Homicide detectives Mike Stone (Karl Malden and Steve Keller (Michael Douglas) continue to track down a wide assortment of Bay Area criminals and lowlifes in the third season of Streets of San Francisco. Arguably the season's most famous episode follows in the "casting against type" tradition of Rick Nelson's villainous turn in Season Two. This time around, singer John Davidson shucks his apple-pie image to deliver a stunning tour de force in the role of a professional female impersonator who develops a fatal obsession for one of his movie-diva idols. Less celebrated but no less impressive is the performance of Mike Evans, then concurrently starring as Lionel on The Jeffersons, as a wannabe gangster. Other guest performers include Leslie Nielsen as an alcoholic cop, Sam Jaffe as an elderly jeweler who confesses to murder to protect an old friend, Brock Peters as a tormented fugitive from justice, and Clint Howard as a troubled teenager. Additionally, Brenda Vaccaro, the then girlfriend of series star Michael Douglas, makes a meal of her role as a wide-eyed "girl next door" who turns out to be an elusive mob assassin! Running up against the competition of NBC's Ironside and CBS' first-run movies, Season Three Streets of San Francisco didn't perform quite as well in the ratings as it had the previous year, but it still raked in plenty of fans and advertising revenue for ABC.
by Hal Erickson
synopsis
