S and H (Starsky and Hutch letterzine)/Issues 01-05

Issues 01-05 · Issues 06-10 · Issues 11-15 · Issues 16-20 · Issues 21-25 · Issues 26-30 · Issues 31-38

Sneak preview: The letterzine starts off with a burst of energy and hope: 'let us not fall into the divisiveness of other letterzines' (Interstat) is referenced numerous times as a cautionary tale). However, fans quickly dive into two controversial topics - reviewing zines and m/m (zine reviews are a hot topic from the earliest issues, it takes m/m at least two issues to get traction). More notable is that the letterzine was launched shortly after the show went off the air which gives the commentators relatively fresh canon to discuss. Finally, the first Zebracon ad appears.

S and H 1 (June/July 1979)

front cover of issue #1, artist unknown

• contains 12 pages
• edited by Diana Barbour
• "This first issue is free, to anyone and everyone, for a SASE. Starting with #2, I will accept as much as $1.00 in advance for two issues, and money already received will go for #2 and on."
• a filk about Starsky & Hutch, zines and love

• there is a call for a letter-writing campaign, complete with directions, to bring the show back for a fifth season
• a review of the zine Promises to Keep who mostly liked the story, but thought it was too long, that the medical aspects were unrealistic, wished it had a preface from the author and thought that "One long story, with huge margins and lots of white spaces, that came out to only 76 pages, is a mite skimpy for $3.25." See that page for more.
• a review of Promises to Keep by an English teacher who loved it for the story, for the lack of grammatical mistakes and that "the opening hangover scene is a delight to my teen-aged students and anyone who has ever had difficulty waking up, as well as though who have shared the morning-after experience." See that page for more.
• a review of Zebra Three #4, see that page
• a review of Copkiller from someone who liked it way better than Promises to Keep, see that page.

• an ad for the first Zebra Con
• a list of episodes and synopsis which mistakenly refers to the episodes "Give Huntley My Regards" (Birds of a Feather), "Starsky and Hutch on Pleasure Island" (Starsky and Hutch on Playboy Island), "Revenge" (Starsky's Lady), "The Monster" (Vendetta), "Nightlight" (Bust Amboy), and "Huggy Can't Go Home No More" (Huggy Can't Go Home)
• a fan speculates on what will happen when the show ends:

  It doesn't have the scope of Star Trek, plotwise, and it's really developed only two main characters. That leaves a lot of room for developing Huggy and Dobey and possibly some minor characters. On the other hand, I doubt most fen want to develop them apart from an intimate interaction of some sort involving S&H (No, I don't mean that kind of intimate. Tch.)

• even as early as 1979, fans were complaining about the same stories being written over and over again; a writer that notes:

  Rescue/get'em stories seem to dominate. An innovative writer could, I supposed, find a new way to do it, or a variation on the message to deliver. But innovation & originality, they're rare. I have a feeling that we're all going to be gritting our teeth through a plethora of insanely written reiterations of Wilderness. Dreary, dreary.

• there was a letter from a zine editor who thought there were too many h/c and get'em stories written. She goes on to say the next issue of Zebra Three, though, will have plenty of h/c as "requested.":

  Real people don't go around having serious injuries all the time and are still able to function as people... the problem for zine editors such as myself, is that the zine-buying audience wants to read this type of story. They thrive on it, lap it up... I started circulating a statement last fall which said I wanted to tone down on that aspect of their relationship... and you couldn't believe the response I got.

• a reader writes in and asks where all the "lay-Hutch" and "lay-Starsky" stories are:

  So far, the S&H zines have been almost puritanical content as far as sex goes... before we start in on the gay S/H stories, where are the explicit straight S&H stories?

• a zine editor says she likes to get LoCs about her zine, but that the unrelenting theme of how marvelous the zine was is getting boring:

  I guess I want to see some real communication between people."

• 

  from issue #1, artist unknown

S and H 2 (August/September 1979)

cover of issue #2, Cheryl Newsome cover

• contains 16 pages
• edited by Diana Barbour, assistant editor Franny Moore-Kyle
• an apology that recipients had to pay the postal delivery person an extra 13 cents
• Question(s) of the Month: "What are the six plots?" and "How, where, and under what circumstances did Starsky and Hutch meet?"
• there are letters talking about the bad reputation Starsky & Hutch has for containing excessive violence
• a letter complains of all the rain in Bay City fiction and how this isn't realistic for Southern California
• a review of the zine Currents, see that page
• two reviews of the zine The Pits, see that page
• a review of the zine Me and Thee, see that page
• two reviews of Copkiller, see that page
• a review of Zebra Three #4, see that page
• this issue contains the very first use of the term "/" as it relates to m/m in a published SH zine. A fan, Lizabeth Tucker, writes:

  S/H? I'm not sure if I approve, but I will read it/them, simply because I will read anything on the two men. I have read some excellent K/S stories, yet I still don't concede the premise of a sexual relationship between them.

• a reader comments she likes the lack of lay-Starsky and lay-Hutch stories:

  Look at all the crap we're subjected to in trekdom! Plot? The hell with plot, get'em in the sack. Y*A*W*N... Nine out of ten of those stories were about Lt. Mary Sue anyway.

• there are more comments about the explicit sex stories that all say those stories are in people's drawers at home, one fan speculated that these stories are unwritten:

  ...because the authors are too embarrassed to put them in writing. Or they're not printed because there's no zine specifically soliciting smarmy S&H, and the author doesn't know where to send one.

• a letter by a writer and []zine publisher]] in both Star Trek and Starsky and Hutch fandom says:

  Star Trek's greater scope comes down to two binomial variables: The Enterprise encounters a friendly/hostile alien/phenomenon. And that, good people, is all.... The potential for a real story, for the human heart in conflict with itself, remains precisely the same in both universes. There is not one single human problem that can't be dealt with just as well in twentieth-century Los Angeles as on Rigel X. When attention shifts to plot devices, who proper function is to get the characters to confront their difficulties, then you have cops 'n robbers in one format and space opera in another and trash in both. The furniture doesn't matter. The people do.

• a letter that says:

  And please, no endless debate over whether gay S&H stories are moral/realistic/factual... Star Trek fandom has hashed the gay stories issue into a pulp, and we still don't agree! Debates need conclusions! If we do discuss it, let's be rational, gang!

• a letter that thought the zine reviews in the previous issue were either too snippy or too nice:

  Reviews are at their best when they (a) inform the potential buyer of the general quality and content of the kind of zine, that is, is it the kind of story that I (the potential buyer) wants to read, and is it written well-enough to be worth my investment of money and reading time?, and (b) a review, should at least of a fanzine, should do its best to be constructively critical, that is, praise the strong points, and as much as possible offer comments and suggestions intended to HELP the writer/artist/poet/editor do better work next time. I've been through this argument before with Trek zines. But many reviewers persist in writing reviews that sound like they're on a personal vendetta against the zine or the writer, or sound like they're a personal friend trying to inflate or cushion the editor's or the writer's ego, or sound like they're trying to force professional-level standards on materials produced by amateurs for their own enjoyment.

• a writer speculates:

  Like other fans, I wonder how long S&H fandom will hold together as an entity. I suspect the first Zebra Con will also be the last.

• a writer says that the biggest problem facing S&H fandom now that the series has ended is the isolation of being a fan:

  If a person admits to being a Star Trek fan, the most you face is an amused shake of the head, and more often than not, even that turns into a discussion about the show. But admit you're a fan of S&H and forty people will give you lecture about mindless violence. And if you should mention the word 'love,' forty faces turn absolutely blank before dissolving into hysterical laughter.

• a fan wrote:

  I'm delighted with your S&H letterzine. It fills a need all of us S&H fans suffer from, the need for sharing information, ideas and opinions about 'our boys.'

• 

  from issue #2 by Jane Davis

S and H 3 (October 1979 )

cover of issue #3, Connie Faddis cover

• contains 20 pages
• edited by Diana Barbour, assistant editor Franny Moore-Kyle
• art by Connie Faddis, Signe Landon and Betty de Gabriele
• the editor thanks folks for sending her some extra stamps
• the editor says she's going to try to put the letterzine out monthly
• one fan writes that writing a lay story reminds her of the eye-candy, frivolous roles women had, specifically in the episode "Partners" and that such fiction "brought the characters down."
• fan comments on the show dubbed in French and that losing Starsky's accent takes away a huge part of the character

• many con reports for Zebra Con, including comments that the VTR was continuously showing episodes
• some fans in Australia, unable to attend Zebra Con, had their own little con. It was 14 people in a house, a book of clippings to browse, two episodes on video cassettes, and six sound tapes of various episodes; they remarked that like fans in the UK, they hadn't seen season four yet and were being "driven white-haired" with frustration with the hints in the letterzine; some fans slept in the caravan in the back yard, and they sat around singing into the night: "You Needed Me" (which they thought fit the episode "The Fix") and "Sometimes When We Touch" ("whose chorus belongs in that scene in Wilderness").
• a review of Crossfire, see that page
• a listing of available and proposed zines
• the show had aired its last episode a four months ago; a fan has seen the flyer for L.A. Vespers and comments on the number of Kira-stories, that fiction about her has already started
• fans are starting to speculate if Starsky would be able to fully recover from the assassination attempt and what his future would be:

  Let's fantasize everyone, what did he do? Does he take a desk job? Does he quite the force? Does Hutch quit the force to be with him? What do you think?"

• a fan pleads for civility in any possible discussion of m/m:

  Please, people, if we are going to discuss this, let's keep it civil. The sorry example of Interstat has shown how very little there is to be gained from the they do too/they don't neither type of exchange, or from slinging around words like 'pervert,' and 'bigot,' and 'asshole." What I'd like to see in S&H fandom is a clear recognition that fiction is transitive; that each of us brings a different background and pattern of thought to her reading and viewing... and go a long way toward determining how she will interpret it. There is no such thing as a 'correct' interpretation of Starsky and Hutch... there is only what speaks to and moves each of us.

• a fan writes:

  At the risk of sacrilege, let me add to the gay/not gay debate by observing that S&H are characters, not corporeal beings, and thus they 'are' what we, the writers, decree they are.

• one writer apologizes a bit for her previous review of Promises to Keep:

  I'm sorry if my review was a bit acerbic. It's just that when someone writes that well, I expect perfection.

• a strictly gen writer comments that there are lay stories out there, but they are m/m:

  There ARE porn stories about S&H being written for publication. Every one I've heard of, though, is homosexual. This is fine, I don't object to the theme, and I think the premise, if deftly presented is certainly viable. The isolation, alienation and mutual dependence that S&H's work/lifestyle creates could readily bring them to the conclusion that the only lasting love-involving-sex that they're able to maintain might be with each other. Their luck with women was certainly dismal.

• a fan comments:

  The solution [to lack of lay stories/Mary Sues] is obvious: forget about writing sympathetic heroines into love stories; write nice, safe gay stories, instead.

• from a letter:

  One thing I hope S&H fandom won't develop into is what happened with a lot of ST fiction. One or two people seem to have come to dominate the genre, and other people fell into using their universes and backgrounds for the characters and mythos.

• fan writes:

  It would seem to me that a lay story would be much easier to write than a get story. After all, most people have more experience with sex than with pain and torture.

• 

  from issue #3, Signe Landon

• 

  from issue #3, The Torino by an unknown artist

S and H 4 (November 1979)

cover of issue #4, Connie Faddis cover

• contains 24 pages
• art by Connie Faddis, Signe Landon, Ruth Kurz, Cheryl Newsome and Betty De Gabriele
• Question of the Month: "Is there any justification in aired S&H for Starsky being Jewish?"
• much, much civil discussion on S&H and S/H, almost all prefaced with how painful and fractious the subject became in Star Trek and how no one wants the same for the Starsky and Hutch fandom
• fans discuss: does food-sharing indicate m/m?
• a reader says she doesn't have a VCR but does have "all the sound tapes"
• a reader says Aaron Spelling is thinking of making a show sort of like "Starsky and Hutch" called "B.A.D. Cats" but "this time with actors he can control."
• there is more discussion of the difference between pornography and erotica
• ads from fans who wanted "RCA videotapes of S&H episodes" and "audio tape cassettes of S&H episodes"
• much more discussion on KTLA's editing the shows to fit the slot and to perhaps quell the censors who complain of violence, there is much analysis of which scenes were cut or shortened
• a fan offers to send a copy of a UK zine called Starsky and Hutch Appreciation Society
• more discussion of whether Starsky is Jewish:

  • Paul Michael is of the Jewish environment, so his coloring of Starsky is from his background.

  • Perhaps most of us see him as Jewish because Paul Michael Glaser is Jewish. Or maybe because 'Starsky' sounds like a Jewish name. I don't think he's Polish.

  • Remember the episode, "The Committee'? Ginger asks: 'Starsky, what is it, Polish?' and Starsky replies, 'Something like that (not yes). He's not Catholic because in 'Terror on the Docks' he tells Nancy's mother that he's not Catholic. As for being Italian, (the question makes 'Italian' sound like a religion) his grandmother lived over an Italian restaurant and Starsky loves Italian food, but that doesn't prove anything. He looks Italian to me (Dark hair, expressive face...)

  • There is plenty of mild justification for Starsky's being Jewish. I feel the series played it down to avoid specific arguments, but mention was made of chicken soup as a cure-all, Starsky did pick up the Mezuzah from Huggy's sidewalk stand while Hutch picked up a cross, and Starsky looked stunned when Nancy's mother asked him if he were Catholic in 'Terror on the Docks,' to which he replied he was not. Even 'Little Girl Lost' does not discredit the Jewish idea as he's like a little kid who loves presents, and all the Christmas songs he sang were non-religious festive ones. His Polish name agrees with the general bio suggested.

  • We were never directly told that Starsky is Jewish. We never saw him at temple or wear a star of David, and so on. I'm told there was menorah on the bookcase in his apartment, but I've looked for it in every episode and never seen it. I think there are various little hints... in the series, though, that seem to indicate he was Jewish. In "Dandruff," Huggy greeted him with Shalom when he was working in the hotel beauty shop... In 'Vampire,' Huggy offered Starsky the anti-vampire kit 'for those of other persuasions' after showing him one with the cross. There are other sly references, but I can't think of them now.... I have always been of the impression that Starsky is Jewish, but he certainly isn't Orthodox... he whines about working on Sunday, not Saturday, and he sure doesn't eat kosher.

• a reader comments that:

  ...judging from the letters, the sexual question will be met with a tad more tolerance here than it was in Trek.

• a reader comments on the acceptability of the S/H relationship:

  Why must we argue? Most of us can remember the rift in ST fandom over this very issue. Can't we have both sides? There will be S/H relationship stories whether we like it or not. If you can buy the premise, or at least contain your objections long enough to the basic storytelling a chance, buy the zines. If it offends you, don't.

• one writer says:

  It seems such a logical progression for K/S fans to get into Starsky and Hutch... ST writing starting with them showing more feeling to one another, then a lot of hurt/comfort stories then a lot of extreme get'em stories and into the homosexual type. Then, where do you go? If by chance you find another show, also with two best of friends characters, who from the start show their love for each other, the the K/S relationship fan, this is beautiful!... I get the feeling that a lot of former ST writers and fans who have now found S&H are kind of disgusted with and kicking Star Trek -- when they compare their new found favorite to it. Unfair! While my present enthusiasm is for S&H, my liking for the ST universe is not over-shadowed by it. I this is the beginning fo a S&H fandom/cult, I'm happy to participate, but it's got a long way to grow and last to be compared to that of ST. It will be very interesting to see how it progresses.

• a fan who goes on to write many m/m comments:

  About S/H stories, whether or not sex together is in character for our boys (and there is plenty of evidence against it, primarily in 'Death in a Different Place'), I recommend our being careful not to let self-indulgent fantasies risk having Spelling/Goldberg or Soul/Glaser angered enough to stop all S&H fan fiction.

• about Mary Sues:

  So a gay relationship for S&H is safe because we authors are afraid of creating Mary Sue or separating our guys, huh? Since when did an author ever think 'her' sympathetic female was a Mary Sue? I'm afraid I can't buy fear as a reason. Seems to me that somewhere in our collective subconscious we realize that Starsky and Hutch mean more to one another than any other person -- male or female, wife or mother, son or daughter -- could ever mean. It doesn't matter if we perceive them as gay or straight, the exclusivity of the relationship remains. A woman would either have to be the most noble creature who ever lived or a complete fool to make the marriage work with either one of them. Because she would always have to contend with knowing that if her husband cared at least as much if not more about another person than he did about her. Now, perhaps my view of humanity is warped, but I don't see any woman that unselfish (Terry included, but that's another subject), and I don't like fools.

• a zine editor writes:

  Well, now that the topic of S/H stories is out in the open and bandied about, I thought I'd add my money's worth and let you all know I don't plan printing any of them in Me and Thee... I'm not anti-gay, I just don't happen to personally believe the boys are inclined in that direction and it's my editorial policy to print what I believe in. In order to do an S/H story, there's a line you have to step over between 'they don't' and 'they do' and once you're over it, what are you left with?... Once you start with them being gay, you've got to conclude it some way, and as I've said, I just don't think it can be done without harm.

• a fan says she understands why some writers don't send their stories to zines so that other readers can pick them to bits:

  Sometimes it's more gratifying to write for yourself, or a few select people... Obviously, it would be silly to say that the best stories are the ones not published in zines, but I do know that, to take a related topic, the best Star Wars fan fiction I ever read was a 400-page novel that never existed in more than six copies, five of them carbons. It had 35 full page Gee Moaven illos and was the result of a lot of love and hard work, but the author simply didn't want to send it out to the big world. It has to be a personal decision.

• a reader comments:

  Now that more people have a way of knowing about zines, maybe there will be a larger number contributing. (And maybe there won't be quite so many get'ems. Taken to the bloody lengths some have been going lately, they loose any shock value that they may have originally had and become first tedious and then faintly ridiculous.)

• on Mary Sue:

  The female lead is merely a proxy for the author, a vehicle through which she can be brave and beautiful and free of responsibility, while the hero's part is to make himself worth of her devotion (usually making an ass of himself in the process) and to provide sexual gratification. Neither is ever developed beyond his or her function, neither is allowed to be a person with a life of his or her own. Both are subordinated to the writer's own presence, and to the enactment of her fantasy. No matter how competent the prose may be, that's not good writing... Self-appointed critic that I am, I don't want to see that type of crap in S&H.

• more on Mary Sue, writing a good story with strong women is not easy:

  I can count on the fingers of one hand it was achieved in Treklit... Connie's own Sajis Caffrey , Gerry Downes' Llaria , Leslie Fish's Jenneth Roantree and Quannechota Two-Feathers , Eileen Roy's Amanda. Honorable mention to Jean Lorrah's Amanda and Juanita Salicrup's Christine Chapel... All these women made significant contributions to the lives of male protagonists, all recieved something lasting in return. None saw herself as the the purpose of the man's existence; none made him her whole life.

• the editor says:

  So, far have not had any bitterness or name-calling as occurred in Interstat. We, the editors, feel that even the controversial S/H matters are being intelligently and rationally discussed, and it pleases us.

• a zine publisher asks for donations toward the purchase of an Electro-stencil cutter, a machine that cuts art stencils for mimeo-zines:

  I have found a beauty of a bargain for $450 (about the 1/3 of the cost new) and they are holding it for [me] for two months. Help! At this time, I have to pay $3 per Electro-Stencil for my zines; the Blond Blintz Bulletin had eleven illo. That alone was $33... Also, for my fellow zine-producers, I will cut stencils for you for $1 a piece plus postage.

• a reader from the UK says she would never attempt to write a S&H story as US police procedure is too different:

  There are too many traps for the English writer because everyday American life is complete mystery to even an avid watcher of your detective series.

• 

  from issue #4 by Signe Landon

• 

  from issue #4 by Cheryl Newsome

S and H 5 (December 1979)

cover of issue #5 by Signe Landon

• contains 36 pages
• Question of the month: "A reader puts a call out for a new way to close letters. "LL&P' has had a long and serviceable life in the closing of letters to people who, though you may not love, respect, or address sincerely, you nevertheless hold in all good wishes. S&H need their own variation. I, myself, have been using 'CH&S' (Clutch Hutch and Starsky). Let's hear some suggestions."
• art by Signe Landon (cover), Connie Faddis, Cheryl Newsome, Betty de Gabriele, Trish, Jan Lindner (back cover)
• a writer says she can see S&H in a sexual relationship far easier than Kirk and Spock, but that such a relationship would be fleeting. She also says she's so desperate for fiction, she'll read some Mary Sues
• a fan goes into great detail in how she has watched the characters sign their names to reports in many episodes and that by the way their hands move, they are signing the characters' names not the actors' names. She's also determined that Hutch has a middle name with "a swooping, flowing letter," probably an "L, S, or G."
• a writer says, despite what most others think, she loves the episode "Partners," and feels Hutch was such a bastard because he knew it would keep Starsky from blaming himself for the accident. "He sure knows Starsky a lot better than some of us!" She goes on to say that she sees S&H's relationship not so much sexual, but sensual.
• several fans are looking for a copy of Currents, including Striped Tomato Press who wants to "include it in R&I #1." The editor of the latter also requests several pieces of art, "zinish art as well as S&H would be appropriate."
• a con report for ZebraCon
• a list of available zines: Zebra Three #1, #3, #4 and Crossfire
• a list of sold out zines: The Pits #1, Zebra Three #2, Dirtball Dispatch, Blond Blintz Bulletin, Currents #1, Me and Thee #1, Promises to Keep, Copkiller, Syndizine #1
• a list of forthcoming zines: The Pits #2, "Assignment: Dave Starsky" ("a great new Starsky and Hutch novel by Shirley Ann Cowden which involves Starsky falling in love once more, but this time with a deadly hit lady whose new assignment just happens to be DAVE!!") [never published], Partners, Bird of Paradise, Then We Can Be Heroes, Hopscotch, L.A. Vespers #1, One Shot, Zebra Three #5, R&I
• much, much more discussion about S&H vs S/H
• many fans who are watching butchered, edited reruns are asking other fans to tell them what happened in vast "missing scenes"
• another S&H salutation suggestion like LL&P: "POP, or Partners or Perish."
• much discussion on whether a serious love interest with a "special lady" and marriage for either character would destroy or hinder Starsky and Hutch's close partnership: some fans felt it would, some felt it would but not if Terri had lived, some felt S&H would have been fine "but that doesn't mean I want to read thousands of stories based on that plot line."
• a fan says she can't really see S&H having a sexual relationship, but "go ahead and write S/H stories, I'll read it, and I might even love it."
• a reader writes: is Starsky Jewish? "All you have to do is take a look at that face" and complains that the actor that portrayed Nicky looked too Italian. She figures Hutch is Episcopalian.
• a fan would like to see the official sign-off/salutation in S&H be "Heavenly Polaris"
• there is more discussion on what kind of gun Starsky uses
• a British fan has just returned from a Star Trek convention and says fans there either hate or love S&H but don't like the fourth season... "The stories certainly seem sillier than the early ones, perhaps we haven't see the good ones yet."
• a fan says that her local television station is airing episodes, which is super, as she doesn't have a "video viewer yet" and that the episodes, especially "The Fix" are edited terribly
• a fan says her copy of a script for "Starsky's Lady" has two titles of "Revenge" and "Snowball." The snowball reference is in this script. The tag has this tag (rather than the classic Monopoly on the kitchen floor):

  After winning the basketball game, Sally and company are presented with a gold trophy topped with a white snowball. Hutch has donated the first and second team trophies with the request they be named the Terry Trophy.

• a Canadian fan asks for a "Sweet Revenge" story:

  I'd sure would love to see a following story!... One thing I'd like to know, how many people see S&H as homosexuals? I don't know, I mean I've been watching the show for four years and not ever for a moment did I think they were homosexual. I mean they love each other but surely not to the point of going to bed together. Anyone agree/disagree?

• a writer writes:

  I'm hoping the discussion, in future issues, won't dwell on 'are they?' -- they couldn't be! -- they're not!!!' gay vs straight question. Having been thoroughly bored by the same tirade with the K/S question, and, as someone mentioned last ish... do we really need to drag it out again? It's not that I'm necessarily intolerant, just terribly bored by the subject.

• a comment from the editor of The Pits:

  I would like to apologize for the cost of the thing. I would like to, but I really can't. The artwork needs special attention, and the contents really deserve a good print job, so I'm going to photo-offset with it. Plus I think my neighbor and printer for the first issue would have cardiac arrest if presented with 200-plus names to run off -- remind me to tell you sometime about what his garage looked like after he got through printing the silkscreen cover for issue #1.

• a reader cites a Church of England survey that touched on love, loneliness and friendship in modern society... but said:

  In other words, if ever came to be assumed that every Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson, or even Starsky and Hutch, were homosexuality related, the value of friendship would be greatly threatened.

• writer says about "the homosexuality issue:

  I notice that most contributors to issue #4 seem to feel the best solution to it is to say, 'who cares?'

• a fan comments on a "continuity book":

  Not like a concordance (did that ever come out, because I'd sure like to get a copy) but more a collection of categories from various episodes. There are 250 or so categories, ones we find interesting or significant. We got to noticing that S&H do things consistently ... the whole show is a a terrific web of consistency and construction... and started keeping track of it, being compulsive list-makers...

• a fan responds, along with others, about her five favorite and five least favorite episodes. Of her least favorite:

  I couldn't pin it down to five. This series, like most others, contained a lot of cliches and crap.

• a fan soothes another:

  To the Australians among us: Don't worry about not getting all the little details of American life. I live 2000 miles from California and have no real grasp on what life is exactly like out there. (Any society that has Jerry Brown as a governor totally eludes me.)

• a fan weighs in on the m/m thing, saying she believes it could happen:

  I mean, they're all they've got. The only thing they believe in is each other. I'd feel sorry for any woman who truly loved one or the other and expected to be first in his life. And what woman worth her salt would be happy in a marriage when she know she was playing second fiddle? Either or both would be a marvelous lover, but not A-1 husband material."

• a fan quotes some statistics as she writes that the actors were aware of the possibilities that their characters might have a sexual relationship with each other:

  These gentlemen [the actors] are far from naive. They live and work in a world where the proportion of gay to straight is much higher than the one-in-twenty for the remainder of this country. (One in seven in L.A. County... 80% of West Los Angeles... and so on...). They are certainly aware of the subculture that surrounds them... I cannot believe they were ignorant of the connotations of some of their behavior, the quality of their touching.

• a fan disputes another's comment that Starsky would have a sexual relationship with Hutch:

  ...because of Starsky's moral-mindedness. Tell me he wouldn't accept such a relationship because of his social conservative attitudes, and I'll acknowledge the validity of your argument.

• a fan comments to an editor about her personal desire to keep her zine "straight.":

  I accept your stand on types of stories to be published in Me and Thee, it is your right as an editor. But since not one S&H zine in print contains any gay stories, I find it a little strange that 'Me and Thee' is suddenly the last-ditch haven for readers who don't want to read 'those kind of stories'.

• a letter from one fan that said she wasn't interested in a S&H "homo relationship":

  Try bringing up the subject of homos to some typical and prevalent blue collar workers, especially men! You'll find they hate fags, and are totally against it. By AMA standards and medical textbooks, homosexual behavior is still considered abnormal, maladjusted behavior.

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  from issue #5's last page, Starsky and Hutch take on the group that is cutting/editing the show for reruns in California, pretty much butchering the show's continuity and storytelling

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  from issue #5 by Connie Faddis of Huggy Bear

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  from #7, The Torino by Ruth Kurz