"Man, there ain't enough ketchup in the world for that...that's hospital food." - Roz Kelley as undercover cop Linda Baylor in "Fatal Charm"
Starsky & Hutch: The Complete Third Season DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
Ask any diehard Starsky & Hutch fan and they'll tell you that its third season marked a slight change of pace for the series. Cultural critics complained about the violence and hard-edged action in seasons one and two, and the show's creative team responded by emphasizing socially relevant themes. This, in turn, led to fan complaints that the groovy buddy cop show had gone too soft. So, how does season three stack up? Pretty darned good, although this may have something to do with the fact that I'm indefinitely stuck in a NYC hospital with only seven cable channels to watch (including, perversely, Fit TV, allowing us bedridden invalids to be taunted by impossibly fit people performing smooth exercise routines).
The season starts off with the two part "Murder on Voodoo Island," an incredibly weird concoction about black magic, voodoo rituals, and (barely) walking zombies. The episode is hypnotically surreal and stupidly senseless. Either that or my meds are much stronger than I first assumed. Special guests include Joan Collins (Dynasty), Samantha Eggar, Roscoe Lee Browne, comedian Louie Nye, and Dave Madden (The Partridge Family). Fans of the show's homoerotic undertones will delight at a black magic-influenced Starsky (Paul Michael Glaser) and Hutch (David Soul) grappling each other in a beach-front brawl while wearing short-shorts so tiny that their voodoo charms threaten to pop out at any moment.
Appropriately enough for a convalescent person like me, a number of season three's episodes deal with hospital and health issues. In "Fatal Charm," a minor hand injury finds Hutch in the emergency room where he's treated by a friendly nurse played by Karen Valentine (Room 222). Perhaps too friendly - after watching Play Misty for Me a few too many times, she becomes totally obsessed with her patient. After a one night stand (following a few butt-bumping dance grooves on a double date with Starsky, and Starsky's gal pal), Hutch decides that once is enough. Not so his deranged nurse - soon enough she's stalking him, whacking off potential suitors, and deciding that if she cannot have him, no one else can. Needless to say, I haven't received this sort of treatment from my friendly nurses, but my hospital stay is young, yet.
Perennial Starsky & Hutch guest star Suzanne Somers makes another appearance in "Murder Ward." Graduating from playing a stripper in season one and a junkie in season two, here she is an undercover girl reporter investigating a series of murders at a mental institution. Throw in Starsky as a wacky patient and Hutch as a disorderly orderly, and the hijinks begin. Check out the loony costume design - Starsky dressed as a cross between Topo Gigio and Speedy Gonzalez, Somers wearing a baby-tee with a tiny question mark encased in ever-decreasing squares ('cause she's an enigma, see?), and a psycho wearing a form-fitting tee showcasing a desiccated picture of Raggedy Ann. With its cockroach races, guards who like to read "Tom & Jerry" comics while on duty, behavioral modification experiments, and - literally - poison apples, this is one hospital you might want to avoid.
Starsky and Hutch's health traumas have just begun! Don't you just hate it when a hired assassin inadvertently threatens to spread a deadly plague while making his next mark? Apparently this was a lot more common than you'd think in the 1970s (see S.W.A.T.: The Complete First Season). In the two-part "The Plague," Starsky and Hutch have to track down Alex Rocco (The Godfather) before he can pass along his disease. And who can resist a slight case of amnesia when a car accident leaves Hutch without his memory in "Partners"?
As usual, the series includes an eclectic collection of guest stars. In "The Crying Child," Dee Wallace-Stone (E.T.) plays a teacher who becomes concerned that two young siblings, Nancy McKeon (The Facts of Life) and Meeno Peluce (Voyagers) are being abused by their parents, including soap star Linda Dano. Danny DeVito appears in "The Collector," which centers on a Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? -esque former child star (played by Susan Tyrrell) mixed up in a numbers racket. Other groovy guest stars include Melanie Griffith, Gary Lockwood (2001: A Space Odyssey), Kristy McNichol, Pat Morita (Happy Days), Anthony Geary (General Hospital), Veronica Hamel (Hill Street Blues) and Philip Michael Thomas (Miami Vice).
In the first two seasons of Starsky & Hutch, the duo had one of the most ambiguously gay relationships on TV. In season three, the show's creators address the subject head-on in "Death in a Different Place," when the partners try to solve the murder of a closeted police lieutenant in a flophouse frequented by hustlers. Their investigation leads to the The Green Parrot, a gay nightclub (parking available in rear) run by gender illusionist Sugar (Charles Pierce). Sure, the overall tone is a bit lurid, but the episode ends with Hutch pointing out that homosexuality must be okay since the partners spend so much time together that they're practically a couple. Well, duh!
Starsky & Hutch is by no means the smartest or cleverest detective series ever made. The two partners seem to spend a lot more time naked than most normal police officers, and the logic-free plotlines tend to be of the Starsky-and-Hutch-run-across-a-coven-of-Satan-worshippers variety. And yet, somehow it works. Soul and Glaser make an appealing team, and they are ably backed up by Blaxploitation vets Bernie Hamilton (as Captain Dobey) and Antonio Fargas (as Huggy Bear). Its on-location filming provides a rich glimpse at mid-'70s California scuzbucket architecture. And the show is just plain fun. So gas up your Gran Torino and get ready for a wild ride!
The twenty-three episodes that make up season three are divided onto five discs. The discs are housed in a digipak featuring the Gran Tornio's racing stripes and stills from the series. An episode guide housed in a folder panel contains episode numbers, titles, and brief episode synopses. The discs themselves feature the Gran Torino's stripes. The digipak slides into a cardboard sleeve.
When the DVDs are loaded, ever-shifting vertical red stripes presenting various shots from the series slide across the screen to the strains of the show's season three theme song. The actual menus then appear, featuring static images of the cast. Viewers can choose to play all episodes or view individual episodes. Although there are no scene selection menus, the episodes are divided into chapters.
