The fourth season of Starsky & Hutch ran from September 1978 until May 15, 1979 when it was cancelled but again, it pretty much stayed true to the tried and tested formula that made the first three seasons of the now famous buddy cop show successful. 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. In the third season 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 but this is balanced out in the fourth seasons with some good humor and a few lighter episodes as well.

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 (especially in the later episodes where the comedy became a larger portion of the series), even if it started off a little on the grim side. Each episode the two cops would go undercover to stop a killer or solve a crime but along the way there'd usually be fun little subplots sometimes involving one of the leads and other times the supporting characters. This last season contains some really good writing and clever ideas but at the same time things feel a little gimmicky in spots possibly in an attempt to save the show from the dwindling ratings that eventually killed it. Before that happened, however, the show managed to make quite a splash and looking back on it decades later, it was pretty influential.

Here are a few highlight episodes from the fourth season:

Discomania: The fourth seasons starts off with a bang when Starsky and Hutch have to go undercover at a disco called The Fever to stop a serial killer from claiming his fourth victim. Bad outfits and music from The Village People give this one a really humorous edge that hasn't aged too well but there are some rather frightening moments in here. We also learn that Hutch's dance moves kind of suck and Adrian Zmed shows up as a Travolta wannabe.

The Game: The boys are tracking down a wanted man and they screw it up. Neither is willing to take the blame so they make a bet that Starsky can't keep tabs on Hutch for an entire weekend. Soon though, Starskey finds out that Hutch has eaten bad soup (seriously) and that he could possibly die from it. The problem is that Hutch thinks this is all part of the game so he continues to try and evade his partner who, by this point in time, is trying to save his life.

Moonshine: There's bad moonshine making the rounds out in the sticks and when Starsky and Hutch find out that two people have been poisoned by it, they go undercover as hillbillies to try and figure out how to put a stop to things. Unfortunately for them, the man behind the whole moonshine smuggling operation is a vicious killer who doesn't care who dies from his rot-gut whiskey or who he has to kill to keep his business afloat.

Strange Justice: Detective Slate's daughter is the victim of a brutal rape and assault. This shatters his belief in the justice system and he ends up shooting the man (though not fatally) when he's brought in to answer a few questions. Soon it looks like the rapist is going to get away with it and that Slate is going to wind up in jail which sends Slate on a bit of a rampage where he wants to take care of things as judge, jury and executioner. Starsky and Hutch are called in to get things under control in one of the darker episodes of this season.

Starsky's Brother (A. K. A. Starsky's Little Brother): Nick Starsky, the younger brother of everyone's favorite cop, arrives in town to hang out with his old brother for a while. Unfortunately, it seems that Nick might be involved with some crooks which causes Starsky some obvious concern. Things get even more complicated when the feds stake out a restaurant that's suspected of being a money laundering front and Nick is scene going inside.

The Golden Angel: In one of the dumbest (albeit completely entertaining) episodes not only of the season but of the entire series' run, Starsky enters the ring as a wrestler when he and Hutch are sent undercover to help out a professional fighter who finds himself on the receiving end of some rather frightening death threats.

Huggy Can't Go Home (aka Huggy Can't Go Back): Huggy Bear finds himself in some seriously hot water when an underground poker/gambling event turns sour on him. He doesn't want to have to resort to anything illegal but it's looking like he isn't going to have much of a choice unless his good pals Starsky and Hutch can help him out and save the day.

Targets Without A Badge Part One, Two And Three (A.K.A. The Snitch): In this three-part episode, Huggy Bear tells Starsky and Hutch about a guy he knows with ties to a judge involved in a drug smuggling operation. Unfortunately before Huggy Bear's friend can testify in court he's murdered and Starsky and Hutch find themselves on the outs with Huggy. The pair decide to retire because of this but soon find out about an internal blackmail scam related to the case that they can't resist and before you know it they've tied it all together.

The rest of the episodes contained in this set are:

While the first two seasons were perfect examples of how good a lean, mean cop show could be, this fourth season isn't quite as intense. That being said, despite the fact that it was the last we'd see of the two detectives, it was a step up from the third season as it was a little more creative. By this point fans knew the characters well enough and the writers seemed to have had a really good grip on what made them tick and what made them fun to watch and they played up on that in a few episodes but still managed to pack some really good, exciting television in here as well. The series went out somewhere between a bang and a whimper – it's not the 'be all end all' that the early material was but it's not horrible either and instead it's simply fun, entertaining television that can still be enjoyed as fun and entertaining television decades after the fact.

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 and during the opening credits. Flesh tones look pretty clean and natural though, and the black levels remain pretty stable and solid throughout. Edge enhancement is a non-issue, as is edge enhancement though if you look for it you'll pick up on some mild aliasing. For the most part, however, these episodes really do look quite good..