Starsky & Hutch ran from 1975 to 1979 and featured the exploits of buddy cops Detective Sgt. Dave Starsky (Paul Michael Glaser) and his partner, Detective Sgt. Ken Hutchinson (David Soul). Together they fought crime for four seasons under the watchful eye of their boss, Captain Harold Dobey (Bernie Hamilton) and with the help of a local pimp, Huggy Bear (Antonio Fargas).

Very much a product of the decade in which it was spawned, the show pushed the envelope a bit as far as the portrayal of violence on a network television show (it ran on ABC) and caused a bit of controversy in its day.

Now, closing in on thirty years later, the show is fondly remembered as a fast paced actioner with some great humor, classic characters, and the slickest cop car ever in TV history. It's also the source material for the recent feature film directed by Todd Phillips (the very same Todd Phillips who cut his teeth on the G. G. Allin documentary, Hated - he's come a long way!). While Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson and Snoop Dogg bring the characters into the new millennium, Columbia/Tri-Star kicks us back to the decade of disco and Gerald Ford with this release containing the complete first season and the series' pilot episode.

Pilot Episode - This is the one that started it all! The ninety minute pilot episode first aired on April 30, 1975 (five months before the actual series started) and introduced the world to Starsky, Hutch, Captain Dobey (played here by Richard Ward, not Bernie Hamilton), and of course, Huggy Bear. The premise of the episode? Two teenagers out on a date are shot dead by a dangerous hit man. But when they notice that the car the kids were in matches Starsky's Gran Torino, it looks like he got the wrong targets and was gunning for Starsky & Hutch. As the two cops set about trying to find out who's responsible, all signs point to a mob boss currently awaiting trial.

Savage Sunday - This, the first regular episode, was previously available through Columbia/Tri-Star on a compilation DVD entitled The Greatest 70s Cop Shows, which came out in May of 2003. Here we find Captain Dobey played for the first time by Bernie Hamilton, and he'd stick with the role until the end of the series. Henny and Sarah Wilson want the world to know just how squalid the living conditions are in the retirement home they live in. So how do they bring attention to it? They fill the trunk of their car full of dynamite and plan to blow it up in front of City Hall. But things don't go as planned of course and a pair of thugs, fresh from a liquor store robbery, hijacks the car unaware that there's a ticking time bomb in the trunk. Luckily for society and the world at large, Starsky & Hutch are on the case, though they don't have much time to solve it. Attentive viewers will notice that Suzanne Sommers has a bit part in this episode.

Texas Longhorn - A used car dealer named Zach Tyler, while traveling with his wife, stops to help out a pair of men who appear to be having some car problems. Sucks to be Zach though, because the two men are actually a pair of crooks who rob the man and rape and kill his poor wife. Starsky and Hutch are called in on the case and once they start getting somewhere with it they realize that Zach just might be trying to solve this one on his own, vigilante justice style.

Death Ride - A Mafia boss has agree to testify against some other big time crooks in town and our two favorite detectives have been given the task of keeping him safe until the big day. When the crew gets bushwhacked by mobsters, the boss ends up hospitalized from a gunshot wound and decides not to testify after all until his daughter, who he fears is next on the hit list, is taken into safe custody. Starsky and Hutch race against the mobsters to get to his daughter before they do.

Snowstorm - The historical significance of this episode? It's the first time that Hutch calls Starsky's Gran Torino 'the striped tomato!' Our heroes team up with a trio of detectives to make a $3,000,000 cocaine bust. Unfortunately it seems that about a third of the contraband has gone missing and Starsky and Hutch are the prime suspects. The powers that be give them forty-eight hours to make with the goods, and prove their innocence.

The Fix - This episode was originally banned in the UK by the BBC for showing Hutch being shot up with heroin! Hutch, ever the ladies man, is dating a girl who at one time had a relationship with a big time drug dealer and mobster. When the crook finds out about their fling, he has Hutch kidnapped and once he's got him, he starts him on the junk to break him down so that he'll admit to the whereabouts of the girl. Starsky pulls out all the stops to save his friend and partner before it's too late.

Death Notice - Some lunatic scrawls across the tablecloth of a local strip club a death threat against one of the dancers. The owner calls in Starsky and Hutch to figure out what's going on, protect the dancers, and find the creep responsible. When one of the girls really does end up dead, a second message appears on another tablecloth in the bar and Starsky and Hutch realize that they might be chasing down the wrong guy.

Pariah - When taking down a robbery attempt, Starsky is forced, in self-defense, to shoot one of the culprits. When he's unmasked, it turns out that he's actually a sixteen-year-old boy and the brass launches an inquiry. Starsky is cleared and he and Hutch set out to find out who got this kid involved in the robbery in the first place and why they gave a kid a gun. That's when a nut job with a connection to Starsky snaps and starts killing cops, demanding Starsky's badge.

Kill Huggy Bear! - Kill Huggy Bear? Who'd want to do that? Well, when Huggy Bear ends up on the wrong side of the mafia, we'll find out who, that's for sure. It turns out his old friend Dewey has robbed a store that was actually a mob front and now he's wanted dead. He calls in a favor from Huggy Bear and has him return the money. Sucks to be Huggy Bear though, because Dewey's ex-partner swipes the cash and makes off like the bandit she is, leaving Huggy Bear with a lot of explaining to do. Starsky and Hutch get on the case and set out to save their friend.

The Bait - Our two buddy cops go undercover, all decked out in the finest pimp apparel in the hopes of busting a heroin ring wide open. When they spring a fine foxy lady from jail, they convince her to act as bait so that they nab the main man in charge of the dope smuggling operation, but they've got to make sure she makes it out safely and that might be harder than it looks.

Lady Blue - An old girlfriend of Starsky's winds up dead, his body mysteriously wrapped in antenna wire for reasons unknown. When the duo set out to track down the killer they discover that the victim had been working undercover for some time now, disguised as a cocktail waitress. It seems she was hot on the trail of a murdering psychopath and it looks like he found her before she found him. The two cops try and wrap up the case and bring the fiend to justice, but are they even trailing the right guy?

Captain Dobey, You're Dead! - The first episode of the season not to feature Huggy Bear! An ex-cop, let go and later imprisoned when it was discovered that he was on the take, begins stalking and terrorizing Captain Dobey and his family. It seems this jerk wants his revenge, but that's not going to happen as long as Starsky and Hutch are on the case.

Terror On The Docks - A fellow cop goes undercover to dig up some clues on a series of robberies that have occurred along the city's waterfront. While on the job, he winds up dead and the two detectives are called in to find out why. Things take a turn into weirdsville when a long time friend of Hutch is about to tie the knot to someone who might know more about the case than anyone suspects.

The Deadly Imposter - John Colby is a longtime friend of Starsky and Hutch. When he finds himself back in town, he hopes he can convince his two friends to help him track down Karen, his ex-wife. The pair agrees to help out their old friend, but the more they look into it the more things they uncover that just don't make sense in the context of Colby's story.

Shootout - Starsky and Hutch have had a bad day at work. They ended up having to interrogate some guy for way too long and now they just want to kick back and relax. So they go out for a nice meal at a local Italian restaurant, but while they're there, Mafia woes interrupt their night out as two rival syndicates start duking it out over the life of a boss. In the ensuing shoot out, Starsky gets hurt pretty bad when he's shot, and Hutch has to work overtime to keep his friend alive and get him out of there without getting shot up himself.

The Hostages - Starsky and Hutch are pretty friendly with the waitress who hopes they'll help her track down her missing friend. Sadly though, they do find him, but it's too late and the man is dead when he's discovered. While investigating the circumstances, the pair uncovers a plot to rob an armored car and hold the pregnant wife of the driver as a hostage. John Ritter makes a cameo appearance in this episode.

Losing Streak - Vic Rankin is a pianist who has seen better days. Things aren't going so well for him, so he ends up stealing some money from his former boss under the justification that he owed it to him anyway. Desperate times call for desperate measures, right? Well, it turns out that the cash that Rankin swiped is actually counterfeit and Vic has bitten off way more than he can chew because his former boss has got some pretty serious ties to the mob. Starsky, fighting a toothache the entire time, and Hutch set out to track down Rankin before the mob puts him away, six feet under.

Silence - Larry is an ex-con. He's also a deaf mute. Starsky and Hutch make his acquaintance when they bring him in on a petty charge. There might be more to Larry than the pair realize though, as there seems to be a pretty long trail connecting a series of more serious crimes to him and the half way house that he now lives in. Starsky and Hutch figure he's innocent though and that someone is using him, so they set out to clear his name and save the day.

The Omaha Tiger - Seventies sexpot Marilyn Joi makes an un-credited cameo appearance in this episode, the first one not to feature an appearance by Captain Dobey. A retired cop named Mac Johnson is now working as a wrestling promoter. Starsky and Hutch pay him a social call one day, and when they do, he spills the beans about some weird circumstances resulting in a man's death that may or may not have been an accident. But soon enough, Johnson himself winds up dead too, so the pair set out to bring his killer to justice and solve the mystery for good. Huggy Bear, meanwhile, is running a mouse racing racket.

Jojo - The pair are on a pretty important stack out that they ditch in order to stop serial rapist Jojo Forentic from claiming his latest victim. Huggy Bear sets out to make some bread with his latest scheme, selling glow in the dark plastic crucifixes. Once the detectives get Forentic into custody though, they find themselves having a tough time making the charges stick as none of his victims are up to testifying against him – they're all too scared to stand trial. Looks like Jojo might have some useful information about a national drug ring though, and the feds swoop in when this information comes to light, though Starsky and Hutch really want to see him locked up.

Running - Starsky used to go to school with a model who has since drowned all of her sorrows in the bottle. When she comes home one night to find a thief robbing her apartment, the cops finger him as not only a cat burglar, but a suspected murderer as well. She's able to ID him though, and Starsky figures she's at risk because of that. He suggests she let the police guard her, but she refuses so he puts his life on the line and risks losing his job when he decides that he'll hide her out on his own. The problem with that idea though is that the burglar has a few thugs who he works with who are more than happy to search her down and kill her, and anyone who might want to get in their war.

A Coffin For Starsky - A masked man busts into Starsky's pad one night and shoots him up with a lethal poison that will kill him in roughly twenty-four hours time. As Starsky becomes more and more ill from the toxin, Hutch races against time to find out what the antidote is but in order to do that he's got to figure out what the poison is and the only one who knows what the poison is, is the masked burglar who gave it to him in the first place.

The Bounty Hunter - A man skips bail and when pursued he shoots a copy dead in cold blood. Starsky and Hutch are called in to track him down but as they try and chase him down the find that there's also a bail bondswoman on the case too, and in hot pursuit. Will the detectives get the crook before the bondswoman does? And when they catch him can they prove his guilt?

Video:

Columbia/Tri-Star has done a solid job delivering this fan favorite series to digital format. While it's not a perfect presentation, it looks far better than I had expected it to, and for a television series that is coming up on its thirtieth anniversary, there's really very little to complain about. There is some dirt here and there, a few specs and the like, but the colors look pretty solid, the contrast is set properly, and compression artifacts are almost non-existent (except during one or two moments where there is some rain on the screen – if you look for them during these scenes, you will see them, but they're not too distracting). Some of the episodes are in better shape than others, but for the most part they all look quite good, save for a couple of moments in an episode here and there were the darker scenes are a little muddier than maybe they should have been.