Friday, August 05, 2011

Know Your LGBT History - Starsky and Hutch

An announcement - In celebration of the fifth anniversary of Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters, I will be having a Know Your LGBT History marathon of six posts on a Saturday in September. These posts will feature the good, bad, and ugly portrayals of the gay community in movies and television. Some will piss you off, others will make you cheer. But they will all be new entries. More info later. For now, tell me what you think of the idea.

Starsky and Hutch was a popular cop drama in the 1970s starring David Soul and Paul Michael Glaser as two unorthodox policemen fighting crime in California. Antonio Fargas also starred and stole the show a lot of times with his character of HuggyBear.

I think it's safe to say that Starsky and Hutch, while popular during the four seasons it was on (1975-1979) wasn't necessarily groundbreaking.

However, the action was awesome, the chemistry between Soul and Glaser was tight, and the plots were original.

Such as the plot to the episode Death in a Different Place. In this episode, a policeman an old friend of Starsky's is found murdered in a sleazy motel. As they investigate the crime, Starsky and Hutch find out that the man was involved in gay relationships. And the question has to be did that have anything to do with his murder?

Careful about what you think so far. The episodes takes many twists and terms, showing both infuriating ignorance about the gay community and some of the characters are sleazy as hell. However the episode does show a bit of sensitivity - particularly with the murdered man's wife who knew of his encounters but loved him anyway.

So was Starky's friend murdered because he was gay? Find out for yourself via this mini version of the episode. And just in case you are wondering, yes that is legendary drag queen Charles Pierce featured in this episode:



Past Know Your LGBT Posts:

Know Your LGBT History - The Naked Civil Servant

 Know your LGBT History - Partners

 Know Your LGBT History - All in the Family: Cousin Liz

Know Your LGBT History - Rebecca

Know Your LGBT History - urban African-American movies

Know Your LGBT History - Charles Pierce

 Know Your LGBT History - Torch Song Trilogy

The Best of Know Your LGBT History

Know Your LGBT History - Masters of Horror - Sick Girl

 Know Your LGBT History - MadTV

 Know Your LGBT History - Gimme A Break

Know Your LGBT History - Not Another Gay Movie

Know Your LGBT History - My Beautiful Laundrette

Know Your LGBT History - The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Know Your LGBT History - I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry

Know Your LGBT History - The Gay Deceivers

 Know Your LGBT History - Reflections in a Golden Eye

Know Your LGBT History - Dynasty

 Know Your LGBT History - Milk

 Know Your LGBT History - Black Shampoo

Know Your LGBT History - Never Too Young To Die

 Know Your LGBT History - All About Eve

Know Your LGBT History - Hotel

Know Your LGBT History - The Streets of San Francisco

Know Your LGBT History - Two looks at transgender characters in films

Know Your LGBT History - Flawless

Know Your LGBT History - Mahogany

Know Your LGBT History - Beverly Hills Cop

Know Your LGBT History - Some Like It Hot

Know Your LGBT History - Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia 

Know Your LGBT History - Dirty Laundry

Know Your LGBT History - The Willie Witch Project

Know Your LGBT History - Spartacus

Know Your LGBT History - Caged

Know Your LGBT History - The Birdcage

Know Your LGBT History - Maude

Know Your LGBT History - That Certain Summer

Know Your LGBT History - Boat Trip

Know Your LGBT History - Staircase

Know Your LGBT History - Beautiful Thing

Know Your LGBT History - Armed and Dangerous

Know Your LGBT History - The Proud Family

Know Your LGBT History - Suddenly Last Summer

Know Your LGBT History - Gay TV Now

Know Your LGBT History - Stewardess School

Know Your LGBT History - Up the Academy

Know Your LGBT History - Don't be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood

Know Your LGBT History - A Different Story

Know Your LGBT History - Victim

Know Your LGBT History - The Color Purple

Know Your LGBT History - Making Love

Know Your LGBT History - A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge

Know Your LGBT History - Noah's Arc

Know Your LGBT History - Ode to Billy Joe

Know Your LGBT History - Adorable Adrian Adonis

Know Your LGBT History - The Night Strangler

Know Your LGBT History - All in the Family

Know Your LGBT History - Tongues Untied

Know Your LGBT History - The Celluloid Closet

Know Your LGBT History - Querelle

Know Your LGBT History - Theatre of Blood

Know Your LGBT History - Strange Fruit

Know Your LGBT History - Designing Women

Know Your LGBT History - The Children's Hour

Know Your LGBT History - Sylvester

Know Your LGBT History - Once Bitten

Know Your LGBT History - The Boys in the Band

Know Your LGBT History - Christopher Morley, the crossdressing assassin

Know Your LGBT History - Midnight Cowboy

Know Your LGBT History - Dracula's Daughter

Know Your LGBT History - Blacula

Know Your LGBT History - 3 Strikes

Know Your LGBT History - Paris Is Burning

Know Your LGBT History - The Women

Know your LGBT History - Soul Plane

Know Your LGBT History - The Player's Club

Special Know Your LGBT History - Fame

Know Your LGBT History - Welcome Home, Bobby

Know Your LGBT History - Barney Miller

Know your lgbt history - The Jerry Springer Show

Know your lgbt history - Martin Lawrence and that 'gay guy' on his show

Know your lgbt history - The Ricki Lake Show

Know your lgbt history - Which Way Is Up

Know your lgbt history - Gays in Primetime Soaps

Know your lgbt history - Boys Beware

Know your lgbt history - The Boondocks

Know your lgbt history - Mannequin

Know your lgbt history - The Warriors

Know Your LGBT History - New York Undercover

Know Your LGBT History - Low Down Dirty Shame

Know Your LGBT History - Fortune and Men's Eyes

Know your lgbt history - California Suite

Know your lgbt history - Taxi (Elaine's Strange Triangle)

Know your lgbt history - Come Back Charleston Blue

Know your lgbt history - James Bond goes gay

Know your lgbt history - Windows

Know your lgbt history - To Wong Foo and Priscilla

Know your lgbt history - Blazing Saddles

Know your lgbt history - Sanford and Son

Know your lgbt history - In Living Color

Know your lgbt history - Cleopatra Jones and her lesbian drug lords

Know your lgbt history - Norman, Is That You?

Know your lgbt history - The 'Exotic' Adrian Street

Know your lgbt history - The Choirboys

Know your lgbt history - Eddie Murphy

Know your lgbt history - The Killing of Sister George

Know your lgbt history - Hanna-Barbera cartoons pushes the 'gay agenda

'Know your lgbt history - Cruising

Know your lgbt history - Foxy Brown and Cleopatra Jones

Know your lgbt history - I Got Da Hook Up

Know your lgbt history - Fright Night

Know your lgbt history - Flowers of Evil

The Jeffersons and the transgender community 
 

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6 comments:

  1. I was massively in lust with Paul Michael Glaser, especially after he did the Houdini movie.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous11:39 PM

    "...fighting crime in New York City."

    From wikipedia, "they were known for usually tearing around the streets of fictional "Bay City, California"."

    ReplyDelete
  3. whoops. change made anonymous. thank you for that ;p

    ReplyDelete
  4. Charles would have slapped you silly for calling him a "drag queen," and in his best Joan Crawford voice, would have told you, "I am NOT a drag queen, I AM a male actress."

    I was acquainted with Charles and he hated, absolutely hated, being called a "drag queen."

    ReplyDelete
  5. LOL. So true Tom. By the way, I did a tribute to him in a past post. It's listed in the archives.

    ReplyDelete