Sad story in many ways. Tom Bosley is a fine actor who really inhabits his characters. He's very convincing as Eddie Coughlin, a wayward criminal who longs to make things right with his family. There's a poignant scene where he watches his estranged wife and son playing in the park with another man, and you know he feels supplanted in his role as father. In a follow up scene, he speaks to his young son; the boy doesn't know who he is and Eddie doesn't burden him with the knowledge. In Streets of San Francisco, the psychology of the characters propels the plot more than the stories and this excellent episode is no exception. Minor flaws: at the beginning, when Eddie flees the scene of a robbery, he is described as 5 foot 11. It's obvious to any viewers that he's shorter than that (5 foot 7). But that's not enough to spoil an otherwise thoughtful show. Highly recommended.
4 Reviews
Biased Toward this Episode
iluviesu13 February 2023
My father, Mike "Pineapple" Miner was the prop master for this episode (uncredited?). I was living with him that summer. His girlfriend and I were on location for a couple of shoots. Saw Milton Selzer walking toward the shop where Tom Bosley took the cash; got to meet Karl Malden (he brushed me off). When Michael Douglas appeared on the scene the girls got excited. My father had all his props in a large semi-container with his name "Mike Pineapple Miner" painted on the ouside. His driver was cool, a free spirited man. It was a fun time, a memorable experience. The Bay Area was pristine and beautiful; it was my first time there.
The dad from Happy Days goes to jail!
mm-3930 June 2022
Warning: Spoilers
The dad from Happy Days goes to jail! Well after living in Milwaukee Mr C becomes a small time crook. In going home there is a small time robbery from a mob fronted store and Mr C has a whole lot of trouble. What works is Keller and Stone are working on the case and have to profile the perp. As the pieces come together. The crew realizes the crook goes back to Alcatraz. A very fitting San Francisco end. Memorable, but so so ending. 6 stars.
Home sweet Alcatraz
kapelusznik182 July 2014
***SPOILERS*** Blumbling career criminal Eddie Coughlin, Tom Bosley, really bumbled into deep sh*t by knocking off a hardware store that's a front for one of the mobs numbers operation. This ends up costing the mob connected owner Beal's, Milton Selzer, life when two hit-men were dispatched to rub him out for not keeping the number money locked in his store safe that Eddie checked out with. Now on the run from both the mob as well as police Eddie tries to hide out at his ex-wife Donna's, Sherre North, apartment only to be kicked out on the street by her who want's nothing at all to do with him.
Desperetly trying to get back with his seven year old son Marty, Brad Savage, Eddie is shocked to find out that after not seeing her for over five years that Marty's mom Donna now has a new man in her life that makes his attempt to get back with her a dead issue. Buying Marty a giant panda bear and giving the startled boy, who's doesn't recognize him as his dad, as a present the emotionally destroyed and home sick Eddie then hijacks a motor boat and heads for the only place he can call home the shut down federal prison on Alcatraz Island. It's there at the "Rock" where he spent the best and happiest years of his life as a inmate doing hard time on the rock pile with his fellow inmates whom, together with the kind and understanding prison guards, he considered as family. It's also there where the two mob hit-men, who iced Beal, tracked the bumbling guy down in order to finish him off that's before he told them where he hid the numbers money.
***SPOILERS*** Eddie really got over the law as well as the mob in not only fooling them in where he hid the stolen money but, it seemed that his heart gave out, not having to face the bar of justice. All that running from the police and the mob took everything, including his life, out of Eddie. But he was still smart enough to hide the stolen money that he made sure that both his wife, who divorced and disowned him, and little Marty, who had no idea that Eddie was his father, will end up getting'; Or at least 10% of it!
Desperetly trying to get back with his seven year old son Marty, Brad Savage, Eddie is shocked to find out that after not seeing her for over five years that Marty's mom Donna now has a new man in her life that makes his attempt to get back with her a dead issue. Buying Marty a giant panda bear and giving the startled boy, who's doesn't recognize him as his dad, as a present the emotionally destroyed and home sick Eddie then hijacks a motor boat and heads for the only place he can call home the shut down federal prison on Alcatraz Island. It's there at the "Rock" where he spent the best and happiest years of his life as a inmate doing hard time on the rock pile with his fellow inmates whom, together with the kind and understanding prison guards, he considered as family. It's also there where the two mob hit-men, who iced Beal, tracked the bumbling guy down in order to finish him off that's before he told them where he hid the numbers money.
***SPOILERS*** Eddie really got over the law as well as the mob in not only fooling them in where he hid the stolen money but, it seemed that his heart gave out, not having to face the bar of justice. All that running from the police and the mob took everything, including his life, out of Eddie. But he was still smart enough to hide the stolen money that he made sure that both his wife, who divorced and disowned him, and little Marty, who had no idea that Eddie was his father, will end up getting'; Or at least 10% of it!
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