Episode Notes: Starsky & Hutch "Pilot"
New show, new fandom, first episode of a whole new series!
Well, okay, new in a very broad sense of term. :)
I remember clearly watching Starsky & Hutch with my mother when I was little kid. I was seven when the show started airing. At age seven my favorite part of the show was them putting the flashing light on top of the car when they were in chases. And I liked the car chases. :) I also was as confused as everyone else in their universe about which one was Starsky and which one Hutch.
As an adult, and a slasher, I'm coming into this completely new and fresh. I haven't seen but a couple of episodes since they were first run. I haven't read but about two stories (both slash). I have *no* idea of the fanon, no idea of the history or conventions of the fandom.
These are my notes on watching the Pilot, for the second time. (I watched it for the first time a little over a week ago with sassyinkpen.) They are pretty much equal parts thoughts about the plot, squee about how pretty the guys are, and pointing out things I thought were especially wonderful. And screencaps I made to capture things I liked and to illustrate my comments
Notes on watching the Pilot (with lots of screencaps)
--These two guys in their car at what appears to be a sort of lover's lane are pretty fun. Discussing old John Wayne films. "What's to tell, he wins. He always wins."
--They're actually showing folks smoking a joint! Huh! That's so *70s*. Nowadays I more often see someone doing coke or something. :)
--So the John Wayne fans blow the crap out of that pretty, pretty car and those harmless kids. Man!
--And there's the pretty, pretty car again. Right.
--So Starsky's just leaving his car in the alley? That's a little rude.
--Oh, yeah. Hutch in those tight shorts! Sweet!
--"Coming down here to watch you sweat is not the high point of my day." It's doing an awful lot for mine, Starsky, so just shut up. ;)
--Hutch in the shower is so mmmmmmmm! I mean, just, GUH!
--So they're taking Hutch's boring car rather than Starsky's beautiful one. Sigh.
--Hey, I love their little check list routine through the contents of the car. Do we ever see that again? I love the way the writers establish that they're a smoothly functioning, long standing team so efficiently.
--Oooh, just a couple of nice shots of Starsky in the car.
--Hutch gave a girl his "thingamajig"? :)
--So if these guys are undercover detectives (as the packaging on the DVDs says) why are they out patrolling a beat? It doesn't really seem like a detective thing.
--So Coley promised never to work in their district while they were there...that's kind of funny actually.
--What's with the date thing? Thanks for asking, Hutch, I was just wondering the same thing.
--Captain Doby sounds like he gargles gravel.
--So this grey-haired guy is a DA or something? It'd be nice if he explained *why* the DAs office thought someone was trying to kill Starsky and Hutch.
--Starsky's starting to feel like "salt in a sugar bowl". That's a nice decription actually. I love Starsky's hominess.
--Zebra-3. Cool. I love them playing the bad radio dodge!! That's awesome!
--Man, Starsky & Hutch seem to work in an incredibly *skeevy* part of town. Whatever town this is--it looks a little like LA. The very worst and most run down parts of LA anyway.
--If they're supposed to be *undercover* cops, they're obviously not at all subtle about it. :)
--I love Starsky walking through the bar and getting everyone to write down why they're surprised to see them. "Neatness and originality will be taken into consideration." :) I'd love to read more of the answers they get there. That could be a *ton of fun!
--Is it just me, or is Starsky constantly eating?? And mostly junk food. :)
--So the shooting attempt was only for Starsky. Apparently they weren't actually expecting that Starsky and Hutch would be out parking together on the lover's lane the night before. Well, damn.
--Hutch getting Fat Rollie wasted deliberately isn't very nice. But of course, if Rollie had actually coughed up some information they wouldn't have busted him (or, probably, given him the other two doubles).
--"There's something you gotta know about Starsky and me. We're not like most partners." :D Heeeee! "We're both hard-nosed." So this is bad cop, bad cop.
--And now Starsky figures out that folks were killed in a car that's just like his car.
--Starsky: "That is a stinkin' crime." Hutch: "Trying to kill you, you mean?" Starsky: "Yeah, not to mention screwing up a great car like that."
--Okay, I'm going to jump ahead a bit here, because I've seen this episode recently *waves to sassyinkpen* and I know that the kids in the other Torino were killed in that car to make it look like the bad guys were after Starsky. But how did the John Wayne loving bad guys know that the kids in the stolen car would wind up at the beach?
--"They spotted the car and thought Starsky here was out with a girl. He has that reputation as we all know." Heee! The best part about this is how *indignant* Starsky looks at that. And he immediately looks to Hutch who has *such* a cute little smile on his face.
--Ah the beginning of the confusion with their names. :) When I was seven it had *me* totally confused. ;)
--So they're getting pointed to suspect someone they're going to be testifying against. Was the name Tallman?
--The DA wants them off the street? Well, what are they supposed to be doing? Just twiddling their thumbs.
--I love them listing the people who'd be interested in "mulching" them. :)
--Starsky: "What you guys don't realize is that Hutch and me are willing to get burned out on the street, but it would hurt like Hell if we lost sitting on our tails." ::loves Starsky::
--How does Starsky pull off looking both tough and hot in that dorkilicious sweater?? Damn!
--Okay, Fat Rollie giggling at Starsky is giving me the creeps.
--So how did Starsky get back to the gym to pick up his car? It must be close to the station.
--Hutch was married to a woman named Nancy?? For how long? How long ago?? When?
--Since I know the larger plan, I just have to ask... Why do the bad guys need to try (and fail) to kill Starsky again. How does this help the DA's plan?
--God Hutch is cute when he's listening to the trash picker!
--Elijah gets awfully moved by a simple dollar bill though. Poor old guy!
--Starsky and Hutch are like little bugs who know how to swim trying to crawl out of a toilet bowl?? Heeeee!! And they have a shark on their tail. Heee!
--Love the banter while they in their car chase. "How about that alley?" "That's a fine idea, Ollie."
--I'm amazed that this black sedan can keep up with the Torino. That must be a damned good driver!
--And it's the spinning around the intersection scene that's in so many songvids. :) Heeee!!
--Love Starsky climbing right on top of the guy he dragged out of the car.
--I guess they do mind Tallman's goons taking their hardware. :)
--Hutch: "My mother always used to tell me: wear clean underwear in case you're ever in an accident. So I wouldn't shock the nurses. As I recall, this particular situation never entered the conversation." Heee!!
--Ah, that's a *very* nice chest on Starsky there. That's very pretty!
--And how much do I love them stripping together! Very, very, very much is how much!! Really just OMG!
--Shoulder holsters with towels!! OMG!! I have something of a kink for shoulder holsters anyway, and then over bare chests. OMG that's nice! Damn!
--"See, gentlemen, crime does pay." :)
--This Tallman guy is great! I love the way he's worked everything out. Is that Eli Wallach?? He totally looks like Eli Wallach and sounds like him too! Nope, IMdB says none of the above. That's almost disappointing. I just must have seen this guy in a million things. Either that or he's got an awesome Eli Wallach imitation. :)
--Hutch to Tallman: "In other words, we'll be dead and you'll be the injured party."
--Bail isn't available to people if they've been found guilty, so basically Tallman's entire plan of being found guilty but not going to jail falls to shit. :)
--Tallman: "The courts will find me guilty two years after I'm dead. I think I'll be able to weather the disgrace."
--I *love* Tallman trying to keep them alive until the trial! That's so cute!!
--I love Bad Guy 1 watching his John Wayne film on the TV and Bad Guy 2 looking on tolerantly and reading Voltaire. Very literary bad guy there. :) I actually kind of like these dudes, even if they are killers.
--Poor Starsky and Hutch and their stakeout in the rain. Of course, if Hutch can't control his sneezing he's gonna blow the whole thing. :)
--Hutch: "I hope it's soon, buddy. I think I'm shrinking." :D
--Poor Hutch is under the Great Dane's favorite tree. Sigh! Though it appears that Hutch is throwing Tiger off his, erm, stride.
--So we've got some sort of drug transaction going on in a kind of skeezy apartment complex? One would think that a major narco operation would be somewhere a little more...secluded, private. I dunno, it just seems like a strange place for it.
--Such a distinguished old gentleman in a smoking jacket. Throwing the drugs into the pool?? They much be well wrapped or something.
--Ninja!! They've got a ninja!! Heeee!! That's so funny!
--Fighting in the pool in the rain! Love that!
--Don't so much love Starsky and Hutch abandoning the poor drug runner to being shot by the slashy bad guys as they dove into the water. I mean once a prisoner's in their custody isn't he their responsibility? Isn't this some sort of negligence?
--Putting that aside, I love them rising up out of the pool.
--Eeeeeee! Towels again! Love that!! That's so happy!
--I love how horrified Starsky is when he realizes that Fat Rollie was calling someone *inside* the department.
--And I love that Starsky's *very* resistant to the idea. I actually *really* like that. It makes him look a little dense, but I'm just getting this feeling that he's *so* honorable that he can't even really get that there might be someone dirty in the department. I love it!
--Starsky: "Who are we supposed to report this to? I mean, who the hell are we supposed to trust?" Hutch: "The same people we always trust...us." ::dies of squee::
--I'm deeply amused that they're meeting Huggy Bear in a porn theater, and that this is their *standard* meeting place. Like they don't need to tell Huggy where and when because he'll automatically *know* to go to see a porno! Heee!
--And I *love* the little old lady with her thermos of coffee and her tomatoes and salt shaker. She's really cute. Her eyes never leave the screen for a second. :)
--Starsky: "They're trying to kill us. Us. They tried to blow holes in our bodies where our bodies were not intended to have holes."
--Nice pretty shot of Hutch!
--I couldn't pass on getting a good shot of Huggy Bear. :) I also remember *him* from when I was seven. :)
--So the Slashy Bad Guys are so good they would have killed Starsky and Hutch if they were really after them. That's interesting. I like that as a piece of evidence. And Starsky played football in high school. :)
--Okay, so here's where my big plot question comes up for real: But how did the John Wayne loving bad guys know that the kids in the stolen car would wind up at the beach?
--*Love* Hutch covering the victim's face again. I don't know if it's queasiness or just respect for the dead. It looks like respect for the dead for me and I like it!
--Gretchen Knebel is kind of cute. ;) She asked the really good question: "Why didn't the cops hang on to Patty's stuff?"
--So Patty was taking pre-law because lawyers are rich and she always wanted a rich husband. God, is this pre-women's lib or not??
--Starsky: "Okay. Love happens. She blooms. She won't go away. She won't get rid of the kid. He's got a marriage coming up. He's got to get rid of the girl." ::loves Starsky even more::
--Oh, they do explain how the kid winds out in just the right car and in just the right place. :) That's excellent! I thought I'd found a plot hole, but it just stitched itself up. Sweet!
--I also love how they set up Henderson. That's neatly done! (And they're in Hutch's subtle car, rather than Starsky's bloody obvious one.)
--Love Starsky fidgeting in the car. That's such a *wonderful* little snippet of the character. The restless energy and constant motion. Nice!
--And Hutch is so calm. Calmly watching where Henderson's going while Starksy's talking to the cops. Nice!
--Starsky's being anything but subtle about watching Henderson in this hotel Lobby. You'd think someone would *notice* that he's acting so squirrely.
--God, Starsky's running up these stairs completely pell mell, and keeping up with the elevator. He might do better in rubber soled shoes.
--"Seven, seven, come on seven. Thank God." Says the man who's been chasing an elevator up seven flights of stairs.
--Starsk!!! I love "Starsk"!!
--Oh so the smaller slashy bad guy shot the creepy evil DA. Well, then at least they won't have to take him to trial, I suppose.
--God and if I though Starsky was running pell mell up the stairs, it's got nothing on him going down them. ;)
--Hutch jumping and landing on the roof of his car! I hope they've got a good body shop on tap.
--And now the car's in the middle of a firefight. I hope they know a *really* good body shop.
--How did that car behind Hutch wind out on fire? I mean cars just don't burst into flames because there's gunfire nearby. On the other hand, I'm not gonna complain because it looks damned pretty behind Hutch like that.
--And then we end where we began, only Hutch's car looks a little worse for wear.
--I love Hutch making Starsky ("Starsk" hee) pay for his gym membership!! Love it!
--Then Hutch offering to take Starsky out to dinner. "Soybean steaks and wheat germ pies". Heeee! And then Hutch pretending to be talked into going out for chili so hot you feel it going all the way down. But then not really following at all. And Starsky following him. :D Heeeee!!
All screencaps are my own. Feel free to use them however you like.
I need a Starsky & Hutch icon. Really really need one! :)
Just *delightful* that was!
Well, okay, new in a very broad sense of term. :)
I remember clearly watching Starsky & Hutch with my mother when I was little kid. I was seven when the show started airing. At age seven my favorite part of the show was them putting the flashing light on top of the car when they were in chases. And I liked the car chases. :) I also was as confused as everyone else in their universe about which one was Starsky and which one Hutch.
As an adult, and a slasher, I'm coming into this completely new and fresh. I haven't seen but a couple of episodes since they were first run. I haven't read but about two stories (both slash). I have *no* idea of the fanon, no idea of the history or conventions of the fandom.
These are my notes on watching the Pilot, for the second time. (I watched it for the first time a little over a week ago with sassyinkpen.) They are pretty much equal parts thoughts about the plot, squee about how pretty the guys are, and pointing out things I thought were especially wonderful. And screencaps I made to capture things I liked and to illustrate my comments
Notes on watching the Pilot (with lots of screencaps)
--These two guys in their car at what appears to be a sort of lover's lane are pretty fun. Discussing old John Wayne films. "What's to tell, he wins. He always wins."
--They're actually showing folks smoking a joint! Huh! That's so *70s*. Nowadays I more often see someone doing coke or something. :)
--So the John Wayne fans blow the crap out of that pretty, pretty car and those harmless kids. Man!
--And there's the pretty, pretty car again. Right.
--So Starsky's just leaving his car in the alley? That's a little rude.
--Oh, yeah. Hutch in those tight shorts! Sweet!
--"Coming down here to watch you sweat is not the high point of my day." It's doing an awful lot for mine, Starsky, so just shut up. ;)
--Hutch in the shower is so mmmmmmmm! I mean, just, GUH!
--So they're taking Hutch's boring car rather than Starsky's beautiful one. Sigh.
--Hey, I love their little check list routine through the contents of the car. Do we ever see that again? I love the way the writers establish that they're a smoothly functioning, long standing team so efficiently.
--Oooh, just a couple of nice shots of Starsky in the car.
--Hutch gave a girl his "thingamajig"? :)
--So if these guys are undercover detectives (as the packaging on the DVDs says) why are they out patrolling a beat? It doesn't really seem like a detective thing.
--So Coley promised never to work in their district while they were there...that's kind of funny actually.
--What's with the date thing? Thanks for asking, Hutch, I was just wondering the same thing.
--Captain Doby sounds like he gargles gravel.
--So this grey-haired guy is a DA or something? It'd be nice if he explained *why* the DAs office thought someone was trying to kill Starsky and Hutch.
--Starsky's starting to feel like "salt in a sugar bowl". That's a nice decription actually. I love Starsky's hominess.
--Zebra-3. Cool. I love them playing the bad radio dodge!! That's awesome!
--Man, Starsky & Hutch seem to work in an incredibly *skeevy* part of town. Whatever town this is--it looks a little like LA. The very worst and most run down parts of LA anyway.
--If they're supposed to be *undercover* cops, they're obviously not at all subtle about it. :)
--I love Starsky walking through the bar and getting everyone to write down why they're surprised to see them. "Neatness and originality will be taken into consideration." :) I'd love to read more of the answers they get there. That could be a *ton of fun!
--Is it just me, or is Starsky constantly eating?? And mostly junk food. :)
--So the shooting attempt was only for Starsky. Apparently they weren't actually expecting that Starsky and Hutch would be out parking together on the lover's lane the night before. Well, damn.
--Hutch getting Fat Rollie wasted deliberately isn't very nice. But of course, if Rollie had actually coughed up some information they wouldn't have busted him (or, probably, given him the other two doubles).
--"There's something you gotta know about Starsky and me. We're not like most partners." :D Heeeee! "We're both hard-nosed." So this is bad cop, bad cop.
--And now Starsky figures out that folks were killed in a car that's just like his car.
--Starsky: "That is a stinkin' crime." Hutch: "Trying to kill you, you mean?" Starsky: "Yeah, not to mention screwing up a great car like that."
--Okay, I'm going to jump ahead a bit here, because I've seen this episode recently *waves to sassyinkpen* and I know that the kids in the other Torino were killed in that car to make it look like the bad guys were after Starsky. But how did the John Wayne loving bad guys know that the kids in the stolen car would wind up at the beach?
--"They spotted the car and thought Starsky here was out with a girl. He has that reputation as we all know." Heee! The best part about this is how *indignant* Starsky looks at that. And he immediately looks to Hutch who has *such* a cute little smile on his face.
--Ah the beginning of the confusion with their names. :) When I was seven it had *me* totally confused. ;)
--So they're getting pointed to suspect someone they're going to be testifying against. Was the name Tallman?
--The DA wants them off the street? Well, what are they supposed to be doing? Just twiddling their thumbs.
--I love them listing the people who'd be interested in "mulching" them. :)
--Starsky: "What you guys don't realize is that Hutch and me are willing to get burned out on the street, but it would hurt like Hell if we lost sitting on our tails." ::loves Starsky::
--How does Starsky pull off looking both tough and hot in that dorkilicious sweater?? Damn!
--Okay, Fat Rollie giggling at Starsky is giving me the creeps.
--So how did Starsky get back to the gym to pick up his car? It must be close to the station.
--Hutch was married to a woman named Nancy?? For how long? How long ago?? When?
--Since I know the larger plan, I just have to ask... Why do the bad guys need to try (and fail) to kill Starsky again. How does this help the DA's plan?
--God Hutch is cute when he's listening to the trash picker!
--Elijah gets awfully moved by a simple dollar bill though. Poor old guy!
--Starsky and Hutch are like little bugs who know how to swim trying to crawl out of a toilet bowl?? Heeeee!! And they have a shark on their tail. Heee!
--Love the banter while they in their car chase. "How about that alley?" "That's a fine idea, Ollie."
--I'm amazed that this black sedan can keep up with the Torino. That must be a damned good driver!
--And it's the spinning around the intersection scene that's in so many songvids. :) Heeee!!
--Love Starsky climbing right on top of the guy he dragged out of the car.
--I guess they do mind Tallman's goons taking their hardware. :)
--Hutch: "My mother always used to tell me: wear clean underwear in case you're ever in an accident. So I wouldn't shock the nurses. As I recall, this particular situation never entered the conversation." Heee!!
--Ah, that's a *very* nice chest on Starsky there. That's very pretty!
--And how much do I love them stripping together! Very, very, very much is how much!! Really just OMG!
--Shoulder holsters with towels!! OMG!! I have something of a kink for shoulder holsters anyway, and then over bare chests. OMG that's nice! Damn!
--"See, gentlemen, crime does pay." :)
--This Tallman guy is great! I love the way he's worked everything out. Is that Eli Wallach?? He totally looks like Eli Wallach and sounds like him too! Nope, IMdB says none of the above. That's almost disappointing. I just must have seen this guy in a million things. Either that or he's got an awesome Eli Wallach imitation. :)
--Hutch to Tallman: "In other words, we'll be dead and you'll be the injured party."
--Bail isn't available to people if they've been found guilty, so basically Tallman's entire plan of being found guilty but not going to jail falls to shit. :)
--Tallman: "The courts will find me guilty two years after I'm dead. I think I'll be able to weather the disgrace."
--I *love* Tallman trying to keep them alive until the trial! That's so cute!!
--I love Bad Guy 1 watching his John Wayne film on the TV and Bad Guy 2 looking on tolerantly and reading Voltaire. Very literary bad guy there. :) I actually kind of like these dudes, even if they are killers.
--Poor Starsky and Hutch and their stakeout in the rain. Of course, if Hutch can't control his sneezing he's gonna blow the whole thing. :)
--Hutch: "I hope it's soon, buddy. I think I'm shrinking." :D
--Poor Hutch is under the Great Dane's favorite tree. Sigh! Though it appears that Hutch is throwing Tiger off his, erm, stride.
--So we've got some sort of drug transaction going on in a kind of skeezy apartment complex? One would think that a major narco operation would be somewhere a little more...secluded, private. I dunno, it just seems like a strange place for it.
--Such a distinguished old gentleman in a smoking jacket. Throwing the drugs into the pool?? They much be well wrapped or something.
--Ninja!! They've got a ninja!! Heeee!! That's so funny!
--Fighting in the pool in the rain! Love that!
--Don't so much love Starsky and Hutch abandoning the poor drug runner to being shot by the slashy bad guys as they dove into the water. I mean once a prisoner's in their custody isn't he their responsibility? Isn't this some sort of negligence?
--Putting that aside, I love them rising up out of the pool.
--Eeeeeee! Towels again! Love that!! That's so happy!
--I love how horrified Starsky is when he realizes that Fat Rollie was calling someone *inside* the department.
--And I love that Starsky's *very* resistant to the idea. I actually *really* like that. It makes him look a little dense, but I'm just getting this feeling that he's *so* honorable that he can't even really get that there might be someone dirty in the department. I love it!
--Starsky: "Who are we supposed to report this to? I mean, who the hell are we supposed to trust?" Hutch: "The same people we always trust...us." ::dies of squee::
--I'm deeply amused that they're meeting Huggy Bear in a porn theater, and that this is their *standard* meeting place. Like they don't need to tell Huggy where and when because he'll automatically *know* to go to see a porno! Heee!
--And I *love* the little old lady with her thermos of coffee and her tomatoes and salt shaker. She's really cute. Her eyes never leave the screen for a second. :)
--Starsky: "They're trying to kill us. Us. They tried to blow holes in our bodies where our bodies were not intended to have holes."
--Nice pretty shot of Hutch!
--I couldn't pass on getting a good shot of Huggy Bear. :) I also remember *him* from when I was seven. :)
--So the Slashy Bad Guys are so good they would have killed Starsky and Hutch if they were really after them. That's interesting. I like that as a piece of evidence. And Starsky played football in high school. :)
--Okay, so here's where my big plot question comes up for real: But how did the John Wayne loving bad guys know that the kids in the stolen car would wind up at the beach?
--*Love* Hutch covering the victim's face again. I don't know if it's queasiness or just respect for the dead. It looks like respect for the dead for me and I like it!
--Gretchen Knebel is kind of cute. ;) She asked the really good question: "Why didn't the cops hang on to Patty's stuff?"
--So Patty was taking pre-law because lawyers are rich and she always wanted a rich husband. God, is this pre-women's lib or not??
--Starsky: "Okay. Love happens. She blooms. She won't go away. She won't get rid of the kid. He's got a marriage coming up. He's got to get rid of the girl." ::loves Starsky even more::
--Oh, they do explain how the kid winds out in just the right car and in just the right place. :) That's excellent! I thought I'd found a plot hole, but it just stitched itself up. Sweet!
--I also love how they set up Henderson. That's neatly done! (And they're in Hutch's subtle car, rather than Starsky's bloody obvious one.)
--Love Starsky fidgeting in the car. That's such a *wonderful* little snippet of the character. The restless energy and constant motion. Nice!
--And Hutch is so calm. Calmly watching where Henderson's going while Starksy's talking to the cops. Nice!
--Starsky's being anything but subtle about watching Henderson in this hotel Lobby. You'd think someone would *notice* that he's acting so squirrely.
--God, Starsky's running up these stairs completely pell mell, and keeping up with the elevator. He might do better in rubber soled shoes.
--"Seven, seven, come on seven. Thank God." Says the man who's been chasing an elevator up seven flights of stairs.
--Starsk!!! I love "Starsk"!!
--Oh so the smaller slashy bad guy shot the creepy evil DA. Well, then at least they won't have to take him to trial, I suppose.
--God and if I though Starsky was running pell mell up the stairs, it's got nothing on him going down them. ;)
--Hutch jumping and landing on the roof of his car! I hope they've got a good body shop on tap.
--And now the car's in the middle of a firefight. I hope they know a *really* good body shop.
--How did that car behind Hutch wind out on fire? I mean cars just don't burst into flames because there's gunfire nearby. On the other hand, I'm not gonna complain because it looks damned pretty behind Hutch like that.
--And then we end where we began, only Hutch's car looks a little worse for wear.
--I love Hutch making Starsky ("Starsk" hee) pay for his gym membership!! Love it!
--Then Hutch offering to take Starsky out to dinner. "Soybean steaks and wheat germ pies". Heeee! And then Hutch pretending to be talked into going out for chili so hot you feel it going all the way down. But then not really following at all. And Starsky following him. :D Heeeee!!
All screencaps are my own. Feel free to use them however you like.
I need a Starsky & Hutch icon. Really really need one! :)
Just *delightful* that was!