NOTES AND MYSTERIES B

"Do you trust me or not?"
 "With my life, yes. With your choice of women, no."
(Starsky and Hutch are Guilty)

• 51.N. Starsky is afraid of rattlesnakes. Hutch tells him there aren’t any at Pine Lake. Starsky says, “There will be when we get there!” How right he is. (Playboy Island, Satan’s Witches)

• 52.M. Why do Simon’s followers abandon the van by the ranch? (Bloodbath)

• 53.N. I expect Hutch to break into song when in front of the morgue, when he says “somehow, somewhere.” (Bait)

• 54.M. Why does Starsky have Hutch’s gun? (Murder on Stage 17)

• 55.N. When Hutch explains to Molly/Pete why she can’t live with him, it is for all the reasons he needs Starsky to move in with him. (Little Girl Lost)

• 56.N. Just suppose: Chris Phelps is a reporter/writer. Gillian said she was a writer. Maybe, and stay with me here, both Starsky and Hutch suffered a head injury and didn’t remember faces well. Maybe Chris and Gillian were the same person, and Gillian was simply undercover? (Gillian, Heroes)

• 57.M. Why does an isolation room have two beds? It seems the best way to isolate something is to keep it apart from any other variables. (Plague)

• 58. M. Vicky buys six pairs of panty hose. She takes one with her and has five delivered to her apartment. Later, there appears to be only four packages. Either Mrs. Pruitt is dishonest as well as being thoroughly unpleasant, or Eugene used one pair as a weapon. (Las Vegas Strangler)

• 59.N. Is there another “love interest” that is more unappealing and stupid than Julie McDermott? Also, she has really ugly hands; catch the close-up as she take the ice cube out of the glass. (Action)

• 60.M. How well does Hutch know Mrs. Donner anyway? He picks stuff off her sweater in a very primate-like way when they are at the hospital. (Plague)

• 61.M. Why bother having two different actresses play Dr. Ginny Simpson? Why not just have two different doctors? (Velvet Jungle, Death in a Different Place, Heroes)

• 62.M. Nick’s prison sentence was three years. Flent and Duran say it has been two years and six months since they have seen him. Add this number to Nick’s release two months ago. Either Nick got time off for good behavior, or they came to visit him in jail during the first four months of his term. (Little Girl Lost)

• 63.N. Starsky may have gotten Lloyd Herman Eckworth’s lifetime batting average right, but missed on the Cuban Comet (Minnie Minoso). Starsky says it is 303, but is really 298. (Vendetta)

• 64.M. Why does Artie Solkin have a bouquet of fresh flowers in his room? (Vendetta)

• 65.N. Emily and Sharon are wearing matching blue button down shirts in their last scene together. (Blindfold)

• 66.M. An arm wrestling match between a left-handed cop and a strong ballerina would make for whose victory? (Body Worth Guarding)

• 67.M. Mike Ferguson “works in the same department” as Starsky and Hutch. Dobey says he is Mike’s best friend. So why haven’t Starsky and Hutch seen him for a year? (Iron Mike)

• 68.M. The film negative is flipped in the car scene, showing the car being driven from the right side. Is this a glaring continuity error or a crafty comment on left-handedness? (Captain Dobey, You’re Dead)

• 69.M. There is an ashtray on the table next to Starsky’s bed by the radio. Who does he sleep with that smokes? (Running)

• 70.N. William Blinn directed an episode of The Rookies (1973) “Prayers Unanswered, Prayers Unheard” In this episode there was a character named Huggy Bear.

• 71.N. The “biggest meeting of the syndicate since Apalachin” refers to a historic summit of one hundred mob bosses from the United States, Canada and Italy (U.S. La Cosa Nostra) at the home of Joseph Barbara in 1957 at his home in Apalachin, New York. It was raided by law enforcement after suspicians were arroused by the sight of many out-of-state licesnse plates and fancy cars. Sixty mafiosi were detained and indicted. The Apalachin Meeting was what confirmed the existence of the Mob, something of which J. Edgar Hoover denied the existence. (Murder at Sea)

• 72.M. What does Hutch referencing when he says, “Quinine, the bitter dose”? (Las Vegas Strangler)

• 73. N. Starsky holds his gun like a dancer. (various)

• 74.N. Papa Theodore’s chant is commanding Starsky to attack Hutch with “two hands” (“deux mains”). He chants a famous warlike anthem of the Caribbean, one the natives sang about attempts to ward off the Spaniards (“lama samana quana”). (Playboy Island)

• 75.N. Starsky isn’t kidding when he tells Lisa Hutch sleeps like a rock. Hutch doesn’t hear Starsky cough and choke all night in the next bed. (Playboy Island, Foxy Lady)

• 76. N. Larry Warwick (art/production), Raul Bruce (sound), Alex Klinsky (craft service), on marquee for Ziggy’s Jazz Café, are real production/technical assistants on the show. Larry Warwick Realty is also used. (Deadly Imposter, Losing Streak)

• 77.M. Why do Starsky and Hutch run so fast up the stairs in response to a “DB report”? At this point, there is no connection between Jojo and Elaine, and a dead body isn’t going anywhere. (Jojo)

• 78.M. If “they couldn’t prove” Wally pushed Jane out the window, what did he go to jail for? (Murder on Stage 17)

• 79.M. Why oh why do the bad guys always make a dash for the roof? (Heroes, Las Vegas Strangler, A Coffin for Starsky, Kill Huggy Bear, Nightmare, Survival)

• 80.N. Inside joke? It looks like the name scrawled on the bottom of Hutch’s arrest warrant could be “R.C. Whatshisname” (Hutchinson for Murder One)

• 82.M. Starsky and Hutch’s car accident happens in the daytime. Starsky knows he and Hutch were brought in together, but Starsky doesn’t ask about Hutch until it is dark. Was he unconscious? (Partners)

• 83.N. Starsky and Hutch could have busted out of that flimsy barn in about ten minutes. They have certainly kicked down doors stronger than those walls. And it has already been proven at least one side of the barn, the one facing the gully and the woods, isn’t covered by a rifleman. (Trap)

• 84.N. Starsky’s use of the word “copasetic” makes me think of Cindy, Starsky’s date in the Pilot. Instead of Cindy being “acceptable, acceptable,” Starsky should have said she was “copasetic, copasetic.” (Partners, Pilot)

• 85.N. There are two vacuum cleaners portrayed, and Hutch trips over both of them. (Starsky and Hutch Are Guilty, Blindfold)

• 86.N. Joey could have been a lot faster running down that gully if she didn’t have to worry about her hat. (Trap)

• 87.M. Why do Corman and Burke bother dragging Crandell’s body outside after they kill him in the shack? (Snowstorm)

• 88.M. What is that odd massive artificial dike behind the barn? (Trap)

• 89.N. Pinky rings seem to be the hot fashion statement; numerous characters wear them, Rosey, Starsky, Paco and various bad guys.

• 90.M. Why aren’t Starsky and Hutch notified when Jojo’s body is found? They only discover this by driving by Linda’s place. Is this Bettin’s doing? (Jojo)

• 91.N. There seems to be a lot more crime in Hutch’s neighborhoods. Harry kills Madelaine there, Jack Cunningham kills Joe Garras there and his apartments are broken into a lot more. Aside from Bellamy’s attack, Starsky seems to live in a relatively untouched area. (Deckwatch, Collector, Vendetta, Foxy Lady, Hutchinson for Murder One, Fix, A Coffin for Starsky)

• 92.N. Harry, spent nine months at sea, hasn’t had sex with a woman in eight months. He must have gotten some a month into the trip. Ask the cabin boy. Deckwatch)

• 93.N. Madeleine offers “Mad” as her nickname. Harry refers to her later to Hannah as “Maddy.” They apparently didn’t get too far in the relationship, chow mien or not. (Deckwatch)

• 94.M. Why don’t Starsky and Hutch wonder why Clayburn is so anxious to implicate McClellan when the two men have been “very close personal” friends for the past ten years? (Targets 1, Targets 2, Targets 3

• 95.N. Filming and direction of Starsky and Hutch is cutting edge at times, but also has many elements of 1950-60’s play staging. Scenes that come to mind are parts of Shootout, Omaha Tiger, Quadromania and Deckwatch).

• 96.N. Starsky and Hutch is not self-referential. The whole act of referring to the culture of the time is mostly missing. There aren’t a whole lot of mentions of popular culture, it doesn’t have a popular cultural soundtrack and pre-dates the MTV/cut scene shtick where the music is supposed to do the talking. The only music/cut seen is in Huggy Can’t Go Home. In fact aside from a handful of throwaway remarks about Watergate and old movie stars, there really isn’t a lot to “mark” this show in its own time period. The only politics that happens is inter-departmental and in different government departments.

• 97.N. There is a definite lack of product placement, the prevalence of brands and absence of chain stores. Bay City, at least where Starsky and Hutch hang, is a massive collection of seedy bars, seedy little hotels and mom and pop eateries.

• 98.M. Starsky goes high, Hutch goes low. Prudholm comments on their habit. How does he know? (Starsky’s Lady)

• 99.M. Why did Starsky and Hutch need the password (knock, two shorter knocks) at Monty’s bookie joint when they ended up kicking in the door? (Savage Sunday)