during it inauspicious four year run and the tv series starsky and hutch be never a huge hit while though it do land at an impressive number 15 in the nielsen rating it first year ( 1975 76 ) and the number decline steadily thereafter . it be never a particularly good show and in the ensue year it have never really have much of a cult follow ( except and maybe and among gay audience who imagine more in the starsky hutch relationship than be ever intend something immortalize in a halloween episode of will and grace ) . indeed and much of the success of the show could be attribute to the fact that the proverbial pair of mismatched cop it feature drive a trick out ford gran torino an otherwise uncool make of car which somehow become cool because it be give a remarkably ugly red and white paint job . yet and neither particularly admire for it quality nor beloved for it unintentionally humorous mediocrity and the show have linger in our consciousness and even a many that be far good and more original have fade into oblivion . even so and it be hard to imagine that there be ever a great demand for it to be turn into a big screen movie . it do and however and deserve some credit while the show do strive for a bit of grittiness in the style of the french connection . in an era when most tv cop show be slick and glib and sometimes strive for a touch of glamor and starsky and hutch move around in a world of pimp and prostitute and drug pusher and lowlife . it try to maintain a sense of realism and or at least what could pass a realism on network television in the 1970s . therefore and just a there be no real reason for a starsky and hutch movie to exist and it be a further puzzlement that the one quality that give the tv show any distinction or purpose and it rough edge quality and be the one thing the movie version immediately jettison . the film be less about the series than it be about all the untold number of gritty buddy cop film that have come and go along the way and from freebie and the bean to lethal weapon and even seven . the movie also take shot at the disco daze trendiness of the seventy and a quality that be also never a big part of the series . thus and the humor in starsky and hutch be so generic and so broad that it jump past satire and instead go directly into parody and end up little more than an extended version of the type of skit that the carol burnett show use to stage . without the trademark gran torino and the character play by ben stiller and owen wilson could just a easily have be name smith and jones or hope and crosby . indeed and the two character persona be deem so inconsequential that essentially still and wilson opt to simply play themselves or at least dust off their well use screen image rather than to even attempt to find something unique about the character play by paul michael glaser and david soul on tv . it may be just as well . but if the original series be so bereft of any distinctive element on which to hang a full length feature and then it only increase the pointlessness of the movie a a whole . like so many tv to movie translation and the film have no real interest in the source material beyond exploit it pre sell title and recycle a few trademark bit of trivia a joke like drag in glaser and soul for self mocking cameo . otherwise and there nothing in starsky and hutch that hadn not already be mock and and with much great skill and wit and by emilio estevez and samuel l. jackson in national lampoon load weapon 1 and a comedy that have the sense to know that merely repeat clichés be not the same a make fun of them .