One of the most influential cop drama's of its day, The Streets Of San Francisco now finds its way to DVD thanks to Paramount Studios who have opted to release the first season in two separate volumes. Like a few shows before it, the series came into this world as a feature length pilot episode on ABC in September of 1972 where we first meet veteran homicide detective Lt. Mike Stone (Karl Malden). He's a cantankerous older cop who has seen it all in his two decades on the force. The powers that be team Stone up with a young, book smart go-getter rookie named Steve Keller (Michael Douglas). Together they work to solve murder cases that take place in San Francisco.

As the two detectives go about their work, their relationship obviously matures. Keller learns much from Stone's years of experience and his technique and at the same time, Keller is able to bring a fresh perspective to Stone's sour worldview. It becomes almost a father-son relationship at times, with Keller almost begrudgingly looking up to the older and wiser cop he's been partnered with. At the same time, Keller is able to provide some much needed optimism in Stone's life. Having lost his wife, Stone is a pretty down guy and he finds in Keller someone who he can relate to and in that regard, they become almost like family to one another.

With Malden and Douglas in the lead roles, it was obviously imperative to the shows success that they find the right chemistry together and thankfully, they pull it off quite admirably. Malden is a cranky looking guy to begin with so his sour faced demeanor is really quite befitting of his character. Douglas is just as good in his part, bringing a genuine youthful enthusiasm to his character that bounces off of Malden's surlier side nicely and which seems to balance things out rather effectively. As much a star of the series as Malden and Douglas, however, is the scenery. The series is a great opportunity to check out the seedy side of seventies San Francisco and the show makes excellent use of the location shooting and various neighborhoods that make up the city.

The four discs in this boxed set contain the following episodes in the following order:

Disc One:
Pilot – Stone and Keller team up for the first time to stop a killer by going undercover and reconstructing the crime.

The Thirty-Year Pin – Stone's best friend has been shot and is on his deathbed in the hospital. Stone and Keller search the city to catch the murderer.

Disc Two:
The First Day Of Forever – A killer is targeting hookers and Keller falls for one of the ladies of the evening he's supposed to be protecting.

Forty-Five Minutes From Home – A teenage hitchhiker winds up dead and it looks like a traveling salesman did it. To complicate matters more, the deceased boyfriend is blackmailing him.

Whose Little Boy Are You? – A man was sent to Nam and when he came back, he found out his wife gave birth to a baby and put it up for adoption. Now that he's back, he wants his son...

Tower Beyond Tragedy – When a pretty young escort turns up dead, a wealthy older man with a taste for younger prostitutes looks to be the one responsible for her death.

Disc Three:
Hall Of Mirrors – An immigrant worker is murdered and a racist cop becomes obsessed with the crime until Stone investigates things on his own terms.

Timelock – Stone's old friend is let out of the joint on the condition that he find a job within thirty-six hours only to wind up accused of killing a woman.

In The Midst Of Strangers – Union Square becomes a hot bed of police activity when a small gang of businessmen starts preying on the local merchants and tourists.

The Takers – Two of the female residents who live in a swingers apartment building wind up dead and Stone and Keller have to find the killer before they strike again.

Disc Four:
The Year Of The Locusts – When a family of gypsies moves into town they attract some police attention but when it looks like they've killed a citizen, Stone and Keller decide to pay closer attention.

The Bullet – A professor tries to pay a blackmailer but is shot in the arm. He won't tell the police who did it because he's worried that if the news gets out he'll be fired.

Bitter Wine – A man returns to his Greek family after spending twelve years in jail and when he comes home he has to deal with his angry father and the brother that he went to jail for in the first place.

A Trout In The Milk – Someone tossed an eclectic artist out a window to his death and it looks like it was a model and her father... but why?

How do the episodes hold up? Quite well, actually. While they do tend to get repetitive at times, they're well paced and at times fairly tense. Obviously the fashions and cars are dated but aside from that the material feels like it could just as easily go over with modern audiences as it did with fans back in the seventies. Not every episode is a winner and some definitely go over better than others but the majority of the material here is entertaining and provides some decent whodunit action. The series is gritty and does a good job of capturing the feel of the streets without coming across as forced. While it doesn't get as violent as later cop shows like Starsky & Hutch it still manages to pack a punch from time to time. The show also features a few notable guest stars. Robert Wagner shows up in the pilot episode while David Soul shows up in Hall Of Mirrors and Paul Michael Glaser shows up in Bitter Wine.

Video:

The Streets Of San Francisco hits DVD in its original 1.33.1 fullframe aspect ratio and for the most part, the show looks pretty good. There is some age related grain and mild print damage and color reproduction isn't going to blow your mind but there aren't any problems with mpeg compression artifacts or heavy edge enhancement. Flesh tones look lifelike and natural and black levels stay fairly consistent and strong throughout.