The Starsky & Hutch Archive

Archive
Name:	The Starsky & Hutch Archive
Date(s):
Archivist:	Flamingo
Founder:	Sebastyin was the first webmistress
Type:	fanfiction archive
Fandom:	Starsky and Hutch
URL:	http://www.starskyhutcharchive.net/ https://www.starskyandhutcharchive.net/ (new location) http://starskyhutcharchive.com/index.php (current) http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/8418/SH/sharchiv.html (1999, slash) http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/Set/4384/index.html (1999, gen) http://members.delphi.com/punkflamingo/web/starskyhutch/index.html (2000, gen) http://members.delphi.com/punkflamingo/web/SHarchive/sharchiv.html (2000, slash) http://www.squidge.org/~flamingo/starskyhutchslash/index.htm (2001, slash) http://www.squidge.org/~flamingo/starskyhutchgen/index.htm (2001, gen) [2] (2010) screencap of the 2006 version of the archive's main page
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

The Starsky & Hutch Archive is a gen and slash fiction site.

This archive contains netfic, as well as much zine fic. It has undergone a variety of remodels and moves.

The original site went live in 1996, then migrated to a different platform in the late 1990s, then again in 2010, and again in 2023.

The Archive was given a Huggy Award for being the Best Starsky & Hutch website for 1999 at the 14th Annual ZebraCon.

Some History

The site was created in 1995 and went live in 1996 as The Pits Archive.

Originally, the archive was started by fanfic writer, Alexis Rogers, and webmistress, Sebastyin, who felt it was time for Starsky and Hutch fanfic to be available online. Fans on the VenicePlace mailing list, including Nancy T, Solo, Alexis Rogers, Suzan Lovett, and Flamingo, helped to develop the archive.

Because some gen zine fans and writers were unwilling to have their fanfic appear on a website featuring slash fic, two separate archives were established. Initially, the SH Archive was created and operated by Sebastyin and hosted on Geocities.com. Eventually, most of the fans involved in the creation of the archive moved on leaving Flamingo as webmistress and archivist. In 1999, Geocities.com changed its Terms of Service and declared they now owned the copyright on all content on its servers. Within 24 hours, Flamingo moved the entire archive and all its content to Delphi.com, where it resided until Delphi discontinued its website services in 2000. The archive next moved to www.squidge.org thanks to the generosity of Walter H. Hopgood. However, the archive was still a basic html site with no search function, while other fanfic archives had advanced search and sorting functions. In 2006, Morgan Logan designed and engineered an archive with more advanced functions, and the archive established the domain starskyhutcharchive.com. SHaron assisted with data-collection. However, Flamingo, still the nominal archivist, was unable to update this archive for several years. In 2010, Cyanne used e-Fiction software to build a new archive under the domain starskyhutcharchive.net. KimberlyFDR helped with CSS formatting, and Suzan Lovett did the art for the skins. Many fans helped with transferring stories from the dot com site.

In an August 30, 2012 interview Flamingo offered a detailed history of the development of the archive. The following has been paraphrased from that interview:

In the mid 1990s, there was no Starsky & Hutch fanfiction online. All fic was being published in zines and much of the classic fic had been published decades earlier and was out of print. Alexis Rogers decided that it was time to bring the fandom forward into this new Internet era and started by putting her fanfiction online. She, along with a group of other fans, decided to set up a website archive even though they had no experience in creating or managing an archive. One of their first decisions was to offer space for both gen and slash fan fiction. However knowing that many gen fans would object to their fic being housed in an archive which also contained slash fanfiction, they separated the two genres. Links went from the slash archive to the gen, but not in reverse.

Alexis announced her fanfiction was online to the Virgule-L mailing list on September 21, 1997. For the first few years, Alexis' fic was the only Starsky and Hutch fanfiction online. Even her closest friend, (Diana) felt that Starsky and Hutch fanfiction was too personal to be publicly shared with the world wide web. Flamingo, a relative newcomer to the fandom, began contacting classic fanzine writers asking permission to include their out of print fanfic. Most writers refused. Then Suzan Lovett offered her fanfiction to the archive even though, at the time, her zines Goliath and The Thousandth Man had been in print for over ten years. Other writers followed suit, such as Merle Decker and Carol Davis.

Like many websites at the time, the archive migrated across many service providers. The site originally began on Geocities. However, in June 1999, six months after Geocities was bought by Yahoo, Yahoo unilaterally changed their terms of service claiming copyright ownership of the websites they hosted. Website owners could not login to their websites without agreeing to the new terms. This led to the Geocities Revolt where fans and non-fans alike removed their websites and replaced them with the image of a ghost (as in 'Geocities would become a ghost town').

Some Home Pages

• 

  the gen section, GeoCities

• 

  the slash section, GeoCities

• 

  the gen section, Delphi

• 

  the slash section, Delphi

• 

  the gen section, Squidge

• 

  the slash section, Squidge

1998 Flyer

From a March 8, 1998 flyer:

Remember when you loved Starsky & Hutch? Then, come see our new slash archive.

WE WANNA SHARE!

http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/Set/4384/index.html

S/H fandom is alive and well on the Net!

So, grab your blue Adidas, jump in your favorite flashy red car, and join the fun!

The S/H Slash Archive proudly presents the classic stories

THE COST OF LOVE

and

THE LAST CHARADE

Plus, brand new stories by known writers and talented new voices.

WE WANNA SHARE *MORE*.

Our new archive needs submissions! We'd love to give out-of- print S/H stories and art a second life on the Net -- but only with permission of authors and artists. We can provide anonymity. We are also interested in new stories and parts of longer works in progress. We can scan stories and art which aren't in an electronic forum. We also have editors who can help proof-read and edit any story before posting.

The slash archive is linked to the S&H Gen Archive. If you're concerned with how your story will look, you can view the classic novel, THE GOLIATH, by Suzan Lovett, complete with its art at:

http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/Set/4384/index.html

Both the gen and slash S&H Archives are quality projects and labors of love.

As Huggy would say, when the spirit is willing, the Archive is capable of all kindsa groovy stuff!

1999 Flyer

first page of a 1999 flyer

first page of a 1999 flyer

STARSKY & HUTCH FANFIC AND ART CELEBRATING AND PRESERVING 20 YEARS OF CREATIVITY

For over 20 years, we have enjoyed the amazing quality of SH fanfic and art. Today, as the world reaches out over the Internet, this amazing relationship of love and trust is still inspiring new stories, new art, and finding new fans. Some fans are discovering SH not through videotapes but directly from fanfic downloaded from the Internet. From Alaska to New Zealand SH fans meet on Internet discussion lists and chat rooms devoted to a show which hasn't been produced since 1979.

But the legacy of some of the earliest fanworks are in danger. Created long before the advent of home computers, zines produced on painstakingly typed mimeo sheets are beginning to dissolve under the weight of the years. The stories and art, which center on themes of love, friendship, trust and honor — some of the finest qualities of human nature - are not just "fan scribblings" but a literary legacy which needs to be cherished and preserved so it can be shared and appreciated into the future.

Two Archives have been established on the Internet by devoted SH fans just for this purpose.

The S&H Gen Archive can be reached at: http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/Set/4384/index.html

Currently, the gen Archive hosts two complete novels and all their artwork. Suzan Lovett has graciously granted us permission to post "The Thousandth Man" and "The Goliath." We've also posted her short fantasy spoof," It Was A Dark And Stormy Night." It took nearly a year to scan in the typewritten novels and their art, proofread them, and render the art in a format that would be complimentary to the original pieces. Suzan feels her work has been handsomely reproduced, and is very pleased. There is also a novella by Beth Hilleman and a new story. Recently, we've gotten permission to Archive works of Teri White, Ruth Kurz, Jan Lindner, Susan Birchfield, and others. We are continually looking for classic SH writers who might grant us permission to preserve their work in the same way.

The S&H Slash Archive can be reached at: http://Avww.geocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/8418/SH/sharchiv.html

Currently the slash Archive houses the collected S/H stories of Alexis Rogers, stories by Suzan Lovett, Kari Masoner, and Rosemary, a novel-in-progress by Flamingo, and new stories by a host of different writers. As with the gen site, more stories are being prepared for posting, including a Lovett novella, works of Leah S., Dargelos, the poems of Jean Chabot and others.

The slash Archive has warning language posted on age limitations. This language screens this material through child-protection software currently available. The slash site cannot be accessed from the gen site.

For both sites, the privacy needs of the creators of the posted material is our first concern. Authors and artists have the final word on what will be posted, and under what name. Suzan Lovett chose to use her full name on the Archives, but other writers have selected new pseudonyms for anonymity. Stories and art are scanned, proofed, and turned into electronic documents by parties other than the creators, and all material is posted by these same parties so the creators themselves are not involved with that process, further protecting them. No material would ever be posted without the creator's permission.

Ideally, these classic zines should be reproduced on paper so that they could appear exactly as they did originally. But with the rising price of photocopying and postage, producing and purchasing zines has become difficult for many. While access to the Internet is still limited in many areas, at least the stories will be there, preserved, and can be printed out by those who do have access to share with others who don't.

We encourage fans, new and old, to visit the websites. And if you know of past creators of SH material who may have gone on to other fandoms, or perhaps may have left fandom altogether, we would love to appeal to them to permit us to preserve their work.

For those creators uncomfortable with the Internet, we are still interested in preserving their work on paper.

We can be contacted by email at: [email protected] [email protected] or: [email protected]

And through snail mail at: Flamingo, Box 823 Beltsville MD 20705.

Anonymity is guaranteed. Respect for the work and the people who created it is absolute. Looking forward to sharing Starsky & Hutch into the next millennium, Flamingo

2010 Incarnation

Regarding Warnings and Tags

The original archive was started before warnings were an issue on the Web. Yeah, it's that old. Because we had no warnings on the fic we already had, we debated how to deal with a classification we were required to have to satisfy the software. Many of the first generation of SH writers who've given us permission to archive their classic fiction felt very strongly against warnings. The early zines didn't have warnings, and many of those writers don't want warnings on their stories, feeling they give too much of the power and intent of their stories away. Many of those writers, who gave me their permission long ago, can't even be contacted to get their input on this issue. Many modern writers feel just as strongly that they want warnings on their stories, and many readers feel the same way. Since the software required we use warning categories, this is what we decided to do.

We uploaded all the fic we already had with the "warning" statement: Author Chooses Not to Use Archive Warnings. This does not mean that the story doesn't need warnings or that it does. It means simply that the author doesn't want warnings on their stories or that they aren't around to have an opinion about it. That simple.

In deference to modern writers, many of whom feel very strongly that they want warnings for their stories, we have created the following categories: BDSM, Major Character Death, and Non-Consensual, and "No Warnings Needed." BDSM and Non-Consensual are self-explanatory. "Major Character Death" refers specifically to Starsky, Hutch, Dobey, and Huggy. If you want to bump off Sweet Alice or Dobey's wife, we'll just have to bear it somehow.

We debated other warnings, but since the list of topics people feel they must be warned about is both overwhelming and ever-changing, we felt that having more than those completely altered the tradition of the SH Archive, which is strictly, and always has been, an adult archive.

Again, we were required to establish these categories, but you are not required to adopt them. However, we would prefer that you pick one, or the software will slap "none" on your story, which may be misleading. And, you can pick more than one by holding the control key down.

Fiction Categories

We've made this as simple as possible, and kept the categories the same as they were in the original archive. There are only two, and they are used here in their most classic sense.

A "Gen" story is any story that does not involve an implied or stated romantic relationship between Starsky and Hutch. There may be romantic relationships in the story between other same-sex couples, there may be romantic relationships between opposite sex couples, including those involving Starsky or Hutch with a woman, canon or original character. There may be no romantic relationships at all, and be an adventure or police procedural, or anything at all. If the boys aren't hankering for each other, it's Gen.

Conversely, if the boys are hankering for each other, even in the most subtle way, it is Slash. There are stories where this is implied so subtly only a mind reader can pick up on it, and stories where it seems blatantly obvious, yet the writer classifies it as gen. That's why the writer is the one who makes that decision.

If you have a beef over the categorization of a story, bring it to Captain Dobey. Since the archivists have uploaded most of the archive's stories from the old archive, we may have miscategorized it. We trust SH readers will be tolerant of archivist's errors.

Watch Out... Not "Even on Your Lunch Hour"

Changing the look of the site: You can change the look of the site when you are logged in by changing the 'skin', either through your account or in the drop down box on each page. Please note that one skin is rated "R" and not work safe, even on your lunch hour.

2000: "Those Pioneering Dames"

In 2000, Flamingo thanked "those pioneering dames":

You all might like knowing, just for historical interest, that if it weren't for Alexis, there would be no SH Archive at all. She was the first person to propose it (with the then webmistress, Georgia) and the very first person to post any fiction on it. This may sound odd to you now but back then (all of 5 years ago) many, many people felt that putting SH fiction, especially slash, on the net, was a BAD THING and should not be done. There are still some people who feel this way, but fortunately more and more are giving their stories to the net, especially the out of print ones. I was one of the loudest people opposed to electronic fiction, and Alexis changed my mind so thoroughly that I started searching out authors. Suzan Lovett was the second person to give us fiction, so if it weren't for Suzan and Alexis, there would be no Archive as we know it today. For a long, long time, their stories were the only ones on the archives at all. So, hats off to those pioneering dames.

2002 Fan Comments on Archiving and History

From a 2002 discussion about archiving:

...I have been gathering zines at a hectic pace ... and have been reading new stories at a remarkable rate, I am so far behind on feedback to all the writers who contributed to these zines (I just read 1 - 21 The Fix over the last few days - grand stuff -

[...]

Many of the stories got a mental and physical response and demanded feedback but, instead of writing down my impressions and feelings like a good girl - a thank you note for the gift received - greedy here went on to the next story and the next.

[...]

Having, over the past two years, read an enormous number of S&H stories - both zines and net fic and having reread so many favourites over and over and over again (hell I have reread every single piece of fiction written on S&H that I have managed to find at least twice and some as many as ten times) you could say I have drowned myself in S&H fiction for the past two years.

So, when a story crops up that is different on some level from every other story I have read in the genre for two years - the impulse to speak out comes forth.

This is not the place for me to name names and tell of the wonderful stories I have read lately. Frankly, my dears, I have been gobbling them like peanuts or potato chips - shoving them into the maw as fast as I can chew and swallow.

I am hoping that I will get to a point where I can send feedback on every zine. Not an in depth critical analysis you understand but a gut reaction - almost mindless really - the the story as a whole - not breaking it down into its component parts of craft and great literature.

Sorry to say but what you/we are writing is not great literature - it is heart comfort, soul food, pacifier and the best antidepressant medicine every produced. Sometimes it works wonderfully, most times it works okay.

There are wonderful passages, lines and descriptions. There ware stories that almost approximate works of art. There are stories that give you joy, those that frustrate and those that conflict with your personal hot buttons of prejudice, pain and fear or squick. Or stories that show S&H in a way that your mind and heart do not see them at all. But, overall, they are pieces of a tapestry that has been woven by thousands, starting as early as 1975. This huge story tapestry, fit to hang on a castle wall, painstakingly woven and stitched by hundreds of women, some so skilled it takes your breath away, some so new and fumbling it breaks your heart and you smile through tears - same reaction as watching your child take his first steps and fall on his butt.

This one's use of colour, this one's accuracy of line, this one's stitches so perfect, this one's choice of subject, this one's ability to show so much with so little.

Each and every writer, so valuable to the whole, coming together to create this wonderful thing.

[...]

I really do feel that a gathering of every old zine ever printed should be done and the stories, those valuable, wonderful stories be copied onto a medium more enduring than paper (I have zines typed onto unbelievably thin construction paper, carbon copies yet on paper so fragile that to breathe on it will tear it. You can practically name the type of typewriter (not electric) that they were painstakingly typed out on and mimeographed (remember the drum ladies, remember the drum).

In this era of CD's, I do wish that somehow all the S&H stories that ever were written to date could be collected on CD's and sold to every single S&H fan.

I understand original writer's, anonymous writer's perhaps not wishing to have their works arbitrarily posted on the net where strangers to the love of S&H can wander in and find but a CD of stories is like photocopying the original zines. The fans can have all their dreams in hand in a small format. (the house is beginning to overflow with my original zines and copies for library) CD's are looking really attractive to me at the moment. Maybe it is just an aberration.

There are gems buried in the zines of the past that should not be lost to the fans at large. Actually all the stories are gems of one kind or another but some appear brighter to me and appeal to my eye and others will likely shine brighter and appeal to you.

I agree there are SO many beautifully created stories that need to be shared and used as inspiration for new writers. I feel bad that the whole library of zine fic isn't more accessible, because there is just so much to read. A library would've been greatly appreciated when I was spending the grocery money when ever I could. ;o) These zines were all lovingly created, edited and presented. Beautifully illustrated and treasures to keep. I know Flamingo and others are trying desperately to make these works available in a more convenient form but like you said...there is permission to be asked, and a lot of these writers are not easily found. I know I loaned my copies out until they virtually began to fall apart.

These standards are what we hoped to continue on "The Pits" to a degree. Hopefully one day all of the past zine fic will be a gift everyone can share. I have copies of very old (1975) zines that are printed on a mimeograph machine -- the printing is barely visible in some places, the paper crumbly -- but the stories are priceless. Carefully edited from beginning to end and proudly presented. Certainly something to use as inspiration.

Other Starsky and Hutch Fanfic Archives and Lists

• The Pits Archive (gen and slash, the first archive)
• Bay City Library (gen)
• Me and Thee Archive (gen, slash)
• Tagging Bay City (list of tagged S&H fic)
• Dave & Ken's Diner (automated slash archive)
• The Starsky & Hutch Archive (gen and slash)