You figure since streets of San Francisco, the untouchables, swat, Hawaii five-o, and the fugitive are all put on DVD the that San Francisco beat should also see the light of day hopefully. The movie "THE LINEUP" is a great movie seeing old school San Francisco and also included with the old cars seeing those old GM, FORDS, DODGE cars is really cool if their are two productions that should be on DVD are 1. SAN FRANCISCO BEAT TV SERIES 2. THE LINEUP MOVIE 1958 , i was able to get the movie poster at a collectors show last year i had heard that Highway Patrol with Broadrick Crawford might be coming to DVD sometime soon.

I managed to dig up a few of these great oldies. Here is a review of one of them.Warner Anderson and Tom Tully play a pair of San Francisco Police detectives in this 50's standard. The two are assigned to find who is behind a string of armed robberies. The bandits simply walk in, calmly stick a gun in the clerks face and ask for the cash. The victims are so frightened that not one of them can give the police an accurate description. The police catch a break though when a witness catches the plate number off the get-away car. They trace the car to a rental outfit. They then follow the leads to a less than sober woman who tells the detectives her new boyfriend had borrowed the car. This info leads them to a seedy rundown hotel. A talk with the desk clerk gets them a room number. A quick boot to the door and the detectives catch a man laying out the doings for a drug fix. As they are slapping the cuffs on the first suspect, the second shows up with the heroin. A gun is stuck in his face for a change as he is relieved of the drugs and his pistol. The two are drug addicts and the string of hold-ups were to feed the habit. This episode was directed by Felix Feist who did the noirs DEVIL THUMBS A RIDE, THE THREAT, TOMORROW IS ANOTHER DAY and THIS WOMAN IS DANGEROUS. A DRAGNET style police procedural with the added bonus of great location shooting.

Growing up in the SF Bay area as a kid in the 50's I always looked forward to San Francisco Beat coming on the tube every Saturday night. All the SF locales such as the Japanese Tea Garden,the old Hall of Justice on Kearny Street, Playland at the Sea. Filmed before the "Manhatanization" of downtown SF when the highest point in the city was Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill. I can't remember any details of the episodes but clearly recall the "feel" of the show which encapsulate everything that was San Francisco just after WWII. Fog horns, sea gulls, the wharf, this show had it all with a real film noir feel. The two detectives would stop at the police call boxes to talk to headquarters.

I can vaguely remember THE LINEUP. It surprises me that the show lasted until 1960; I would have thought a couple of years earlier. There is only one episode I can clearly recall, about two killers -- the old one who scrupulously recorded the victims' last words -- and their young hot-shot wheel man. [SAN FRANCISCO BEAT] always seemed pretty good to a kid, and I would like to see some episodes now.