caught among the bracken and the ferns

[teethlikedog]

This evening I got to thinking about homoeroticism in buddy-cop tv shows - though damned if I can recall why; some random train of thought or web links, no doubt - particularly The Professionals. I've only seen a handful of episodes myself, but I believe the show has had a substantial slash fandom over the years, and I found myself clicking about

Comments

[ontogenesis]

I've never watched any buddy cop shops, but I'm certainly interested now. ^_^

[teethlikedog]

I never watched them as a kid, because all the best ones were from the 70s - a little before my time, and I didn't appreciate them until I got older and grew a taste for gun fights, car chases and homoerotic subtext. I have a very distinct memory of watching a Starsky And Hutch marathon on television...gawd, it must be at least seven years ago, because I'm sure I wasn't aware of fandom at the time, and I don't recall spending the following several days reading S&H slash, so...

*looks it up*

Oh my gosh, yes! There it is! The stuff you find on Wikipedia:

In the United Kingdom, the first season episode "The Fix", in which mobsters get Hutch hooked on heroin in order to extract information from him, was deemed too graphic by the BBC (despite the series being shown after the 9pm watershed), and was effectively "banned" from all of the corporation’s runs of the series. It was never broadcast on British terrestrial television until many years later, as part of Channel 4's one-off Starsky & Hutch Night, on Saturday 31st May 1999.I

[ontogenesis]

Ahaha, too graphic because of the drugs, or the m/m implications? ^_^ Your mother knows you too well. And it's nice to know your series had some slashy "firsts" (word up for Kirk/Spock slash, yo.)

No, I haven't.

[teethlikedog]

Oh, because of the drugs; apparently showing someone being injected with heroine was a bit too gritty for British television. I doubt the tv execs ever noticed the subtext - the very idea would probably never have occurred to them!

Kirk/Spock old-school represent! Though I admit I always had a soft spot for Spock/McCoy; that bickering UST vibe was great!

The film's great fun in its own right, even if you're not familiar with the show. It's a very gentle, loving spoof of the original series, and is really a comedy with action sequences rather than an action-comedy. Also, it includes a fair bit of deliberate m/m subtext, as an homage to the slashiness of the series, which I found quite delightful. Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson (who star in the film) referred to it at some point as basically a love story, which is also a comedy with action bits. Or something along those lines.