These 11 gripping episodes that comprise the first half of season two went a long way toward putting The Streets of San Francisco on the map. The series would earn Emmy nominations for Best Actor (Karl Malden), Supporting Actor (Michael Douglas), and Outstanding Drama. Streets is an efficient, old school police procedural series.

Rumpled 20-year veteran Mike Stone and his younger, snappier, college-educated partner, Steve Keller, rely on old-fashioned legwork, gut hunches, and plain luck to crack some particularly heinous crimes. Stone and Keller have by now bridged their generation gap.

Stone still calls Keller "hot shot" and "buddy boy," but it is done with paternalistic affection, while Keller is benefiting from Stone's streetwise "axioms," such as "Ask (a suspect) the time of day, you'll learn a lot more what he thinks about than the weather." Uniformly well acted and sharply written, these episodes also feature some memorable guest stars.