Trivia / The Streets of San Francisco

• Backed by the Pentagon: The San Francisco Police Department took a liking to Karl Malden and Michael Douglas and gave the show official support.
• California Doubling: Usually averted, but the first scene in "Flags Of Terror" takes place in Tokyo, so...Similarly, "Till Death Do Us Part" starts of the other side of the USA before arriving in San Francisco.
• Channel Hop: Back to the Streets of San Francisco was made by Spelling Television as QM Productions was defunct by 1992 (by that time Spelling Entertainment owned Worldvision Enterprises, which owned a lot of the Quinn Martin catalogue via their former owners, Taft Broadcasting). It also aired on NBC; the original run aired on ABC.
• Creator's Favorite: Michael Douglas has fond memories of this show and working with Karl Malden. He also greatly appreciates how the production released him from his contract to allow him to pursue a film career.
• The Danza: Vic Morrow as Vic Tomlin in "The Twenty-Four Karat Plague".
  • Lazaro Perez as Jerry Perez in "In Case of Madness".
• Dawson Casting: Usually averted - in "No Minor Vices" Cindy states she's 18; she's played by Maureen McCormick, who was 19 at the time of filming - but played straight in "One Last Trick," when a callgirl called Sheila (played by Deirdre Berthrong, around 24 when the episode was shot) says she's 17. Played hilariously straight in "Innocent No More" when Stone tells his daughter he's 55. (At the time Karl Malden was in his mid-sixties, and he looked it...)
  • Barbara Stanger, who was 26 at the time, as a pregnant high-school girl in "School of Fear". This is odd, as a year and a half before, she played Nick Nolte's WIFE in an episode of another Quinn Martin series, Barnaby Jones.
• Directed by Cast Member: Michael Douglas went behind the camera for the only time to date with "Spooks For Sale."
• Fake Nationality: Jerusalem-born Nehemiah Persoff played Kampacalas, a Greek winery owner in "Bitter Wine". One of his sons in the episode was played by Paul Michael Glaser, who is also Jewish. His other son is played by Scott Marlowe (real name Ronald DeMeo), who is Italian.
  • David Soul, of Norwegian descent, played Inspector Jimmy Martin (born Martinez) in the episode "Hall of Mirrors". His shame at growing up Puerto Rican and poor hinders Stone and Keller in their search for a Hispanic murder suspect.
  • In "One Chance To Live", Irish Edward Mulhare plays a Canadian diplomat.
• Non-Singing Voice: In "Mask Of Death", When female impersonator Ken Scott (played by John Davidson) does Carol Channing it's real-life female impersonator Craig Russell doing the singing.
• Similarly Named Works: The episode "The Runaways" has nothing to do with the pioneering female punk rock band, nor is it related to the later series from QM Productions.
  • The 1975 TV-movie Crossfire, which was a QM Production, has absolutely no relation to the episode "Crossfire".
• The Other Darrin: Roy Devitt is played by Tim O'Connor in "The Thirty-Year Pin," "Trail Of The Serpent" and "Endgame"; in "The Thrill Killers" and "Hang Tough" he's played by Ward Costello.
• Playing Against Type:
  • Have you ever wanted to see Bill Bixby as a ruthless assassin? "Target: Red" is for you.
  • Ricky Nelson as a murderous pimp in "Harem".
  • In "The Victims," QM regular Jo Ann Harris plays Keller's Girl of the Week, a liberal journalist. For once she plays a Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold type as opposed to someone with the Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon. On the other hand, in the same episode this trope is very much averted with Henry Silva playing the Big Bad.
  • In many of his appearances on crime dramas, Jonathan Goldsmith usually played one of the guys who would break you into little pieces if you didn't have the money you owed his boss. In "The Twenty-Five Caliber Plague", he's playing the guy who owes a lot in gambling debts and can't afford to pay, and thusly finds himself at the receiving end of a goon's punches, until he pulls out the gun he stole from his brother-in-law and puts a slug in the goon's belly. Afterwards, he throws the gun in a trash can in the city park where the fatal encounter took place, thus setting the stage for all the tragic events that the gun is involved in.
• Real-Life Relative: Michael Douglas's mother Diana Douglas guest-starred in the episode "Chapel of the Damned".
• What Could Have Been:
  • The show's only two-parter "The Thrill Killers" was originally planned to air as a two-hour season premiere (which is why Part 2 has Acts V-VIII), but Fred Silverman insisted that it be split in two so that the second part could go up against the season premiere of fellow QM Production Barnaby Jones on CBS and hopefully beat it in the ratings. (It didn't work. Plus it turned out to be the final season for The Streets of San Francisco, whereas Barnaby Jones ran until 1980.) Still, Silverman made bigger mistakes in the '70s.
  • Tom Selleck and Don Johnson were in the running to replace Michael Douglas. Richard Hatch won the role.
  • Michael Douglas would have liked to have appeared in the reunion movie, but scheduling conflicts with The Game (1997) prevented that from happening.
• You Look Familiar: It's a Quinn Martin show, so there are quite a few examples. These examples are from the pilot film and first ten episodes alone...
  • Andrew Duggan in the pilot film and "Target: Red".
  • Tom Bosley in the pilot film, "Going Home" and "Dead Or Alive".
  • John Rubinstein in the pilot film and "Once a Con".
  • Tim O'Connor in "The 30-Year Pin", "The Trail of the Serpent", "Endgame" and "The Cannibals". In the first three, he played Lt. (later Capt.) Roy Devitt.
  • James Olson in "The First Day of Forever", "Asylum" and "No Minor Vices".
  • William Windom in "Forty-Five Minutes From Home", "Letters From the Grave" and "Requiem For Murder".
  • Jacqueline Scott in "Forty-Five Minutes From Home" and "One Last Shot".
  • Jo Ann Harris in "Forty-Five Minutes From Home" and "The Victims".
  • Stephen Oliver in "Forty-Five Minutes From Home", "Chapel of the Damned" and "...Till Death Do Us Part".
  • Dick Van Patten in "Forty-Five Minutes From Home", "Clown of Death" and "The Thrill Killers".
  • Robert Hogan in "Forty-Five Minutes From Home" and "Flags of Terror".
  • Linda Marsh in "Whose Little Boy Are You?", "Target: Red" and "Once a Con".
  • Richard O'Brien in "Whose Little Boy Are You?" and "Merchants of Death".
  • Edward Mulhare in "Tower Beyond Tragedy" and "One Chance to Live".
  • Stefanie Powers in "Tower Beyond Tragedy" and "No Place to Hide".
  • A Martinez in "Hall of Mirrors", "False Witness" and "Alien Country".
  • Shelly Novack in "Hall of Mirrors", "Labyrinth" and "The Honorable Profession".
  • Peter Strauss in "Timelock", "For the Love of God" and "Letters From the Grave".
  • Felice Orlandi in "Timelock" and "Labyrinth".
  • Robert Foxworth in "In the Midst of Strangers" and "Shield of Honor".
  • Harold Gould in "The Takers" and "Death and the Favored Few".
  • Christopher Stone in "The Year of the Locusts", "Bird of Prey" and "Police Buff".

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