of the bridge. Malden and Douglas are spotlighted on the actual discs. The keepcases slide into a cardboard outer sleeve.
The full-motion DVD menus, which mimic the series' opening credits, are easy to use. Viewers can play all of the disc's episodes or choose an individual one. The episodes are divided into chapters, but there are no scene selection menus.
