History Series / TheStreetsOfSanFrancisco

A crime drama that ran on Creator/{{ABC}} from 1972-1977, produced by Creator/QuinnMartin Productions (with [[Creator/WarnerBros Warner Bros. Television]] in season one). It starred Karl Malden as Det. Lt. Mike Stone, a veteran cop, and Creator/MichaelDouglas (in his StarMakingRole) as Inspector Steve Keller, Stone's younger partner. The series was shot on-location in UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco. Douglas left the show at the start of its fifth and final season, and was replaced by Richard Hatch as Inspector Dan Robbins; this change was not popular with viewers (since ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|1978}}'' hadn't been created yet), so the series was cancelled.

* OverProtectiveDad: [[spoiler: "No MinorVices".]]

A crime drama that ran on Creator/{{ABC}} from 1972-1977, produced by Quinn Martin Productions (with [[Creator/WarnerBros Warner Bros. Television]] in season one). It starred Karl Malden as Det. Lt. Mike Stone, a veteran cop, and Creator/MichaelDouglas (in his StarMakingRole) as Inspector Steve Keller, Stone's younger partner. The series was shot on-location in UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco. Douglas left the show at the start of its fifth and final season, and was replaced by Richard Hatch as Inspector Dan Robbins; this change was not popular with viewers (since ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|1978}}'' hadn't been created yet), so the series was cancelled.

-->"''The Streets of San Francisco'', a Quinn Martin Production. Starring Karl Malden. [[AndStarring Special Guest Star]] Creator/MichaelDouglas. Also Starring Richard Hatch. With Guest Stars In Alphabetical Order: Patty Duke Astin, Darleen Carr, Tina Chen, Jan Clayton, Susan Dey, Norman Fell, Gary Frank, Paula Kelly, Jim [=McMullan=], Doris Roberts, James Shigeta, Creator/BarrySullivan, Dick Van Patten, Joseph Wiseman. Tonight's Episode: 'The Thrill Killers - Part 1.'"[[note]]And Part 2, as it happened.[[/note]]

* RecycledPremise: season 4's "Underground" essentially repurposes the 1975 unsold PilotMovie ''Crossfire'' (in which a cop has go to deep undercover on special assignment without other officers knowing.[[ItsPersonal The cop has personal reasons for taking the job]].

* OpeningNarration: In keeping with series from QM Productions, each one was episode-specific (although "I Ain't Marchin' Anymore" also has one at the beginning of the first act to set up the episode). Here's a for instance from season five (which runs so long the theme music actually goes back to the beginning and starts again):

* PoorlyDisguisedPilot: "Superstar," about a New York cop who comes to San Francisco to find his partner's killer and sticks around - in other words, ''Series/{{McCloud}}'' in reverse[[note]]in more ways than one. People actually liked ''Series/{{McCloud}}''[[/note]] - led into the short-lived {{Spinoff}} ''Bert D'Angelo Superstar'' (which actually began its network run two weeks ''before'' the episode aired).

* ReunionShow: 1992's ''Back to the Streets of San Francisco'', with Karl Malden and Darleen Carr (who played the recurring character of his daughter Jeannie on the original series). Michael Douglas doesn't appear, although [[Film/BasicInstinct he did play a San Francisco cop in another production that year]]. [[spoiler: The hunt for his murderer is a major plot element.]]

* CaliforniaDoubling: Usually averted, but the first scene in "Flags Of Terror" takes place in Tokyo, so... Similarly, "Till Death Do Us Part" starts of the other side of the USA before arriving in San Francisco.

** Inspector George Turner in "Poisoned Snow". His fiancee, who's a fellow narc, is fatally gunned down during a raid on a pusher. In revenge, he gets ahold of the pusher's stash and cuts it with strychnine, which results in a number of users falling over dead.

[[quoteright:348:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/streets_of_san_francisco_dvd_437.jpg]]

** Officer Andrea McCormick in "Shield of Honor", who helps to set up a police informant in protective custody to be killed.

* SocietyMarchesOn: There is an early episode where a critically wounded cop is rushed to the hospital and nothing is done for him en route beyond Karl Malden's character holding his hand sympathetically. As a result, with the widespread adaptation of paramedics that the contemporary series, ''Series/{{Emergency}}'', helped encourage, it looks criminally negligent to modern viewers to see an emergency patient being transported like that without being treated along the way.

* TimeMarchesOn: "I Ain't Marchin' Anymore" concerns a Vietnam draft dodger back in San Francisco after running to Canada - in between filming of the episode and its first airing, then-President Ford stated that amnesty would be given to such dodgers. As a result, the episode has a rare second voiceover from Hank Simms specifying that the episode takes place ''before'' amnesty was declared.

* ShoutOut: Writer Rick Husky was a member of the "Memphis Mafia", the name for Elvis Presley's close circle of friends, and he often used the names of other 'mafia' members for characters in his scripts. In his script for the episode "Target: Red", the villains are named Jerry Schilling and General Robert 'Red' West, after friends of his in the Memphis Mafia. Additionally, another character is named Myrna Schilling, after Jerry's wife, a background singer for Elvis, another character is named Lamar Fisk (there was a similarly named member of the Memphis Mafia, Lamar Fike), and yet another character in the episode is named Vernon Presley, after Elvis's dad.

* TheAlcoholic: Officer Joe Landers (''Creator/LeslieNielsen'') in "One Last Shot", whose drinking leads to a botched arrest of a suspect and the accidental shooting death of his partner.

* BittersweetEnding: "School Of Fear." [[spoiler: Two of the four kidnapped problem students, return to school, [[TheSmurfettePrinciple the only girl]] amongst them drops out, while the remaining one might or might not come back. As a teacher points out to Stone and Keller in the Epilog, "[[RealityEnsues you can't win them all]]."]]

** Inspector John J. Connor (''Creator/LeslieNielsen'') in "Before I Die", a dying cop who's out to assassinate the mobster he never was able to bust.

** Inspector George Turner in "Poisoned Snow"...his fiancee, who's a fellow narc, is fatally gunned down during a raid on a pusher. In revenge, he gets ahold of the pusher's stash and cuts it with strychnine, which results in a number of users falling over dead.
** Detective Eddie Boggs (''Creator/NedBeatty'') in "Hang Tough", another narc who plants a knife on a suspect he roughed up, to justify his actions.

* TheAlcoholic: Officer Joe Landers (''Creator/LeslieNielsen''), whose drinking leads to a botched arrest of a suspect and the accidental shooting death of his partner.

** Detective Eddie Boggs in "Hang Tough", another narc who plants a knife on a suspect he roughed up, to justify his actions.

** [[spoiler: Boggs]] in "Hang Tough." [[spoiler: Unlike Jean, he succeeds.]]

* PointyHairedBoss: Newly-minted Captain Keely in "The Glass Dart Board," whose chart-centric approach to his job interferes with Stone and Keller's search for a sniper randomly shooting at a high-rise - and Keely having a NiceJobBreakingItHero moment when [[spoiler:he personally ruins an operation to locate the sniper ''which would have worked if he'd come flying in'' (literally, in a helicopter). In fairness, Keely does eventually realize he's an ebodiment of ThePeterPrinciple and returns to where he can be useful.]]
* PoorlyDisguisedPilot: "Superstar," about a New York cop who comes to San Francisco to find his partner's killer and sticks around - in other words, ''Series/{{McCloud}}'' in reverse - led into the short-lived {{Spinoff}} ''Bert D'Angelo Superstar'' (which actually began its network run two weeks ''before'' the episode aired).

* DeathByFallingOver: In"Deadline", reporter Chris Bane (played by Barry Sullivan) knocks down his girlfriend during an argument on the beach, killing her.

* DeathByFallingOver: "Deadline".

* Shout-Out: Writer Rick Husky was a member of the "Memphis Mafia", the name for Elvis Presley's close circle of friends, and he often used the names of other 'mafia' members for characters in his scripts. In his script for the episode "Target: Red", the villains are named Jerry Schilling and General Robert 'Red' West, after friends of his in the Memphis Mafia. Additionally, another character is named Myrna Schilling, after Jerry's wife, a background singer for Elvis, another character is named Lamar Fisk (there was a similarly named member of the Memphis Mafia, Lamar Fike), and yet another character in the episode is named Vernon Presley, after Elvis's dad.

* AssholeVictim: The victimoftheweek in "A Trout in the Milk" is a womanizing artist.