Screencaps for Ep 2.05 added
I have just added the screencaps for Going Home to the episodes section. When Eddie Coughlin, a small-time crook, breaks into a corner variety store, he smacks the owner who to his surprise is in the back office, and finds the safe open with two bags of cash money inside. He thinks he finally has his big score until he finds several debentures and "the book" on the mob's numbers operation. On the run from both, the police and the mob's hit-men, Eddie tries to get back with his ex-wife and mother of his five-year old son, however, he soon learns she does not want nothing at all to do with him anymore. With two hit-men of the mob being on his trail, Eddie does not get any help or hideout by his former mates either, so he tries to see his son, Marty, for a last time before going back to the place he ever called 'home' – closed-down federal penitentiary Alcatraz, where he spent several years. However, both, the police and the mobster's hit-men are on his trail.
This episode is a real potpourri of San Francisco locations. It starts out downtown where Eddie breaks into Beale’s corner shop at the north-western end of the Financial District. On a funny note, Beale’s shop is supposed to be on Bay Street (it actually is on Battery), and when Mike and Steve are responding to the police radio call, they actually are on Bay Street (we can see Pier 31 at the end of Bay and Embarcadero). Beale meets the mobster boss on a golf-course at Land's End, while Eddie hides out in an apartment close to Montgomery and Pacific Avenue. After seeing his wife in her apartment on Church Street, he tries to find a new hideout in a mate's shabby apartment hotel on 3rd Street just south of market. Mike picks up Steve in front of his partner's apartment on Union Street, and Eddie gets off a Cable Car and uses a telephone booth at Green and Mason Streets. Additional locations include Dolores Park and Alcatraz Island plus some impressive aerial views taken during Mike's and Steve's helicopter flight from downtown to Alcatraz.
Additional Filming Locations identified!
With the help of some fantastic people and fans of the show, I was able to fill some of the gaps concerning yet unidentified filming locations of season one.
Thanks to Joe Thompson - a fountain of knowledge on Cable Car and Bay Ferry history - and his friend Emiliano Echevarria, who used to live on the ferry boat in question, I learned that the huge oval boat used in Legion of the Lost as the Cullen Company's headquarters was retired Bay ferry 'San Leandro'. It has quite an interesting history too: built of steel in the 1920's and with turbo-electric propulsion, it was 225 feet long and served as a Bay ferry up to the late 1950's. After that, 'San Leandro' was moored at the Ferry Building till a fire in the 1960's, then completely rebuilt for residential use and moved to Pier 37 (where it sat when it was used in the show). Another big fire occured in the 1970's, and after that the hull got towed over to the Oakland Estuary.
Another brainteaser was unraveled by Matthew Kuukka from San Francisco. He identified the location of police officer Sherry Reese's new aparment in Act of Duty to be on S Mayfair Avenue in Daly City.
The same appreciation goes to fellow fan and SF Muni blogger Greg Dewar, who identified the 'Pacific State Hospital' in For the Love of God to be Laguna Honda Hospital west of Twin Peaks.
Todd Lappin from San Francisco identified the crime scene in Hall of Mirrors to be the fruit and vegetables central market on Jerrold Avenue. By the way, the 'Market Grill' bar is also located on-site.
Thanks to all of you guys! :)
I will be on holidays for almost three weeks now, so the next update will be added around July 13th. Stay tuned!
Screencaps for Ep 2.04 added
I have just added the screencaps for Before I Die to the episodes' page. John T. Connor, a well-respected police inspector, learns that he is going to die from a massive aortic aneurysm. Following the fatal diagnosis, Connor decides to do mankind a favour and eliminate mob boss Al Royce who has been Connor's quarry for over a year and a half - and seems to be simply unconvictable as he was just cleared due to a lack of insufficient accumulation of evidence. Soon after, Royce's bodyguard is killed, and Connor disappears - allegedly due to an acute illness of his sister in Portland. While homicide is analyzing the latest stakeout film materials on Al Royce, Mike, Steve and Inspector Murray Shindler, Connor's long-time partner, recognize Connor's private car in a short scene. Angry about his partner lying to the whole department - but still unaware of the fatal diagnosis he got - Shindler takes Connor to task. Although Connor does not reveal it in detail, he asks for his partner's understanding for a final mission he has to do on his own. In the meantime, the mob is also out to kill Connor so, on the one hand, homicide has to protect the mobster, and on the other hand, is hurrying to put Connor off from his lethal decision. By the way, this was Leslie Nielsen's second performance in the show, and again it was quite convincing and authentic.
This episode's filming locations are reaching from the Embarcadero Freeway to Bay Meadows, and from Potrero Hill to the Financial District. It all starts with the stakeout when Connor and Shindler are following Al Royce's limousine on the Embarcadero Freeway and southbound on Interstate 280. They leave the freeway at the 18th Street exit, cruising eastern Potrero Hill up to well-known Potrero Commons. The following car chase leads us down to Lefty O'Doule bridge and the industrial harbour, where it comes to a sudden end. Mike and Steve pick up Connor and Shindler at the Emergency Entrance of San Francisco General Hospital, and soon after Connor receives his fatal diagnosis in a doctor's office located at One Maritime Plaza. He is shading Al Royce and his entourage at the (then all-new) Transamerica Pyramid, and shoots Royce's bodyguard in front of the 'Graf Zeppelin' restaurant which was located close to Fisherman's Wharf. Mike and Steve are questioning Al Royce on his boat at the Marina Yacht Harbour, and the stakeout of the funeral service takes place at Washington Square (the mobsters are leaving St. Peter and Paul, the stakeout crew is sitting in a surgeon's office on an upper level of 1652 Stockton Street). John T. Connor's house is located almost right around the corner, at 1155 Filbert Street. Additional locations include San Francisco City Hall, Lands' End, the Hyatt Regency's lobby and shopping area, the Embarcadero (when Steve picks up a newspaper in front of Pier 37 (now demolished) in order to check out the horse race bets), and the Bay Meadows horse racing track in San Mateo.
James Rosin's Book becomes available again!
Author James Rosin just re-confirmed the release date for the reprint of his dedicated book on the show for June 16th (i.e. in about a week). Originally released in autumn of 2011, "The Streets of San Francisco" was sold out and unavailable for quite a time.
You can read my complete review on Rosin's "The Streets of San Francisco" original edition here.
Screencaps for Ep 2.03 added
The screencaps for For the Love of God were just added to the episodes' page. In order to stop an assassin killing clergymen throughout the city, Mike and Steve race to find a comprehensible connection between the victims. When they find out all the killed clergymen studied at the same seminary decades back, and following the murder of another priest on their list, Mike goes undercover and puts on the collar. Their trail finally leads them to a failed career and a man on a campaign of vengeance. Mike's dangerous decision to act for one of the potential victims, however, puts his life at risk.
This episode takes us to several churches and places throughout San Francisco. The initial murder takes place at the famous Mission Dolores Balisica, and during their investigations Mike and Steve are questioning priests at the Sacred Heart Church, Notre Dame des Victoires, St. Mary's Cathedral, and St. Brigid Chruch (they did a toneless cross-fade sequence featuring these four churches in order to illustrate our cops' work). Mike picks up Father Henry Driscoll, the potential victim Mike acts for, at a bus parking lot of the Transbay Transit Terminal (demolished), and takes him to his parish of St. Paul's Church in Noe Valley. Martin Novack's hideout is a small arbour right beneath the Mount Davidson cross, whereas Joe Shay is psychiatrically treated in the 'Pacific State Hospital', actually the former Laguna Honda Hospital.
