The Streets of San Francisco (TV Series) The Thirty-Year Pin (1972) User Reviews

Overall strong episode

[meixel_99-335-81352 · 8/10 · 3 April 2012]

I agree with the other reviewer - I'm not sure why this script was made into the first episode after the initial pilot. If this script was supposed to define Stone, it made him out to be somewhat emotionally unstable. I always thought this should have been aired later in the season.

But the script does allow Keller to be mature and not stereotypically green. It also showed the respect the two characters had for one another.

Two scenes to watch for: 1) at the police station featuring extensive dialogue between Douglas and Malden as they walk down the hallway discussing the case. It's done in one shot to perfection. And 2) the chase scene at the Bart station. Extremely well paced and suspenseful.

Nice epilogue. Plus the use of Eileen Heckart was great - what a wonderful actress she was.

Strong points outweigh the weak, so I would give it an overall favorable rating.

Wobbly Start to a Wonderful Series

[GaryPeterson67 · 7/10 · 30 September 2010]

"The Thirty-Year Pin" testifies to the bumpy beginnings great series often experience as they establish themselves and smooth out the rough spots in characterization.

The story revolves around the shooting of beat cop Gus Charnovski and Mike Stone's determination to bring in the perpetrator. A sad facet of the story is that while long ago Mike and Gus patrolled the Tenderloin District together, now Stone is a big-shot detective and Charnovski is still a beat cop directing tourists and bungling the break up of an armed robbery. And while Stone is weeping and hugging his fallen comrade, Steve tells Lt. Devitt that Stone never spoke to him about Gus. Maybe Stone's tears and resolve to get the gunman reflect his guilt at having forgotten his friend at the bottom of the ladder while he climbed up it.

Edmond O'Brien, star of the classic film D.O.A. and a memorable Johnny Dollar on radio, is utterly wasted in this episode playing Gus, his too-short screen time squandered with scenes of mumbling and looking pained while laying in a hospital bed. O'Brien was still such a bombastic presence at this time (see THE LOVE GOD with Don Knotts), he shouldn't have been wasted in a part a lesser star could have played. Another welcome face that was woefully underutilized was veteran baddie Leo Gordon as an ex-con now sidewalk barker for blue movies whom Stone bullies in his mad quest for vengeance.

The episode is suspenseful and throws a couple curve balls. Stone's alternating between blowing and keeping his cool had me empathizing with Steve Keller, who is alarmed to see his partner acting so out of character, worrying about what the hot-headed Stone's going to do next. But it was hard to empathize with Stone and his vendetta--viewers of this first episode barely knew Stone, so accepting such a deep friendship with Gus was difficult to buy. Had the producers later in the season had Keller get shot and wounded, viewers would have more readily bought into Stone's seeking swift vengeance.

The climactic chase strained credulity with an aging Stone staying so close on the heels of the sprinting young killer, or to see Keller so quickly pick up the trail of the pursuit. What clue did Keller have that Stone went over the fence and down the stairs to the subway? (Watch for some directorial sleight of hand when a stuntman leaps the barbed-wire fence and lands behind an obstructing wall, and a second later Michael Douglas runs out from behind it!). The extended chase through the subway tunnel was well done, even if a bit long.

By no means a bad episode, but a weak one when compared to the pilot and to many of the episodes yet to come. The promise of guest star Edmond O'Brien was unfulfilled. Stone is especially unlikeable in this outing, with Steve acting almost as chaperon to his combustible colleague. Fortunately, this episode's epilogue begins to reestablish and later episodes cement the original characterizations and dynamic that made the pilot movie so appealing.

Stone Pursues a Shooter With a Vengeance

[gopal75 · 8/10 · 28 July 2009]

When one of the SFPD's veteran beat cops is shot during a holdup in North Beach, Lt. Stone takes it personally, and pursues the shooter with revenge in mind.

Luckily, the clearer headed Inspector Keller follows up on Stone's leads, and together the pair of detectives combs through a list suspects consisting of local junkies and petty criminals who may have had a motive.

This is a fairly suspenseful episode, with plenty of bullets fired, and some good chase scenes.

This episode begins in the North Beach area, at what appears to be Lombard and Columbus, and includes some good shots of the area at that time. There is also some nice footage of San Francisco General Hospital, in Potrero Hill, which hasn't changed noticeably since this footage was shot. The climactic scene takes place in the underground BART station at either 24th and Mission or 16th and Mission, which hadn't yet been fully constructed at that point. The system would begin service the following year.

An improvement in the series.

[planktonrules · 10 September 2013]

The pilot episode of "The Streets of San Francisco" was a TV movie shown the week before "The Thirty-Year Pin"--and this pilot was a bit of a disappointment when I watched it. While the first half of the show was quite good, the ending of the pilot was just insane. So, it's good that this was followed up by a very good episode.

"The Thirty-Year Pin" begins with a veteran police officer (Edmund O'Brien) walking into the middle of a robbery. Before he can react, the perpetrator shoots him and when help arrives, it sure looks as if this guy won't pull through. However, Mike (Karl Malden) is an old friend and won't let the guy die--and stays with him on the way to the hospital--forcing him to remain conscious. This veteran policeman might just pull through--and Mike is determined to find the gunman. However, not surprisingly, Mike is not objective and rushes into the investigation like a bull in a china shop. Can he keep his cool and can his partner (Michael Douglas) work with him to complete the investigation? Overall, this is a good episode--a decent plot, some nice supporting cast members (with Tim O'Connor, Eileen Heckart and David Opatoshu offering support along with O'Brien) and some nice character development. Let's hope subsequent episodes follow this pattern and not that established in the pilot!

A policeman has been shot and there's some sum out there laughing about it and I want to see him nailed.

[sol1218 · 6/10 · 25 June 2013]

***SPOILERS*** Debut episode of "Streets of San Francisco" with bulbous nosed old veteran cop detective Let. Mike Stone, Karl Malden, and his young whipper snapper and wet behind the ears pretty boy Inspector Steve Keller, Michael Douglas. The two SFPD cops are on the hunt for a cop killer who gunned down Let. Stone's good friend and former partner officer Gus Charnouski, Edmond O'Brien, in a failed jewelry store robbery. Using his very prominent and noticeable, who can anyone miss it, nose like a bloodhound Lt. Stone sniffs out the person who gunned down his good friend Officer Charnouski that leads to the very exciting chase scene in the under construction Bart subway Station with the younger Inspector Keller doing most of the chasing.

It was odd that Let Stone who should have know better acted like an outright armature, by letting his emotions get in he way, in his hunt for Officer Charnouski's shooter. But then being such a good and close, like in the heart wrenching hospital scene between the two, of the gunned down policeman you can easily overlook that fact. There's also officer Charnoski's grieving wife Stella, Eileen Hacthart, who seems to not be all that overwhelmed with grief at all at the news of her hubby being gunned down who later died of his wounds. Was it that the two were on the outs and him now being out of the way she can now play the field in the dating GoGo and night club scene?

Actor Edmound O'Brian who mostly was on life support, until he finally passed away, during the entire episode was unforgettable as the doomed Officer Charnoski. O'Brian had his role as a dying man down pat to his last, which was off camera, breath. Michael Douglas as Inspector Keller showed that he could be entered in the Boston or New York Marathons in his his excellent cross country or city running on the streets rooftops and subways of San Francisco. But it was old battered and bulbous nosed Karl Malden who stole the acting honors here. That in him showing as Det. Stone that he could admit that he was wrong in his obsession in catching Officer Charnouski's killer and then getting the job done not out of blind vengeance but through of cool and calculated police work instead.

Reliving my childhood and the episode ages well.

[mm-39 · 7/10 · 7 May 2022]

I just bought the box set and I am reliving my childhood memories of watch Streets with my sister and this episode ages well. Sometimes the older shows are dated. I do not mean old, but fall apart from modern improvements. Wooden acting, massive plot holes, and awkward directing. In fairness I watch some of the older show because new ones have crammed awkward political/social messages added to the story and or characters and I just go huh. No one I know acts or thinks the way some of todays show portray cops etc! Worse many modern stories are either predictable or nonsensical. Well The Thirty Year Pin ages well. One can see why the series was so successful. Malden and Douglas as the veteran street cop teamed up with the collage educated slicker youngster has a believable likable acting synergy. Add in a story of Malden ex beat partner getting shot makes for a good combination. The barebones story has no story drag of personal or social sub story, but hard and raw reality. We see one partner try not to lose it while the other, helps. The dated parts shows E M T's have come a long way and so has computers or lack of them for police work. There is cheesy walk an walk sound tracks with the horns. LOL A watchable show. 7 stars.

Karl gets annoying

[Gaslog · 5/10 · 20 March 2021]

I am a big fan of Karl Malden and this series...but this opening episode showcases a very annoying and offensive Stone...he rubs his fellow policemen and the hospital staff the wrong way...acting as if HE is the only one who knows how to conduct an investigation. But the series improves as it moves along...