The Fourth Season of Starsky & Hutch

Related terms:	The Hutchinson Finger
See also:	Kira, Hutch's Mustache, White Knight
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The fourth and final season of Starsky & Hutch was very different from the previous three. Some fans hate the fourth season. Some fans love it. And for many of the same reasons.

The show itself was under pressure to turn down the violence. The two main actors wanted out of their contracts, and they were both tired and angry, and personal issues were likely heavy on their minds.

It also didn't help that the episodes were shown out of order, something that marred a intense arc that was both emotionally perplexing as shown, but lacked complete emotional resolution.

Many fans felt this last season was full of tension, somewhat uncomfortable to watch, and had a lot of implications to those who saw slash. The show itself was filmed in a different style with film techniques that made it stand out from the first three season. The characters appeared tense and moody. Hutch looked physically very different and was snappish and often unkind. Starsky appeared to have lost his "bounce." The buddy aspect of the show that fans enjoyed so much appeared frayed.

Most theories about the tone of season 4, in both discussion and fanfiction, incorporate, to some extent, Hutch's disillusionment with police work, which he confesses in "Targets Without A Badge Part I" (sometimes this attitude is extended to Starsky as well).

In several interpretations of the partnership's rough patch, the episode "Starsky vs Hutch" and their relationship with Kira is portrayed as a last straw that causes things to come to a head before Starsky is shot in the show's finale, "Sweet Revenge."

Slash fans often interpret David Starsky and Kenneth Hutchinson's tension as UST or domestic strife, while gen fans lean towards non-sexual sources of interpersonal tension hinted at in the series, such as frustration and insecurity about the strength of their partnership in the face of increasing strain from their jobs, or fear that their affection and loyalty is an exploitable vulnerability.

Most, but not all, fans concur that Hutch's demeanor is more strongly and negatively affected than Starsky's.

And then there was Hutch's Mustache.

Influence on Fanworks

The fourth season, for all these reasons, was also an incubator for a lot of fanworks!

On the simplest level, most SH fans despise the episode Starsky vs Hutch, yet this episode is directly responsible for more stories than any other episode, possibly more even than Sweet Revenge. If that episode had never been aired, we would be missing some mighty fine fiction.

The 1985 gen story The Thousandth Man by Suzan Lovett, particularly Part 3, contains a lengthy and in-depth explanation of the reasons for Hutch's changing behavior and appearance during season 4 and especially the episode "Starsky vs Hutch," using a real Jules Feiffer cartoon as a partial metaphor.

Sample Fanfiction

• Ex Post Facto by Katherine Robertson (Starsky and Hutch examine the reasons for their job and for their abandonment of it) (from The Pits #2) (1980)
• The Thousandth Man by Suzan Lovett (a fan favorite, takes place immediately after Starsky and Hutch leave the Pits after dumping Kira) (1985)
• Black and Bruised by Rosemary C (takes place in the aftermath of the episode "Black and Blue" and examines the rift between the two detectives) (1992)
• Private Agendas by Charlotte Frost (takes place after the episode, "Birds of a Feather") (1994)
• The Truth is Out There by Joy Mancinelli (an X-Files parody that proposes that the changes in Hutch in the fourth season were due to an alien abduction and clone switch-a-roo) (from Renascence) (1990)
• Ninety-Nine Miles From LA by Lucy Doty (a controversial story that takes place shortly after the end of the series, includes what some fans felt to be partner betrayal) (2001)

Sample Fanart

• 

  from Code 7 #1, artist is anonymous (1981)

• 

  from Suzan Lovett's The Thousandth Man, an influential post-"Starsky vs. Hutch" story (1985)

• 

  from Code 7 #4, artist is Maureen B for Foster-child of Silence and Slow Time — the author used a variation of this image for an illo in Don't Give Up On Us, Baby (1987)

• 

  from Distant Shores, artist is J. Jones (1991)

• 

  from Gunther's Revenge, artist is Jean C. (fan artist) (1982)

• 

  from [[TLC (1992), artist is J. Jones for [[Black and Bruised], an angsty tale taking place after the episode "Black and Blue": "Unconsciously, Starsky had been blaming his partner for the distance between them, noting only Hutch's withdrawal. Now Starsky found himself wondering what he might have done, or failed to do to initiate such a retreat. What act of his would have been bad enough to merit that amnesia stunt or any of the more bizarre games of recent memory?"

Fan Comments

1980

If they weren't fictional characters, they'd both have been in rubber rooms... and with only each other to depend on, it's no wonder the fourth season was so full of tension. If they didn't love each other so much, they'd have killed each other during 'Partners'.

1996

A lot of fans feel like S & H are farther apart in the fourth season and that Hutch has changed drastically and isn't there for Starsky as he used to be. I actually disagree a little with this. First, there is something different in the fourth season, but I don't feel as if they've drifted apart that much. Something is still there. As for changes and one being there for the other, I feel as if Starsky has changed more than Hutch. For one thing, he's not as bouncy and little boyish as he used to be, and he appears to be SO serious about everything. A good example of Starsky's actions towards Hutch is in Blindfold - Hutch WAS there for him, but Starsky didn't want him there. And the last scene is inexcusable. Hutch may have played his practical jokes on his friend, but Starsky's little stunt could of killed Blondie, or left him permanently injured. And what about Black and Blue, Hutch risked his own health and safety and checked himself out of the hospital to find Starsky, when Starsky pretty much forgot about Hutch after he became interested in Meredith. As for S vs. H, well, they were both pretty stupid in that one. I don't mean to sound as if I'm bashing Starsky, but Hutch always seems to get the bum wap in the fourth season and , well, I just always have to defend my man. :)

All in all though, the fourth season still has the love and care they've had all along, you just have to look for it a bit differently.

I have to agree about Hutch taking on the full personality change in the fourth season. It seems that Starsky didn't change much at all, although he did become a little neater and better dressed. Hutch and AJ Simon were both given some really snide lines against their partners in the last season of their shows. I keep thinking about, in Black and Blue, the ride in the car before Hutch gets shot. Granted, the entire idea about Starsky being psychic was a little silly, but Hutch was downright mean about it, when in earlier episodes he just would have laughed and indulged the little boy in his partner. There was one line that went something like "you're qualified to do nothing but commit yourself', and another where he says that Starsky can use all the help he can get when it comes to women. Neither comment was very nice, even though Hutch is supposed to be a sweet guy!

My opinion is there was no true change at all [in the fourth season]. The fourth season was a mistake that never should have happened. It was a season of tired actors, tired crew, tired producers etc.. It would have been better to cut off after three seasons then to let things deteriorate as they did.

I was glad to see the one person, now I can't remember who, who talked about the fact that S&H's relationship the fourth season wasn't quite so different as many people say. I really agree with that. Some things were different, but I think some of the fanfic writers exaggerate the "rift" between them. Even though the writers put in more competitiveness, when push came to shove they were still there for each other, like in "The Game" and "Black and Blue". It's still too bad they weren't left alone to develop the characters as they liked. I'm Sure the eps would have been a lot better if they had been.

I wanted to add my thoughts to the recent poser about the changes in the fourth season. I agree with Cathee (DSoulgirl) in last week's BBS. Hutch usually gets accused of being the one that changes -- but I see a big change in Starsky in the last season. Mainly, he's not as playful and seems much more serious than in other seasons. I was thinking that they should have used Starsky vs. Hutch as the fourth season opener. You know they have a big falling out over Kira, manage to work it out, but still things aren't quite perfect between them. Then toward the end of the season(or series as it turned out) they start to get their relationship back to where it used to be, as seen in "Targets" and "Sweet Revenge". Leaving us with the great relationship still there for lots of great fanfic! Just an idea.

1998

I've noticed something about the TV shows I used to watch. The first season is the trial period, when everything is shaken up and settling in. Season two is the one in which the characters start having fun.

Then #3 rolls around, and the powers-that-be think, "Okay. We've established ourselves now, given the fans some episodes they won't mind watching in reruns. Now it's time for us to prove that we're more than just entertainment. Let's concentrate this year on social issues and show the world that we care." So they do. Now season four comes, and the actors are getting restless. They want more character development. They're thinking about their future careers. They're thinking about Emmy awards, even if they don't admit it. All of this translates into the "heaviest" year of the show up to that point. After that, the emphasis shifts to exploring new ideas, finding ways to (hopefully) keep the audience interested.

Granted, I haven't seen all that many shows with a run of four or more seasons, especially the ones created within the past ten years, but this pattern generally holds true for the ones I *have* seen.

2006

It changes them, but they're trying like crazy to not let it change them. Hutch is ready, Starsky's not, and the lies that they construct to live their lives, to just pretend a little bit longer, is tearing them apart. And it will tear them apart and it will break our hearts to witness it, but it's time. It's time for Hutch to stop living in the closet and it's time for Starsky to stop running away. They have to deal with this and it's setting them up to do it. </ref> Starsky & Hutch Season Four: Condensed (September 16, 2006) by KimberlyFDR</ref>

2012

They're older in S4, and more worn out. Less idealistic, more disillusioned. More tired. And sometimes they take stuff out on each other, just because... you know, you always go for the one closest to you. And they are close. Just sometimes lost, and sometimes confused. But still, always, close. And then you get Targets Without a Badge, and Sweet Revenge, and OH MY FUCKING GOD. Those really say it all.

2014

I like to go for the idea that something really big went down during the summer hiatus — some massive, ugly, and demoralizing case, maybe involving wrongdoing on the part of the police force...And maybe also involved a big partnership crisis, with one of their lives in peril and the other going crazy trying to save him, that was harrowing enough to make them freak out a bit over how much pain being so intertwined and dependent on each other could cause them and react by pushing each other away for space until the Targets Without A Badge arc brought them back around.

At some point I need to get around to writing that long meta essay about how season 4 was all about S & H being completely exhausted by the stress and fear and overprotectiveness all that hurt/comfort caused for them, and briefly forgetting that the benefits of their friendship outweighed its costs

I always interpreted Hutch's increasing meanness - and what he did in Starsky vs Hutch - to be expressions of him having this slow, depressive breakdown where he's questioning the meaning of his life and the meaning of his friendship with Starsky. I see what he did in SvsH as essentially self-destructive behaviour. You can also add in him having this years long gay 'Oh shit I'm in love with my partner' freakout if you're on that side of the fence...Either way, it makes for fantastic fanfic that tries to explain then fix their relationship in season 4.

2015

In February 2015, a number of less-commonly-discussed observations regarding "Starsky vs. Hutch" come up in a fan's LJ entry: SvH-- a sore subject, I know. (Nancy made me do it)

Meta/Further Reading

• merltheearl and several commenters (2011-2014) voice a variety of speculations about the problems between the two friends at The Ollie Report. Links to some of the key episodes: "Discomania", "The Game" and "Starsky vs. Hutch".