Holding a property close to your heart is perfectly acceptable, and it’s a feeling we’ve all experienced in one way or another. Everyone is invested in something; whether it’s a movie franchise, TV series, a band, a video game saga, or anything else. That being said, we had no idea Starsky & Hutch had such a passionate following almost half a century on from its heyday.
The buddy cop caper was a massively popular global phenomenon at the height of its release, racking up 93 episodes across four seasons before ending in May of 1979. Since then, Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson breathed new life into the premise in the 2004 action comedy of the same name, but there hasn’t exactly been a staunch Starsky & Hutch fandom demanding more from the IP.
As it turns out, though, all somebody needs to do is announce a gender-swapped reboot is in the works with detectives Sasha Starsky and Nicole Hutchinson, and suddenly there’s an outpouring of confusion, rage, and indignity at something which hasn’t aired on television for 44 years being given the dreaded “woke” treatment.
To be fair, there are plenty of procedurals and cop shows on the air as it is, so you’d have thought somebody somewhere in a writers’ room could have maybe come up with something a touch more original than “Starsky & Hutch… but this time with women!”
There was always going to be a reaction, but on the other side of the coin, it would also be entirely fair to say that the original favorite isn’t quite on the top-tier of untouchable television properties that absolutely should not be desecrated in any way, shape, or form.