The Streets of San Francisco Season Five
Here is some addenda and super-trivial observations for the last season of the show. I was overran the character limit and had to split this into two parts (much like the season premiere!).
S05E01 & S05E02: The Thrill Killers
Patrick Williams' fifth-season version of the series theme, featuring harpsichord in the opening in place of clavinet, made its debut with this episode. Although not noted by Mr. Mike, Williams also wrote an original score for this epsiode, his last for the series. Michael Douglas as the special guest star is placed between Malden and Hatch, rather than at the end, and the announcer notes that the long list of guest stars is "in alphabetical order."
This story was originally conceived as a two-hour episode to be broadcast from 9:00 to 11:00 p.m. on Thursday, September 23, 1976, but the first presidential debate between Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter was subsequently scheduled for that night, so the double-length episode was reconfigured into a two-parter aired on consecutive Thursdays over the following two weeks. Cliff Gould's script (the final draft of which was dated May 20, 1976) was originally titled "The Jury Is Out," which is more apt (and far more clever) than "The Thrill Killers." Cliff Gould was the producer of the series' first season (and received story or screenplay credit for several episodes) but left before the second season due to health concerns. He returned to write this "special episode."
The opening courtroom scene makes a rare use of flashbacks (and slow motion) to reveal the criminal actions of the Tannengers.
When Keller contemplates quitting the force to teach criminology, Stone responds: "You belong in the classroom about as much as I belong in the Ballets Russes."
Mr. Mike's synopsis implies that Robbins is Stone's new partner as of the beginning of the episode. This does not seem to be the case. Stone calls Keller his "partner" when talking to Jeannie (over a meal of "Stroganoff, sour cream and noodles"). Right before he gets shot, Keller identifies himself on the radio as "Z84" while shortly thereafter (while driving Keller's car to the hospital) Robbins identifies himself on the radio as "Inspector 96."
Robbins has been a cop for four years. He served in 'Nam and used to work at the city bus barn during summer vacations. He tells Stone he has "been skin-diving my whole life."
Hatch had already filmed a few episodes of the series before Michael Douglas returned for this "transition show," which aired at the beginning of the season. Before offering Hatch the role of Dan Robbins, Quinn Martin had offered him the role of J.R. Jones on BARNABY JONES, a new regular character starting with the 1976–1977 season, but Hatch turned it down. (According to dates on scripts in the Bob Jeffers collection at UCLA, S05E21, S05E14, S05E12 and S05E09 may all have been filmed before this.)
The license plate on the jury bus is initially Y49 157, but replaced by the kidnappers with Z99964. Arlen Washington covers up the MARK IV logo on either side of the bus with yellow tape, but leaves the MARK IV logo on the back of the bus intact.
Uncharacteristically, there is no music at the end of Act II.
The math used to estimate the search area is a bit funky. Robbins subtracts the five miles the cops tailed the bus from the 14 miles the bus had travelled since it logged out of the bus barn to get 9 miles, but it's not clear if he accounted for the distance between the bus barn and the scene of the kidnapping (Vallejo and Front). Then he divides this by two to get a radius of 4.5 miles, but this assumes the bus drove from Vallejo and Front to the hiding place, then drove the same distance back and at that moment the cops spotted the bus. Robbins says the search area is 70–80 square miles; he apparently computes π(4.5)² ≈ 64 and this assumes that a bus could drive radially in a city, but it can't — it has to use "taxicab geometry," moving east and west or north and south along the street grid. And on top of all this, the entire city of San Francisco is about 47 square miles!
Breitback (the juror played by Norman Fell) is a plumber and (perhaps coincidentally) it is he who enters the bathroom as part of an aborted escape attempt.
In the homicide squad (which Stone calls "the bullpen" for perhaps the only time in the show), two policewomen are wearing regular uniforms, not the matron uniforms seen in earlier seasons. Sgt. Sekulovich is seen more than once, but curiously Inspector Bill Tanner is absent, despite this being an "all hands on deck" affair.
Stone calling Keller "buddy boy" when Keller is on the verge of death is quite touching, as is Stone's performance in general throughout this sequence.
Keller's blood type is A positive and he is allergic to penicillin.
Jeannie calls Stone "Mike" when he phones her from the hospital, then "daddy" (twice) when the gravity of Keller's situation sinks in.
Barbara Ross drives a beat-up old blue Ford Falcon, plate FTD 810.
The SFPD hotline number is 553-9111.
The radio station KZKA is mentioned.
The truck that hits Jelenik has plate 97 060 C.
Hari Rhodes (credited here as "Harry") plays Inspector Floyd Marsden from Undercover, who is "pretty savvy with the radical groups." He doesn't have much to do.
In the epilog, Keller seems to live at a different place than the one seen in early seasons.
This episode is not without its faults, but I would give it 3.5 stars rather than 3.
S05E03: Dead or Alive
Gail Dobbs (the victim) drives a Porsche 911.
Sgt. Sekulovich is seen in the background at Homicide.
Stone has five teams working on the investigation.
The bus driven by an eyewitness has plate 659796; it was on route 83, which takes an hour and 50 minutes to traverse.
Wilton leers at some girls who his sort-of girlfriend Rhoda (Arlene Golonka) says are "only about 15," but they look older than this.
According to his rap sheet, Donald S. Wilton lives as 1850 Kearny (an address previously used in "Asylum" [S03E21], and used several times during this fifth season) and was arrested for assault and rape on 2/20/76 but beat that rap. HIs booking photo number is 5279. His eyeglasses prescription is 40 over 60 — what does this mean?
Zabrockie hands Stone a folded wanted poster but it's not creased when seen in a closeup. How did these posters get printed and distributed before Stone and Robinson checked out Wilton's place of residence? KL 5-9559 is Larry Dobbs' phone number as shown on the wanted poster.
Stone's car has plate 907 PRR. There appears to be some sort of leaflet stuck under the windshield wiper when he and Robbins leave Wilton's place — is this a copy of the wanted poster?
Stone quotes penal code 652, which supposedly relates to "offering a reward for the capture of a person, dead or alive." The actual code is about body piercing of minors!
The ID of the merchant marine mistaken by vigilante citizens for Wilton says he is Paul E. Hartley, who left San Francisco 4/9/76 and returned 9/2/76 (although a calendar in the previous scene is set to July). Stone immediately says Hartley was "just off the boat two hours," but how could he possibly have known this?
Inspector Bill Tanner was, surprisingly, missing from the two-part season opener, but he returns here, at a desk (with nameplate W. Tanner) opposite that of Eddie Clarke.
For some reason Stone tells Robbins to call for backup and then jumps out of a window to chase down Wilton rather than having the younger man handle the athletics. When Robbins radios for assistance, he doesn't specify his location.
Throughout the series' run, Ford has supplied most of the cars driven on screen and gets an acknowledgment in the end credits, but in the epilog of this episode, a big Chevrolet billboard can be seen in the background from the Bryant Street parking lot.
S05E04: The Drop
The kidnappers drive a car with plate 704 PBV.
When Springer calls Stone (Stone's extension is 321), Springer asks, "You got your tape recorder going?" Stone says it is (and later he listens back to a tape of this call) but the reel-to-reel recorder on his desk is not running.
The newspaper that Andy holds up as proof of life is the San Francisco Dispatch.
In Ernie's lab, Stone loads the reel-to-reel tape with the Springer interview backwards.
Robbins does another area calculation rather quickly in his head, computing that π⋅5² is "over 80 square miles" (it's about 78.5).
On his way to the drop, Stone drives a black Ford, plate 618 LHC.
In the Bryant Street parking lot, a (different) Chevrolet billboard can be seen in the distance.
Stone puts Tanner in charge of all the tail cars. Tanner calls in on the radio as "Inspectors 85." He is driving a car with plate 894 PRR.
The review says "there is the sound like a train whistle on the soundtrack at around 43:35, but nothing is made of this"; however, right when that happens Robbins asks "What time is it?" and Tanner says, "Almost 5:30." The train whistle was heard on the tape at 5:28:10, so this is at least an oblique reference that Robbins "makes something" of the train whistle.
John Peter Smalley's score is mostly generic '70s cop show music, although he does work in some variations on the Pat Williams series theme.
S05E05: No Minor Vices
Maureen McCormick turned 20 right around the time this episode was filmed; her character just turned 18, so she is not that much older (unlike a lot of actors playing high schoolers in previous seasons).
Walter Reeves (who resided at 813 Hamel St. and worked at 66908 Hartley Ave.) was killed 9/4/76, according to the police report (Tanner was originally assigned to the case), and this was "eight days ago," so the episode takes place in the middle of September. But Hollingsworth stayed at the Larchmont hotel for a convention on Thursday and Friday of "last week," and the hotel invoice shows that he checked in on August 8, 1976, and checked out on August 10, so this timeline doesn't match up. However, September 9 and 10, 1976, were a Thursday and Friday, so all of this would line up if the month on the invoice were September instead of August.
When Cindy calls her answering service from home on a rotary phone she seems to be actually dialing 555-3645, but when her father calls the same answering service from his workplace on a push-button phone, he appears to be entering a much different number (certainly not one starting with 555).
Mr. Lawson drives a Ford Mustang, plate RQU 079.
When not with Stone, Robbins is driving a geen Ford, plate 913 PRR. Robbins' badge number is 2248.
Harry Delman's phone number is 555-8104. Cindy takes a Seaside cab (555-9837) to Delman's warehouse.
S05E06: In Case of Madness
Desi Arnaz (presumably Jr.) is listed in the ASCAP database for at least one TSoSF cue, so perhaps he is (at least partially) responsible for the songs heard in this episode.
Arnaz was only about 23 at the time and doesn't seem old enough to have a kid the age of Palmer's.
Some of the band members drive a Ford Econoline van painted with flames.
Palmer takes a cab (plate WKJ 649) from the Towne House hotel (where he is living), which is across the street from the Orpheum.
Stone's calling card lists ROOM 553 but Homicide is in Room 450.
Sheryl seems to be more of a groupie (although the band may use her as a gofer). She drives a pink VW Beetle. The car that kills her is a blue Ford, plate VKC 742
In addition to the songs, the band plays a bit of instrumental music when Palmer is absent. The synopsis mentions "a montage of several songs for 47 seconds (it seems much longer)" but the montage lasts a full 2.5 minutes, so it is in fact much longer than 47 seconds! Shortly after this recording session, Lois is listening to one of the songs on an LP (clearly not a test pressing) but how could this be possible so quickly?
S05E07: “Till Death Do Us Part”
Act I (which is much longer than most other first acts in the fifth season) shows some action in Morristown NJ and Chicago IL (with title cards identifying these locations) before returning to San Francisco — this is unusual for the series.
The car used by Stone and Robbins has plate 909 PRR; it was 907 PRR in recent episodes.
Sekulovich is seen in the background at Homicide.
Stone leaves the final safe house in a different car than the one he used to get there. How does the hitman masquerading as a milkman know which apartment Maggie Jarris is in?
The synopsis says Stone's phone has been tapped early on, but don't the hitmen call there just to see if someone is home? (They do this at one of the safe houses as well.)
S05E08: Child of Anger
Bernie the ME makes a brief appearance. Stone and Robbins appear to be driving the tan Ford (plate 907 PRR) that was blown up with a car bomb in the previous episode. (According to script dates, "Child of Anger" may have been shot first.)
After watching a TV report about Melanie's confession, Frank Kyd knows details (like her picking out the right gun) that don't seem like they would have been released to the press.
Stillman's car is a Porsche 911 Targa convertible, plate CHD 375.
There is a non-process driving shot, not with the cops, but with the two hoods who killed Stillman.
Sekulovich has a couple lines of dialogue in this episode, although he is not listed in the end credits.
S05E09: Hot Dog
This is the only time Darleen Carr has special guest star status.
Stone and Robbins have their gumball lit up before they get a radio call about the holdup. They just picked up their new car (plate 415 IVY) that morning, so presumably this episode was supposed to immediately follow “Till Death Do Us Part” (S05E07), in which their previous vehicle was blown up with a car bomb (although script dates indicate "Hot Dog" was shot much earlier in the year).
The motorcycle chase in Act II is right out of CHiPs (which would premiere following season).
Jeannie again drives a blue car with plate WKJ 649, but her traffic ticket lists the plate as 444 EIK. She later tells Stone she ran into Larry Wilson "this afternoon" but the time on her ticket is 11:45 a.m. The ticket reveals that Stone lives at 762 Maryvale (although the street number 768 is on his door — and in fact the location for Stone's house was 768 De Haro Street) and that Jeannie's birthday is 8/16/54 (which would make her 22 — this seems too young based on how old she must have been in the first season). The episode begins on 10/7/76.
The synopsis mentions the robbers use a truck, but it's an Econoline van.
Richard Markowitz recorded his score for this episode on August 16, 1976. It includes some electric piano and saxophone "love music" for Jeannie and Larry, but the transitional cue from their smooching to Homicide the next morning is tracked in.
Stone says he has been on the force 24 years at this point, but at the end of the second season he had been on the force for at least 23 years. Jeannie tells Stone she will say "yes" if Larry Wilson proposes to her: this seems awfully fast — they've been on two dates and first met a mere 48 hours ago!
The synopsis says Marty is "hanging out" at the third motorcycle shop visited by Stone and Robbins, but the employee interviewed by the cops treats Marty as the owner or manager.
S05E10: Castle of Fear
Stone calls Holmer "Jim" in the squad room but later tells Mossman his name was "William Holmer." Sekulovich is at the scene when Stone arrives (and has one line).
Stone shows Mossman two photos: not an ID that would hold up in court, although of course Mossman was lying anyway.
Stone tells Robbins to look for Herrick at a bar first thing in the morning but wouldn't a cop killing generate more urgency? (Herrick turns up at the Garnet bar and grill.) A pool cue to the arm seems to hurt Robbins a lot more than it should but maybe this was the arm where he got shot in "No Minor Vices" (S05E05).
Duane Tatro's score is OK. There is no act-in music for Act IV.
The plate on Stone's car has reverted to 907 PRR. Herrick is seen driving an older car, plate 104 JZQ.
Stone radios for a "special force unit, code 3" during the climactic shootout. He seems rather sympathetic toward Mossman, given that Mossman killed a young homicide inspector
I don't know that I would describe Hatch's performance as "very good" but it's not bad compared to his usual uncharismatic acting.
S05E11: One Last Trick
Chris Kazan, who received story credit and is one of three writers credited with the teleplay, is the son of director Elia Kazan; this is his only TV credit. The original title for this epsiode may have been "Turning the Trick."
Sekulovich is on the scene interviewing a witness but has no dialogue. Stone calls him an "officer" and he doesn't seem to have sergeant stripes.
Joy Adams lived at 1212 California.
Stone calls Robbins "Speedy."
The business card for CPA /tax consultant A.D. Fletcher lists his address as 1850 Kearney St. (yet another use of this address in the show, although as Mr. Mike points out the location as seen in the show is actually near 2330 Polk Street) and this phone number is 555-2121.
Deirdre Berthrong, who played 17-year-old Sheila, was 24 at the time.
Mr. Mike asks, "By the way, how does Nick know to come and bail her out?" Presumably she used her "one phone call" to ask Nick to bail her out, as a way of getting back into his world without raising suspicion.
Mr. Mike also asks, "Would a tax preparer have this kind of access?" Presumably Fletcher called in a favor to a former IRS co-worker.
S05E12: Monkey Is Back
Once again, Fred Sadoff is listed in the opening credits. This is his last appearance on the show as Lenny Murchison (although this episode might have been shot before "The Thrill Killers," which was his only other season-five appearance).
Robbins lives at the top of a very steep dead-end street. We see his Ford Bronco for the first time since the season premiere. He has just returned from a 20-mile backpacking trip.
Stone has a picture of his deceased wife Helen on his desk (where the picture of Jeannie usually is). The plate on his car is 907 PRR.
Contrary to the "More Trivia," while the phone book has mostly real-looking numbers, a Frederick Ness, 309 18th Ave, has phone 555-9387. Joseph Ness is listed at 1850 Kearney St (yet another use of this address on the show) with number 421-4701. This is not the number Belasco dials.
There is a non-process shot of Stone and Robbins tailing a stolen car with plate 594 VUB .
When Belasco shoots the banker in the YMCA sauna, the muzzle flash of the zip gun appears to have been created with some sort of post-production special effect.
Bill Tanner makes a brief appearance.
When Belasco looks up Alex Poore in the phone book, there appear to be some fake names in bigger font below some actual phone book entries in the standard phone-book font. Belsaco writes down 1732 Washington for Alex Poore's address, but the phone book says 1520 Rosman Ave.
Poore was born January 16, 1938, and died March 5, 1976, which was "two months ago" so the time frame for this episode is May 1976 (probably around the time the episode was shot), but some of the fifth-season episodes already broadcast took place several months after this.
The reunion takes place at the St. Regis Hotel.
Robbins is left handed.
