• Is it age appropriate?

  About our ratings

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  Not age appropriate for kids under 11, age appropriate for kids over 13; suggested age 14.

• Is it any good?

  4.0

• Common Sense says

  Classic cop series offers look at important time, place.

Why We Rated This for Ages 14 and Up

The good stuff

• Messages:

  Crime never pays (not surprising for a sometimes formulaic cop series). Many episodes touch on the complex, rapidly evolving social mores of the era, including the sexual revolution and the drug culture.
• Role models:

  The series focuses on the warm relationship between a veteran detective and his much younger partner. The older cop is a classic by-the-book gumshoe with instincts honed by years on the job, while the younger one has much less experience but brings a better sense of youth culture, an important skill for a series that took place in the in 1970s when the generation gap was vast.

What to watch out for

• Violence:

  Many episodes feature fistfights, shootouts, and other violent encounters, though the action is rarely explicit.
• Sex:

  No explicit sex or nudity, but a fair amount of implied coupling. The single Inspector Keller is portrayed as something of a ladies’ man, and stories sometimes hinge on romantic entanglements and one-night stands. These plots seem rather tame today but were considered somewhat racy in the early 1970s, painting San Francisco as a city at the forefront of the sexual revolution.
• Language:

  Not an issue.
• Consumerism:

  Not an issue.
• Drinking, drugs, & smoking:

  Many episodes feature scenes at bars and parties where people are drinking. Some characters smoke, which was normal behavior in the early '70s. Given the time period and the San Francisco setting, drugs are pretty much a required element -- expect plenty of references to characters using drugs, including marijuana and heroin, and some scenes where people seem to be on drugs.

What Parents Need to Know

About The Streets of San Francisco

Families Can Talk About