The third season of Starsky & Hutch ran from 1977 until 1978 and pretty much stayed true to the tried and tested formula that made the first two episodes of the now famous buddy cop show. That means lots of action, car chases, shoot outs, and hot chicks as well as some great 'buddy cop' joking around and a lot of humor from the supporting cast like Huggy Bear and Captain Dobey. At the same time, things began to get a little bit more serious. The duo started tackling more realistic social woes and the show began to develop some stories that were more adult and grown up in nature.

The brutality, action and car chases were strong by the standards of the day, and the show made a name for itself with its realistic portrayal of violence. The humor and friendship between the two leads though more than made up for it, and the show almost always ended on a lighter note, even if it started off a little on the grim side.

Murder On Voodoo Island (Part 1): William Thorne is the world's richest man, and he just happens to own a private island. When some strange things start going down on Thorne's island, Starsky and Hutch head his way to look into things. Soon some of Thorne's people start dropping dead from what looks to be the work of Voodoo! Joan Collins guest stars.

Murder On Voodoo Island (Part 2): In the second part of the episode the plot thickens and things get more dangerous when a couple more people wind up dead. Will Starsky and Hutch be able to solve the Voodoo killings before it's too late?

Fatal Charm: Starsky and Hutch team up with police officer Linda Baylor (Roz Kelly) to setup and knock down a known dope peddler. Hutch gets hurt and winds up in the hospital where he meets a nurse (Karen Valentine) and they end up going out on date but when Hutch wants to break it off, she's got other, more 'fatal' ideas…

I Love You, Rosey Malone: Starsky, player that he is, meets a hot chick while out jogging. The higher ups know that she's connected, as her father is a high powered syndicate boss, and they want Starsky to work her for information. Soon though, Starsky starts to really fall for the girl and he finds out that he's being played just as she is by the big wigs downtown.

Murder Ward: Starsky and Hutch head out on an undercover mission at a psychiatric hospital – Starsky as the patient and Hutch as his orderly. It turns out there have been a few mysterious deaths at the hospital and our heroes intend to find out why. They team up with a female reporter who has also snuck in undercover, and they unravel a series of illegal drug tests. Suzanne Somers guest stars.

Death in a Different Place: Starsky's old pal winds up dead in a flea bag motel known for its local prostitution problem. The two cops investigate the scene, and find out that he actually had a secret gay life that no one really knew about – but that still doesn't explain why he's dead.

The Crying Child: A primary school teacher becomes confused when one of her students begins to show up regularly with bruises all over his body. She fears abuse and Starsky and Hutch are called in. They find they abuse is real, but in order to save the boy they're going to have to prove it. Dee Wallace Stone of The Howling and Nancy McKeon of The Facts Of Lifeguest star.

The Heroes: A newspaper reporter is assigned to follow around our cops for a day or two to get a story on them. They're not too happy about it but they do their best to impress her while she tags along as they try to nab a drug dealer. The results aren't quite what the pair had hoped for.

The Plague (Part 1): Starsky and Hutch head out to the airport to pick up a coworker who has been away on business, only to have him drop dead from a strange disease shortly after. It seems he's been infected with a deadly virus being spread by an assassin who has his eyes on a bigger target…

The Plague (Part 2): With the assassin still on the loose, Starsky and Hutch have got to kick it into high gear to stop the deadly virus from spreading further and taking more innocent lives. Starsky gets infected, and Hutch has to rush to find the antidote in time to save his partner and friend before it's too late.

The Collector: A small time crook muscle's his way into a bigger racket and gets himself a job as a debt collector for a former child actor gone bad. Starsky and Hutch start investigating and Hutch finds out that his woman's dad is on this guys list. Huggy Bear buys himself a bar. Danny DeVito guest stars.

Manchild On The Streets: A friend of the detective duo is shot dead when he and a pal wind up on the wrong side of a drunken high speed chase. The man's teenage son swears revenge and starts to head down the wrong path hoping to avenge his father's death. Starsky and Hutch want to stop him and get him the help he needs, but they don't have much time.

The Action: A friend of our heroes gets his ass kicked after welching on a gambling debt. Starsky and Hutch are called in on the scene, and have to work their way into the illegal gambling club (which happens to be in the back of a big truck) where it happened in order to bring the criminals to justice. Melanie Griffith guest stars.

The Heavyweight: Starsky and Hutch meet a former heavyweight boxing champ who now works the docks in town. He's the only witness to the murder of a police officer, and his testimony is important but his life gets on the line when he refuses to throw a fight for a local hoodlum.

A Body Worth Guarding: A Russian ballerina is in town, but some political wing nuts want her dead. Starsky and Hutch are assigned to guard her, and Hutch and the lovely dancer soon fall for each other.

The Trap: Starsky and Hutch head out to shop for Starsky's new watch and end up chasing a shoplifter. Huggy bear calls them shortly after to complain that his bar was wrecked up by some toughs looking for information on the two cops. It's all leading in to one giant setup for the pair of policemen, and the young shoplifter's life ends up in peril. Kristy McNichol and Pat Morita (The Karate Kid) guest star.

Satan's Witches: Captain Dobey lets Starsky and Hutch use his remote mountain cabin for a little rest and relaxation, and the pair find that the locals aren't too happy to receive them. The reason why? They worship the devil, and Charles Napier leads them!

Class in Crime: A series of very clever murders takes place and only Starsky and Hutch can solve the crime. Hutch enlists the aid of his old college professor who may know more about what's going on than the two cops realize.

Hutchinson: Murder One: Hutch's ex-wife comes back into the picture to try and work things out with the man, and she hits him with the bombshell that she has cancer. The next morning, Hutch finds her dead in his apartment, and he's the prime suspect! Two feds are called in and it looks like Hutch is going to go away for a very long time, but not if Starsky can help it.

Foxy Lady: A mysterious man is killed for the contents of his briefcase and only a lovely young lady named Lisa saw what happened. Starsky and Hutch are called in on the case and Lisa cleverly uses her feminine whiles to manipulate the pair, as well as the killer, to get to the contents of that briefcase herself.

Partners: Starsky and Hutch get into a car wreck and Hutch hits his head pretty hard. The two are sent to the hospital where it seems Hutch has amnesia, and Starsky tries to snap his memory back into place by telling them stories about events that happened in past episodes – in short, this is a flashback episode.

Quadromania: Starsky goes undercover as a taxi cab driver so that he can find out who's behind a recent rash of cabbie murders. Philip Michael Thomas of Miami Vice guest stars in this episode.

Deckwatch: A sailor is killing hookers around the docks, but one night while out on the prowl he gets shot. He runs and takes some friends of Starsky's hostage after breaking into their home in the middle of the night. Starsky and Hutch have to save the hostages and bring the creep to justice.

Video:

Each episode is shown in this set the same way that it was shown on broadcast television way back when – in glorious 1.33.1 fullframe. Overall quality of the image is pretty strong, but some of the colors look to have faded a bit and there is some mild print damage evident throughout here and there. Flesh tones look pretty clean and natural though, and the black levels remain pretty stable and solid throughout. Edge enhancement, while present, is hardly overpowering and there weren't any issues with mpeg compression that I could see.