The Fourth Season of Starsky & Hutch

The fourth and final season of Starsky & Hutch was very different from the previous three. Some fans hate the fourth season. Some fans love it. And for many of the same reasons.
The show itself was under pressure to turn down the violence. The two main actors wanted out of their contracts, and they were both tired and angry, and personal issues were likely heavy on their minds.
It also didn't help that the episodes were shown out of order, something that marred a intense arc that was both emotionally perplexing as shown, but lacked complete emotional resolution. 
Many fans felt this last season was full of tension, somewhat uncomfortable to watch, and had a lot of implications to those who saw slash. The show itself was filmed in a different style with film techniques that made it stand out from the first three season. The characters appeared tense and moody. Hutch looked physically very different and was snappish and often unkind. Starsky appeared to have lost his "bounce." The buddy aspect of the show that fans enjoyed so much appeared frayed. 
Most theories about the tone of season 4, in both discussion and fanfiction, incorporate, to some extent, Hutch's disillusionment with police work, which he confesses in "Targets Without A Badge Part I" (sometimes this attitude is extended to Starsky as well). 
In several interpretations of the partnership's rough patch, the episode "Starsky vs Hutch" and their relationship with Kira is portrayed as a last straw that causes things to come to a head before Starsky is shot in the show's finale, "Sweet Revenge." 
Slash fans often interpret David Starsky and Kenneth Hutchinson's tension as UST or domestic strife, while gen fans lean towards non-sexual sources of interpersonal tension hinted at in the series, such as frustration and insecurity about the strength of their partnership in the face of increasing strain from their jobs, or fear that their affection and loyalty is an exploitable vulnerability. 
Most, but not all, fans concur that Hutch's demeanor is more strongly and negatively affected than Starsky's.
 
And then there was Hutch's Mustache.
==Influence on Fanworks==
The fourth season, for all these reasons, was also an incubator for a lot of fanworks! 
The 1985 gen story The Thousandth Man by Suzan Lovett, particularly Part 3, contains a lengthy and in-depth explanation of the reasons for Hutch's changing behavior and appearance during season 4 and especially the episode "Starsky vs Hutch," using a real Jules Feiffer cartoon as a partial metaphor.
===Sample Fanfiction===
* Ex Post Facto by Katherine Robertson (Starsky and Hutch examine the reasons for their job and for their abandonment of it) (from The Pits #2) (1980)
* The Thousandth Man by Suzan Lovett (a fan favorite, takes place immediately after Starsky and Hutch leave the Pits after dumping Kira) (1985)
* Black and Bruised by Rosemary C (takes place in the aftermath of the episode "Black and Blue" and examines the rift between the two detectives) (1992)
* Private Agendas by Charlotte Frost (takes place after the episode, "Birds of a Feather") (1994)
* The Truth is Out There by Joy Mancinelli (an X-Files parody that proposes that the changes in Hutch in the fourth season were due to an alien abduction and clone switch-a-roo) (from Renascence) (1990)
* Ninety-Nine Miles From LA by Lucy Doty (a controversial story that takes place shortly after the end of the series, includes what some fans felt to be partner betrayal) (2001)
===Sample Fanart===
 
File:Code7art2.jpg|from Code 7 #1, artist is anonymous (1981)
 File:Ttm11.jpg| from Suzan Lovett's The Thousandth Man, an influential post-"Starsky vs. Hutch" story (1985)
File:Code7-4art4.jpg|from Code 7 #4, artist is Maureen B for Foster-child of Silence and Slow Time — the author used a variation of this image for an illo in Don't Give Up On Us, Baby (1987)
 
File:Distantartthree.jpg|from Distant Shores, artist is J. Jones (1991)
 
File:Gunther interior by Jean C 2.jpg|from Gunther's Revenge, artist is Jean C. (fan artist) (1982)
 Image:tlcart.jpg|from [[TLC (1992), artist is J. Jones for [[Black and Bruised], an angsty tale taking place after the episode "Black and Blue": "Unconsciously, Starsky had been blaming his partner for the distance between them, noting only Hutch's withdrawal. Now Starsky found himself wondering what he might have done, or failed to do to initiate such a retreat. What act of his would have been bad enough to merit that amnesia stunt or any of the more bizarre games of recent memory?" This refers to fanon that blames Hutch's different appearance and the tensions of the fourth season on the two characters' unresolved sexual tension. 
==Fan Comments==
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===2015===
In February 2015, a number of less-commonly-discussed observations regarding "Starsky vs. Hutch" come up in a fan's LJ entry: SvH-- a sore subject, I know. (Nancy made me do it) here. -- "SvH-- a sore subject, I know. (Nancy made me do it)", posted 19 February 2015, accessed May 8 2015.
==Meta/Further Reading==
* merltheearl and several commenters (2011-2014) voice a variety of speculations about the problems between the two friends at The Ollie Report. Links to some of the key episodes: "Discomania", "The Game" and "Starsky vs. Hutch". "Discomania" by merltheearl, posted 19 June 2011, accessed 20 May 2014."The Game" by merltheearl, posted 14 July 2011, accessed 20 May 2014."Starsky vs Hutch" by merltheearl, posted 21 May 2012, accessed 20 May 2014.
==References==
Category:Starsky & Hutch