The Lineup

I grew up on San Francisco Beat. It was a family event each week. It was the precursor to Streets of San Francisco, Dirty Harry, and Ironside. Besides Perry Mason (back in the day)it was the only compelling crime series on at the time. Shot in B&W it and mono it delivered fast passed gritty episodes on a weekly basis.

With local location shots as a SF native it delighted all who watched it. Although predictable story lines lead to obvious conclusion given the era the scenes along with the plot kept the audience captivated.

As the original San Francisco crime show it paved the way for the next generation of S.F. police dramas such as the aforementioned Raymond Burr series Ironside, The Streets of San Francisco with Karl Malden an Michael Douglas and Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry Series.

As a testimony to how well this movie/series was cast, many of the actors went on to perform in some of the later Crime Drama series on television. Warner Anderson as the hard driving Lt. Ben Guthrie delivered grounded performances as he did throughout his extensive career.

Marshall Reed as Inspector Fred Asher went on to roles in Dragnet, and Adam 12.

Does anyone know where I can get it on DVD?

I remember seeing this show on Friday nights. What I remember best is that they were not kids shows but were still very enjoyable for the whole family. They were very tight half hour shows, in other words, it went by very quick. I wish these shows would be on some cable channel that would show programs of the fifties like this one.

April, 2009

What I remember most about THE LINEUP is the final roll of credits. You'd see a slow dramatic panorama of San Francisco at that time, mid 1950's, as the theme song pounded over the view. At that time Coit Tower was the tallest point in the skyline. Then you'd hear the voice over express thanks to San Francisco Chief of Police, think it was Tom Cahill at that time--but I also recall that it may have been Patrick Duffy in the earlier days of the series.

My father had a jewelry store on Columbus Ave. in North Beach and the shop flashed by once in a scene from an episode.

Yes, the '49 Ford coming up the street in the opening sequence with Tom Tully driving and Warner Anderson looking out. And that theme song again.

I just watched a part of an episode on You Tube from 1958. But nothing comes up if you type in the series title: But you will get it by typing in "1957 Dodge and 1957 Plymouth." It features Richard Jeckel, Jr., as a kid; and a very young Eli Walach. Good chase scene that shows the Embarcadero under construction; Sutros near Playland; and shots of the bridge.

Dennis Caracciolo April, 2009

To this day, fifty years later, I can never go by one of those still-standing Gamewells (the old police call boxes which used to stand on seemingly every other street corner in town) without expecting to find Lt. Ben Guthrie or Inspector Matt Greb leaning into it. Perhaps it's the fact that so much of this series was shot on location -- rather than on soundstages -- and perhaps it has to do with the fact that the producers used a great deal of "local talent" (sportscaster Sandy Spillman seemed to spend as much time in uniform here as he did doing the nightly sports roundup); whatever the reason, "The Lineup" managed to weave itself into the fabric of daily San Francisco life in that era. If you lived here, you grew used to seeing their production van -- with its distinctive silhouetted "Lineup" on the sides -- pulling up to ready another shot. You never knew but that you might end up in a scene. It happened to me once, waiting in line for a 'kiddie matinee' outside the Paramount theatre, only they edited the scene just before the camera panned over me. Ah well, fame is fleeting, or so they say . . .

"The Lineup" owed its inspiration to the success of "Dragnet," of course, even to the characterizations of Guthrie and Greb (while Warner Anderson's stern asceticism could make Jack Webb's Joe Friday look like Chuckles the Clown, it's not hard to imagine Tom Tully's Matt Greb and Ben Alexander's Frank Smith knocking back a few rounds and swapping lies at a cop bar together); this is where the similarities ended. "The Lineup" was tighter, its pace more in keeping with that of daily SF life, and the dialogue was refreshingly free of the "natural speech" um's and ah's in "Dragnet." Fictional as it was, it nonetheless became a fairly faithful chronicle of its time and place

That time has long since passed, and so much of the sights and the sounds of the place have changed. Yet interestingly enough, a large number of those old Gamewells still stand . . . almost as though they're waiting for Guthrie and Greb to return.

Neither of those guys, after all, would ever carry a cell phone!

This show had a rather leisurely aspect that I enjoyed on our first TV in the 50s. Dragnet was tenser. Suspect whines: Hey, I want to see a lawyer. Friday: Don't worry... Suspect: Huh? Friday: You'll need one! (Dum da dumb dumb) The Lineup featured a row of lowlifes on the police stage with an ironic Greb officiating: OK, next is Harry Jones... step forward, Harry. Take off your hat. Seems you got into a little trouble last night, Harry, got caught with your hand in a safe where it didn't belong. How'd that happen? Suspect: Ahh, it's a bum rap. Greb: Sure, Harry, that's what they all say...OK step back. The witness wasn't peeking through a one-way mirror, but sat in the audience, and the suspect was identified by name and crime. No way that would hold up today. Of course, like Dragnet terse justice was essential in a half-hour show. After the last commercial they had a a really short wrap-up: Victim: Lieutenant, what's going to happen to Smith? Guthrie: Oh, he was sentenced today. Gas chamber. The End. Followed by 20 years of appeals.