I think the following shot in the 1977-79 opening credits is a still that is zoomed into. Has anyone else noticed it, or am I imagining things?

I've noticed it too, it's definitely a still. I remember reading that they had to pay one of the shops down there to shoot from the roof, but i'm not sure if it's this shot or the one before it of jack on the bike (or maybe both?). I'm thinking maybe they were rushed and didn't get a great shot so they had to zoom into a still rather than use actual video, but that's just a guess.

OK, it's official, then... :)

If it's not a taped still but a photo, they sure did do a good job with matching the colors. Was it taken on the same day they shot the rest of the footage... late one afternoon, just before the premiere? I wonder. Look at the shadows, from the south or south-south-west. February-March, the sun sets almost directly west, so this seems at the latest an early afternoon shot, and yet Mann's book does describe them as being really pressed for time.

Neat, isn't it? The last time Ritter, DeWitt, and Somers could go into the public with a good chance of not being instantly mobbed...

The opening credits for seasons 1 to 3 made santa monica look kind of dull but starting in season 4, that's when santa monica looked a lot more lively when filming the Pier

The opening credits for seasons 1 to 3 made santa monica look kind of dull but starting in season 4, that's when santa monica looked a lot more lively when filming the Pier

I was in LA only once, for about two weeks in the mid-eighties, and I did spend most of my time vegging on the beach -- that same beach -- nothing very "exciting". So I don't really know, but... Isn't it true that Santa Monica was always a mixture of superficial dullness and liveliness taken so far that things become seedy and corrupt? (I'm thinking Farewell My Lovely here) It's probably a bit too much to read into a farce, but you can sort of see the Ropers sighing a bit as things become too lively for them. :)