With Guest Stars: Cheryl Ladd, Claude Akins, Special Guest Star Leslie Nielsen.

Tonight's Episode: "Retraction!"

Act I　

My colleague Paul Mavis recently reviewed two Supersaurus-sized boxed sets: Good Times: The Complete Series and Sanford and Son: The Complete Series. In each case Paul took more than two full days out of his life, about 55 hours apiece, watching the entire run of these shows. In the case of Good Times, at least after that show's first season, to me that sounds like Hell on Earth, but one has to admire Paul's commitment.

My approach to reviewing episodic television is different. While it's true that some programs, especially miniseries like Roots, The Singing Detective and I, Claudius need to be watched all the way through, beginning to end, with most shows I don't feel compelled to watch absolutely every single episode before writing a review. I'll usually pore over the list of episodes and look for shows by interesting writers, directors, or with intriguing storylines or guest stars, and maybe consult fan sites for tips about especially strong episodes. If a boxed set has, say, 28 episodes, for me seven or eight representative shows are usually plenty for the purposes of writing a review.

However, I must admit this system fell short with my review for The Streets of San Francisco - Season 1, Volume 2 back in September 2007. Friend and television historian Stephen Bowie, who publishes the recommended Classic TV History website, was surprised by my mixed-to-negative review, suggesting I continue watching the show and that maybe I'd change my mind about it.

He was right. As it happens, the shows I selected all happened to be lukewarm episodes, while nearly all the ones I didn't watch the first time around were way above average by TV detective show standards. Especially impressive were "A Room with a View," with Shirley Knight (the Meryl Streep of '60s/'70s television) as a lonely woman harboring killer Steve Forrest; "The Albatross," with Ed Nelson determined to avenge his son's murder after the killer walks away Scot-free on a technicality (Douglas Fowley is very good as Nelson's father); and especially "The House on Hyde Street," a wonderfully moody and completely original story written by character actor Cliff Osmond, with Lew Ayres as a mysterious elderly shut-in.

The Streets of San Francisco - Season Two, Volume Two offers more good shows, and the chemistry between unpretentious veteran Detective Lt. Mike Stone (Karl Malden) and sophisticated, Berkeley-educated Inspector Steve Keller (Michael Douglas) is less stagy, more natural than it was during the show's first season.

On the surface, "The Runaways" is a typical story of homeless kids determined to stay together, but it has busy character actress Jeannette Nolan in an atypical role, playing a children's advocate judge (it almost plays like a pilot), and the show has an unexpectedly dark twist. "Most Feared in the Jungle" is a better-than-average tale of about a home for unwed mothers secretly selling babies to childless couples while telling the birth mothers that their babies had been stillborn. That episode has a typically interesting guest cast of familiar faces - Kitty Winn, John McLiam, Walter Brooke, Patricia Smith, Maxine Stuart, and Beverly Washburn - and rare for the time actually discusses abortion rights, if only tangentially.

"Crossfire" has another strong cast and Jerry McNeely's teleplay is a solid mystery with several good surprises. It's follows Mike and Steve as they investigate a Charles Whitman-type sniper on campus whose seemingly random victims, including a wounded student (cult favorite Pamela Franklin) and a dead professor are perhaps linked. Celeste Holm is very, very good in a scene near the end, the kind of stock scene done thousands of times but rarely with the authenticity in her performance. Not even billed up front is a very young Nick Nolte as Franklin's Vietnam vet fiancé.

Act II

For a number of reasons I especially liked Jack B. Sowards' "Winterkill," an episode exemplifying Streets of San Francisco at its best. Longtime character actor Paul Fix guest stars as a frustrated old man who matter-of-factly begins holding up gas stations to help pay for his senior friends' housing and medical expenses. When one of them (The Grapes of Wrath's John Qualen, in his penultimate role) needs an eye operation, Fix puts the bite on a surly but wealthy old associate, played by Denver Pyle. When Pyle refuses, Fix plants bombs all over the city, in skyscrapers Pyle owns. It's a terrific show teeming with old-time actors (Ruth McDevitt, Burt Mustin, etc.) with some unusually hard-hitting commentary on the difficulties of senior citizens living on Social Security. In a nice touch, the loneliness of the elderly strikes a chord with aging cop Stone, while suspects like Mustin's old-time gangster are delighted by all the attention given them. A fine show.

Though initially I found Malden's old school cop ("Hey, buddy-boy!" he keeps calling Douglas's character) a bit too colorful and overbearing - "What do I need, reading a book review from one of them New York City papers? We got newspapers right here! In San Francisco!" - he eventually grows on you. In one show, there's a very simple medium tracking shot of Mike at his desk, on the phone mining for information. The audience never hears what's being said on the other end of the line, nor is the audience really supposed to be able to follow just what Mike's looking for. The scene goes on for quite a while, but Malden is absolutely captivating in creating such believable everyday ordinariness.

Douglas's Steve Keller finds Stone an amusing father figure; their relationship has really solidified to the point where they can almost finish each other's sentences. He's very relaxed, giving a more confident performance than in the earliest shows. In short, the chemistry I found utterly lacking in the first season finally takes hold here.

Other guest stars in this set not previously mentioned include Barry Livingston, Kent Smith, Larry Wilcox, Tyne Daly, William Smith, William Campbell, Diana Douglas, Ida Lupino, Jock Mahoney, Patty McCormack, Charles Martin Smith, Don Stroud, Lola Falana, Hari Rhodes, Glenn Corbett, John Larch, Barry Sullivan, Jim Davis, Noah Berry Jr., Sam Elliott, Harry Carey Jr., Ron Glass, Robert Hooks, Steven Keats, Joe Maross, Joe Santos, Harold Gould, and Greg Mullavy.

Act III

The full frame format Streets of San Francisco looks great, bright with strong color and impressive clarity. Disclaimers note that "some episodes may be edited from their original network versions," but the shows I looked at seemed complete, unaltered, and not time-compressed. The set is composed of the last 12 episodes of the second season, which aired December 1973 - March 1974, spread over three single-sided discs. The Dolby Digital mono is fine. An alternate Spanish mono track is included, along with optional English and Spanish subtitles. There are no Extra Features, but the disc is closed-captioned.

Epilogue

It took awhile, but over time I've grown pretty fond of The Streets of San Francisco. The good performances, both Malden and Douglas and the top-flight guest casts Quinn Martin consistently ponied up for, and the variety of storylines make this a winner. Recommended.

Film historian Stuart Galbraith IV's most recent essays appear in Criterion's new three-disc Seven Samurai DVD and BCI Eclipse's The Quiet Duel.