Starsky & Hutch California freeway with a flat-tired Ford Explorer). At the first viewing of the car with David Soul (Hutch), Glaser remarked that the car looked like a "striped tomato." That nickname stuck, and very soon the show's writers had worked it into the show as Hutch's derogatory name for Starsky's beloved Torino. Glaser remarked to Soul that he hated the car and that he was "going to destroy that car...burn it down every chance I get", and repeated the story in the 1999 "reunion" interview. Several scenes of Glaser driving the car show him smashing the front wheels into curbs as
Starsky & Hutch of Hazzard" premiered on CBS, and one of the factory replicas was used in the first episode, "One Armed Bandits", seen to be driven by regular character Cooter Davenport (Ben L. Jones). This was the only appearance of the Torino in the series, and many fans have speculated over its strange one-off appearance. One theory is that it was merely an in-joke, with the Torino's former iconic car status now being taken over by the Dukes' car "The General Lee". After "Starsky and Hutch" was cancelled, the cars were returned to Ford's Studio-TV Car Lease Program and sold at a