Keep in mind that Liberace steadfastly denied being gay and successfully sued several newspapers that claimed he was gay.
Also, it’s important to keep in mind that the 70s had a different understanding for what homosexuality was than there is now. It was then often referred to as an “alternate lifestyle” thereby strongly implying it was a matter of personal choice rather than being “born gay” which–except in many conservative circles–is now the prevalent view.
Bloody Hell! They fall into each other’s arms - repeatedly - hig, blow into each other’s ears, lean towards each other in a coupley way, gazing into each other’s eyes, arm over the back of the seat like a boyfriend… It’s totally like the credits for the kind of show where there’ll be a will-they-won’t-they dynamic for years. Sure, men do get physical sometimes with no sexual intent, but those credits were really showcasing it.
I want to watch some Starsky and Hutch now. 
Post 4.
It’s funny because it’s true. 
And for interested parties, here’s the hilarious S&H outtakes reel, complete with the Glaser-on-Soul surprise kissyface.
Also, to all the people in this thread who say that Starsky and Hutch couldn’t be gay for each other because they were manly men with manly feelings, I never said they were flaming gay stereotypes. I’m just picking up that they were obviously in love with one another and probably wanted to make sweet manlove.
Gay spam reported.
I was 13 in 1976, and LOVED Starsky & Hutch with the passion only a teen can manage. I still love Starsky when i watch the DVDs. He was GORGEOUS!!!
Starsky was my all-time favourite, and I wanted THAT car like I wanted my next breath. It never entered my head then, and right up till 2011 when I discovered there was something called slash fiction, did it ever occur to me that S&H might’ve fancied each other in a romantic way. It was SO COOL that they were such great mates, and would go to the nth degree for each other. It’s a great pity that by Series 4 they looked to be growing jaded with one another.
I remember being fascinated by the way they would touch each other and nobody around them noticed. They were obviously so well established as close friends that everybody just accepted it. We did hear that they were pushy, especially Starsky, but no-one ever said anything that would’ve raised eyebrows about their sexual orientation. American audiences were then, and probably are today, very squeamish about things sexual in film. It was more acceptable to have gunfights than a bare bosom, so it was very daring of DS & PMG to portray S&H as so close and comfortable with each other, but there was plenty of female presence to allay any doubts for conservative audiences.
Anyway, wouldn’t you just love to have a friend who is so close to you?
I have analysed S&H to death in the last two years, and they still hold up as a great partnership, and the idea of partnership flowing out over the bounds of a work relationship still appeals as much thirty five years later. I could cope with them being gay, but in all honesty, I don’t believe they were. They sure had fun, though, with a lot of wonderful intimate moments, and who could forget that clasp at the end of the drama in ‘Bloodbath’, or that whole rescue and drying-out bit in ‘The Fix’?
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.
I will admit to not having given much thought to Freddie Mercury’s or Elton John’s sexuality during the '70s. The songs they sang, after all were mostly about straight relationships. However, the idea that most people were not aware of gay back then, or that the explicitly gay had no role in popular culture, is absurd. This is the decade that kicked off with The Kinks singing about Lola, and continued with David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust. The gayness (well, ok, bisexuality) there was absolutely explicit, very much part of the public image, and straight people were quite capable of vicariously enjoying it. As for the Village People and songs like YMCA and In the Navy, well, I certainly knew what they were about. The thing is, it did not stop me, as a straight guy, from enjoying the songs. Their sexual transgressiveness, even for straights, was all part of the fun (as it was with Bowie). In the '70s, people (young people anyway) were comfortable with blurring sexual categories rather than feeling the need to draw sharp lines everywhere. Heck, back then it was ok even for a man to hug or otherwise comfort a child.
I can’t really speak about Starsky and Hutch, which I never really watched, but I do not remember ever hearing that anyone thought there was anything gay about the show. I do not think it was even having fun pretending to transgress sexual boundaries the way that Bowie was. Straight guys, even tough straight guys, were allowed and even encouraged to show their softer, more affectionate side back then.
Gay guy here, alive but very young during S & H’s heyday. I watched it a few times, even had a little lust thing for both of them, but the gay vibe just went over my head. As mentioned upthread, it was a time for men - even ‘manly’ men - to be sensitive and get in touch with their feelings and cry a lot on TV. In an age when Hawkeye Pierce was the archetypal role model for men, S & H’s touchy-feely friendship didn’t seem remarkably gay.
OTOH, remember the mini-series version of “Salem’s Lot”? It starred David Soul and the kid who played “James at 15” and I picked up a gay vibe from them. Sure, Soul has a g.f. (don’t think they ever even kiss though), but (spoiler!) she gets vampirized and he leaves town to wander the Earth accompanied by James-at-15.
Most conspicuously (to me at any rate) is a brief shot from early in the first episode. Everyone in town is dropping in on Straker’s newly opened antiques shop. James-at-15 is there with his mother and is leaving, just as Starsky is walking in the door. They walk by each other, and I swear they CRUISE each other!! It’s unmistakeable!
Of course if I saw it now as an adult, I might think it has a skeevy pedophile vibe, but at the time it aired I was a horny, closeted 12 year old and wouldn’t minded at all going off vampire hunting with David Soul.
On Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In (a show contemporary with S&H), Lily Tomlin’s overly prim lady character had the zinger: “Anita Bryant watches Starsky & Hutch… very carefully.”
Anita Bryant had recently been quoted as being quite vocally opposed to the idea of homosexuality. So, yes, it was noticed at the time, it was considered semi-daring, and even the TV commercials for S&H occasionally played on the idea, if only to garner more interest for the show.
That may have been a Lily Tomlin joke, but it wasn’t on Laugh-In, which ran '67-'73; Starsky and Hutch was '75-'79.
Tomlin did her Ernestine character on Saturday Night Live a few times (she was a frequent guest host in the early days), and that did overlap with Starsky & Hutch’s run, as well as Bryant’s hate campaign. It’s very likely that Lily did made that comment on that show.
This. Disco?, The Village People?, The Bee Gees?, Studio 54? The 70’s were the golden age of gay, in some respects.
You’re probably right about this.
As a teen in the Seventies, I watched*** S & H*** semi-regularly, and never picked up anything remotely gay.
Even now, I still see nothing gay about the show, but I’ve gotten used to the fact that some people are going to find a gay subtext in everything, whether it’s there or not.
The implication of this joke is the opposite of what you suggest. It would not have been funny if there actually had been any noticeable gay subtext in Starsky and Hutch, any more than it would have been if told about David Bowie or The Village People. The joke is about how aggressive homophobes like Bryant will see TEH GAY even where it does not exist.
It didn’t to me, I had a mad crush on David Soul and even bought his album(s).
also, I was in college when this was on. I knew gay guys who were very masculine and effeminate guys who were very not-gay at that time. So as far as I know unless someone comes out and says “I am gay” I never think about them that way. Liberace, as far as I am/was confirmed was a flamboyant performer, a percursor to the hair bands and glitter rock to come later on.
Of course I don’t have any sort of gaydar because of this. I have to see them holding hands (or more) or stating their sexuality before I make the assumption.
Yes, but this wasn’t the ONLY joke/reference, though it’s the only one I can recall offhand. Any time there was any type of reference to gays, somebody was bound to mention S&H, until it became cliche. But again, yes, the point in nearly every case was to poke fun at the homophobic spirit of the time.
In the early 80s, when I attended the giant Boskone science fiction conventions, there were always a few filk-singing events and one popular song was all about ho-yay in various TV shows set to “A Man’s a Man for All That” and yes, one verse was about Starsky and Hutch. I didn’t watch the actual show when it was on but don’t remember any particular giggling among my friends about any gay vibes in it. Or much of gay vibes in anything. We were in NYC and saw stuff but didn’t talk about it, not just because of homosexuality but anything related to s-e-x.
There was actually an S&H ep that had a dead cop who was gay. 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