Blast from the Past: Starsky and Hutch was pure TV gold

The recent death of David Soul, who played Hutch in the popular American cop show, will have evoked many happy memories for those of us of a certain vintage.
What a pair! Starsky and HutchWhat a pair! Starsky and Hutch
What a pair! Starsky and Hutch
By Helen McGurk
Published 12th Jan 2024, 17:03 BST
Updated 12th Jan 2024, 17:14 BST

As a youngster growing up in Mid-Ulster, and with only three black and white TV channels and the cows to talk to, watching David Soul and Paul Michael Glaser driving around in a Ford Gran Torino (red, with a white stripe down the side) was perfect escapism.

For anyone under about 50, Starsky and Hutch was a US cop show in the second half of the 1970s. Sergeant David Michael Starsky (Paul Michael Glaser) and Sergeant Kenneth Richard ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson (David Soul), dark and blond respectively, wore flared jeans and jackets with furry collars.

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Under the radio call sign ‘Zebra Three’, they were known for usually tearing around the streets of fictional Bay City, California, catching bad guys – there were a lot of chases and crashes!

They had an informant, a link to the underworld, a jive-talking good guy named Huggy Bear, played by Antonio Fargas.

The show was also about male friendship, maybe even ‘bromance’. Jokey on the surface but genuine underneath – brotherly, almost. They were proper partners, looking out for each other, sharing everything – thoughts and feelings, even girls!

Related topics:American

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