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Bonus video! The Adorable Homoeroticism of Starsky & Hutch (Patreon)

Published:
2021-08-08 17:01:01
Edited:
2023-07-14 18:35:00
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

Content

Oh no. Oh geez. Oh gosh. I was wrong, everyone, horribly wrong about the show Starsky & Hutch.

Here's a new bonus video just for you -- and if the embed doesn't work, try this link: https://youtu.be/6G0iloIrMoM 

I always just assumed Starsky & Hutch was a boring cop-action show about two straight guys doing macho stuff. WHAT A FOOL I WAS. Turns out, it's adorably homoerotic -- or at least, deeply homosocial.

In researching the gay history of Starsky & Hutch and Murder She Wrote for my lastest video, I discovered a surprisingly close relationship between my new favorite 70s undercover cops -- a relationship that the actors themselves were completely aware of, and totally comfortable with.

Also in this video: A beguiling mystery about Duck Tales, and an unexpected connection to Kazaam, the movie that everyone remembers incorrectly.

Thank you again for making these videos possible! May all of your undercover crimefighting costumes be as cute as these guys'.

Matt

Files

Bonus video! The Adorable Homoeroticism of Starsky & Hutch

Oh no. Oh geez. Oh gosh. I was wrong, everyone, horribly wrong about, of all things, the show Starsky & Hutch. I always just assumed it was a boring cop-action show about two straight guys doing macho stuff. WHAT A FOOL I WAS. Turns out, it's adorably homoerotic -- or at least, deeply homosocial.

Comments

Koret Mulder

It's an odd fact. The biggest consumers of lesbian porn are straight men, and the most prolific creators of M/M "slash" fiction are straight women. I was innocently fascinated by TOS Trek in reruns as a very young girl, because of what was clearly the center of the series to me: the relationship between Kirk and Spock. When Starsky and Hutch debuted, I was eleven, and again, absolutely riveted. That male/male chemistry was simply dizzying.

mattbaume

It's true, there's an interesting similarity between Kirk & Spock and Starsky & Hutch. Media has so few examples of close male relationships, whether romantic or not, so those that exist really stand out.

Bunny

I love Starsky and Hutch and recommend it for a watch.

Trevor

Great videos, Matt!

mattbaume

I can't believe it took me this long to give it a shot!

Thom Wyatt

I grew up watching Starsky and Hutch and always got a “vibe” from them. Of course, I would chalk that up to wishful thinking. It’s nice to know the actors were kind of playing it that way and were obviously comfortable doing so. Time for me to go back and revisit this again. Great video!

Nininoona

Far too many people belittle slash fiction far too often. I've been writing slash fiction for decades, just for fun. Because non-toxic queer relationships were so rare on tv. There are so many great stories on AO3, from some really great amateur writers, that create wonderfully good examples of happy couples. Haven't checked out the Starsky/Hutch ones though. I'll definitely take a look. I remember watching the show when it was in syndication.

mattbaume

Honestly the characters are just CRYING OUT for shipping -- I'm surprised they haven't been more widely taken up by The Youths of Today

Thom Wyatt

Can you access AO3 on Kindle or is it just internet based? I would love to explore this.

Nininoona

As far as I know, there is no official app. So you would have use your browser to load the site.

Lin Kibblemom

Thanks for this! I will check out the show as well as the fanfic. Any chance you could do a video about Waylan Flowers?

thom_is_trans

I got into Starsky & Hutch in my early twenties, primarily because the relationship between S&H is so very, very gay and loving. The two of them even call each other "babe" from time to time, and the amount of comfort they show in touching each other and generally showing affection is wonderful for either a romantic couple or as an example of non-toxic male friendship. Anyway, very much enjoyed this video (and all your videos) and looking forward to the next one!

QueBijoux

I loved their relationship as a kid and had a bit of a crush on Paul Michael Glaser. Even then I preferred brunettes over blondes. ;)

Natalie Rose

I had the same false impression of Starsky and Hutch! I'll have to check it out now...

mattbaume

I haven't watched a TON of the show yet but it's so surprisingly sweet -- for a gritty cop show. I am not surprised there's a ton of slash fic because they always seem like they're moments away from kissing!

mattbaume

Believe me nobody is more shocked than I am that I'm recommending this show

Yonatan Zunger

For those who want to watch these on Android, BTW, I've figured out a hack: - On desktop, make sure you're signed in to vimeo. Then click on the link (not the embed) to open vimeo.com. - From there, click the clock to add it to your "watch later" list. - Now on Android, from the vimeo app, you can get to that list by hitting watch, scrolling to the bottom, and choosing "watch later." Then you can click on the video from there and it works! (Just don't move out of the app, vimeo doesn't do picture-in-picture) Sigh. The labors we do to get our queer history!

Dorkvania

Speaking of cop shows that inspired a lot of fic, is The Sentinel on your radar at all? The show's sort of fallen into obscurity due to a lawsuit that kept it from DVD or streaming release for ages, but The Sentintel AU is still a standard fanfic type, even among people who don't know where it came from.

Ltleflrt

2 "straight" cops having to go under cover as a gay couple is one of my favorite Destiel Supernatural fanfic tropes, so those 2 real life cops are kinda my heroes lol

Koret Mulder

I really love S&H, because you can read it two ways, and they're both sooo good. Maybe they are completely hetero, and are just super-blissed-out with finding the kind of friend we can only dream of, one where they don't need to bother with homophobic, toxic masculinity distancing. Or... Maybe they have unexpectedly found their emotional, sexual, spiritual counterpart, and are happily, humanly drunk in their connection. PMG and DS both acknowledge that they played up the sexual tension between Starsky and Hutch, an acting choice, for heat and drama. Two other actors could have been given those same scripts and played them out much more dry and we wouldn't be talking about it now. Remember Adam-12? No? My point exactly.

Koret Mulder

Trust me. The more you watch, the gayer it gets. I think it's still one of the most lovingly depicted gay relationships TV has ever produced, in spite of the fact that it was always subtextual. There is an episode (not one of the best, but there it is) where they both hard fall for the same woman. They fight each other. They reconcile. They go to meet her, and ask her to either choose or *take them both*. She says she can't, and so they look at each other, shrug, throw their arms around each other and walk away from her.

mattbaume

I no I haven't heard to that one -- I'll check it out, thank you for the heads up!

Francesca Zadra

Oh man. There's a reason S&H was such a pillar of slash fanfiction history. There are multiple old single-fandom archives still active in addition to S&H's presence on AO3. There's a slash con still going. If you're curious about other shows fanfic writers, at least, thought were super gay, Fanlore's timeline is interesting: [https://fanlore.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Slashed_Sources] Some of these I see much more than others. Miami Vice, for example, is incredibly subtextually queer, but also incredibly self hating and messed up in an 80s way. (Evan is the gay episode of that, and it sure is something. Textually, it's about a dead gay best friend. Subtextually, it reads like a bunch of closet cases self destructing. It's way more of a downer than S&H though.)

Francesca Zadra

AO3 doesn't have an app because 1. it's all paid for by donations and doesn't even have paid staff so an app is just technologically/financially not in the cards and 2. the Apple store doesn't allow "adult" apps, and AO3's anti-censorship stance would run afoul of them in a heartbeat. However, all works on AO3 have a handy download button that lets you download epub, mobi, etc. I usually download on my laptop and use the Send to Kindle app to load them on mine. I just tried downloading directly on my kindle, and it looks like that works too. You'll need to be on wifi, go to AO3, and use the download links. When I did this just now on my kindle, the downloaded fanfic showed up as a "book". When I use Send To Kindle from my computer, the fics show up as "documents" instead.

mattbaume

Oh of COURSE Miami Vice has a ton of slash ... and of course it's problematic given the time. Whew! I'll check it out, I'm so curious how it reads today.

Francesca Zadra

Content-wise... it's a mixed bag. (They have the full on multiple personalities crossdressing/trans serial killer episode so many 80s shows had, for example.) But one thing people don't realize about MV is that it didn't just revolutionize how music is used on television: it was also groundbreaking for film editing and cinematography on television. (So it at least looks a lot prettier than shows from 10-15 years later and nothing really equaled it, in my opinion, until we get to cinematic cable shows like Deadwood.) The pilot is interesting, the next few are still finding their footing, and then Edward James Olmos shows up part way through the first season and glares his way through the rest of the series. If you're going to watch just one episode, I'd either try Evan, which is perpetually down on streaming services for "music rights reasons" or One-Eyed Jack, which both introduces EJO's character and guest stars Joe Dallesandro.

Knights Who Say Sledge

As a kid in the early 80s when it came to hunk TV duos, I was all about the Dukes of Hazzard (particularly the replacement Dukes that came in for one season - Coy and Vance - cuz they were somehow even extra more himbo-tastic than the standard Dukes), but as an adult looking back - I TOTALLY get the Starsky and Hutch thing and I enjoy seeing people sort of rediscover that show from our 21st century hindsight.

Koret Mulder

I think Starsky and Hutch was one of the first-ever displays of non-toxic homoeroticism. There *absolutely* was a heavy homo-erotic vibe, but they were still also rightly presented as moral, tough, bad-ass heroes.