The Streets of San Francisco (Seasons 1–5)

The Streets of San Francisco (1972) is a classic police series you can watch online on iFILM. Two plainclothes detectives roam the hilly city and untangle serious crimes, most of them homicides. Every episode has its own San Francisco: waterfronts, staircases, fog rolling over the bay.

Lieutenant Mike Stone has spent twenty years on the force and works on instinct, having seen just about everything. His partner, Inspector Steve Keller, is a recent college graduate, quick-minded but raw on the street. Over time Stone becomes a kind of second father to the kid, passing along what no classroom teaches. Karl Malden plays Stone, and a young Michael Douglas plays Keller in one of his first major roles. Douglas even stepped behind the camera to direct a handful of episodes.

The show ran five seasons on ABC under Quinn Martin's banner and set the template for 1970s crime drama: real locations instead of soundstages, mismatched partners, an unhurried, almost documentary pace. There is no chasing for the sake of a chase here, only patient police work and the easy chemistry between its two leads. Stream The Streets of San Francisco (1972) online on iFILM.