Starsky & Hutch: Why the Spin-Off Failed

[@atomicabe]

Thanks for watching and thanks to our sponsor Atlas VPN. Get the Atlas VPN BIG DEAL for $1.83/mo + 3 months extra: get.atlasvpn.com/AtomicAbe

[@ttintagel]

The really awesome thing is that David Soul and Paul Michael Glaser are still good friends in real life.

[@atomicabe]

that's so sweet.

[@KenLieck]

And what's truly great Is that David Soul went on to bigger and better things -- like the lead role in "Jerry Springer: the Opera"!

[@barbarabrusatori8585]

@atomicabe So sad that David Soul is gone. I still will not watch any reboot with females or any other people. FOX made the biggest mistake by not getting Paul Michael Glaser & David Soul make a more modern movie with those two. The rights should have been sold back to Paul & David. They made the show. Their directing in the series were the best, along with Earl Belamy & a few others. The writing needed to be better. Just like I never watched the 2004 movie.

[@alfonsogreen2722]

R.I.P David Soul

[@CyclopsWasRight616]

"Behind the back-door Pilot" is one of my favorite pieces of KZbin :)

[@atomicabe]

Thanks! That's great to hear.

[@demetriusdillard2863]

Mine too!

[@QuasarSniffer]

Now I wish we had gotten Vincent Price as his "Butch" character as a supporting player in a 1970s cop show.

[@Shishio28]

Always entertaining to watch. Looking forward to the new videos

[@atomicabe]

Thanks very much! That's so nice to hear.

[@mamadouaziza2536]

ABC reworked this and called it 10 Speed & Brown Shoe..

[@atomicabe]

OMG, that's right.

[@thadoc5186]

This episode looks amazing.

[@edreid7872]

I remember Paul’s sweater was a must have.. I had one..didn’t necessarily want it, but every one had one.. talk about peer pressure..😂

[@atomicabe]

ha ha ha. I bet every generation has fashion trends that were inspired by the hot TV shows. A lot of guys at school stopped wearing socks after MIAMI VICE came out.

[@edreid7872]

@@atomicabeThe sockless trend continues today… 😂

[@Theasworld1984]

My grandmother had one as well

[@davkrod]

I still have mine!

[@MrAlsachti]

As a child, it was one of my favourite episodes! :-)

[@atomicabe]

No kidding. That's cool. I wonder how it would hold up for you now. I hope you still enjoy it.

[@amcaesar]

As a fan of "Race the Devil," I want to see where the Jack Starrett rabbit hole leads!

[@atomicabe]

One of these days I need to see Jack Starrett's THE LOSERS.

[@demetriusdillard2863]

Starrett also directed "Final Chapter--Walking Tall," the final installment in the "Walking Tall" trilogy (starring Bo Svenson in his second go-around as baseball bat-wielding Tennessee sheriff Buford Pusser)!

[@dragondisciple1205]

Starsky and Hutch created a lot of tropes for cop movies and tv shows. Captain Dobey is definitely the original angry police captain

[@blackamerican40]

RIP David 😢🙏

[@edreid7872]

When a side character needs to remain a side character..😂

[@noneofyourbusiness4616]

Thanks for the video! You put the "neato" in "bean burrito!"

[@atomicabe]

ha! you're welcome.

[@redbeard36]

When I was a kid I didn't realize the Antonio Fargas Jr. was a Blacksploitation movie legend. Usually the tough but misguided bad guy.

[@atomicabe]

Yeah he's great in Foxy Brown

[@nondescriptusername68]

His son went on to play in the NFL for the Oakland Raiders lol

[@moonprincesst.s.h.4ever115]

Antonio Fargas was also in the Backstreet Boys' music video as a bus driver, Everybody (We're Back!) release date: July 14th, 1997.

[@atomicabe]

I had no idea. That's cool. Thanks.

[@moonprincesst.s.h.4ever115]

@@atomicabeYou're welcome It's quite funny because they used the movie set of Universal Pictures children's film, Casper (1995.) The Backstreet Boys were signed to Universal Music at the time.

[@Oasis888]

My favorite thing about Ron Friedman is that he brings a giant picture of himself and Stan Lee to every autograph signing he does at TFCon.

[@childofnature4402]

This was back when people could laugh at each other and not make a big deal about it. It was innocent fun where both sides gave as good as they got. It's only "problematic" if you view everything through the lense of humourless modern day identity politics. The stuff in this episode was just mild and silly with no malice behind it. A movie like Blazing Saddles couldn't be made today for sure, but that's not a good thing.

[@atomicabe]

You make a very good point that there wasn't malice. I agree with that.

[@-scottie6439]

I agree. Comedy can't be comedy anymore because it might offend someone.

[@FrenkTheJoy]

I mean, people used to think it was funny to make dogs and bears attack each other. Does that mean people could laugh at each other and not make a big deal about it? I find the people who are the most offended are the people constantly whining about how nobody can be funny anymore. They still make comedy all the time, it's just gosh less racist now that most of society admits that black people and the Polish are also human beings. Jury's still out on women being human beings, though.

[@ironmaster6496]

yeah honestly the whole accent thing didn't seem ofenssive to me specially since the punchline was that the guy was forced to do it, did it terribly and was mocked for it, it's literally at the expense of the white guy

[@ironmaster6496]

@@FrenkTheJoy it really depends because YES, there are a lot and i mean A LOT of old tv shows where the joke is "haha he is black, haha woman uselss, haha he's from another country" but there are also more harmless jokes where they take the concept of something being wrong and use it as a joke, but people get offended anyways because they don't like the topic, like again in this case the joke that the guy was doing an accent so terible that the blind woman noticed it immediately, it's not worth getting angry at something like that

[@PecanSandees23]

Female Starsky and Hutch? Isn't that just Cagney and Lacey?

[@alyzu4755]

I'm now trying to imagine Huggy Bear as an MLM Hun. ☺️ Also, "Theatre of Blood" is a fantastic film! ❤️❤️❤️

[@sejejo7565]

I was told to sound Blacker during an audition in LA once and that was like 2009

[@atomicabe]

Oof. Sorry to hear that. I worked on a car commercial where the client wanted the talent to be "more Latino". It was awkward. This was circa 2013.

[@fromthesidelines]

ABC's chief programmer, Fred Silverman, was always looking for "spin-offs" to enrich his schedules {TWICE, he wanted "The Fonz" to star in his own series, but Henry Winkler and Garry Marshall flatly refused- even when Silverman wanted to pair "Fonzie" with "Pinky Tuscadero" in a proposed "FONZIE LOVES PINKY" series, as Fred went nuts over Roz Kelly ("She's a female Fonzie!!!!", he exclaimed)}. He briefly considered "HUGGY BEAR AND THE TURKEY"....but finally rejected the idea for the 1977-'78 season.

[@collegeman1988]

“I’m sure they’ll have some interesting adventures.” is a similar line said by Mr. Spock at the end of the episode, Assignment: Earth, which was a failed back door pilot in Star Trek for a time traveling character, Gary Seven that was never picked up.

[@atomicabe]

Yes! Our very first video in BEHIND THE BACKDOOR PILOT was about Star Trek's ASSIGNMENT EARTH! kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z6nEhoJ6n7R3fas

[@collegeman1988]

@@atomicabeI just finished watching that video on your channel. 👍

[@collegeman1988]

I don’t know if anyone else noticed this, but every character on Starsky and Hutch is wearing clothes that look like they came right off the wardrobe rack and don’t have the tiniest speck of dirt or wrinkle on them. Maybe all the clothes were made entirely of polyester and embalmed in Scotchgard in the Disco era of the 1970s?

[@atomicabe]

ha! Could be.

[@allanbard6048]

"Turkey's" wardrobe was an off-the-rack wardrobe dept. handing out some of Hutch's clothes from 1st season.

[@MeganKoumori]

"Gender swapped Starky and Hutch..." ...Why not just remake "Cagney and Lacey?"

[@atomicabe]

ha! Excellent point. I guess it comes down to who owns the rights to the different series/characters.

[@treyturner9707]

were Turk and JD from Scrubs named after the dude from this episode???

[@atomicabe]

ooh, great question. I don't know.

[@beverlyledbetter4906]

Love that theme music. Second best to Miami Vice's!✌️

[@boomer3150]

The first season had the best theme.

[@duncanholding7636]

Starsky and Hutch first season theme was awesome

[@boomer3150]

@@duncanholding7636 It was...is.

[@kc0lif]

aunt esther from sanford.

[@demetriusdillard2863]

"Watch it, sucka!"

[@allanbard6048]

"Don't help me, don't help me! I can find anything I want!" Blind Bessie would've stolen the show!

[@pamelamays4186]

It took me years to realize what Huggy Bear did for a living.

[@ACARDtvMusic]

I’m sure the people who created Magnum PI tried to have a character spinoff from there? You should do it because because I feel like they tried with the funny Luther Gillis (that funny PI who wasn’t all there, but somehow he would solve it, and if appeared on four episodes at least).

[@atomicabe]

Yes, there are three MAGNUM PI backdoor pilots: Luther Gillis, J. Digger Doyle (with Erin Gray) and another one called "Two Birds of a Feather". We'll get to Magnum eventually. I'm a sucker for Viet Nam Vet as Detective! kzbin.info/www/bejne/emnOpXSPrZ2MfJosi=mDt8A9Gb3LWgPYdP

[@rony41165]

There was an episode about a former vietnam pilot for some reason that episode was thebasis for airwolf.

[@cindeed4422]

This show was producer Aaron Spelling’s favorite show! That’s where Rhianna got her song from! My b better have my money! He was a jive Turkey! 😂

[@elvinposey5251]

I wouldn't know I wouldn't listen to her or any of that pop poop fake horrible music.

[@rogermorris9696]

So they told The Turkey to get stuffed.

[@KevinGeeksOut]

ha!

[@alfonsogreen2722]

Huggy bear having a spin off wouldn't b a bad idea but didn't make it R.I.P David Soul & Bernie Hamilton

[@jorgerosado2087]

I'd love to see a deep dive on Booker, the 21 Jump Street spinoff with only 23 episodes. I'm actually rewatching it now and the show's fun. Booker was a miss tho.

[@atomicabe]

That's a fun idea! We will add it to the list. Funnily enough, we are planning to cover the Miami Vice backdoor pilot which is about a young Vice squad and is clearly an attempt to cash-in on the success of 21 Jump Street.

[@waddlesdpuffin]

You have a still from Enos where in that one the new partner is also named Turkey only this time it’s the black guy from the city. Also Peters is probably most famous from Kevin Smith’s Superman story

[@KevinGeeksOut]

Right. He's from the streets!

[@waddlesdpuffin]

And Superman has guards @@KevinGeeksOut

[@Kerorofan1990]

Funny how The Dukes Of Hazzard has basically been blacklisted off TV reruns, but I recall seeing that blackface episode of Starsky And Hutch like a month ago.

[@ganglabesh]

5:27 huggy selling a baphomet necklace (in his case) lol wtf

[@atomicabe]

ha, ha -- good eye!

[@FrenkTheJoy]

If you're gonna have a "white guy pretends to be black" thing in your show, it's better to go over the top. 30 Rock has Jack (white) imitating Tracy (black) and it's in such a weirdly over the top manner that it's actually funny and not just uncomfortable. And gosh that was from like 10 years ago, I thought nobody could make jokes anymore??????????????????????

[@MrJuly1990ish]

I recall this spin off, I was like, nah I like Huggy on Starsky & Hutch. I think a few of Aaron Spelling detective shows try to have Spin-Offs back in the day. I recall "Charlie Angeles" try to do a Spin-Off with the so-called male angels, about 3 brothers and their mother who were under cover detectives. I think they were called Toni's Boys or something.

[@elvinposey5251]

As S&H fanatic I can say as bad as that episode is it's not the worst episode! and compared to the woke and stupid garbage on network TV that episode would be a better TV show than anything on TV today! At least the actors could act and it had some funny moments including Aunt Ester from Sanford and Son! There was another show by Stephen Cannell who made Rockford files called TEN SPEED AND BROWNSHOE with white and black detectives starring Ben Verren and Jeff Goldbloom! It was great but only lasted one season. As great and funny as Huggy was he was no Rooster from Baretta! Rooster was a pimp but a good guy and way cooler than Huggy.

[@barbarabrusatori8585]

Ì wont waste my time watching FOX'S Reboot of Starsky & Hutch with females. They can never duplicate the friendship, love, caring, and chemistry between Paul/Starsky & David/Hutch with females. Even the 2004 movie did not cut it & they were never Starsky & Hutch. Paul & David are still good friends to this day and keep in touch. What FOX needs to do is let Paul & David both direct & write and star in any reboot. In fact they should sell the rights back to Paul & David. No one else will ever be Starsky & Hutch except for Paul Michael Glaser & David Soul!!!❤️❤️. Love those guys to this day!!! Still watch the DVD'S of the original series to this day. Only wish they would include the scenes cut out & goofs made then the series would really be complete!!!

[@boomer3150]

Agree, and RIP David Soul.

[@barbarabrusatori8585]

@boomer3150 Amen! He is gone but he will never be forgotten.

[@pamelamays4186]

Huggy Bear And The Turkey. B.J. And The Bear. I'm sensing a trend hear.

[@atomicabe]

ha!

[@BobLee-df4zh]

"Comedy" like this still exists in plenty of movies, it's just seen as the lazy, hack writing that it is now.

[@CannonKnight]

I never watched the show, so I always thought Huggy Bear was a pimp. Who knew he was a fine upstanding member of society.

[@atomicabe]

Is that the implication though? Is he supposed to be understood as a pimp?

[@marcusnolte7476]

"backdoor" pilot. LOL.

[@demetriusdillard2863]

My God, what a mediocre episode of "Starsky & Hutch" this was! As much as I admire and respect Antonio Fargas, there's no way in hell he would've been able to carry a solo spinoff on his own! In the words of lowly film critic Jay Sherman (voiced by Jon Lovitz) on the short-lived animated series "The Critic," "It stinks!" Chalk it up as yet another attempt by ABC's then-honcho, the late Fred Silverman, to piggyback off of the success of an already established series (as Silverman had done during his separate tenures as top dog at all then-three major television networks)!

[@Theasworld1984]

Don't get me wrong I loved watching starsky and Hutch and the monkees with my grandmother but since she passed on everything changed somethings I thought was funny at the time seems to fall flat now maybe because I'm getting older now it just doesn't hold the same appeal it once did. Still devastated to hear of David Soul's passing it was like reliving my grandmother's death all over again 😢😢

[@hoss_Cartwright]

What spin off

[@loganwolfpack]

Still photographer on movies. AND he takes a still photograph of the avengers ivy thing is, the hulk is computer generated 😅

[@habovay3]

This episode aired before the Southern-boy renaissance of which you speak came about. Also, this video seems REALLY race-obsessed. It was the '70s, for crying out loud. Different time, different world. Get over it.

[@rager-69]

You've done better back door pilot episodes The narration on this one sounds like something Mojo would do.

[@chuck4579]

5 minutes to get to it, unsubscribed

[@atomicabe]

When it comes to pop culture video essays on KZbin or life itself -- enjoy the ride.

[@mglasson]

You missed all the good stuff!

[@alpoe4467]

Didn't ALL 70's cop shows suck, this one of few I times I agree with the critics? How did this backdoor pilot differentiate itself, besides S & H being sidelined most of the episode. A majority of the time, I'm not crazy about the comedy reboots of 70s/80s shows. They're flat, uninspired.

[@QueenOfTheNorth65]

Huggy Bear and the Turkey is just horrible. I have the S & H box set, and it’s the only episode I haven’t watched. 😉

[@atomicabe]

I have to ask -- what are your top episodes of Starsky & Hutch?

[@garymangan2761]

Huggy is 70s tv icon but actually a terrible chatacter

[@atomicabe]

how so? I have an answer but I'm curious about what you meant.

[@garymangan2761]

@@atomicabe i always found him a bad actor first and as a character just didn't sit right. Still love the show. It's a classic

[@demetriusdillard2863]

Huggy can't be any worse (or any better) than J.J. from "Good Times." It was the seventies, after all.