Screencaps for Ep 1.21 added
The screencaps for The House on Hyde Street are now available on the episodes' page. Three young boys sneak into an eccentric old man's home, an eldritch house rumored by their parents to contain a million-dollar treasure and a mystery concerning the old man, Harlan Edgerton, and his brother, Donald, who allegedly had killed a neighbourhood girl and passed away 30 years ago. The three boys discover the house to be full of stacked newspapers and collected trash, however, an opening door leads them to run away but one of them does not make it out of the house. Mike and Steve are investigating the boy's disappearance, and are soon confronted by the other boys' parents with the old mysterious story of the Edgerton brothers. The two boys, however, do not say a thing about their break-in in fear of consequences, so the investigation turns out to be rather difficult. We as the audience learn that the old man's brother is still alive when Harlan finds the boy's dead body in his brother's room. When he tries to bury the dead body in a corner of the Golden Gate Park, Harlan is being caught and arrested by Stone and Keller who are already on his trail. In the meantime, some neighbourhood parents are taking the law into their own hands, so Mike and Steve need to hurry. In a rather uncommon move, and supported by District Attorney Gerry O'Brian, Mike confronts the two boys with Harlan Edgerton and the actual tragic fate of the two brothers. The boys finally tell the truth, so our two cops can prevent a false self-administered justice.
This episode is supposed to take place on 'Hyde Street', which is located in the Nob Hill district towards Fisherman's Wharf, however, the actual filming was accomplished in Potrero Hill again. The Edgerton's mansion is located at 300 Pennsylvania Avenue (at 18th Street), whereas the roof top scenes were taken two blocks away on another house at the junction of 18th and Texas Streets. While the boys are sneaking into his house, Harlan buys some food in a local market at 1301 18th Street - which actually is the building used for the roof top scenes as well. Following the discovery of the boy who died after falling down the roof top staircase, Harlan takes the dead body to Golden Gate Park, and we also see an alternate exterior view of the SFPD headquarters in this episode. Finally, Mike confronts the two boys with Harlan Edgerton at 20th and Mississippi Streets. As a sidenote: in opposite to many other episodes, and although the building seemed to be in a condemned condition at that time, the indoor scenes for the Edgerton mansion were obviously not filmed inside the actual house at 300 Pennsylvania; when Mike and Steve are standing in the door in order to stop the other boys' parents from destroying the mansion, we can see a large skyline canvas waving in their background, so it might have been a studio stage sequence.
Official Warner Bros. Media Stuff added
The media page was supplemented by promotional materials issued by the Warner Brothers Inc. when the company re-distributed the series. Apart from a general info sheet on the series, Warner Bros. released a set of press photography; I have added scans of 15 of these pictures to the gallery as well. They obviously used a continuous numbering for the photos, so if you got any picture not shown I would appreciate your help for filling the gap.
Enjoy. :)
Screencaps for Ep 1.20 added
I have uploaded the screencaps for Trail of the Serpent to the episodes' page. An upcoming gang of street-hardened youths, known as the 'Cobras', is spreading fear and terror in the Potrero Hill district. Following a failed robbery of a small grocery store and after shooting down a police officer, the gang is taking Mike Stone hostage in exchange for its wounded leader who was captured in the bungled robbery. Keller teams up with Lt. Roy Devitt, scouring the underside of Potrero Hill in an effort to identify the location of the gang's hide-out and in search for their colleague and friend. However, due to a Governors' meeting held in the city, the police force's numbers are limited. Stone needs to try some fast talking and to relate with one of the gang members as some hardliners seem to be ready for anything.
This episode is almost completely covering the eastern part of Potrero Hill. After leaving the former New Potrero Theatre, the gang shows up at local grocery store at 20th and Connecticut Streets. Following the failed robbery, the gang members are hiding in a condemned brickstone factory building house-numbered '650'; I initially thought it was demolished since then, but it is still there at 650 7th Street (however, the upper construction has been removed). We are also taken to a billiard bar at the junction of Mariposa and Mississippi Streets as well as to the famous curved part of Vermont Street. Police is busting suspects in the (formerly industrial) South Beach area, and the SF General Hospital was used for an indoor sequence. In the epilogue, Mike and Steve go and see Davey for whom Mike got a job in a China Town grocery store at Clay and Grant.
Book Review "Quinn Martin, Producer"
Jonathan Etter authored "Quinn Martin, Producer - A Behind-the-Scenes History of QM Productions and Its Founder", first published back in 2003, as a fan of classic TV series and a non-insider of the movie and television business. Quinn Martin surely was an outstanding TV producer in the 1960’s and 1970’s – if not the most outstanding ever – and definitely had kind of a sixth sense for hit series.
Etter offers 222 pages of information on all QM Production series, starting from "The Untouchables" and "The Fugitive" via "Cannon" and "The Streets of San Francisco" up to "Most Wanted" and "The Runaways". A rather short foreword by director Walter Graumann is followed by an overview of Quinn Martin and his TV productions. The centrepiece comprises 21 chapters, detailing all the series produced by QM, including separate essays on pilot movies that never materialized, on TV movies that were based on true stories, and the legacy Quinn Martin left. There is pretty much space for quotation from some who worked with or for Quinn Martin, in an effort to add insider information to the book.
Telling the facts first, "The Streets of San Francisco" is covered on 13 pages. This may not appear to be anything like a sufficient part, however, Etter concentrates on pure information. There are just two photographs consuming little space, so what we get is a pretty nice view of what made the series special – the screenplays, the actors, and the location. Etter puts a certain emphasis on Karl Malden's acting attitude, and the way "The Streets of San Francisco" was actually filmed. There are a lot of quotations from and anecdotes contributed by Walter Graumann, William Hale, John Wilder, William Robert Yates, and Howard Alston just to name a few. Generally, the chapters appear like a nice chat about the memories of people 'in-the-know'. There is no real indepth-review of the shows, critics might say, but the first-hand accounts are what make Etter's book entertaining and worthwhile at the same time. We learn about actual production and filming, and we do get a lot of information on the relationship between actors, directors and producers.
Just like Rosin's dedicated book on the series, I recommend to grab this issue which is full of interesting memories of production supervisors, directors, writers and the like who actually worked on the shows and made them special.
You can buy the book on Amazon.com and McFarland Books.
Screencaps for Ep 1.19 added
I have just added the screencaps for Deadline to the episodes' page. This case is getting personal for Mike Stone: an old friend and top-notch reporter, Chris Bane, is challenging the homicide detective in finding the murderer of his love affair, young and attractive reporter Maggie Ames, who was found dead in the San Francisco bay, close to Belvedere. Mike and Steve are facing a difficult and confusing investigation as Bane seems to be ahead all the time. We as the audience know that Bane himself, unintentionally, is responsible for the death of his love affair when her head struck a rock in a dispute with her jealous lover. Bane, a brilliant investigator according to Mike, skilfully creates indications and tries to lead his old friend and Steve on the trail of another lover who saw her last: a young actor using a pseudonym - who turns out to be Bane's son.
There are not too many different filming locations for this episode, actually. We are frequently taken to Belvedere, just north of the Golden Gate Bridge, as well as to the Coroner's Office, and the American Conservatory Theater on Geary. The blackmailer who had witnessed the murder was killed in a small back road of unknown location, probably in downtown San Francisco.
Happy New Year to all of you. :)
