by Jeff Yong
In the 1970s when RTM was the only tv entertainment channel in the country, I’d get very excited when the tv detective series “Starsky and Hutch” came on air weekly.
Especially when the police radio call sign “Zebra Three, Zebra Three” was sounded and a car chase ensued or it was a race to a crime scene in Southern California.
I liked the character played by David Soul (maybe because he was blonde!) in Detective Kenneth “Hutch” Hutchinson more than Paul Michael Glaser’s more-intense Dave Starky. Perhaps “Hutch” appeared cooler.
Another actor in the series always looked forward to by me was Antonio Fargas. who played the jive-talking bartender, “Huggy Bear”. I couldn’t get enough of him because I liked the way he talked. Fargas was ahead of his time as this was even before rap blossomed.
David Soul was also a good singer, too with his hit “Don’t Give Up on Us”, a nice ballad written by Tony Macaulay. For the life of me, I only found out about it years later after it was released. Or maybe my ears were far away from the radio when the song came out initially!
Sadly, David Soul died on Friday, Jan 5, 2024 after battling with an illness. Farewell Detective “Hutch”. Many thanks for your superb acting in that exciting police-versus-bad hats series.
It was great seeing you ride in Starsky’s two-door Ford Gran Torino, a bright red car, with a large white vector stripe on each side, nicknamed the “Striped Tomato” that was always hurtling down the road to somewhere exciting. Sometimes, you’d use another car, a tan-coloured Ford Galaxie 500.
Well, well…another acting icon from a bygone era gone.