Pounding the ‘Streets’ Again

Karl Malden has fond memories of playing Lt. Mike Stone on the 1972-77 ABC series “The Streets of San Francisco.” Last year, though, he turned down NBC’s offer to reprise his five-time Emmy-nominated role in the movie Back to the Streets of San Francisco.

“Oh, no,” said Malden, current president of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. “I have had it. That is the past.”’

The idea, however, stayed in his mind. “I thought, ‘I wonder what it would feel like coming back after 14 years?’ All the biographies of old-time actors like Joseph Jefferson Drew, all of these people used to have a play they could come back to. Joseph Jefferson did ‘Rip Van Winkle’ for 25 years. That was the impulse. I wanted to see what the feeling is.”

The 78-year-old actor found he had no problem stepping back into Stone’s shoes. “The character is so embedded in you, except with the old ‘Streets of San Francisco’ we did an awful lot of running and jumping,” Malden said, laughing. “I don’t do much running and jumping any more.”

In “Back to the Streets of San Francisco,” Stone, now a captain, is joined by two young officers (played by Conor O’Farrell and Debrah Farentino) who are both competing to become lieutenant. Darleen Carr, who played Stone’s daughter, Jean, also returns for the first of two scheduled sequels.

“I said I would come back, but let’s all recognize the fact it has been 14 years since we did the last one, and in 14 years things should have happened,” Malden said. “First of all, the main thing that happened is that I am 14 years older! I saw Peter Falk’s show (“Colombo”) and I saw the Raymond Burr show (“Perry Mason”) and they just picked up where they left off. I think that is cheating.”

One person who won’t be “Back on the Streets of San Francisco,” is Michael Douglas, who came to fame as Stone’s partner, Steve Keller, before moving on to a successful film career that included winning a best actor Oscar for “Wall Street.” As the film opens, Keller has been murdered and Stone is forced back on the streets to find his killer.

“Michael naturally isn’t in it because he is a big star,” Malden said. “I think it would be bad to ask him to come back and do it. So in some way we had to get rid of Michael.”

(Douglas left the series after its fourth season; Richard Hatch played Stone’s new partner, Dan Robbins, for the final season.)

Reruns of the original have aired in syndication for 14 years. KCOP has the rights locally, but has no plans for airing the series at this time.

“Streets of San Francisco” was Malden’s first television series. Malden starred in such acclaimed films as “A Streetcar Named Desire” (which won him an Oscar), “On the Waterfront,” “Patton,” “The Hanging Tree” and “Ruby Gentry.”

“I was working enough in films (that) I didn’t have to bother about TV,” Malden said. But “San Francisco” producer Quinn Martin pursued him to do a series for years. Malden kept refusing. “I didn’t want to play a detective. One day he called me and said, ‘I got a deal with ABC and don’t say ‘No’ until I finish the whole thing.” This time it was an offer Malden couldn’t refuse--a 26-week series commitment from ABC without a pilot.

Malden believes one reason “Streets of San Francisco” clicked with audiences was the chemistry between Douglas and himself. “Michael and I were just more than two actors,” he said. “I knew his father (Kirk Douglas) when his father was starting in the business and we became very close friends. To me, Michael was a son.

“Back to the Streets of San Francisco” airs Monday at 9 p.m. on NBC.