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| Starsky and Hutch Season 1 |

Two years before Hill Street Blues redefined the cop genre as a mesh of overlapping storylines and workaday frustrations, Aaron Spelling's Starsky & Hutch capped a five-year run (1975-1979) portraying LA's finest as madly heroic creatures of reckless determination and physicality. The Complete First Season reminds us how startlingly brutal this primetime series could be while maintaining a delightful, often incongruous, self-deprecating humor.
From the series pilot on, partners and best pals Starsky and Hutch work a fine line between predator and prey, relentlessly pursuing suspects while also snared by crime chieftains or short-sighted superiors. In "The Fix," Hutch's secret romance with the former girlfriend of a mafia boss (Robert Loggia) results in the lawman's kidnapping and forced addiction to heroin. Similarly, in "A Coffin for Starsky," a mad chemist injects the wisecracking cop with a slow-acting but lethal poison. "Jo-Jo," written by Michael Mann, finds our guys at loggerheads with federal officers over a dumb deal the G-Men make with a serial rapist.
The 23 episodes in this set are all fun, if sometimes shocking, viewing. Expect each character to take as much abuse as he dishes out. Still, the comic sight of Starsky and Hutch (in "Death Notice") trying to conduct business amidst busy strippers is well worth the surrounding violence. --Tom Keogh
Here is an episode guide for Season 1, with a tiny description:
1.Pilot: Two teenagers in a car matching Starsky's are killed. A local crime lord awaiting trial is suspected.
2. Savage Sunday: An elderly couple's car is stolen. The thieves don't know that the car trunk is rigged with dymanite and a timer. Guest star: Suzanne Somers
3. Texas Longhorn: A wealthy man's young wife is raped and murdered. The bereaved man wants his own revenge.
4. Death Ride: The daughter of a crime boss who's ratting on his friends needs police protection. Starsky and Hutch don't know that they have been tricked. Guest star: Jeff Corey
5. Snowstorm: Starsky and Hutch are suspected of stealing a million dollars worth of cocaine after a drug raid.
6. The Fix: Hutch is kidnapped by a jealous mobster who gets him addicted to heroin.
7. Death Notice: Starsky and Hutch are bodyguards to a group of strippers who have received death threats.
8. Pariah: After a man arrested by Starsky dies in jail, the bereaved father begins killing police officers and demands that Starsky be punished.
9. Kill Huggy Bear: Huggy Bear, a police informant, ends up with some mob money and gets into trouble with the "owners".
10. The Bait: Starsky and Hutch pose as dealers to trap a drug supplier.
As always, my favorite episodes involved angst or "hurt/comfort"..and I eagerly awaited fan favorites such as, "The Fix", "The Shootout", and "A Coffin for Starsky"; anything that expressed the heartfelt devotion and concern these two men had for each other. I know that in today's age, such overt displays of affection would be frowned upon amongst men..and certainly back then it was unique, unusual and different..but it is this very uniquely displayed vulnerability and CHEMISTRY amongst the gritty reality of their daily lives that made the show a winner for me, and still makes it so to this day. There has been, nor will there EVER be, a cop show to match the heart that this show had: two undercover cops whose priority to their jobs was surpassed only by their deep love and affection for each other.
... Read more ›This was probably the first police drama that showed that cops could also be close friends and actually hang out together and have social lives. All cop shows previously were of the Quinn Martin/Jack Webb/Hawaii 5-0 variety, where everything was done by the book and the principals--although professional--were somewhat cold and very one-dimensional and superficial. This was also the first cop drama that showed that sometimes the rules have to be bent a little bit (and arms and god-knows-what-else broken!) in order to get the job done. Hey, it was rough out there on the mean streets of the 1970s.
This DVD set is a little piece of history. The first season is generally considered the best of the four, so this is the one to get. Lots of extras too, including an in-depth look at the Gran Torino that STILL has to be the coolest car ever telecast.