Starsky and Hutch

In Sept. of 1975 one of my favorite cop shows came on TV. Aaron Spelling’s Starsky and Hutch. Paul Michael Glaser played Dave Starsky and David Soul played Ken Hutchinson. They were police detectives in Bay City as they drove around in their red and white Ford Torino. How they could be undercover cops in that car I don’t know. At first the car was suppose to be green. The creator of the show, Bill Blinn, had a green car when he was a teenager. He asked for a green car then one day they drove up with this red and white striped tomato. That became the car for the show. However, in some episodes they did have Hutch drive in a plain green junker. Paul Glaser was the last to audition for the role of Starsky. He was waiting in the hall to be called along with all the other hopeful actors. His wait was so long he fell asleep. He woke up just in time. A man looked out the door into the hallway. He saw Mr. Glaser he said to him that he was the last one and motioned for him to come in. When he went in he read a few lines with David Soul. Now David Soul had already had a starring role in one of Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry movies. The producers saw the movie and knew they wanted him for part on one of their shows. When David read the script he said he wanted to play Starsky. The producers said no. They told him that he would make a better Hutch. Many people have said this was an updated version of Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid. However, you must remember that Butch and Sundance were outlaws. I think it was more of an unofficial TV version of Supercops. In the early 70’s there were two real life cops that made headlines with the way they caught criminals. They were famous by their nicknames Batman and Robin and also called the Supercops. A book was written about them and a movie was made from the book. Both the book and the movie were also called Supercops. One of the stars of the film was Ron Liebman. Just as in Starsky and Hutch one man was a blond and the other had darker black or brown hair. I forgot which color Mr. Liebman’s hair is at the moment. I don’t know if I am right but it is just a thought.
The script for the pilot had been turned down by ABC. Most of the show was to be shot at night and at that time too expensive to shoot. Some time passed and ABC decided it might work to shoot it with some advances that made it easier and more cost effective to do night shooting. However, Mr. Blinn no longer worked for Spelling. In the time that passed he had gotten a job at another network as well. Some wheeling and dealing had to be done but they got him back so they could start work on the new series. The cast was rounded out by Bernie Hamilton who played Captain Dobey the man that Starsky and Hutch reported to. I may be wrong but I believe in TV history this was the first show that had white men working for an African American boss. They had Antonio Fargas play their informant Huggy Bear. Dobey looked after all 3 of them like he was their Father and Starsky, Hutch and Huggy got along like brothers.
They operated in Bay City. Now the first few episodes didn’t mention the name of the city. Since most shows were filmed in LA that or NY were the two most popular cities for TV cops I thought it was LA. Then they started calling it Bay City. I suppose nearby is Coast City and it is protected by Green Lantern. I figured that it must be a fictional version of San Francisco where S & H worked. A behind the scenes joke, perhaps it is true, is that the writer named them Starsky and Hutch because that was the real names of the men who started the S & H Green Stamps company.
For a show that was a hit the networks moved it around a lot. It started out on Wednesday nights at 10pm in 1975. In 1976 it moved to 9pm on Saturday nights. It had its biggest success there and stayed there till January of 1978. From 1978 to 1979 the show was moved twice. Once back to Wednesday at 10 then to Tuesdays at 10pm. There it died a quiet death and was canceled. Its last show was on August 21st 1979. I think that the audience started to outgrow the show. Its biggest audience, at least in my area, seemed to be 14 and 15 year old boys and girls. Girls watched because they thought the guys were cute and boys watched because of the action and adventure. Then they all got their drivers license and started to spend Saturday nights dating and such instead of staying home and watching TV. If your main audience is 14 and 15 year olds and you move your show to a school night at 10pm you have made sure the show will be canceled. At least back in the 70’s you did.
The first three seasons of the show are out on DVD and as you may know by now I have all of them. I hope the 4th season is out soon. I missed most of those when they first aired so I can’t wait to see them.