Starsky & Hutch

[wesbed]

I found this little bio about Paul Michael Glaser (Starsky) at The Internet Movie Database. I never knew.

Wife Elizabeth received HIV-tainted blood in a 1981 transfusion and unwittingly passed it on to their two children. Elizabeth became a fervent AIDS activist and spoke on AIDS at the 1992 Democratic convention. Daughter, Ariel, died at age 7 of AIDS in 1988. Son, Jake, is HIV-positive.

[catesta]

Should you see the movie?

[wesbed]

Your Results:

This movie is funny. Not "The Royal Tennenbaums" kind of funny but not "American Pie" funny either. It falls nicely in between. You'll probably get a kick out of it, but not enough to pay to see it. Wait till it's on HBO and enjoy.

[Jazzmoose]

With apologies to those of you posting here, this thread just proves to me that no matter how shitty a show is, someone will remember it fondly at some point. Jeez, what's next, a "BJ snd the Bear is cool" thread?

[Big Wheel]

Shockingly, the exalted Mr. Cranky only gave it two bombs.

Edited March 6, 2004 by Big Wheel

[ghost of miles]

There isn't a specific link to the page on Jump the Shark about Starsky & Hutch, so I copied the very long entry there directly:

Starsky and Hutch

First Show 1975

Last Show 1979

Genre Drama

Network ABC

Slot Day Wednesday

Slot Time 8 pm

Jumped The Shark when... Votes

Never Jumped 19

"Don't Give Up On Us Baby" 5

Neither Starsky nor Hutch appear in the show 4

Hair Care (Hutch grows a mustache) 4

Death (Red Torino) 4

They changed the opening theme 3

Too much Huggy Bear 2

Playboy Island/Voodoo 1

Talking about fictional characters as if they were real 1

Special Guest Star (Kristy McNichol) 1

Effeminate undercover roles 1

They ripped off Dirty Harry 1

Special Guest Star (Karen Valentine) 1

Clams 1

Hutch doesn't miss a meal 1

Starsky becomes comic relief 1

Not That There's Anything Wrong With That 1

Starsky and Hutch got game 1

Hutch forced to be a heroin addict 1

Other Thoughts:

When Hutch does the thing were he slides across the hood of the '76 Torino, but instead lands in the middle and dents the shit out of it.

When at the begining of one show starsky, Hutch, and the capt. are talking about Harry Callahan, AKA DIRTY HARRY, from San Francisco as if he were a real cop. Bad form, I thought they should've brought Harry on the show to show them how cop work was supposed to be done!!!

Kristy McNichol appeared as the streetwise brat who hid stolen diamonds in the ice tray of her freezer...

This show is still cool! It was the best hardhitting, action packed show of its time. If they could only bring it back. Can you imagine? It is very well known for its violence on tv and was "ahead of its time". So just think what they could do now!!!

Loved the show until the two-part episode where they were 'kicked' off of the force for being on the take, then went undercover. That was bad enough, but then the red Torino was destroyed.  Never really watched it after that.

S&H were never the same after the Torino went "boom" and then they had to fight crime in that piece of crap Hutch drove. And wasn't "Don't Give Up On Us Baby" after the show was gone? If not, that would be my second guess. How can a guy cast as a cop be so ... sappy?

Anyone remember the episode that didn't have EITHER Starsky OR Hutch on it? i believe it focusses on Huggy Bear and some white guy. At one point they were going to visit some old blind black lady (Huggy's momma?) who didn't like honkies so Huggy tries to teach the guy how to talk like he was from the 'hood so she wouldn't catch on. "When's the new shipment of Cadillacs comin' in?" The old lady wasn't fooled and dropped a ladle full of chitlins or collard greens or some sort of "soul food" into the guy's lap.

Three things killed this show:

1)When they had to go undercover as hairdressers. This made me look at them as more than just "partners" and the inuendo increased from this point on.

2)When they went undercover as dance instructors (see reason above)

3)When they changed the theme music and added scenes from the above two episodes in the opening credits. (did we really have to see Starsky dip Hutch week in and week out?)

The first two or three seasons, this show rocked -they were banging chicks, beating up bad guys, banging chicks, getting in car chases, banging chicks - after the third season or so they could have moved the setting to San Francisco.

It jumped after the 1977 season.This is when they changed the theme from Tom Scott's "Gotcha" to some lousy synthesizer tune.They also opened the show with a dune buggy instead of the "Tomato". By 1977-78 they were to soap opera like with multi-part episodes.They did use a different "Gotcha" by the last season. It wasn't as good as the original.Of course, neither was the show.

The show itself didn't really jump, only an actor! The magnificent David Soul, who sang the most sanguine 'o' sanguine, "Don't Give Up On Us Baby". This song was so gay, I remember my 8th grade chorus singing this swinger. Other than that, the show was the ideal cop drama in the seventies. Gran Torinos, bell bottom pants, a guy named Huggy Bear, no wonder that decade was the beginning of the end. WOW.

The posting about neither S or H being on the show was a pilot for a spinoff featuring Huggy Bear, it was a lame show that never made it past that one attempt.

"Starsky and Hutch" without Starsky and Hutch. To the poster who pointed out this episode where the white cop, who is with Huggy Bear, asks the blind black lady, "when do the new cadillacs come in?", I say thank you. For two years I have been trying to convince people at work that this episode actually took place.

The best scene in the entire series was when Hutch had a terrible tooth-ache. He and Starsky start questioning a women suspect while Hutch starts drinking her whiskey to ease the pain. How many cop shows have the stars booze while they interrogate suspects?

Starsky & Hutch was the original "Lethal Weapon" for the first 2 seasons. Like S.W.A.T the show received pressure from the public for being to violent, so in the third season the action was watered down for human relationship stories. The 3rd season was alright but got a little to mushy for my taste. These two "lethal weapons" turned into "lethal crybabies" over night. By the fourth season, you could see both Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul had had enough of the some of the lackluster stories. Also a number good writers and directors (Micheal Mann, George McGowen, Leo Penn) had left the series. This is still one of my all time favorites but the seasons 3&4 could have been better.

I remember a first season episode where a group of self-righteous cops wanted to recruit Starsky. Gee, wasn't that the plot to Eastwood's "Magmum Force?" Oh yeah, and in the cast of that movie was one David Soul as one of the cops! What goes around, comes around.

I'm surprised this hasn't been mentioned, but most likely people stopped watching the show by this point. In the fourth and final season, Hutch looks so different than in the previous years. I know the actor had hurt his back and had surgery, but his change of appearance was so drastic. And they used the closing from a couple of years before when he looked different.

Definitely the episode with only Huggy and that Leroy fellow. It was the most boring thing I've ever watched. And that old lady dumping steaming food into the lap of a guest in her home. Oh, that's very hospitable. Overall, though, the series rocked. Starsky and Hutch were the coolest guys in town, roaring through the streets in the Tomato, manhandling the perps. "The Fix" burns eternal. Remember the dying Starsky telling Hutch that if they were in a western, he'd give him his boots? Sigh. That line says it all. What an extraordinary friendship. Never pick on a man's partner. I love it!

when david soul cut his album...

I loved Starsky & Hutch and still do, but I don't remember a lot of the shows where Hutch has a mustache and I have to say that's when it jumped. A lot of people seem to think just because two men care about what happens to each other that there has to be some gay overtones. Well to hell with them. Starsky and Hutch were as manly as they could be even more so because they cared, I can't tell you how much they made my tv days when I was a teen. Who cares if they went undercover as hairdressers or a dance instructor? Blame the cottonpickin writers!!!!

The first season there was a non-descript theme. Then the quintessential Tom Scott theme which was an improvement. THEN the lousy synth thing that was just awful.

Never Jumped. Even though I didn't see my first episode until I was 16, it made me realize why TV used to be so much cooler than today. In response to the one of the above comments, I do remember the episode in which Starsky nor Hutch were in most of show. They were in the very beginning and the very end, and the episode has to do with Huggy Bear and a redneck-esque token white guy named Turk Turkenson. I don't think the woman was Huggy's momma though. I think that she had some kind of information, and she was blind and hated honkies and that's why Huggy was trying to get him to use lines like "When do the new Cadillacs come in?". I remember this episode vividly since it was actually the first one i ever saw. But the show is still cool to me, even though I missed the original airing by a few years. Does anyone else remember the episode where some girl had a fatal attraction type thing going for Hutch? That was probably a good ten years before Glenn Close got to it. Long live Starsky and Hutch!

Karen Valentine guest stars as a psycho nurse who stalks Hutch and wants him for her own. I can see they were trying to reduce here "goody two shoes, Room 222" image with this one. The script was just dreadful. The other Shark moment is the episode where Starsky and Hutch go undercover at Playboy Island to find out about a reclusive millionaire publisher, only to find he's under the clutches of a voodoo spell and they themselves are being stalked by the black magic. PUH-LEEZE!!!!

Never did! Great characters (and what's wrong with being gay?), good-looking actors... neat dialogue. As for the poster who talked about Hutch's toothache (the episode was "Losing Streak" - actually, that was Starsky! Gee, if you can't even get your characters straight... ;-) And there's nothing wrong with David Soul's singing, either.

Starsky and Hutch never jumped the shark! Of course, some episodes were better than others, but I feel that the integrity of Paul Michael Glaser's and David Soul's acting always shows through, as does their special chemistry. As for others' speculation that some episodes implied a gay relationship between them, c'mon-it's sad to think that two guys can't care for each other without being thought of that way. I will confess that those guys were role models for me in my teen years, and good ones, I believe, looking back now. They demonstrated that men could be tough, but also have compassion for each other and the victims of crime. I value this show. highly.

This show JTS at the end, when Starsky and Hutch went from being 2 really cool detectives to being 2 old, fat, out of shape, lazy, men who looked liked all they wanted to do was plop in front of the TV with a dozen beers each.

The Clam Episode: Starsky (or Hutch? Whatever, it's pointless) eats some bad canned Clam Chowder. Hutch (or Starsky? Anyway, it's still pointless) has so many hours to find him (he's lost in the city someplace in a botulism-induced delirium) before he dies. What's up with that? If you eat some bad food & start getting sick, get your ass to a hospital! Sheesh!

This was the best show when it was on in the seventies and it still has a lot of fans -- new ones and old ones. It's a show about a great friendship, plus it has cool cars, great action, pretty girls, and of course, two handsome guys!

When Hutch grows a moustache. The end.

I watched this show when I was Young (I dug that killer Torino!), but I never could stand Huggy Bear! Jeez, what a lame-o character! My friends and I always felt that Rooster from Baretta was a hundred times cooler and should have been on S+H instead! Also, I completely agree with the previous posters about the song "Don't Give Up on Us". Any one listening to this for about 30 seconds would know that David Soul was the most misnamed person on the planet!

I'm 30, so I can't remember all the episodes, but I remember S&H being my favorite show. Imagine my surprise when a local station (ch. 33 in Dallas-Ft. Worth) shows the hairdresser episode at 4 a.m. last night. For twenty minutes, I couldn't figure out if this was S&H or a spinoff for Huggy! But when the "Cadillac" scene played out, I knew what was up. This is probably the worst episode they ever made, but I was laughing so hard that all was forgiven at the end. How about those apple shades Hutch was wearing? They even had stems on the top of the lenses!

This show jumped the shark when Hutch porked up! The man went from hot to "try mixing in a salad once in a while, chubbs" during the third season hiatus.

as to the guy who said david soul was the most misnamed guy on the planet.pure genius.this clown made robert goulet look like iggy pop

Now dont get me wrong, i'm a huge fan of the show, toughest cop series ever! But one undertone I had a problem with was during the first few episodes of the first season, Starsky was the "street wise" tough guy of the Duo and Hutch was the "voice of reason, brain" But when Hutch all of the sudden became the "TOUGHER GUY" with both the brains and the braun and Starsky was made into a clown was my "jumping the shark" moment. Key references to back up my claim, Hutch shows Starsky his collegic wrestle moves in a empty arena, Hutch nabbs a strong russian dancer and arm wrestles her and wins, while Starsky loses miserably, Hutch always took on two guys in a fight while Starsky always handled one, and as for "comic relief" Starsky, he was stung by a bee, had food thrown on him constantly, as well as drinks, dressing as "the Golden Angel" in one episode where he runs from a bigger wrestler, and the ever degraiting scream of "HHUTCHHH!!!!!" as he is countlessly swung around off of numerous backs he jumped on. Now again, don't get me wrong, Starsky had his hard edge moments, and some times was the savior of the duo by being the hard nose, as a matter of fact he did get the upper hand in the fight in the "Starsky vs Hutch" episode, But if you read any bio of the show they are described as "Starsky the streetwise tough guy and Hutch the soft spoken lady's man" Not "King Hutch and his Court Jester Starsky" If you dig all this up, man" Not "King Hutch and his Court Jester Starsky" If you dig all this up, you"ll see I'm correct in my findings. Thank you!

Starsky and Hutch was possibly the first show with homosexual overtones. Sure they both had girlfriends, but those same girlfriends usually didn't survive to see another episode. The unique think about Starsky and Hutch was that they were extremely masculine and young unlike Paul Lynde or Jonathan Harris. Nobody would ever guess how these males might have bonded. Aaron Spelling, who gave the world Steven Carrington of Dynasty, was the show's producer so there's another question mark. Honestly it didn't matter what their sexuality was. This was the first show I ever saw where two men, who weren't father and son or brothers, hugged each other for support. It hasn't happened on many other shows since. This is a shame I think because it's kind of nice, once in while, to see something besides competition going on between two men. Of course competition is good too. But that's about all people ever see.

It wasn't a human character. I found it amazing how a '63 Chevy could become a '64 Chevy from a simple paint job. Or how they blew up a "Mercedes Benz" which was an old Mustang with Mercedes bumpers attached. I guess blowing up the Benz would have been a budget buster!

Actually, about the third or fourth season, you could tell the writers were running out of steam. It is hard sometimes to maintain momentum in the face of a fickle public (i.e. hot today, gone tomorrow). Still, probably my favorite episode is "Vampire," guest starring John Saxon. Watching S&H deal with something that's (apparently) completely beyond them is hysterical. Starsky's all getting garlic for his and Hutch, Huggy Bear's peddling anti-vampire kits, crazies like "Super-Gnat" are turning themselves into the cops. Then Hutch sees the guy jump from rooftop to rooftop ("He FLEW!"). This is a classic, and a hoot.

Not that it was too good to begin with, but around the third season. I'm sorry, but there were way too many gay references on that show! My friend and I observed this on a "Starsky And Hutch" weekend this past week, and we made a very fun game of finding all the homosexual references, none of which have to do with their friendship. My friend and I wondered at one point if the main writers were homosexual. Here's some of our observations: 1) Starsky and Hutch were almost ALWAYS standing within kissing-distance of one another 2) They never seemed to have steady girlfriends, and when they did, they didn't seem at all comfortable with them (i.e. no chemistry) 3) On more than one occasion they went undercover as hairdressers, a profession littered with gay men 4) Starsky dipping Hutch. What self-respecting hetereosexual male would do that to a male friend of his? 5) S & H came across a laundry mat being held up in progress. They formulated a plan to foil the robbers, which included Starsky taking off his CLOTHES and wrapping a towel around his bottom, while Hutch took his clothes in the laundry to "wash" them. If this wasn't some excuse for the writers to get the actor to show some skin, I don't know what is! I could go on and on. Now for the plots. One of the stupidest plots that stands out in my mind is when S & H go undercover at a disco to catch a serial killer. The kicker is that the killer would drug the victim's drinks, take them to his place, make them dance with them at his makeshift DISCO (complete with glittering ball and all) and make them dance with him before he offed them. What on earth were the writers thinking of???? I also agree with the Huggy Bear episode, I figured it was for a spin-off for Anotnio Fargas, but that pilot was HORRIBLE! And full of racial stereotypes at that. One more comment: why were all the black women who appeared on that show Pam Grier look-alikes?

How 'bout the episode where they went undercover to "Playboy Island" to rescue the billionaire from the voodoo curse? Of course, I'm a bit fuzzy on my S&H timeline, so it may have already jumped the shark beforehand...

When the producers decided to change the openin theme (I mean the lalo schifrin theme, from the pilot and the first season)!!! It was the only real good music for Starsky & Hutch!!! It's funny to see that with the loss of this gritty and dark theme, the show began the loosy stories (undercover on a love boat alike paquebot!!!!)and the rest... Sorry, for me S&H and lalo schifrin should have stayed together... You can't write silly stories with a theme like that!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was in London a few years back shopping in a used record store (coincidentally the one pictured on the Oasis album cover for WTSMG?). I came across a copy of David Soul's album, which is titled, "Playing for an Audience of One." Shortly after this crap was released, the tv show had as many viewers as well.

I have such great memories of this show.  My sister I just thought this show ruled when we were growing up.  Great chemistry between Starsky and Hutch. Two cute guys who drove cool cars (well, I guess this should really be car in the singular, since Hutch's car was a piece of crap), beat up the bad guys, and were great buddies.  A pre-teen girl's dream show.  What was cool was that guys liked the show too. What's with all the "homosexual overtones" postings?  Are you folks high?  Just because they had a show where they went undercover as hair dressers does not mean that the detectives were gay (not that there's anything wrong with that).  Next you folks will be telling me that Felix and Oscar were gay, and Sam and Coach (or Woody for that matter) were gay, etc.  Why can't a show have guys be pals without implying that they're gay?  I think that if you are so obsessed with uncovering "gay references" you probably have some unresolved issues yourself!  Last thing, the whole panning of David Soul's song, like it or not, it was pretty typical of the whole "mellow 70's love songs" thing that was going on around the same time as disco.  Pretty schmaltzy by today's standards, but hardly the worst offender in that ilk.  I can think of much worse (I just called to say I love you, for example, came later, but was much lamer). 

Someone up above mentioned the two-part episode where Starsky and Hutch lost their jobs and went undercover. Actually, they devoted four hours to it: a regular Tuesday show, a Sunday night movie five days later, and the series finale two months later. William Prince? He was the villain in that show, who eventually put out a contract on Starsky and (apparently for the heck of it) at show's end props up his own dead henchman in an easy chair. Why would he be the Shark Jumper? Because he played an identical role on Search for Tomorrow in 1986 and I knew the show was gone (one of my friends was a regular whom his character had killed off). Then he did it AGAIN on Walker, Texas Ranger in 1994! I know, that show wasn't cancelled but it might as well have been. FWIW, any series which goes through four theme songs in four seasons has some MAJOR problems as is -- the Tom Scott theme (second season and, reorchestrated, fourth) is by far my least favorite because it sounds like a duck!

The first two seasons were great--they were hard-hitting cops. BUT...some whine-babies complained that S&H were "too violent", so they decided to tone down the "violence" and do more "socially relevant" themes. In the process they were turned into social workers with guns & we were "treated" to some horrible episodes. "Huggy Bear And The Turkey", "Murder On Playboy/Voodoo Island"...what absolute bullcrap! Plus they made S&H *way* too emotional. With all that, the ratings went into the toilet & the show never recovered.

I have to agree that the Playboy Island/Voodoo episode was one of the signs of the apocalypse in the Starsky and Hutch universe.  Consideration should also be given to the episode where guest star Lauren Tewes (pre-Love Boat) plays a lawyer friend of our favourite scruffy street-wise detectives who is secretly trying to discredit them by hiring two look-a-likes to dress like them, drive the same Torino and generally act very un-cop-like. Must have been the car that had everybody fooled because I never thought those two guys looked anything like S&H. Or maybe the writers figured that S&H (and the Torino) got caught in the same malfunctioning transporter as Kirk and it was their evil twins wreaking all the havoc.

During my Freshman year in high school everybody thought this show was cool, including me. In hindsight and in rerun this show was just a typical pre-"Hill Street Blues" cop show. It was awful. It also had homoerotic undertones. But even during its original run, remember I was a teen with very unsophisticated taste, I felt the show jumped during the John Saxon as a vampire episode. Anybody else remember Mr. Saxon jumping from one rooftop to another one that was more than 30 feet away? That was the first time I personally experienced a TV show Jumped The Shark although I didn't know what to call it at the time. I didn't have as much regard for the show thereafter.

This says it all - The end of the second season: A COFFIN FOR STARSKY. A great, definitive episode. Gritty and violent. The start of the trird season - STARSKY AND HUTCH ON VOODOO ISLAND. Are you kidding me? Major jumpage. ABC caved in and let the show become watered down after season two. S&H stopped plugging perps, and the grim and grit vanished. Anybody remember THE PSYCHIC?..when Starsky blows up a dude on a motorcycle after an attempt on Hutch's life. Ballsy episode! How come no one talks about the great Lalo Schifrin theme from season one? I think it was a little too dark and moody for the tone of the show but, regardless, it is another great slice of TV music from a master. It's too bad the show was so formulaic the majority of the time. There were lots of great cameos in the series from many pop culture icons like Carl Weathers, John Ritter, Suzanne Somers etc. Despite the flaws, S&H is still a classic show.

"Starsky and Hutch" made a drastic turn for the worse after the end of the 2nd season. I don't understand what the writers had intended. Here were two inter-urban street wise tough & resourceful detectives that worked a neighborhood & delved their way through inner-city crime in an unrelentless effort to clean up that L.A. neighborhood of organized & syndicated crime sprees. All of the sudden beginning in the 3rd season, this show is transformed into a masquerade with Glaser & Soul charading as worldly charlatans anywhere but in their neighborhood. Why the change? It was ridiculous to say the least & the reason for "Starsky & Hutch" jumping the shark. The show was the greatest & had meaning & substance until the change occurred. The opening theme from the 1st season is my absolute favorite theme, both audibly & visually. Great music by Lalo Schifrin (who also composed the opening theme for "Medical Center") along with action. It makes out for a great 1975 music video. Just watch the opening theme from the 1st season & compare it to the opening theme from the 3rd & 4th seasons & one can vividly see where this show went awry & far amiss!

They never jumped...the Eighty's just weren't ready for Starsky and Hutch. One thing for certain, though; had they been driving an LTD II instead of that pitiful Torino they'd still be on the air today.

When this show started, it was a kick-ass, action-packed edgy DRAMA! Of course, it had some lighter 'comedy' moments, but is was still a DRAMA. Funny thing,it was a huge, instant and demographically perfect hit immediately! almost a perfect show right from the start! Let's see what it had going for it: 1.)Good-looking very masculine, yet sensitive characters that obviously would die for each other if needed. 2.)Somewhat topical subject matter, for the day. 3.)A cool car, with some cool car action! 4.)Considering the grind of a weekly TV show, it had some pretty interesting plot gimmicks. 5.)This should have been first! The awesome music by Lalo Schifrin! For some reason, the producers decided to 'improve' the show for the second season, even though it was pretty good already.Remember, it was already a big hit. Let's see...are these improvements? 1.)New theme music( 'Gotcha!' by Tom Scott) Pretty good, but not as good as the original. 2.)Less action, more dialouge(boring) 3.)Less car action(can't figure that out) 4.)More comedy I think these were put in place to 'broaden' the shows appeal, but it began the slow alienation of the original fans. Still and all, I don't think it jumped the shark at this time, even though it was heading straight for the shark-pool. The beginning of the third season brought us a new Disco-inspired theme song( by Marc Snow of X-Files fame), and some really lame-o plot twists. A behind the scenes problem resulted in a bizzare couple of episodes. Paul Glaser was supposedly not returning for the new season, so his scenes were rewritten for Roz Kelly(!) of Happy Days fame(Pinky Tuscadero) When Glaser did return, there were too many characters, and not enough story! The producers decided to rip-off some classic movie-plots,thinking no-one would notice. However, these movies are exactly the kinds of movies that fans of S&H would probably have seen! 1.)Dirty Harry:Hutch running from pay-phone to pay-phone with kidnapping ransom. 2.)Magnum Force: Vigilante cops try to recruit Starsky 3.)Play Misty for me:Hutch's new way-obsessed girlfriend ( Clint Eastwood must feel so violated!) 4.)French Connection:Hutch hooked on drugs by bad-guys. 5.)Manchurian Candidate:Average citizen brainwashed to kill controversial public figure. 6.)Bullitt:S&H sent to protect criminal/witness while police 'insiders' and bad guys are trying to kill him. And there were lots of other script rip-offs too, but I can't remember them all right now. Also in the third season, S&H started getting kinda-'gay', what with all those undercover assingments as hair dressers,street mimes, Laurel & Hardy, 'Ramone' the dance instructor, Hutch the cowboy,dressing up as an old lady and old man, and many more silly set-ups. I know this gave the actors a chance to do something different, but it violated the characters personalities. So I say it jumped the shark at the beginning of the third season, even though a few decent episodes seemed to sneak in there somehow from seasons three and four. Don't get me wrong! It's still my all-time favorite show!

Although the the show never really jumped, the theme music changed somewhere during the second season from that written by the late great Lalo Schifrin (sp?) to that written my Tom Scott. Same thing with Magnum, from somebody Named Ian Freebairn-Smith to the Tom Post formulaic swill. >From great stuff to putrid scum.

The episode where Starsky and Hutch are trying to gather information about the villains that central casting foisted upon them for that particular week, and they question two black teenagers who are playing basketball and wearing some shorts that would've made Daisy Duke blush. Naturally the interrogation gets them nowhere fast, so Hutch challenges the kids to a game of 2 on 2, the stakes being if S&H win the kids have to talk, and if they lose, the two detectives will hand over some cash, or something like that. So the black dudes quickly accept with the idea of making some fast dough. So the game begins and all of a sudden some crappy Harlem Globetrotters-type music starts to play and Starsky and Hutch put on a roundball clinic of awkward jump shots and clumsy lay-ups, as the two black guys suddenly acquire all the athletic skills of a pair of fence posts. After the score gets to be about 5-0 the kids give up, one of them exclaiming, "Man I think we bin' hustled!" It was just so brutally unrealistic, it was like watching TJ Hooker beat Carl Lewis in a footrace.

What's with all the gay crap??? Jeez! And am I the only viewer who remembers that they actually DID an episode about homosexuality? It involved the murder of some guy who had a one night stand with a older male cop. S&H end the show with some statistics that supposedly point to the two of them being gay and Hutch says "...and you're not even a good kisser," which is when Starsky says "How do YOU know??" So enough already! They knew how gay they looked, they addressed it, they were clearly NOT gay.

Two crooks pretend to be S&H and cause our duo to be blamed. They even have Starsky's car. Would that really happen in real life? Every show in the 70's eventually had a "mistaken identity" plot.

This show was about two cops busting thugs in the first couple years, and then seemed to focus more on the personal problems that Starsky & Hutch encountered after that. One episode in particular that seems to provide a shark jumping moment was the one when Starsky discovers that his little brother is dealing cocaine for the local druglord. This script was soooooo sappy! I had to check the channel and make sure I wasn't watching General Hospital or Days of Our Lives.

From the minute Starsky first fishtails his suped up red devil down the main drag with the the magnetic police light stuck somewhere on the front wind screen, tires steaming - you just new there was a new comedy on television. How many times did S & H pump their handguns into the direction of the bad guys car as it screamed off out of range? Did anybody get a count of the unlucky pedestrians who didn't get out of the way. And how undercover is three guys standing on the sidewalk of downtown LA? One with a glass eye and a cardigan that took the wool of 2 large merino sheep. The second guy with thinning blond hair, a body shirt, a bad mustache. And the third - the surreptitious informant - a black guy with an umbrella for a hat, tossing an endless supply of popcorn into his mouth from arms length, all the while fidgeting like he needs to go -fidgeting, fidgeting. Man I loved this show. We had the episode where they were hostages and Starsky was critically injured - Hutch negotiated from within and saved the day. Later on it was Hutch's turn to 'buy' one only for Starsky to get them over the line. They even had the cheek to criticise other shows. In one episode Hutch says "Don't you watch Police Story? Don't you know there is no such thing as a happily married cop?" This from the show that actually tried to portray David Soul as the sexy one. And from memory David Soul had a second musical 'hit' with "This time I'm going in with my eyes open" correct if I'm wrong.

5 more things that S & H taught us. 1) the correct way to get into a car is to run across the hood first. 2) The bad guys won't hear you sneaking around if you raise your gun slowly over your head, with extended pinkies. 3) a cardigan goes with a check flannel shirt. 4) If you call out suddenly to a guy on an LA street, there is a fair chance he'll hare off at a hundred miles an hour, knocking over big boxes down the nearest alley way. 5) if you are a police informant, nobody cares if you are also a pimp.

C'mon. By definition it never jumped because S&H was one long continuous Shark Jump extraordinaire. In no particular order (because I don't really remember the order) They were gay hairdressers, the Torino got smashed up several times and even stripped down but came back, also during every chase scene with the Torino we here it constantly shifting gears even though it had an automatic transmission. How about stopping the purse snatching motorcyclist by making him crash into the open door of some poor sap Joe Citizens car tearing the door off in the process. Who pays for that? One episode (I think it was on a cruise ship) Starsky is weaponless (how many times did that happen?) and is hiding behind the slightly above ground pool and is goading the bad guy into shooting at him by popping up and holding his hands to his ears and tongue out. If he was trying to get the guy to run out of ammo, sorry, he had a magic Hollywood gun. A 5 or 6 shot snub .38 but he keeps blasting away at least 10-15 times. Does anyone remember the RumRunner episode? The boys are trying to infiltrate the operation by selling several hundred pounds of sugar that they have in a pickup. The pick up has a toggle on the radio which switches it from FM to the police band. Naturally the rum runners decide to steal the sugar and the truck with it and start fiddling with the radio and suddenly..."Zebra 3, Zebra 3...". The criminals realize that they have been had. Looking out the back window they see the top of Starskys curly mop who tried to hide in the back. And of course the piece de resistance is the 3part episode where Starsky is reunited with a childhood neighbor girl who is now in the Witness Protections Program which somehow gets caught up in some sort of mob problem. S&H are assigned 24hr continuous protection of a witness and are holed up in some flea bag hotel. The mob finds out where this is of course and S&H fall for the biggest trick in the book. A hit and run is staged and of course the immediately head out the door to help and 3seconds later the mob hit man caps the poor slob the Green Stamps are supposed to protect. And that ladies and gents is why I faithfully watched Starsky and Hutch why it didn't jump.

I personally don't think Starsky and Hutch ever jumped the shark!! Although the later seasons admittedly weren't as gritty or as exciting as the first two, it would be too much to say it 'jumped the shark' - sure, there were a few crappy episodes in seasons 3 and 4 (such as the one with the disco-dancing serial killer!!), but in my opinion the bad episodes were pretty few and far between. The show was always very watchable, with great characters, a classic theme tune, and surely the coolest car in television history! David Soul, Paul Michael Glaser, Antonio Fargas and Bernie Hamilton were all fantastic, and at the end of the day the show was never less than entertaining - and you really can't ask for any more than that.

Well, though I agree that the Voodoo episode was lame, I don't think S&H Jumped the Shark then (although you could see the shark swimming from there!) Naw, it jumped when it just had to go for that fourth, final season. Everyone just looked so tired... But other than that it was a fun kick-ass show. Did it have homoerotic overtones? Maybe, but far less than you'd think, because remember you're looking at it through 2003 eyes. And I think coming up with things like "standing within kissing-distance of one another" to prove how "gay" a show is says more about the viewer than it does about the show.

I can't believe no one has hit on this particular episode. It was really horrible, so much so that I think it deserves special recognition for being that worst case of JTS in the 76-Year history of television. Does anyone remember the show where these drug dealers kidnap Hutch and them force heroin into his veins? God, it was really scary...especially for an impressionable young lad with an over-active imagination such as myself. It was simply grotesque! They scared/grossed us young kids (who made up the core of this cheesy-ass show's audience) for the sake of ratings. Thing is, when I watch it now....it has an adverse effect. Gaining a little more knowledge and wisdom puts one in a position where the whole show just melts away like Nacho Cheese. A) Why are you gonna blow all that heroin on a cop when you can just kill the guy? B) How was Hutch able to miraculously recover from something as serious as a heroin addiction in the course of the remainder of the show? He didn't even have to go through the excruciating process of weening off heroin at the methadone clinic. C) Where people that dumb back in the 1970's to buy all this crap? D) Has the scriptwriter who conceived of this notion been dealt with accordingly (drawn and quartered)?

The first comment listed was regarding Hutch sliding across the car hood as when they jumped the shark. This person is obviously not a fan of the show nor very knowledgeable about it. A)Hutch never did that...in the opening credits of the show (lifted from the pilot) Starsky does it. B) He didn't slide across the hood, he sorta ran across it and yes it did dent the car. C)That particular car in that scene is NOT a 76 Torino, as this was released in 1975. The show never jumped the shark.

I agree with the prior poster, the show never jumped. I also agree that the Torino was a '75, not a '76. Given the strict emissions standards of the era and the use of the catalytic converter, most mid size cars of the mid 1970's had awful performance. That Torino must have been heavily worked on to get that performance out of it.

Well, none of us tuned-in to "Starsky & Hutch" looking for super-realism, I understand that. But the first two seasons of the show were watchable enough... The first year was the most rough-and-tumble, the most action-packed, and the show made its far-fetched shoot-em-up cartoonery work as well as such things can for the small screen. In season 2, they changed theme songs from Lalo Schifrin's foreboding tune to Tom Scott's jazzy one, which was a bit of a shock, but once you adjusted, it was just as effective if less ominous. So was the show. The violence was down a notch in season 2, but there was still a fun energetic bounce to the thing--- although, as season 2 wore on, one began to get the feeling that this was becoming less of a cop show and more of a clown show as the humorous elements, which had always been there, began to show signs of taking over. The beginning of season 3 is when "S&H" jumped for real: a third theme song [a dreadful tune by Mark Snow] and a re-vamped theme design that had few shots of the boys running-out, jumping and shooting as cops, but LOTS of shots of them goofing and clowning--- in the THEME DESIGN??? Oh, dear, that wasn't a good sign... Furthermore, Glaser and Soul were seeming increasingly bored to be there {Glaser had just failed to get out of his contract} and new, severe violence restrictions implemented in 1977 as a result of teachers/parents organization lobbying were causing the show's standard shootouts and fist-fights to be replaced by cars bumping gently into crates in an alley. It was mostly downhill from there. And any sense of "friendship" one had ever felt between the two fellas was long-gone; they were cold and posturing by now. (Maybe the sex was dead). There was always a schizoid feel about "S&H" anyway, as their episodes fell into 4 very different categories: cartoon shoot-em-ups, overt schlock-comedy, serious police drama, artsy "psych" drama... Who knew what you were watching at any given week?

When I was a wee lass and didn't know any better, this was one of my favorite shows. I still want that Torino! As for homoerotic undertones, when I was a kid I got a kick out of the dip in the opening credits, and I never got the impression, even when watching this as an adult, that it was so gay, and if it was, that's awesome! I mean, really, that would be different, now wouldn't it? I wanted to say that this show never jumped the shark, but it did, and I realized it when I saw the change in tone of the show. It got all socially relevant and it was no longer the bash em up, crash em up show that I remembered loving as a kid. I don't think that the botulism episode was bad, and it stands out in my memory most vividly. It was Hutch that was sick from the chowder, by the way. Huggy Bear is a classic. I even had a dog named Huggy Bear! Classic show ruined by overly sensitive whiners.

[jazzbo]

Okay, I've never watched more than three minutes of that show, and then in the original airing, and I thought it was very square. (Though I was so much hipper then, I'm squarer than that now).

So I went to see the movie and I liked it. I'd say that as quoted above is accurate, not Royal Tannenbaum funny, but not American Pie either. In between somewhere. The tone was just about right if you ask me. Some great moments.

Hey, I'm becoming an Owen Wilson fan. I actually liked "The Big Bounce," even though I might have been one of the 174 people who saw it nationally. . . .

[Soulstation1]

all the true playzas whata know

how was the snoop d o double g?

supporting role for next year's oscar?

ss1

sippin' on gin n juice

Edited March 7, 2004 by Soulstation1

[jazzbo]

He did fine. He was sooooooooo laaaaaaaid back. You know you don't get Oscars unless you throw temper tantrums!

[Soulstation1]

saw the movie yesterday and fell asleep, for a minute or two, during the movie.

the ending of the movie was whack.....

i still don't like stiller or wilson.

ss1

[Joe Christmas]

How does it compare to "Old School"?

[Soulstation1]

if you are asking me, i've never seen old school.

ss1

[jazzbo]

Me neither. I haven't been motivated to see Ferrell films.

[Joe Christmas]

Me neither. I haven't been motivated to see Ferrell films.

You saw Starsky & Hutch!

[jazzbo]

He was in it. I didn't go to see HIM. I can take him or leave him.

[tonym]

Looks like we may see the odd one on UK roads soon. Wonder how much they are going for?

Contact Starsky's Torino UK.