DATED CULTURAL MARKERS

“Why does that sound like something Nixon might have said to Haldeman and Erlichman?”
(Starsky and Hutch Are Guilty)

A dated cultural marker is something in the show that is perhaps no longer true. It could be the mention of computer cards or a sight of a television repair truck, two things not used or seen any longer. It could be a subject that enjoyed a past heyday. For instance, many people practice yoga and meditation today, but in Bay City it was something new. And just like fruit flies are still around today, in the mid to late 1970’s, they were a importer/exporter’s nightmare.

Dated cultural markers and references
• “Deli meats” are called “cold cuts.” (Little Girl Lost, Crying Child, Vendetta)
• “Husband beating” is played for laughs. Officer Sweeny says there is no charge of "First Degree Husband Beating.” (Starsky’s Brother)
• “Is the Pope a Pole?” asks Huggy. Why, yes he is! Pope John Paul 2 had been in office almost exactly seven months to the day episode aired. (Sweet Revenge)
• A case of calculators is worth stealing. (Texas Longhorn)
• A fruit fly scare is thought of to ground Amapola. (Murder at Sea).
• A phone rang and rang and rang and rang until someone answered it. (Snowstorm, Golden Angel, Kill Huggy Bear)
• A theater is showing “La Nino Tizoc,” a movie that was released in 1972. (Huggy Can’t Go Home)
• A theater is showing “Legend of Hell House” and “Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia.” (Bait)
• A toyshop clerk could tell you what other customers have bought for the birthday child. (Nightmare, Crying Child)
• Accounting was done with ledger books. (Gillian, Action)
• Ace says that Jack plays a lot of phonograph records. (Las Vegas Strangler)
• Age of Aquarius is mentioned and relevant. (Targets 2)
• Airport security is rudimentary. (Plague, Starsky’s Brother, Targets 3)
• "All tractors have a crank." (Trap)
• Allison’s house has a “den.” (Targets 2)
• An artist’s work going up in value after death? The gender of said artist is assumed to be male. (Photo Finish)
• An officer uses a reel-to-reel camera to do surveillance outside the Velvet Slide. (Starsky’s Brother)
• Angel drives a television repair truck. (Cover Girl)
• Ashtrays are everywhere, banks, squad room, on Dobey’s desk, Starsky’s bedroom…(various)
• Asian Flu is mentioned. (Dandruff)
• Aside from Starsky calling coffee “java” once in a truck stop, which gets him a confused look, coffee doesn’t seem to have any nicknames. (Set-Up)
• Bicentennial is relevant. (Bust Amboy, Specialist)
• Cars can backfire. (Manchild on the Streets, Savage Sunday, Huggy Bear and the Turkey)
• Cars have carburetors. (Hutchinson for Murder One, Playboy Island, Manchild on the Streets)
• Chief Ryan has an ink blotter on his desk. (Starsky and Hutch Are Guilty)
• Colby talks about coming back from ‘Nam and it is very fresh on his mind. (Deadly Imposter)
• Cold War tensions with Russia are high. (Body Worth Guarding)
• Disco is big. (Fatal Charm, Discomania, Starsky’s Brother, Avenger, Golden Angel)
• Dobey comments there are fifty ranches between Metro and Pinion Pine Ranch. Not anymore there isn’t. (Bloodbath)
• Dobey mentions R & I using “computer cards” to sort out suspects. (A Coffin for Starsky)
• Dobey reminds Hutch his flight to San Francisco leaves in thirty minutes, so “you’d better get started.” (Sweet Revenge)
• Dobey wants the weekly reports “neatly typed in triplicate.” (Savage Sunday)
• Dr. Simpson assumes shoes were bought in Costa Rica due to label. Global markets haven’t happened yet. (Velvet Jungle)
• Drunk driving and open bottle didn’t seem to be as big an issue. (Manchild on the Streets)
• Free Association is mentioned. (Game)
• Frozen yogurt is something new. (Trap)
• Fruit flies are used as a way to harass Andre’s restaurant. (Bust Amboy)
• Gas pumps advertise “gasoline.” (Action, Death Ride, Captain Dobey, You’re Dead)
• Green Stamps are mentioned. (Blindfold)
• Gunther is only character to have a television remote control. (Targets 3)
• Guy Mayer wears a “Keep on Trucking” tee shirt. (Crying Child)
• Guy’s teacher doesn’t report abuse 1st time, asks Hutch to help her 2nd time and doesn’t discuss it with her principal first. (Crying Child)
• Helen and the other women are wrapped in television antenna wire. (Lady Blue)
• Hospital beds had to be cranked by hand. (Death Ride, Partners)
• Hotels had double-hung windows that could be opened. (Set-Up, Foxy Lady)
• Huggy can win a “refrigerator-freezer.” (Death Ride)
• Hutch asks Su Long “if” he has a telephone. (Psychic)
• Hutch comments Annie has a “trunk full of money,” assuming steamer trunk. (Collector)
• Hutch has an “astrological biorhythm calendar.” (Avenger)
• Hutch jokes that he and Starsky are on their way to an encounter group. (Trap)
• Hutch mentions milk bottles on a house’s stoop. (Black and Blue)
• Hutch notes as a clue, “When you go away, you call your answering service.” (Black and Blue)
• Hutch puts a cigarette in his mouth, lights it, and hands it over to Linda with no regard to germs. (Jojo)
• Hutch tells Theresa to call the “emergency operator” for police help. (Shootout)
• Hutch’s apartment is over a crepe restaurant. (Hutchinson for Murder One, various)
• It is mentioned the Slate story will be in headlines of all the papers in the city. Cities had more than one rag. (Strange Justice)
• Jane Hutton says she “has an encounter group.” (Murder Ward)
• Janice Regan gets a telegram telling her Bert Regan drowned. (Playboy Island)
• Jerry Perry reminds Starsky and Hutch that there is a “sexual revolution going on.” (Playboy Island)
• Joey’s mom is late for an EST Meeting. (Trap)
• Joey’s mother is a “liberated mother.” (Trap)
• Julie West is down at “mimeo.” (Murder on Stage 17)
• Kids delivered the newspapers. (Manchild on the Streets)
• Kingston answers the phone “Save the Whales.” (Quadromania)
• Lisa Graham pours milk out of a glass bottle. (Nightmare)
• Lisa wears a Fonz sweatshirt. It has the Fonz in an Uncle Sam Bicentennial hat. (Nightmare)
• LPs are seen and used. (Tap Dancing, Ballad for a Blue Lady, Game, Black and Blue)
• Manning and Lewis carry their loot in two gunny sacks. (Nightmare)
• Marcie Fletcher has a Schlitz beer sign in her living room. (Photo Finish)
• Meditation is used. (Game)
• Merle the Earl refers to “peanuts in the White House.” (Bloodbath)
• Morris the Cat tee-shirt is seen on woman in crowd. (Cover Girl)
• Mr. Marlene puts comb in his mouth at salon and doesn’t think of germs. (Huggy Bear and the Turkey)
• Nash mentions watching home movies at his house using a projector and a reel of film. (Set-Up)
• Nick bought his suit “off the rack.” Starsky comments it looks nice anyway. (Starsky’s Brother)
• Nick will get his money from Stryker “C.O.D,” “Collect On Delivery.” (Starsky’s Brother)
• Nurses had little white caps. (Sweet Revenge, Ninety Pounds of Trouble, various)
• One “dials” a phone. (Pilot)
• People talk about the Nixon administration as a very current memory. (Targets 1)
• People use “valises” and “satchels.” (Black and Blue, Foxy Lady)
• People use snow tires. (Texas Longhorn)
• Pet rocks are big. (Committee)
• Policewomen wore skirts (Specialist, Starsky’s Brother, Captain Dobey, You’re Dead)
• Polly calls his slide ruler his calculator. (Lady Blue)
• Polly mentions sonic booms. (Lady Blue)
• Public pay phones are everywhere. (various)
• Puka beads were current. (Vendetta)
• Racquetball was big. (Action)
• Red checked table clothes and red mesh candles in restaurants are ubiquitous, in the episodes through the third season. Then the candles change to yellow. (various)
• Russ Hotel has a color television, but only in the lounge. (Heroes)
• Security cameras and the idea of constant surveillance was something novel. (Action, Set-Up)
• Shah of Iran is mentioned. (Quadromania)
• Sharon Freemont turned to crime because she was tired of waiting for the Equal Rights Amendment to pass. (Starsky and Hutch Are Guilty)
• Shorty-shorts on both men and women. (Action, Vendetta, Rosey Malone)
• Sign in gym’s locker room reads, “Turn off the lights, save jobs, conserve energy.” (Golden Angel)
• Slide shows as public presentation. (Playboy Island, Sweet Revenge)
• Starsky “has a seamstress.” (Photo Finish)
• Starsky and Hutch both mention their icebox. (Gillian, Starsky’s Brother)
• Starsky and Hutch give someone the peace sign. (Targets 1, Golden Angel, Hutchinson for Murder One)
• Starsky and Hutch seem astounded a man who can make pretty pottery can also beat his kids. (Crying Child)
• Starsky and Hutch enter Molly's yard. They take Molly down to police station without her parent’s knowledge or consent. (Hostages)
• Starsky feels he is a “liberated man,” at least when it comes to sexual matters. (Committee)
• Starsky and Hutch talk about sending Jojo "a cable," one they deliver in person. (Jojo)
• Starsky has to ask Mrs. Yeager “if” she has a telephone. (Plague)
• Starsky holds LPs at Ginger’s. They are “Soundcraft Recording Discs.” (Tap Dancing)
• Starsky mentions “ring around the collar.” (Pilot)
• Starsky mentions an Avis television commercial “when you are second, you try harder.” (Hostages)
• Starsky mentions his karma. (Rosey Malone, Quadromania)
• Starsky orders his tank to be filled with “regular.” (Satan’s Witches)
• Starsky puts whistle in his mouth after Olga Grossman had it in hers with no thought to germs. (Gillian)
• Starsky refers to Sirhan Sirhan and James Earl Ray. (Set-Up)
• Starsky says “girls are trying out for the football team.” (Vampire)
• Starsky says “we are landing cameras on Mars and they are taking pictures.” (Vampire)
• Starsky says about Terry Roberts, “Ya know, if she were having our baby right now, she’d want me there with her to share it,” which today is mostly assumed. (Starsky’s Lady)
• Starsky tells Cole to “keep on truckin’.” (Hostages)
• Starsky treats kid’s bloody head with bare hands. Then he opens a snack and uses his hands to eat it. (Savage Sunday)
• Sterling talks to his boss, gets Dobey’s number, and they play a lot of phone tag. This gives Dobey wiggle room due to no computer or fax. (Velvet Jungle)
• Syringes are referred to as “hypos.” (A Coffin for Starsky)
• Ted is in bad enough shape for Starsky to tell him to “hold on, just hold on,” but there is a dearth of medical intervention. (Action)
• Terry Roberts dies in bed without a lot of machines or equipment. (Starsky’s Lady)
• The “Big Jumbo Cup,” seen with Huggy and his business manager, looks more like a small cup of today. (Strange Justice)
• The car phone is huge! (Targets 3)
• The encyclopedia sales men still went door to door. (Hostages)
• The energy crisis is mentioned. (Quadromania)
• The hospital keeps Starsky for “observation” long after they would today. (Partners)
• The hospitals had carpet in the hallways. (Game)
• The idea of a bum selling pencils on the street is believable. (Game)
• The idea of a three-way phone call is miraculous. (Death Notice)
• The Jacuzzi is going to get an “herb solution.” (Trap)
• The scopitone, invented in 1960s, jukebox with 16mm film, last one made: 1978. “Scopitone” seen on side of Rocky’s. (Bust Amboy)
• The store beneath Frankie’s Gym repairs radios and phonographs. (Pilot)
• The telephone operator is needed to make an international call. (Hutchinson for Murder One)
• The telephone operator tells Amy Harry’s phone is off the hook. (Hostages)
• There are ecology concerns and the word “ecology” is used. (Las Vegas Strangler)
• There are still phone numbers with letters in them: CR36611 = Beverly Hill’s cab (Plague), EX 7243 Main Liquor and Deli (Snowstorm), HO4 9201 = Fair Bail Bonds (Bounty Hunter), HN1 4270 = Wizard Fence (Kill Huggy Bear), OL4 4232 = Duke’s Used Clothing (Las Vegas Strangler), Q96415 = Sue Ann’s hotel room Long Walk), RI 95171 = Olympic Sports Arena (Omaha Tiger)
• There are stores that just sell typewriters. (Starsky and Hutch Are Guilty, Pariah)
• There is a “litterbug” slogan on the public trash cans. (Pilot)
• There is a Hamm’s beer sign in bar. (Kill Huggy Bear)
• There is a radio repair store on the same block as Huggy Bear’s. (Snowstorm)
• There is still enough rat poison with strychnine in people’s garages and basements to keep Paul Rizzo supplied. (Heroes)
• Thirty miles is too far to drive after work. Folks drive this, and more, regularly today. (Las Vegas Strangler)
• To get a hold of the media, all Hutch has to do is call the operator and ask “for the local wire service.” (Savage Sunday)
• Today, a child calling in a parent hitting him or her would be taken much more seriously than Hutch takes Stuart Ross’s complaint. (Cover Girl)
• Vicky makes her own soap, which “doesn’t mess up the ecology." (Las Vegas Strangler)
• Waitresses in restaurants often wore little hats. (Foxy Lady, Set-Up, Specialist)
• Watergate is relevant. (Death in a Different Place, Pilot, Starsky and Hutch Are Guilty, Targets 1)
• When someone mentions “carbs,” it is in relation to carburetors, not carbohydrates. (Avenger)
• Woman in crowd when Lindsay is killed is wearing a Morris the Cat t-shirt. (Cover Girl)
• Huggy has a comb handle sticking out of his back jeans pocket. (Huggy Can’t Go Home)

Counter culture/subculture
• Chris Phelps writes a newspaper article about the Counter Culture Cops, the New Breed. (Heroes)
• Starsky asks Rolly if the Subculture Social Athletic Club has jackets with their names on them. (Texas Longhorn)
• Rolly refers to the Code of the Subculture. (Texas Longhorn)
• Laura comments Starsky’s sloppy clothes are part of the counter culture of dressing-down. (Velvet Jungle)

Starsky and Americana
• "Americans reaching out to one another across the air waves, fingers fumbling through the air waves" (Set-Up)
• apple pie (Set-Up)
• beer bottles (Long Walk)
• broken hearts (Long Walk)
• CB radio (Set-Up)
• has bicentennial drinking glasses (Starsky’s Lady)
• ice cream (Set-Up)
• java (Set-Up)
• sense of hospitality in America (Satan’s Witches)
• small town charm (Satan’s Witches)
• Starsky tells Rigger not liking Westerns or watching television is very un-American (Targets 1)
• taverns (Long Walk)
• truck stops (Long Walk)

Computers
• Bettin has a computer and uses it to calculate a minimal risk with Jojo. (Jojo)
• The Car Club’s computer tells Hutch he doesn’t exist. (Lady Blue)
• Computer cards are mentioned. (A Coffin for Starsky)
• Dobey asks if the computer has “spilled out a make yet.” (Texas Longhorn)
• Hutch is going to run his fifty possibles through the computer. (Huggy Can’t Go Home)
• Dobey says “according to the computer” regarding information about Bessinger. (Silence)
• Ellis and Dinty blow up the computer security system. (Dandruff)
• Hutch asks “Detective Services” to “add that to the program you’re running.” (Texas Longhorn)
• Hutch calls Federal Agent Bettin “a skin graft off a computer.” (Running)
• A computer seen in background of Officer Charlie Collin’s office. (A Coffin for Starsky)
• Starsky calls the “Computing Center.” (Starsky’s Brother)
• Hutch studies vast amounts of computer printouts. (Sweet Revenge)
• Hutch asks Officer Wallenby to put information in the computer. (Sweet Revenge)
• Hutch asks Dobey to run Jenny Brown’s name through the computer. (Sweet Revenge)
• Minnie and Hutch study computer printouts looking for Angel’s M.O. (Cover Girl)
• The vault alarm at the hotel is run by a “computerized circuit board.” (Dandruff)

1970’s simple solutions
• alcohol addiction “just needs a good drying out” (Running)
• heroin, just needs a 48 hour dry-out (Fix)
• gambling addiction, just need the money to pay back that LAST bet (Action)
• gambling addiction, just need a job and a good scare (Losing Streak)
• Though both Perkowitz and Hutch mention it is irregular, Hutch still manages to be able to take Molly home with him overnight. (Little Girl Lost)
• healed marriage, just need to quit the job your wife hates (Heavyweight)
• suicide, just need to take the razor out of her hand (Running)
• shoplifting, just tell her to keep clean and promise a date later (Trap)
• have your favorite orphan adopted by your Big Brother’s mom (Little Girl Lost)
• get your brother out of a jam, play some pool with him and all should be much better (Starsky’s Brother)

1970’s fascination with psychology, spirituality, mumbo jumbo and interpersonal relationships
• Starsky is interested in “ESP Quotient.” (Black and Blue)
• Hutch’s has excellent “extrasensory perception,” though this has nothing to do with being blind. (Blindfold)
• Starsky has an interest in the book about control and intimidation, and Hutch makes a subsequent crack about “that human dynamics garbage.” (Discomania)
• Mrs. Carston has a “spiritual advisor.” (Ninety Pounds of Trouble)
• Mrs. Carston wants to share Hutch’s “space for a few seconds.” (Ninety Pounds of Trouble)
• Mrs. Carston speaks of est, (Erhard Seminars Training). (Trap)
• Hutch sarcastically speaks of an encounter group. (Trap)
• Hutch comments, “I must be psychic.” Starsky’s rejoinder, “Since when?” (Body Worth Guarding)
• Jane Hutton speaks of her encounter group. (Murder Ward)
• Simon talks of meditation. (Bloodbath)
• Hutch meditates and offers to teach Starsky. ( Game)
• Hutch uses “Free Association” with Starsky. (Game)
• Hutch would like to live another one hundred years so he can “…meditate…explore new areas” of his mind. (Plague)
• Starsky speaks of his karma in relationship to relationships. ( Rosey Malone)
• Starsky comment on his karma (carma), in regards to getting a checker cab (Quadromania)
• Hutch comments on Randolph’s aura (Cover Girl)
• Hutch wants Starsky to try free association. (Game)
• Hutch plots out Starsky’s biorhythms. (Avenger)
• Blaze says it is all about blue ions. (Targets 2)
• Huggy talks of being "into heavy vibes.” (Deadly Imposter)

Watergate and Nixon
• Nick Hunter says he “will do a John Dean.” (Death in a Different Place)
• Hutch comments about Tallman’s dislike of people wearing wires, “There goes his political career.” (Pilot)
• Starsky says, “Why does that sound like something Nixon might have said to Haldeman and Erlichman?” (Starsky and Hutch Are Guilty)
• One showgirl says to other showgirl she hasn’t seen a peace sign since Nixon resigned. (Targets 1)