# Did Starsky and Hutch seem this gay back in the '70s? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 10, 2010, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-starsky-and-hutch-seem-this-gay-back-in-the-70s/560209 "2010-11-10T19:48:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-starsky-and-hutch-seem-this-gay-back-in-the-70s/560209/82 "2013-04-12T22:14:01Z")
I remember this being a joke back when, along with similar jokes about other buddy combos. On Cagney and Lacy a few years later the jokes were about lesbians. It’s kind of weird, but the 60s on TV was all about hippy memes and the like, not really reflecting reality very well. But the actual 70s seemed to be following the image portrayed on TV. People really were wearing polyester leisure suits and crap like that. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-starsky-and-hutch-seem-this-gay-back-in-the-70s/560209/83 "2013-04-12T22:56:01Z")
> [@Terminus\_Est](#): > > It was the 1970’s - the whole _decade_ was pretty gay. Aaron Spelling was television’s Beethoven and the 1970s were its Bromanticism period. ---
**Author:** ![Aquadementia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aquadementia/32/555_2.png) [@Aquadementia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquadementia)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2013, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-starsky-and-hutch-seem-this-gay-back-in-the-70s/560209/84 "2013-04-13T01:13:22Z")
Partners that drive around San Francisco in a flamboyant red car in the 70’s and would rather solve crimes with a theater arts degree instead of guns. It honestly never occurred to me back then that it looked gay. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2013, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-starsky-and-hutch-seem-this-gay-back-in-the-70s/560209/85 "2013-04-13T01:17:09Z")
**Aquadementia** - There were _plenty_ of guns in S&H. And I don’t think it was set in SF - at least it’s never used any of the famous SF locations. StG ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2013, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-starsky-and-hutch-seem-this-gay-back-in-the-70s/560209/86 "2013-04-13T01:29:48Z")
zombie or no gay. so was Huggy Bear. it was fictional Bay City, California. ---
**Author:** ![Aquadementia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aquadementia/32/555_2.png) [@Aquadementia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquadementia)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2013, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-starsky-and-hutch-seem-this-gay-back-in-the-70s/560209/87 "2013-04-13T01:57:22Z")
I didn’t really intend to post that but it went off anyhow. I didn’t have the safety on. Stupid touch pad. They weren’t shy about drawing guns, but I remember then more for their undercover antics. Been a long time since I’ve seen the show. I kind of thought Bay City was a supposed San Francisco. That’s the magic of television. Like how so many things are filmed in Vancouver yet almost no show takes place in Vancouver. ---
**Author:** ![King\_David](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eb9ed0/32.png) [@King\_David](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/King_David)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-starsky-and-hutch-seem-this-gay-back-in-the-70s/560209/88 "2013-04-16T06:42:48Z")
> [@StGermain](#): > > There was actually an S&H ep that had a dead cop who was gay. [Death in a Different Place](http://www.episodeworld.com/episode/18163/Starsky_And_Hutch/3x06/Death_In_A_Different_Place). And Hutch brings up that to many, two guys who work together and spend all their off time together would be seen as suspicious. As I recall, Starsky was sort of oblivious to the whole thing until Hutch spelled it out. > > StG Yes, Starsky was oblivious to the fact that Det John Blaine was gay, as he seemed the quintessential family man with a wife and all. (He had been the young Starsky’s mentor as well, teaching him how to fight. This did not equate to gayness, as far as Starsky could figure.) Starsky was very uncomfortable with the revelation by Hutch, as he is a very conservative character. Hutch has the more open and aware character. It has been speculated elsewhere that Hutch is at least bisexual to the extent that he’d like to take the relationship with Starsky further, but only Starsky, but that Starsky is not ready for the approach. Of course, this is all 2013 analysis, but in the original airings, they were just two regular straight guys with a great partnership and a great friendship. S&H was cutting-edge in some of the topics it handled in the day: child abuse, feminism (to a degree), drugs, gayness, and of course the expressing of emotions - Hutch tells Starsky at least twice ‘I love you’ but it was contextually suitable so it was just a nice confirmation of the fact of their warm relationship, and we all knew that, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![ministryman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@ministryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ministryman)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-starsky-and-hutch-seem-this-gay-back-in-the-70s/560209/89 "2013-04-16T15:05:08Z")
> [@Arnold\_Winkelried](#): > > (blushes, shuffles toe on the ground) ah gee, silenus, you didn’t haveta go to all that trouble for little ole me. You sure are a swell guy. Look at those two guys. There’s some Ho Yay goin’ on between them. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![ministryman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@ministryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ministryman)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-starsky-and-hutch-seem-this-gay-back-in-the-70s/560209/90 "2013-04-16T15:11:02Z")
> [@King\_David](#): > > …Actually, in 1976, nobody seemed gay to me, and I thought Freddie Mercury was just being theatrical. Completely missed the Village People, and even the boy in my final year at high school in 1981. Slightly older than you, but I too missed the Freddie Mercury / QUEEN connection, the symbolism of the Village People until 1982, when I lost a friend who had come out of the closet to AIDS. And I thought that Liberace, Elton John and Little Richard were just over the top flamboyant… ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-starsky-and-hutch-seem-this-gay-back-in-the-70s/560209/91 "2013-04-16T15:32:42Z")
> [@ministryman](#): > > And I thought that Liberace, Elton John and Little Richard were just over the top flamboyant… As my father said after meeting the high school drama teacher, “He’s not gay, he’s just theatrical.” ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-starsky-and-hutch-seem-this-gay-back-in-the-70s/560209/92 "2013-04-16T15:32:58Z")
> [@Aquadementia](#): > > I didn’t really intend to post that but it went off anyhow. I didn’t have the safety on. Stupid touch pad. > > They weren’t shy about drawing guns, but I remember then more for their undercover antics. Been a long time since I’ve seen the show. > > I kind of thought Bay City was a supposed San Francisco. That’s the magic of television. Like how so many things are filmed in Vancouver yet almost no show takes place in Vancouver. Pitch: TV buddy cop series. Catch: Set in Vancouver where four different buddy cop series are being filmed. The four pairs of buddies represent different call-backs to previous buddy cop series. Only this time, the four productions are constantly butting heads and interfering with each other to film in Vancouver as actual murders take place and the four pairs of buddies use their TV cop ‘training’ to work to solve the murders. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-starsky-and-hutch-seem-this-gay-back-in-the-70s/560209.md?page=4)