Starsky and Hutch (TV Series) Discomania (1978) User Reviews

Eye Candy

[sambase-38773 · 7/10 · 23 August 2019]

This episode is mainly eye candy. The story is fairly slow with a little too much disco dancing just for the sake of showing disco dancing. But it is a nice little time capsule of the disco era, whether you loved it or hated it or weren't even born yet. Bras were optional for women in those days and people thought nothing of it. It was a sign of individual freedom, not sexuality so much. Nowadays people get furious if a woman goes bra-less and as a result most women never do.

Okay, so we have the disco era explored in this episode. Now what else did the 70's have? Serial killers! So they threw in a serial killer which ads to the very 70's feel of this episode. Mass shootings are big now, but serial killers were a thing back in the 70's. This serial killer happens to like dancing. And so he hangs out at discos. This episode meshes disco dancing and serial killers together fairly well so I gave it 7 stars. Not great, not bad, but a time capsule with plenty of eye candy.

Much Better Beginning to Season than Season 3

[peacefrog-62091 · 8/10 · 8 May 2021]

Back in the fall of the 1978, the excitement usually reserved for S&H season premieres had waned due to the Soap Opera/Afterschool Special train wreck of season 3. But, the boys were back in good form with a catchy new theme song, borrowed from season 2's definitive one and a very season 2 type plot and interesting setting involving the pursuit of a serial killer who targets disco dancers. And the mood set and story telling was very season 1 like in it darkness. It seems like everyone concerned was trying to put season 3 behind them.

A wealthy but lonely middle aged man, ruminating over the lost love of someone named Sharon, takes his madness out on women who frequent a certain disco. Our heroes are dispatched to put a stop to it and are aided by a very attractive but married Sgt. Lizzie Thorpe. Thankfully, we avoid this time the usual S&H fighting over her.

This episode offers a great snapshot of the 1970s era disco culture, which was just about to wain. Adrian Zmed of future TJ Hooker fame makes an early screen appearance as an initial suspect and his interaction with S&H in the interrogation room are good and eventually lead them to the real killer along with a clue scratched into Lizzie Thorpe's car. The scene where are heroes descend upon the killer's home, only to turn around and leave to Lizzie's horror, before Starsky realizes the clue was Mercedes, is very dramatic and excellent. Overall, a return to the S&H we knew from seasons 1&2, although there were for viewers to see it thanks to season 3.

Slow and painful

[monomerd · 2/10 · 23 July 2016]

Well, I just received my set of Season 4 DVDs. Starsky and Hutch was my favorite show in 1976 & 1977. Then I stopped watching it and I couldn't really remember why. Now I am reminded. I now remember that back then I had assumed that Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul must have had some sort of serious falling out, because their scenes together that used to be so special were now terrible. And almost non-existent; they are in very few scenes together. That "we're a team, us against the world" feeling that sold the pilot and the first seasons is long gone. David Soul now plays Hutch as heartless and surly. He used to play Hutch with sympathy and nurturing and humanity. Now he just is angry. I don't care for the mustache; I probably could have gotten used to it, but it represent a "Mr. Hyde" version of Hutch to me now. If he had shaved it, would he have been able to play the nice Hutch again? Since I have previously been watching Seasons 1 & 2, this is a sickening shock.

What's worse is that instead of feeling like Starsky and Hutch like each other, they seem to snipe and insult each other instead of just playfully tease. They don't seem to have a positive word for each other.

There are long dance scenes at the disco that are too long and just feel like they are filling in time because there isn't enough happening.

The story is quite dark. I have read that PMG had wanted the show to be less violent, but this story is still violent. (It's like something from Criminal Minds). I think they got confused over the difference between violence and action. The pace is plodding. They move through each scene so slowly. It's like PMG and DS aged ten years in two years.

They sure have gone from being observant detectives to myopic cops. They key in on one suspect and don't even notice the true culprit. They totally miss the guy who also was close to their decoy cop and don't even register him at all.

There is nothing good to say. Well, PMG looks like a pretty good dancer. And they finally got the opening theme music right. That's about it.

The Killer Who Thought He Was Killer Diller!

[JasonDanielBaker · 4 March 2015]

A lonely, disturbed, freaky-deaky psycho (Pierrino Mascarino) with mommy issues sports a three-piece suit with his shirt open flaunting gold medallions and letting women's eyes feast upon the banquet of his chest hair as he cruises the disco scene. Hip to the groove, feeling the funk he looks for a bangin' paramour even if he has to kipe one.

A couple of decades senior to the young women he approaches and with a lack of subtlety that might be mistaken for rudeness he doesn't do so well. Women won't dance with him & he is stung by the rejection. After he has learned all the dance moves and attired himself suitably to the scene he is still 'Bunk'. A silver-back he is no competition for the young bucks who Bogart the choice young mamas for they-selves & break foul on him doggish, you dig? Harsh bong! There is no mystery here. We see the killer dispose of one of his victims early on. But the examination offered of his fragile ego-driven motives are hilarious & fascinating at the same time. This one was a lot of fun to watch especially because it is so dated now. The crass absurdity of it must have been evident when it was shot.

Police detectives Ken Hutchinson (David Soul) and David Starsky (Paul Michael Glaser) go undercover teaming with cute vice cop Sgt. Lizzie Thorpe who can get down and boogie like no one has ever seen before, baby! They mingle and shake their groove thangs before chillaxin' at the club where a lot of missing young women were last seen to find out whats crackin'. Scouting the joint they look to catch the killer and maybe a little nookie on the flip-side.

'Young woman in peril' story lines were a staple of titillating old detective magazines and found their way into movies in the 1970s. 'Discoizing' it could have made for a decidedly more gruesome variation. Instead we get a very biting satire of disco culture and a statement on the 1970s in general.