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Story by: Jack Foley
STARSKY and Hutch still have the old flares-appeal, it seems,
judging by the reaction to the UK premiere of the film in London’s
Leicester Square on Thursday, March 11, 2004.
The original duo of Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul were joined
by Antonio Fargas, the original Huggy Bear, at the showpiece occasion,
which marked the UK debut of the big screen revival, starring
Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson.
And they spent several minutes talking to fans and signing autographs,
having previously attended a press conference at The Dorchester,
to discuss the show’s continuing appeal.
The film, based on the 1970s TV series, which ran for 88 episodes
from 1975 to 1979, pairs Stiller and Wilson as the eponymous crime-fighters
and has been mostly well-received by fans of the original series.
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And Glaser and Soul, who make brief cameos in it, claim to be
impressed by the results, even though the former confessed to
never liking the car which formed part of the show’s enduring
appeal.
Commenting on the Ford Gran Torino, he stated that he thought
it was ‘ridiculous to have two undercover policemen driving
around in a striped tomato’.
The car itself was among the attractions at the premiere, as
Stiller and Wilson pulled up to the red carpet in a replica model.
Commenting on the remake, Wilson, who plays Hutch, felt that
‘so much of what made the series popular was the way those
guys played off each other’.
"Hopefully we have our own sort of give-and-take one that
is slightly more comedic," he added.
Starsky and Hutch broke ground as one of the first police dramas
to show a seamier side of crime, including prostitutes, pimps
and police informers, paving the way for programmes such as Miami
Vice and, latterly, NYPD
Blue.
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