Screencaps for Ep 2.10 added
You can now access the screencaps for Shield of Honor through the episodes' page. A key witness is being transferred to the San Francisco Hall of Justice in order to appear before a court in a mob trial. Just before reaching the floor, the witness is shot to death in the elevator, leaving the two accompanying cops under a cloud although one of them shoots the hitman before picked up by a getaway car at the rear side of the Criminal Courts building. Stone and Keller team up with Lt. Bondini and Officer Andrea McCormick, who investigated the original case, in order to locate the killer and to identify the inside information leak. For the audience it soon turns out that the getaway car driver, Ted Cullen, is the father of the unborn child of Officer McCormick's younger sister; and so does Andrea McCormick. Facing the quandary she got into, Andrea tries to alert her sister without telling her the truth about her husband. On the other hand, Ted forces her not to report to her superior since he actually got the information on the key witness from her, and he is also very convincing by touching on the subject of her sister's unborn child. Following a short questioning with Andera's sister – who is still unaware oft he things going on - Mike asks Steve, who saw Andrea for a couple of times a few years ago, to set a trap for her.
This episode starts in a van driving over Bay Bridge on its route to San Francisco. Most of the opening sequence was filmed inside the underground car park of the San Francisco Police Department and Criminial Courts on Bryant Street. Steve and Andrea McCormick drive to Emeryville in order to inform the witness' wife about her husband's death; she has an apartment in the Watergate Apartments complex at Powell Street and Commodore Drive. Police locates the withdrawn getaway car down in Visitation Valley, at the dead end of Raymond Avenue. Bondini and McCormick stake out the mobster's mansion at 393 Marina Boulevard (at Avila Street), and finally trace Ted Cullen's van driving to Visitation Valley again, where the injured hitman hides in a condemned house on Hahn Street. Locating this building was quite difficult but there's a short glimpse of a part of Cow Palace in the background when Ted is driving up the street, so I was finally able to identify the street and the location of the (now demolished) house. We are also taken to Andrea Cormick's apartment house at 1100 Gough Street, known as the Carillon Towers, for some exterior filming as well as to her sister's apartment on the lower end of Russian Hill. Mike finally books Ted Cullen in a house at the corner of Duboce and Church (we can see the street signs for a short moment).
Website down for maintenance
tsosf.net will be down for maintenance and as safety precaution for a couple of days due to several pending system updates. Hope I will be back online very soon.
Will be right back soon. :)
Screencaps for Ep 2.09 added
I have just added the screencaps for The Twenty-Four Karat Plague to the episodes' page. Four men heist a transport of decayed radioactive gold in order to mint rare gold coins. One of the transport drivers suffers a heart-attack and later dies in the hospital. Our two cops are in a race against time as the robbers are obviously unaware of the deadly transport they have stolen - in opposite to regular disposal transports of the University, these particular gold samples were mixed with highly-radioactive Uranium. Then they find out the truth about their treasure, but the man smelting and forming the planchets already suffers from radiation poisoning and is going to die. Two of the henchmen have nagging doubts about what they did, but the fourth one is ready to carry it to extremes and to sell the contaminated gold to a Chinese dealer.
The openening sequence offers an interesting insight into research handling of radioactive materials at the 'California Northern University'. It actually is San Francisco State University located between Lake Merced and 19th Avenue; the screenplay probably dubbed the institution 'California Northern University' in order to explain why the transport approached San Francisco from the North, passing the toll station of Golden Gate Bridge - or just because the Bay Area ist located in Northern California. Soon after, they almost have a car collision with Mike and Steve at Marina and Buchanan after our two cops came down from Johnny Porter's 007 1/2 Bar at Lombard and Scott. We are also taken to the Industrial Harbour south of the Bay Bridge where they hide the transport and try to smelt and form the coins. Interestingly, the henchmen are all living very close together, on Russian Hill. Lew Morrison's burger restaurant 'Clown Alley' is located at the intersection of Lombard and Divisadero, and some investigation work takes us downtown to One Embarcadero Center (Charlie Durand's office) as well as to Union Square (where Vic meets Eddie who is delivering flowers with his truck in front of the 'City of Paris' fashion store). By the way, Mike has that funny questioning with a car-park attendant (who revs the Ford Mustang's engine and tires) which took place at a no longer existing parking lot on Battery Street. The climax takes us to Chinatown's Grant Avenue for both, the Chinese store where Vic sells the gold specimen as well as the famous 'Dragon Gate' at Bush and Grant where Vic is hit to death by a van. On a funny note, Vic Tolliman uses a back entrance when the police arrives at the store, however, the actual scene in the back alley was filmed on Spofford Street which is two blocks away.
Location Photos for 'Betrayed'
I have just added a couple of original location photos for seaon one episode 'Betrayed' to the locations page. This one featured young Martin Sheen performing as the charming but greedy stock broker Dean Knox who is even willing to kill. Filming locations shown include the buildings related to the crime scene on California Street, the Alta Mira Hotel & Restaurant in Sausalito as well as Battery Spencer and the adjacent vista point of the Golden Gate Bridge where Knox is eventually detained by Steve.
Enjoy! :)
Screencaps for Ep 2.08 added
The screencaps for No Badge for Benjy were added to the episodes' page. Homicide has to deal with the murder of two very different victims: the one is a wealthy foreign businessman found stabbed down; the other one is an ageing black police informant, Benjy Hoskins, who is found shot in a telephone booth in San Francisco's red-light district while trying to pass information on a big bust to his police contact. Mike and Steve are trying to concentrate on the latter as most homicide forces are set on the businessman case. Hoskin's long-lost daughter, Vi, soon confronts them with prejudices against police and their attitude when poor Afro-Americans become a crime victim, and Insp. Dedini, also set on the Hoskins' case (being his police contact man), immediately fulfills Vi Hoskins' reproach. Nevertheless, Steve relentlessly tries to convince her that police is taking care of her father's case, and following another attempt on Hoskins' life in hospital, even Dedini is alerted. It turns out that the mobsters involved in the big bust got word about Hoskins' rôle as a police informant, so Mike and Steve need to rush - and to keep Vi Hoskins from taking justice in her own hands by putting her own life in jeopardy.
The opening sequence of this episode offers a colourful potpourri of San Francisco's nightlife in the glittering red-light district around Broadway and Columbus. Benjy walks down Broadway and turns onto Columbus, then he enters famous 'The Saloon' blues club on Grant Avenue in order to collect information on the big bust that is going on. After accompanying two little girls on their way home, Hoskins turns onto Kearny from Broadway and talks shortly to a female caretaker he knows. Finally, he uses a telephone booth (where he is shot) at Vallejo and Romolo. We are also taken to SF General Hospital as well as to Vi Hoskins' apartment in the Mission Dolores neighborhood, precisely at Liberty and Dolores. Mike and Steve are questioning informer 'Cappy' at Chestnut and Hyde - offering that famous and beautiful view down towards the bay and Hyde Street Pier in background - and busting the mobster contacted by Vi Hoskins, Hayes, in his aparment at 1145 Kearny. The final chase includes Vi being picked up at Sacramento and Battery, whereas the car change takes place on Commercial St (this part of Commercial St is no longer existing as the Embarcadero Center was literally built on it). The episode's final was filmed in the industrial harbour, those warehouses have been demolished long time ago.
