Starsky and Hutch (usually written as Starsky & Hutch) is a 1970s US television series that consisted of a 90-minute pilot movie (originally aired as a Movie of the Week entry) and 92 episodes of 60 minutes each; created by William Blinn, produced by Spelling-Goldberg Productions, and broadcast between April 30 1975 and May 15 1979 on the ABC network; distributed by Columbia Pictures Television in the United States and, originally, Metromedia Producers Corporation in Canada and some other parts of the world. Sony Pictures Television is now the worldwide distributor for the series.

Overview

[Ford Torino from Starsky & Hutch.JPG|left|thumb|250px|One of the [[Ford] Gran Torinos used in the motion picture Starsky & Hutch]].
The protagonists were two Southern California policemen: the dark-haired Brooklyn transplant David Starsky (Paul Michael Glaser) who was a streetwise detective with intense, sometimes childlike moods, and the blond Duluth, Minnesota native
Kenneth 'Hutch' Hutchinson (David Soul), a more reserved and intellectual character. Under the radio call sign "Zebra Three", they were known for tearing around the streets of "Bay City" in Starsky's two-door Ford Gran Torino, which was red with a large white vector stripe. It was nicknamed the "Striped Tomato" by Hutch in the episode "Kill Huggy Bear"; the nickname was subsequently adopted by the fans of the series. However, the term didn't come from the writers - it came from a real-life comment that Glaser made. In a segment titled Starsky & Hutch: Behind The Badge that was featured on the first season DVD collection, Glaser stated that when he was first shown the Torino by Aaron Spelling, he sarcastically said to Soul, "That thing looks like a striped tomato!" Hutch also had a car, a battered tan 1973 Ford Galaxie 500, which occasionally appeared when the duo needed separate vehicles or for undercover work.