"Sure, I'm still seeing whatshername. Took her to the whatchamacallit. Gave her my thingamajig." - David Soul as Ken "Hutch" Hutchinson
Starsky & Hutch: The Complete First Season DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
From the 1970s through the 1990s, television producer Aaron Spelling had the Midas touch, first churning out hit action shows (Charlie's Angels, S.W.A.T., The Rookies) and then primetime soaps (Dynasty, Beverly Hills 90210). His series may not have been masterpieces, but they nevertheless burned their way into the public consciousness, practically forcing audiences to hold fond memories of the shows long after they left the air. Some, like Charlie's Angels and S.W.A.T., continue to hold enough allure that over twenty years after the shows premiered, they were transformed into big screen films. ABC's 1975 top twenty hit Starsky & Hutch is the latest to be added to that list.
The show, which originated as a successful TV movie before premiering as a series on September 3, 1975, follows the exploits of two plainclothes cops in an unspecified (though distinctly Los Angeles-like) California city. Ken "Hutch" Hutchinson (David Soul) is the calm, cool intellectual yin to his partner Dave Starsky's (Paul Michael Glaser) goofy, wiry loudmouth yang. Together they race around the trash-strewn streets of their city in Starsky's jacked up red and white Gran Torino. While Starsky loves the car, the more practical-minded Hutch refers to it as a "striped tomato." Neither of them seems to focus on the fact that this "undercover" car could not be more conspicuous with a bull's eye painted on it. They are aided in their investigations by Huggy Bear (Antonio Fargas), a jive-talking hustler who owns a self-named restaurant/bar. Looking out for Starsky and Hutch on the force is Captain Dobey (Bernie Hamilton), their gruff but caring boss.
Starsky & Hutch is one of the least campy shows in the Spelling stable. Of all the reasons to watch Charlie's Angels, for example, coherent plots and believable cases would definitely be at the bottom of the list. Starsky & Hutch, on the other hand, manages to strike a good balance between hard (the incessant action) and light (equally incessant comic banter between the two leads). Almost every scene contains a car chase, a shootout, or a fistfight, but fans of gentler forms of entertainment have plenty to keep them occupied with the interplay between Starsky and Hutch.
This duality carries over into the relationship between Starsky and Hutch. The characters are undeniably heterosexual. Although both are bachelors, they often talk about and are seen with women. Sometimes Starsky even flips through girlie mags while waiting in the Torino. While these surface facts will satisfy many segments of the audience, others will read into the series' gay overtones. The partners bicker like an old married couple, and while the guys talk about girls, it is obvious that they love each other more than they love any one of their female conquests. They constantly touch one another. In "The Fix," for example, Starsky holds and caresses his drug-addled partner with tender care. In another episode, Hutch adds candles to the table before they begin eating dinner for two at his waterside home. They also get naked around each other an awful lot - Hutch doffs his clothes three times in the pilot alone. (We can even put a modern spin on this unintentionally revealing exchange: When an informant tells the partners "You two really are straight!" after they fulfill the promises they made to her, Starsky replies "Well, in a kinky kind of way.")
Adding to the fun is the androgynous Huggy Bear. Fargas plays the role with a flamboyant joie de vivre that makes him fun to watch even when he is given little to do. Huggy Bear, too, likes to talk about women, but it is awfully suspicious that he is often dressed more extravagantly than his female friends. Inexplicably, in episode sixteen it is abruptly revealed that Huggy sold his restaurant (off screen). For the remainder of the season he becomes an itinerant street vendor, selling stuff like wind-up dogs and cats.
Still, the series is greatly successful as a straight (no pun intended) crime drama. The shows are suspenseful and well-written (including several by Michael Mann, who went on to be a thriving TV series creator and feature film director in his own right). Even though no one ever seems to die during the show's many point-blank shootouts and the Torino practically screams "Hey look! Cops!," the show maintains a high level of believability. This is because even with all of the humorous byplay between the main characters, the show actually takes itself seriously. The series is thus able to transcend mere camp while maintaining a sense of campy fun.
Familiar faces who show up in season one include Three's Company's Suzanne Somers, John Ritter, and Norman Fell, Robert Loggia, Geoffrey Lewis, Russ Meyer-film hunk (and voice of The Critic's Duke Phillips) Charles Napier, veteran character actor Elisha Cook, Jr., The Jeffersons' Ned Wertimer (Ralph the Doorman), WKRP in Cincinnati's Gordon Jump and Jan Smithers, The Donna Reed Show's Carl Betz, Singin' in the Rain's Jean Hagen (Lina Lamont), Kristy McNichol, Dallas' Steve Kanaly (Ray Krebbs), James Bond villain Richard Kiel, and Hill Street Blues' Barbara Babcock and Michael Conrad. Eagle-eyed viewers can also look for a cameo by Baretta's Prince Edward Hotel.
Just a few short years ago, TV fans would often bemoan the fact that old favorites were being remade as new series or feature films. With the dawn of the TV on DVD revolution, however, even mediocre remakes are welcome as long as they ensure the release of tie-in DVD sets. Even if the Starsky & Hutch film turns out to be as terrible as its trailers seems to suggest, at least its mere existence has allowed fans the opportunity to own a piece of the original on DVD. Now if only Police Woman could make its way to the big screen so that we can be treated of a full season set of that Angie Dickinson classic.
The twenty-two episodes that make up the first season (plus the pilot film) are divided onto five discs. The discs are housed in a well-designed digipak featuring close-up details of the Gran Torino on each panel. An episode guide housed in a folder panel contains episode numbers, titles, and brief episode synopses. The discs themselves are designed to look like wheels from the Gran Torino. The digipak slides into a cardboard sleeve. Overall, the design of the set is simple yet viscerally effective.
This design sensibility carries over to the DVD menus. When the DVD loads, a computer animated Gran Torino white stripe snakes down the red screen to sounds from the series. As the stripe rolls across the bottom of the screen, it morphs into actual live action footage of the Torino, accompanied by a muscular version of the theme song. The actual menus then appear, featuring static images of the cast. Viewers can choose to play all episodes or view individual episodes. The episodes are divided into six chapters.
