Huggy Bear

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Character
Name: Huggy Bear, Huggy Bear Brown
Occupation: bartender, entrepreneur, not a pimp
Relationships: dated Miss Treasure Chest, suggested that Detective Joan Meredith may be his future wife
Fandom: Starsky and Hutch
Other:
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Huggy Bear, last name Brown, is a character in Starsky & Hutch. He is Starsky and Hutch's bartender, snitch and, importantly, close friend.

The Huggy Awards are named after Huggy.

Impact

In an interview transcribed in a 1998 Black Bean Soup, Antonio Fargas, the actor who portrayed Huggy Bear, says: "At the time, it was considered hip to have one or two black actors on your series, and I was lucky enough to be one of those."

Huggy's notorious "hip" and "urban" way of speaking has made him a symbol of badly-written black characters of the time. He is frequently referenced in humorous contexts like the TV Tropes article on "Jive Turkeys"[1] but also in impassioned rants about African American media stereotypes. Captain Dobey, another African-American character on the show, didn't draw the same fire. At the same time, many people appreciate Huggy for being a sympathetic and fairly major black character at a time when these were few and far between on television.[2]

A Pimp? A Thief?

Many mainstream articles and comments by mundanes refer to Huggy as a pimp and/or thief. While the canon Huggy is shown as having a variety of dubious (often foolish) means of employment, there is no proof he dabbled in anything more than passing on information and turning a blind eye to others' petty crimes. Huggy, in fact, was shown to have a fairly robust sense of right and wrong, something that was illustrated in canon a number of times.

From the Ollie Report's page on Huggy:

He makes no secret of his nefarious activities, like providing a hot watch in “The Trap”, and having various ladies of the evening lounging at his bar (most likely at his behest, although he is referred to as a pimp once by Hutch, in “Iron Mike Ferguson”, a comment more satiric than factual, as Hutch probably knows full well Huggy is more of an enabler than an enforcer). He is also seen hawking what looks like stolen merchandise and involving himself in various underground gambling operations (involving mice, hilariously).

https://merltheearl.wordpress.com/2010/11/25/character-studies-13-pay-the-ferry-man/

There aren't any scene in the series in which Huggy is anything less than a gentleman to a woman. Huggy is always working, on top of owning and running The Pits. He employs waitresses without demeaning them, and he bartends and waiters himself when he's in the Pits. It's a stretch to believe that he would truly be a pimp ("a person and especially a man who controls one or more sex workers, arranges clients for them, and takes a cut of their earnings" - Merriam Webster) and the series doesn't support that theory. Hutch asks Huggy, “Who’d ever think of looking for a pimp on a motor scooter?” in episode Iron Mike. This is the only mention of that word in Huggy's presence in the series.

Huggy has many side hustles, some of which aren't legal, such as a bookie (episodes Texas Longhorn, Omaha Tiger), selling Starsky a hot watch (episode The Trap) but most of Huggy's hustles involve lots of sweat equity to sell trinkets on the street himself, learning how to be a better fast order chef (The Psychic) and dabbling in the music industry (Quadromania). In Death in a Different Place, we see Huggy signing people up to vote, implying that he's socially active and he's donating his time for causes he believes in. For this, he wore a three piece suit.

From the Ollie Report's page on Huggy:

He isn’t a one-dimensional sidekick, he isn’t an endearing oddball or the Groovy Black Guy brought in for ethnic legitimacy. He’s contradictory and conflicted, and by that yardstick becomes the embodiment of The Informer: a real-world Charon, the ferryman who navigates the rivers between the worlds of the living and the dead. Charon didn’t volunteer for this job and a snitch doesn’t either. It’s a grueling necessity, a cosmic pay-back for earthly transgressions. Just what Huggy’s transgressions are remains a mystery.

https://merltheearl.wordpress.com/2010/11/25/character-studies-13-pay-the-ferry-man/

The fanon Huggy Bear plays out much like the canon Huggy Bear. He is often portrayed as a good friend willing to assist Starsky and Hutch while balancing his need to survive in his world on the street.

From Anna (2014) in the comments section on the Ollie Report's page on Huggy:

That scene in Targets Without A Badge is absolutely amazing, one of my favorites in the series, not just for the poignancy and sublimity of Huggy’s rage and grief, but also for the fact that Starsky and Hutch so obviously take him and his words 100% seriously and respect and take his recriminations to heart so deeply.

https://merltheearl.wordpress.com/2010/11/25/character-studies-13-pay-the-ferry-man/#comment-2941

Example Fanworks

Example Huggy vids

Fanfic Pairings

Huggy Bear doesn't get a lot of action in fanon. He is sometimes paired with Mardean Rigger, sometimes with Turquet, and a few times with Starsky and with Hutch. The latter is usually a secondary pairing in a primarily Starsky/Hutch story.

Some Huggy Meta

Fanart

Fannish Resources

References

  1. ^ Jive Turkey on TV Tropes (Accessed August 26, 2010)
  2. ^ Unfortunately, one might argue that that time hasn't really ended...
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