Zebra Three, come in Zebra Three. Bay City’s got a case for you! We’re looking for a couple of actors, last seen fleeing the set of Starsky and Hutch. Alright, readers have got eyes on them, and we’re bringing them in for a cast rewind. Today, we’ll be undercover checking in on the cast of, the best onscreen duo of the 1970s. Although the Bay City PD was loosely based on the real LAPD, the actual inspiration for these closely bonded, guerrilla-style detectives were based on two Brooklyn boys who began using “decoy work” to fight crime. So, whenever undercover operations commence, they come from some grounded source material — with some changes.
But David Soul and Paul Michael Glaser certainly made these characters their own. With exciting drama and slapstick comedy all rolled into a one-hour show, the Starsky and Hutch cast took us on a ride each week, figuratively and literally in that sparkling striped tomato Gran Torino.
Is David Soul still alive?
Calm, cool, collected, and a health food nut, Detective Ken Hutchinson rolled with the punches after moving from quaint, cold Minnesota to balmy California. There, he was forced to work with a fiery hothead. At least he had his old reliable car, the Ford Galaxie 500…oh, wait, it’s broken again.
No one could play a fish-out-of-water better than David Soul, who changed life trajectories faster than flipping a light switch. He might have gone the history and politics route, but the sweet thrum of a guitar was irresistible and so began his music career. He was the masked musician, or, the Covered Man, on the Merv Griffith Show to make sure people just appreciated the music, nothing else.
He then made his acting debut with an episode of Flipper in 1967, before landing a series lead alongside teen heartthrob Bobby Sherman in the classic TV Western, Here Come the Brides…