The Banned Starsky & Hutch Episodes in the UK

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For many years, the BBC refused to air several Starsky & Hutch episodes.

a November 2, 1982 letter from the BBC to a fan, printed in APB #16: "As you say, we do want to please as many viewers as possible, but not every viewer is enthusiastic about "Starsky & Hutch", difficult though this may be for you to believe. Each of the American series has its own particular devotees. In any case, we have shown repeats of many of the "Starsky and Hutch" programs. I regret there is noting further I can say on the subject."

The Starsky & Hutch episode "The Fix" was banned for portraying explicit drug use.

The other episodes fans mentioned most were "Savage Sunday," "Nightmare," and "Murder Ward."

A Radio Times archive lists two others, "Bloodbath" and "Vendetta."

"The Fix" was finally shown on British television on 31 May 1999. It is unknown when the others were finally aired.

Similar Bans

See The Four Banned Star Trek: TOS Episodes in the UK

Adversity Sparks Creativity

In early 1980, an American fan wrote of a story she wrote, Yesterday's Nightmares, for her British friends who were unable to view "The Fix."

[Yesterday's Nightmares] is a story I put together a year ago (and had invaluable assistance and encouragement from our own Dottie Wilkerson) called "YESTERDAY'S NIGHTMARES." It is to be the anchor story in the new British zine which will appear this year sometime. Before this story goes into print and I have the whole of letterzine down on my neck, I would like to offer a word of explanation. The S&H classic episode THE FIX was never shown on British BBC, the powers that be thinking it might corrupt its audience by revealing that drugs can be addictive! Try as they may, petitions and letters of protest have fallen on deaf ears and an effort to send a video tape of that episode has proven beyond any doubt that these tapes are not transactable. Pulling their hair out in rage, several friends in England asked me to write a Hutch on drugs story that would placate them and offer some of the love and agony of that episode. I don't claim to have any prior knowledge of drug addiction or abuse, but to please these dear friends, I agreed to give it a shot (metaphorically speaking) and so NIGHTMARES was born.

[...]

... I just wanted you to know that NIGHTMARES was never written with any eye to sensationalism but more in a humble effort to please some friends in their time of 'need' (well how would YOU feel if you weren't allowed to see that episode??? Incidentally they were never allowed to see NIGHTMARE or MURDER WARD either.)

Fan Comments

1980

I don't know about NIGHTMARE or MURDER WARD, but It's my understanding that the BBC banned THE FIX not because it "revealed that drugs are addictive", but because it perpetuates the largely American myth that heroin addiction can be overcome by willpower and a few hours' sweat. British policy on drugs and drug use is vastly more rational and humane than ours, and their drug education program commensurately better The medical services simply don't want to see their years of good work undermined by a sixty-minute TV show.

1982

There's a good reason why [the episode] THE FIX hasn't been repeated, and an even better one why you didn't see it in the first place. It was never shown over here - the BBC banned it, apparently considering the subject matter unsuitable for the delicate sensibilities of British audiences. (Other banned episodes were SAVAGE SUNDAY, NIGHTMARE and MURDER WARD - you figure out why. Having seen them all, I'm totally baffled by the logic that led to such a decision).

I've more or less resigned myself to never seeing THE FIX and you have to mention the other episode the BBC banned. Does anyone in Australia have MURDER WARD on VHS? And could you do me a copy? And you only see the show "two times a week"? My heart bleeds for you. We're lucky to get 10 episodes a year!

There have always been double-standards at the BBC, brought about in some measure by the fact that decisions are often taken at departmental levels. Thus, the head of whatever department is responsible for a particular series has the right of veto on what should be should. Which isn't to say at some stage he could not be overruled by a higher up, but I doubt if that happens very often. What I'm saying is that with a different person in charge at the time, we might have seen those banned episodes, but it's water under the bridge now, and I fear too late for any reverse decisions.

[...]

... about the Beeb's double standards, and you could be right about them being harsher on imports than the home produced shows. They're sensitive to accusations of wasting the licence money on American 'trash', despite the fact that on the whole they are very shrewd in assessing the appeal of American series for audience here. S&H I feel, had by far the greatest impact of any comparable imported show on either channel. There was no need to ban, or censor, any episode, it was simply a bad misjudgment on somebody's part. But — c'est la vie — which is no consolation to any of us.

Trying to get the (rotten) BBC to show banned episodes is like trying to get blood from a stone. I have written lots of letters asking if the episodes could be shown at a later time, with a warning that some people might find it offensive (though I don’t really believe they are as controversial as the BBC made out) so that anyone who wasn’t interested could simply switch off. People who complain about programes being ’too violent’ or whatever always seem to forget they don’t have to watch them - don’t they know how to use the off switch?

The BBC has given extremely lame reasons for the banning the that the episodes ’Do not conform to BBC standards. They wont say what in the episodes doesn't conform. I really think we should all try and do something about this - as I said in my last letter, there are a lot of us who haven’t seen the episodes and would dearly like to, and the present state of affairs is most unfair to all of us who would rather have had the original series in their entirety.

Bo let us all do something about it - keep writing to the BBC till they give us a solid answer for the bannings, or else change their minds and show the episodes. It may take a while for us to achieve anything - but Rome wasn’t built in a day.

I hope all of you are going to join in and help me and Deb get Starsky and Hutch back on TV and any other David or Paul films that you'd like to see, not forgetting to ask them to show the banned episodes of S&H] of course. Its no good one or two of you we need all of you to help, after all I'm sure you all want to see our two fav cops back on TV again as much as I do. But the main thing is you mustn't give in to the BBC if they don't give in to us first time, because do that we're lost. Remember many a battle is lost to win the war so please keep on at the BBC along with us and hopefully we will win. One thing I know is I'm not going to let the BBC win this war no matter how many battles I lose.

1989

The 'violence' that so many mundanes associate with S&H always puzzled me -- I still have the correspondence from the BBC 'explaining' why they would not be showing THE FIX or the other three 'banned' episodes. Their reasons didn't make any sense to me then, nor do they now, when the screened violence has escalated to a point when the most 'violent' S&H scene would be mild by comparison."