The Streets of San Francisco

The Streets of San Francisco was a television series of the 1970s. It was produced and broadcast by ABC from 1972 to 1977. The series began with a TV movie (based on the detective novel "Poor, Poor Ophelia" by Carolyn Weston) in 1972. The show was about two police officers in San Francisco looking for criminals: the veteran Lt. Mike Stone (Karl Malden), assisted by the young graduate insp. Steve Keller (Michael Douglas). The series made a star of Michael Douglas.

Douglas discontinued the series in the fifth season in 1976 to the film One Flew Over the cuckoo's Nest to produce. The absence of his character in the series was explained by stating that he had a job as a teacher at a local college. Lt. Stone took another detective, insp. Dan Robbins (Richard Hatch), but the popularity of the series took off and it was therefore terminated in 1977. An NBC TV movie "Back to the Streets of San Francisco" appeared in 1992. Karl Malden is again explained by the fact that he is Mike Stone but Kellers absence is the victim of a murder.