Alex Carson
In 1975, the first episode of Starsky & Hutch premier on ABC, and audiences were hooked. The show followed the adventures of two California detectives — Starsky (played by Paul Michael Glaser) and Hutchinson (played by David Soul). However, the real star of the series was the red and white Ford Torino, which is coincidentally also the first thing the audiences would see in the opening credits of the show.
For four years, Starsky & Hutch entertained the network’s loyal audience with car chases and gravity-defying traffic maneuvers. While some of these sequences may seem unbelievable and even ridiculous to the present-day audience, viewers will benefit from knowing that the show provided ample inspiration for future smash hits, including Lethal Weapon (1987), Pulp Fiction (1994), and Shanghai Noon (2000). The popularity of the show is partly because it is from a hit film as well as a successful game show.
In this video, we tell you some interesting facts about Starsky & Hutch. Facts Verse Presents: Why Paul Michael Glaser Tried to QUIT Starsky & Hutch. Before you dive into this list with us, do not forget to like and subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon to stay updated about all our latest videos.
Starsky & Hutch
Starsky & Hutch is synonymous with the iconic red Ford Torino that also featured in the opening credits of the show. However, the producers of the show did not want the red Torino. Instead, they had their eyes on a green and white Chevy Camaro. They reached out to the Chevrolet team but when they didn’t hear anything back, they decided to go with the Ford Torino. Surprisingly, most of the cast members of the show, including Paul Michael Glaser, thought the car was quite ugly. In fact, Glaser even went as far as to say that he hated the car. Funny how things change quickly, right?
Chevrolet’s loss was Ford’s gain. After Ford Torino appeared on Starsky & Hutch, its popularity sky-rocketed. Nobody knows how many Ford Torinos use for filming purposes while Starsky & Hutch was on the air. However, Ford once disclosed that it had, at one point during the filming of the show, produced 1,300 different special-edition Starsky & Hutch Torinos. Ford Torino also made an appearance on The Dukes of Hazzard and one of the cars used by Starsky & Hutch sold for $40,000 in 2014. Amazing, isn’t it? Before we tell you about other famous things on the sets of Starsky & Hutch, we request you to like and subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon to stay updated about all our latest videos.
Ford Torino
Well, Ford Torino wasn’t the only thing famous on the sets of Starsky & Hutch. One of the guns that Hutch used during the show was as popular as the car itself and maybe even more. This was the same handgun that Clint Eastwood had used in the 1973-film Magnum Force. When the show adapts into a film in 2004, a similar gun uses.
Did you know that the creators of the show drew inspiration from David Greenberg and Robert Hantz, two real-life New York City police officers who eventually came to be known as Batman and Robin? The two solved many crimes in Brooklyn. In 1974, a film based on their lives called The Super Cops appeared in cinemas and was a hit. The next year saw Starsky & Hutch premiere on ABC.
Starsky and Hutch’s main informant is a street-smart man, Huggy Bear who runs a bar, Huggy Bear’s. After Starsky & Hutch aired in France, it instantly became popular. However, in France, Huggy Bear, ‘Huggy Les Bon Tuyaux’ which translates to ‘Huggy Good Tips’ as the French wanted Huggy’s name to reflect his personality. We see no harm in that, right?
A Comedic Tone
The French version of the show was dubbed in such a way that the series developed a comedic tone. Colloquialisms and ad-libbed lines flowed freely, making the show quite different from the original version. The good part is this dubbing worked in favor of the show — many believe that the comedic tone and the ad-libbed lines were actually the real reason the show became so popular in France.
Starsky & Hutch’s boss was a serious and gruff man named Captain Harold C. Dobey. When the pilot is shot, actor Richard Ward plays the role of Captain Harold C. Dobey. However, after the show picks up by the network, the producers decided to replace Richard Ward with Bernie Hamilton, who excelled at playing such roles.
Main Focus Of The Show
The camaraderie between Starsky and Hutch was palpable from the very beginning. However, their chemistry isn’t the main focus of the show until 1977 when protests erupt against excessive violence on television, and the focus of the show, therefore, had to be shifted from violent crime scenes to the bromance between the two actors. With action becoming scarce, there was a lot of banter between the two characters, which the audience quite enjoyed.
And that of course also led to rumors. Many gay fans of the show like to believe that Starsky and Hutch were actually the first working gay couple of the television world. While this is a moot topic, we can certainly say we thoroughly enjoyed the bromance between the two.
During the third season, Hutch grew a mustache that audiences did not like. Most viewers thought the actor looked rather stupid with extra facial hair and thankfully, David Soul decided to get rid of it in the fourth season.
Bay City Police Department
On the show, Starsky & Hutch worked for the Bay City police department in California, which obviously was not a real place. Though there are a few Bay City locations around the United States, the one in the series was fake. In fact, most of the show was shot in Los Angeles.
Paul Michael Glaser owes a lot to Starsky & Hutch. However, Glaser became tired of all the fame and popularity that the show brought to him. He became uncomfortable with women chasing him and banging on his door. Therefore, by the end of the second season, Glaser was unhappy with the show and wanted to quit. But since the show was quite popular, the producers fought with Glaser and kept him bound to the show, citing his contract. However, they introduced Starsky’s younger brother in the fourth season as a backup option.
Since Glaser was so unhappy with the show, the producers decided to kill off Starsky in the last episode of season four. They even filmed this episode. However, at the last moment, they decided to go with another episode where Starsky lives.
Terrible On-Set Attitude
Paul Michael Glaser wasn’t easy to work with. One of the reasons behind his terrible on-set attitude was his insecurity about his looks. In the show, he wanted to be the hot cop. He, therefore, insists that the writers highlight his handsomeness in every episode and create plots that allow him to show flirting with different women. More importantly, he often also made writers ad-lib lines because he thought what he had written was better than the copy created by the writers. No wonder the writers were so keen on killing him off during the season!
David Soul was born in Chicago, Illinois, and had become quite a popular name in America by the 1970s. However, in 2004, he became a British Citizen. Soul decided to switch full-time to the theatre, which he had always enjoyed. Soul now lives in London with his wife Helen Snell.
Full Hardships Of Paul Michael Glaser’s Life
Paul Michael Glaser’s personal life was full of hardships. Glaser became an advocate for HIV and AIDS research after losing both his wife and daughter to the disease. Glaser married Elizabeth Meyer in 1980 and in 1981, Elizabeth contracted HIV during childbirth. Elizabeth did not know that she had contracted AIDS until 1984 when she along with both her children — daughter Ariel and son Jake — tested positive. Their daughter Ariel died in 1988 and Elizabeth passed away in 1994, after founding the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. After his wife’s death, Paul Michael Glasser became an advocate for HIV and AIDS research and served as the chairman of the foundation established by his late wife until 2002. In 1996, Glaser married Tracy Barone but the couple separated in 2007 after 10 years of marriage.
In 2004, the show was made into a film with Ben Stiller playing David Starsky and Owen Wilson playing Ken Hutchinson. Snoop Dog was chosen to play the role of Huggy Bear. Both David Soul and Michael Glaser made a guest appearance in the film — at the end of the movie, the original Starsky & Hutch appear as car salesmen and sell a new car to the detective duo. The film was quite a hit and grossed close to $170 million in box office sales.
70s TV Shows
Much like the other 70s TV shows, Starsky & Hutch was also quite backward in its attitudes towards women. The detective duo would often make offensive comments on women police officers and was actually even shown pinching their behinds on several occasions. Well, this was the 70s. Had the show aired today, it would have become mired in controversy since the very first episode owing to the poor depiction of women.
For many of us, Starsky & Hutch is a part of our childhood and thus, the show will always evoke feelings of nostalgia. Do you remember watching Starsky & Hutch as a child? Of the two detectives, who was your favorite? And did you enjoy these interesting facts about the show? Please let us know your opinion in the comments section, we love hearing from you guys!
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