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1974 Ford Torino
Original Starsky and Hutch Car
Starsky and Hutch (to use its original spelling; it became Starsky & Hutch a few episodes into the run) is a 1970s American television series that consisted of 92 episodes of 60 minutes and a single-90 minute pilot, created by William Blinn and broadcast between April 30, 1975 and May 15, 1979 on the ABC network; distributed by Columbia Pictures Television in North America and, originally, Metromedia Producers Corporation in some other parts of the world.
protagonists were two Southern California policemen: the dark-haired David Starsky (Paul Michael Glaser) who was a streetwise detective with intense, childlike moods, and the blond Kenneth 'Hutch' Hutchinson (David Soul), a more reserved and intellectual character; Under the radio call sign "Zebra Three", they were known for tearing around the streets of "Bay City" in Starsky's two-door Ford Torino, which was red with a large white vector stripe. It was nicknamed the "Striped Tomato" by Hutch in the episode Kill Huggy Bear; the nickname was subsequently adopted by the fans of the series. However, the term didn't come from the writers - it came from a real-life comment that Glaser made. When he was first shown the Torino by Aaron Spelling, Glaser sarcastically said, "That thing looks like a striped tomato!" Hutch also had a car, a beaten-up 1973 Ford Galaxie 500, which occasionally appeared when the duo needed separate vehicles, or for undercover work.
Their main underworld contact was the street-wise, jive-talking Huggy Bear (Antonio Fargas), who often dressed extravagantly and (in some seasons) ran his own bar. The duo's boss was the gruff, no-nonsense but fair Captain Harold Dobey, played by Bernie Hamilton in the series (gravel-voiced actor Richard Ward in the pilot). "Starsky and Hutch" has been credited for being one of the first prime-time dramatic shows to cast black characters in a positive light; with both Captain Dobey, and - despite his walking on the edge of the law - the honest and trustworthy Huggy seen to be positive black role models. Huggy's immense popularity caused Spelling and Goldberg to consider giving Fargas his own series. The second season episode Huggy Bear and the Turkey was the test pilot for a proposed spin off with Huggy and his friend, former Sheriff "Turkey" Turquet (Dale Robinette) becoming private investigators; however, it never led to a series. In the episode it was revealed that Huggy's last name is Brown (no clue as to his first name was given).
Two character names came from William Blinn's past: "Starsky" was the name of a high school friend, and "Huggy Bear" was a local disc jockey.
Fans loved the gritty, often violent, plotlines, comic banter, and particularly the close, devoted and enduring friendship between Starsky and Hutch. In stark contrast to police characters on TV up until this time, Starsky and Hutch were open with physical gestures of affection, often declaring that they trusted only each other against the world (leading to some claiming that there were homosexual overtones between the pair; in fact, some in the Hollywood press referred to the characters as "prime-time homos"). This parallels a similar claim that was leveled by psychologist Fredric Wertham in his 1954 book Seduction of the Innocent about the relationship between the comic book hero Batman and his sidekick Robin. But most observers see this simply as male bonding, which soon became commonplace, as "new men" could admit to having feelings of many shades, with no homosexual implication - certainly the case with Starsky & Hutch. However, during the 1980s some fans, mostly women, started writing and publishing "slash fiction" stories about the pair and continue to do so in print and on the Internet. [1]
Many fans were attracted not just by the characters, but the quality of writing during the first two seasons (despite the fact that the majority of first season stories were actually existing scripts that were merely adapted to fit the series). The second season episode Long Walk Down a Short Dirt Road, featured country star Lynn Anderson as a singer being stalked by a deranged person and was based upon a real-life incident involving Dolly Parton. The part was written with Parton in mind, but Anderson wound up playing the role.
