Starsky & Hutch: Lady Blue
Okay, can we talk about the fact that Hutch appears to be romancing Starsky in this ep where Starsky is mourning his dead ex-girlfriend?
I swear I’m not making this up.
As evidence, I present these two scenes:
1) The guys are in the morgue hallway and Starsky is feeling down. Hutch offers him coffee but Starsky waves it away. Then Hutch puts his hand over Starsky’s hand and says “Oh, Starsk” in THAT way. Starsky replies, “It’s alright” and puts his hand over Hutch’s. And then it looks like PMG starts to laugh just before the scene cuts, but I digress.
2) The tag. You know, the one where Hutch lights candles and cooks Starsky’s favorite meal that he got from his mother-in-law Starsky’s mom. CANDLES!
Now, an episode in which Starsky is mourning his dead ex-girlfriend doesn’t exactly seem like the best time for Hutch to try to seduce him, but that seems to be exactly what Hutch is doing. And it IS a good way to hide the gay subtext, because who would suspect it in this ep?
Now, you could argue that the hand-holding and “Oh, Starsk” is just Hutch being really supportive and that he has no romantic feelings whatsoever. Sure, that could be. The scene is totally gay, though, if I can be honest.
But if we put the lovey-dovey morgue scene together with the tag (or even just the tag by itself), you can most definitely see that Hutch is trying to romance his partner.
Let’s dissect the lovely tag, shall we?
Hutch has called Starsky’s mom to get his favorite recipe, cooks it and invites Starsky over for dinner, tries to get Starsky to look at the sunset (for which Starsky has zero interest), and sets a romantic candlelit table. Totally not gay, right? (I’m being sarcastic, btw, it’s totally gay). And he doesn’t just light some candles that are already on the table. He brings them over from near the window where he’s watching the sunset and then lights them.
But when Starsky inquires about the candles by asking “Who are the candles for? Expecting someone?,” Hutch answers “Yeah, that’s why we’re eating early,” while totally avoiding looking at his partner and trying to act nonchalant.
Starsky, for his part, seems disappointed by this (but in a non-romantic way, I think) and asks “What time am I leaving?” to which Hutch deflects by lifting the cover on the Paul Muni special. So he never answers the question. Because Starsky isn’t going to be leaving early.
Also, this is going slightly off-topic, but I have the same exact speckled-black roasting pan as Hutch. I find this very exciting because I have been a Hutch girl since I was a kid, and I’m not the one who bought the roasting pan, my hubby did.
Now, you might be thinking, what’s gay about Hutch having a girl over later and serving an early dinner to Starsky? And apparently he really WAS serving it early or Starsky would have pointed out that it wasn’t early. And the sun is just setting, although we don’t know what time of year it’s supposed to be. But the ep aired in mid-November and sunset in Los Angeles Bay City would have been around 4:45pm, so that IS pretty early to eat dinner.
So does that mean there really was a girl coming over later for a booty call with Hutch? NO! IT DOES NOT MEAN THAT! It means that Hutch was embarrassed that Starsky didn’t pick up on his cues and so he made up the story about the girl. Because why the F would Hutch be lighting candles during his dinner with Starsky if he was planning on having a romantic time with a girl LATER THAT EVENING? The candles would be burned out by then and I doubt he was planning on having a second dinner with this fictional girlfriend or that he and the girl would be anywhere near the kitchen table. The candles are totally for Starsky.
Confused? Still wondering why Hutch serves dinner early, if there is no girl coming over later?
Did you figure it out yet? No? Then scroll down for the answer…….
It’s because Hutch wanted Starsky to come over early so they could watch the sunset together.
Think about it. It’s the first thing Hutch mentions at the beginning of the tag. Why would a grown man want another grown man to look at a sunset with him? Do platonic heterosexual men-friends normally do that sort of thing?
No, I’m pretty sure they do not.
And also, Hutch doesn’t just casually mention the sunset in an offhand way. He talks about it for a while, and even mentions how it has the colors of the rainbow: “Blue, gold, red, purple.” As in, the gay rainbow. Now, I know that the rainbow wasn’t used as a symbol of gay pride until 1978, and this ep is from 1975, but still, rainbows were used by marginalized groups in the 70s, including in California, including by the gay community. And there’s the whole Judy Garland “Somewhere over the rainbow” queer icon thing. We had a discussion about this on FB a few months ago.
Regardless, even if the rainbow wasn’t intended as a gay reference, you still have a scene with a man talking about rainbows and sunsets with another man while serving him a romantic candlelit dinner.
So yeah, Hutch totally tries to seduce Starsky but Starsky is clueless. That doesn’t mean that Starsky doesn’t also pine for Hutch in his own way. Maybe he does and maybe he doesn’t. But he’s not in the right mindset in this episode because Did I mention that he’s still mourning the brutal murder of his ex-girlfriend? And yes, it’s totally weird and uncomfortable when Hutch mentions Helen in the tag.
But they had to have two levels of what’s going on in this scene so the gay stuff wouldn’t be too obvious.
So we have the surface text (two straight guys who like women having dinner together) and then we have the subtext (all the gay romantic stuff plus the bonus “Starsky is Jewish” Paul Muni reference).
And men who like women can’t possibly be gay or bi, can they?
So the subtext is a man trying to romantically woo his best friend by talking about sunsets and rainbows, cooking him his favorite meal which he got from his friend’s mom, and setting a romantic candlelit table. And making up a story about a girl coming over in order to save face.
So the fans who were not inclined to see the characters in a romantic way would just watch the scene and think it was sweet and shippy, because the guys are such good platonic friends, and not really spend any time thinking about how platonic heterosexual men-friends don’t really do stuff like that.
But the fans who wanted to see the romance between the guys would see it.
And both types of fans would be happy and would argue with each other for the next 45 years about whether S&H were gay or just really really really good friends.
Except maybe for straight males who were just there for the car chases and shootouts and macho stuff. I really have no idea how those fans feel about this tag.
izzy806
gamechangershow
2087
stormborns
discoholicmusic
pixelskylines
origamiaround
turnnoffyourmind
