😢Deathfic was almost canon😢
So there are a lot of tropes in fanfiction, and I just adore the fact that so many are actual canon in Starsky & Hutch. We were discussing this the other day on the bRomance Facebook group, and we came up with a whole bunch of tropes used in the show, too numerous to list here, some of which included:
Hurt/comfort and smarm, two things that Starsky & Hutch is most famous for, and almost every episode has examples of these. 🥰
Found family – Starsky almost dies in Sweet Revenge, but instead of his mom and brother being at the hospital, or even being mentioned, it’s Hutch, Dobey, and Huggy by his side. As it should be.
Domestic – they buy a house together – in The Heroes, Starsky & Hutch invest in a fixer-upper, and Hutch asks, “Starsky, are you asking me to live with you?”
Going undercover in a gay bar – in Death in a Different Place, Starsky, Hutch, and Huggy go undercover at the Green Parrot in order to catch John Blaine’s killer.
Kidfic – in Running, we learn that Hutch has been a big brother to 12-year old Kiko for the past three years, and in Little Girl Lost, Hutch takes in 12-year old Molly after her ex-con dad is killed two days before Christmas by his partners-in-crime. Then Molly and Kiko become friends, Kiko’s mom adopts Molly, and Starsky & Hutch exchange gifts with the kids and their mom on Christmas morning. Aww.
Whump – In The Game, it’s all hurt and no comfort for Hutch, who runs around Bay City after unknowingly ingesting botulism toxin from a contaminated can of clam chowder, and becomes increasingly more sick and in pain as the episode goes on. Then to add insult to injury, he’s taken hostage by bad guy Pardee, realizes he’s gonna die soon, and doesn’t seem to have faith that Starsky will find him in time. And then finally, he falls down the stairs and gets his face all cut up and bloodied. Aww, poor Hutch!
And there’s absolutely no comfort from Starsky, not even when he finally finds Hutch at the end, because director Leo Penn decided to end the scene almost immediately after Starsky finds him in Pardee’s car. Thanks a lot for robbing us of a hurt/comfort scene, Sean Penn’s dad!
Deathfic is another fanfic trope, in which a major character dies. I have a bit of an unhealthy obsession with deathfics (as some of you may have noticed), having read dozens of them and written at least seven. So far. Sweet Revenge is an almost-deathfic, if that’s a thing (it’s not), because Starsky clinically dies when he flatlines, but thankfully, he’s revived by the defibrillators (but really, it’s because Hutch returns to him).
However, Paul Michael Glaser originally wanted to kill Starsky off at the end of the fourth season (bad PMG!), but the network balked, thank God. That was probably the only decision the network ever made that was a better idea for the show than what David and Paul wanted to do.
So I started wondering (as in, I became fixated on the idea) — what if PMG had gotten his way and Starsky had actually died in Sweet Revenge? 😢😭 What would that have looked like? Presumably, he would still have directed the episode, but how would the story have differed from the filmed ep? Would Starsky have died immediately instead of being brought in for surgery? Or woken up from his coma only to eventually succumb to his injuries? Would Hutch have still solved the case and arrested Gunther? Or would the plot have been entirely different?
How would Starsky’s death scene have played out? Would Hutch have sat by Starsky’s bedside, kissed his forehead, and sung to him as Starsky lay dying? 💔 Would Starsky have died in the beginning, middle, or end of the ep and would Hutch be with him when it happened? And most importantly, would we get to see Hutch sobbing over his partner’s lifeless body? 😢
Or would Starsky have remained in a coma throughout the episode, never waking up, and then died in the final scene, with Hutch sitting by his side holding his hand, and then the heart monitor suddenly goes flat, the beeping stops, and then…fade to black, roll end credits, and we never get to see Hutch’s reaction. 😭😱
Damn, why do I insist on doing this to myself? Now this is gonna be all I think about for the next week.
Anyway, we can all be thankful that Starsky lived and that the tag of Sweet Revenge is probably the happiest, most gloriously giddy scene in the entire series, with our four beloved characters laughing together and enjoying being in each other’s company, and of course, Starsky & Hutch literally ending up in bed together. 💕
I mean, can anything in life be more satisfying than that scene?
Starsky dying would have definitely changed S&H fandom. It would have completely been unbearable to watch the series again. I feel it would have been devastating to most of us who were loyal to the show, the character and their unique relationship. I can’t see Hutch without his Starsky.
The last scene in “Sweet Revenge” defines the closeness of the characters and yes, we do get to see S&H in bed together…but we also got to see them in bed together in “The Fix”. The bed scene in SR was much better because it shows just how comfortable they are with one another and apparently Huggy and Dobey. I can watch that scene over and over again…and trust me– I have.
I’m not sure if I’ll be able to ever read fanfic where Starsky dies, but I am intrigued to read someone’s idea of what it would have been like if he did. Knowing that in canon he didn’t, might allow me to do it. I do love the script and Hutch talking to him while he’s in the comma. This seems very natural and something Hutch would have definitely done– which I think is what most people would do. Instead they show chose to have him quietly sitting at his bedside. I think they missed an opportunity for a wonderful, emotional scene.
I think the network made a smart decision when they refused to let PMG kill off Starsky. They knew it would affect the show being syndicated and the fanbase would have a hard time watching the show, knowing how it would end. And I’m sure PMG is glad now that they didn’t let him have his way.
There are a gazillion S&H deathfics and many of them deal with Starsky dying at the end of SR and how Hutch deals with it. I can handle deathfics because I know that it’s not canon, and as soon as I’m done, I can go and read another story where he doesn’t die.
But if you’re not sure if you can handle a deathfic, you might want to stay away from them. Because once you read them, they’ll stay with you. If you want to try reading one, I’d recommend a happy deathfic where they reunite in the afterlife and “live” happily ever after.
As you said, thank goodness they didn’t kill off Starsky. Although I know there are other fandoms where a major character gets killed off at the end of the series and fanfic mainly consists of re-writing the canon ending, I also think that Starsky and Hutch fandom would not be the thriving long-lasting fandom it is today had that been canon. Knowing the ultimate ending for the two of them would make the whole series very hard to watch–just knowing the inevitable outcome.
It may be why I can read death-fic even though I can’t take it all the time. I can read it simply because it did not happen in the show. Somehow that makes it tolerable.
I was listening to the meandtheeandthree podcast and they were speaking of a scene that was supposed to be in Sweet Revenge where Hutch is talking to a comatose Starsky and at one point he says something like Without you, there is no me. Agggh–can you imagine if that had been filmed? That fills my fangirl/fanfic writer heart with utter glee. It so shows the love between them.
You’ll notice I’m avoiding thinking about how the show would have filmed Starsky’s death scene, aren’t you? At any rate, I will be forever grateful the series ended the way it did. As you said, the ending scene is perfection–probably the most perfect ending of a drama series I have ever seen. That giddiness and joy and delight and love just can’t help infect anyone who is watching!
“Knowing the ultimate ending for the two of them would make the whole series very hard to watch–just knowing the inevitable outcome.”
I agree. I’m not sure any of us would be here right now if they’d ended the show with Starsky’s death.
I have the script and the part about “Without you, there is no me” goes like this:
Hutch stares down at Starsky and feels an overwhelming sense of helplessness.
“Starsk? Can you hear me, Starsk?
I’m here. We’re all here…
Dobey…Huggy…
You’ve gotta fool ’em, Starsk.
You’ve gotta make it. And you know why?
‘Cause without you, Starsk, there’s no me.”
I actually used that dialogue in one of my stories.
Which gives me an idea for future blog posts, yay – comparing the filmed ep to the script.
Ooh I would like to get that script where did you get it?
“You’ll notice I’m avoiding thinking about how the show would have filmed Starsky’s death scene, aren’t you?”
LOL, yes. I’m trying to avoid thinking about it, too (although it’s inevitable that I’ll someday write a deathfic with that ending). But that’s why I gave the post a happy ending, talking about the happy tag.