Frienz/Issues 05-06

Frienz · Issues 01-02 · Issues 03-04 · Issues 05-06 · Issues 07-08 · Issues 09-10 · Issues 11-12 · Issues 13-14 · Issues 15-16 · Issues 17-18 · Issues 19-20 · Issues 21-22 · Issues 23-24 · Issues 25-26 · Issues 27-28 · Issues 29-30 · Issues 31-32 · Issues 33-34 · Issues 35-36 · Issues 37-38 · Issues 39-40 · Issues 41-42 · Issues 43-44 · Issues 45-46 · Issues 47-48 · Issues 49-50 · Supplements

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Frienz is a gen and non-explicit slash Starsky & Hutch letterzine.

They contain letters, want ads, con reports, clippings, flyers, and occasional fiction.

Issue 5 (August 1989)

Frienz 5 was published in August 1989 and contains 16 pages.

cover of issue #5

• this issue has much discussion (the TOTM) about the character of Kenneth Hutchinson (background, what makes him tick...)
• "Cool Blue" (poem) by uncredited
• "Shootout," vignette by Ima Fool
• "Alternate Interpretations," fiction by MRK
• "P.O.V." "by KH as told to Pat Massie" (Hutch writes about Starsky)

• "More Magic Moments"—2nd Season Teeny/Tiny/Tenders by Maria Farina, memorable tidbits from season two

Issue 5: Sample Fan Comments

A fan writer comments on her fanfic series:

I too am hoping for LoCs on NEA — the few I've had so far have been interesting reading. 5 to 2 in favour, which is gratifying... Speaking of sequels — to those of you who want to know where the sequel to NEA is—ARE YOU KIDDING? The RED LIGHT trilogy is now complete and that universe is closed. Any other SH we write will be set in an alternate time-frame. This is one of the reasons I love fanfic—it's possible to do this kind of thing. Every story can start afresh, which we can't do with our real lives. There's always another 'what if...' around the corner in fanfic!

A fan is eager for more fiction:

I too think we should gang up on Terri and Chris and everybody who has S&H stories in their drawers and won't share! In a small fandom, we're all hungry for everything, darlin'!

Dependent on her 13 episodes on tape, and the fact that (like so many other fans) re-runs of the show are non-existent where she lives, a fan is struggling with the TOTM:

I need some help. The TOTM is Hutch, and I can't write about him because I don't know much about him. Most of what I know about him I learned from this l/z and from the few zines I've collected so far.

More canon?:

Hmmm... though I've always thought a revival movie of S&H would fall short of our expectations, to say nothing of negating hundreds of post S'REV stories, something in me would love to see them together again in the proposed ABC MYSTERY MOVE segments.

A fan is interested in some origin fanon:

I wonder where we could trace the first appearance in fan-fiction of the widely-held (and also convincing) theory that father was with the NYPD. In 'Zebra Three'#4, [Melanie R] has a story - 'Join Me in L.A.' - which refers to the NY past. Is that the first such reference? It's interesting to meet a new and different idea.

Regarding the story by Lynna Bright: Lost:

For me, 'LOST' came suddenly alive in' the last issue. I don't know why. I started believing in the characters as themselves and not as S&H playing fantasy. Don't get me wrong—playing fantasies is fine, and I have fun with the idea. But I believe in Christian and Manfred now, and I'd want to know what happens even if they weren't S&H. Which is about the highest compliment I can give, I think. As for S/H—maybe it's post-zine-itis. You know, the feeling that you really never want to put together another zine ever ever again? I have no trouble at all with the premise, as anyone can see, but I'd like now and again to read a taut, well-plotted story where they aren't trying to get each other into bed on every other page. Preferably where the idea hasn't even entered their pointy little heads. But where there's lots of caring and good relationship stuff.

Regarding Decorated for Death:

Maybe we Brits write such good h/c because we don't get it on the screen. You know, sort of as a compensation? DFD was a milestone in fanfic, I think just wish Jill would write the sequel she promised me!

A fan looks back at some very early fanfiction:

I enjoyed those stories you mention as I'm sure others also did, and would still. I checked back to all the (invited) comment I'd offered (almost a young book!) - filed with the stories,and would still say now, as then, that the narrative seat, the gift for telling a story, produced some satisfying reading. I'm not sure about 'lack of quality'...Maybe, like a lot of fan-fiction, they kept close, in characterization, to the studio handout with its calculated, strong contrasts but I'm sure that all the positive greatly outweighed any reservations. They're very readable and I have an affection for them. Not just sentimental. They do reflect that response of First Season. The Way They Were.

Issue 6 (October 1989)

Frienz 6 was published in October 1989 and contains 20 pages

Suzan Lovett is the artist -- shows Starsky as a centaur and Hutch along for a ride... reprinted in 2000 for SHareCon -- One fan writes: "Spectacular... as finely executed as all of Suzan's work... Hutch appears to be suffering from the Prince Charles Syndrome, i.e. he's none too secure in the saddle. This could be why his -- ah -- mount is grabbing his knee. Then again, it may not. One can never tell, with kentaurs."

• TOTM: This is the 'Catch Up' (no, not ketchup) issue. Fill-in the blanks of those topics you haven't had time-space for. Also, there were some recent absolutely great phrases in the last issues that may suggest humor topics: "THE ESOTERIC COP CODE"; "IS STARSKY'S FRAMISTAN ON THE LEFT OR THE RIGHT? and "THE FURNITURE OF THEIR MINDS".
• "Vingt-et-un" part four, fiction by T. Beckett
• "P.O.V.", fiction by Pat Massie (Hutch expounds on Starsky)
• "The True Tale of Two Torinos" by Laura Scarsdale, non-fiction about finding and owning a Torino
• "Remember," fiction by Betsy Barr
• "Rebuttal, P.O.V." fiction by David Michael Starsky (as told to his typewriter) by MRK
• Forum: Image Busters by Tabby Davis (don't typecast the characters, when did they start to deviate from TPTB's vision?)
• episode titles in German
• "Living with AIDS" lyrics by Ron Romanovsky and Paul Phillips, plus talk of the tragedy faced by the Glaser family, discussion of the AIDS quilt (which fans are encouraged to work on during ZCon)

Issue 6: Sample Fan Comments

Regarding fanon and older fanfiction:

A lot of fan-fiction, too, has stayed closely with the original simplifications— and is, of course, none the worse for that. Readable, re-readable, enjoyable. The earlier fanzines don't lose their special quality and appeal. The emergence of new interpretations reminds us that there's a place for all kinds. One kind doesn't exclude another.

A fan is feeling... out-classed:

I've debated with myself long and wide about whether I should write again. All the comments I read in the past issues of FRIENZ were intelligent, meaningful, witty and/or fun- And I'm just a daft little sod.

A British fan writes:

I could really empathize with [B], her situation is so close to what mine once was. I'd read all those earliest SH L/Zs, garnering fact, speculation, comment — without actually having seen most episodes. One - just one - motive which prompted a pilgrimage to California in 1980 was the need to watch The Fix and other episodes, which BBC, for its own strange reasons, has never shown us, and to try to do something to make them available to the underprivileged fans over here.

Regarding fanart:

I think no art is better than awful art, but then awfulness is a matter of taste, and artists do improve if you don't stomp their tender egos. Everyone is a critic, even if most of us can't even hold a pencil. Some of my favorite SH zines haven't even had artwork... But some of my favorite artwork doesn't need a story. Clear as mud?

Regarding old drawerfic:

Well, I dunno -- you can try ganging up on me and Chris for 'not sharing' those ancient attempts at writing SH... But you'd have to be real hungry to enjoy them. Kind of like getting served old dry bread when you expected French Toast? I looked at a few of them the other day while looking for something else entirely...and I stick by my opinion. For first tries, they are not all terrible. They even have the odd good bit, which by now has been recycled. But they don't stand up to close scrutiny....

I'd hesitate to say that the only way fandom could enjoy them now would be to laugh at the awful howlers we perpetrated because we didn't know any better, but honestly, the thought of all that rewriting turns me cold...

Still not convinced? Okay, I'll bite the bullet and give you a few plot outline's! aid then tell me you - all want to read 'em. Get this. IDENTIKILL (good title, I grant you) has Starsky accused of murdering a girlfriend. It takes thirty pages to establish it was a ringer.

ARCTURUS RISING involved a mildly crazy guy who thought he was being menaced by aliens from Outer Space. (I liked this one, I confess. The idea of Starsky impersonating a tomcat in someone's backyard appealed to me.) In this one the lads also made the acquaintance of two sisters who had telepathic tendencies, which trait was to come in useful in EGO ASSASSIN, which I flinch to relate is so over the top it has disappeared. Probably into orbit. That had Starsky being kidnapped and programmed a la Manchurian Candidate. Hutch had to shoot him. God, I'm blushing at the thought.

Then there was SOUL BROTHER, in which an old Academy Buddy turned up (and got killed) and CANTERBURY TALE, where they acted as protection for a rock star...

Now if you're thinking that this lot sounds as if we took all the aired plots and some of our favourite movies and tossed them in a bag and hauled them out by the handful, you might not be far from the truth.

In our defence, I have to say that we didn't know fandom existed, and so they were Just For Us. I don't suppose there's any defence for the fact that we kept putting poor Starsky through the wringer... He'd have been a basket-case by the time we were through...

I hope this soul-baring classifies as therapeutic, because I have succeeded in embarrassing myself thoroughly here. I suppose it would be possible to resurrect some of this old stuff and dust it off, but what editor would be brave enough to print it? You'd all be demanding your money back! 'They can write better than this!' you'd cry, and you'd be right.

Actually, this does bring me on to another related topic, based on a loC recently received. Why do we write what we write? Why the 'realism' instead of 'romance'? (Particularly as so many want the 'romance'!) The answer has to be that we write the kind of stuff we want to read. We have to believe in the validity of what we write. Our highest praise is to say 'I wish I'd written that'. And we share what we write only if we think it's the best we can do. Fandom is composed of reasoning and highly-literate adults, and so we try for quality adult writing, as with NEA...

A fan writes of the fiction she has contributed to the letterzine:

Now, as for VINGT-ET-UN -- my mind, like the Bellman's map, is a complete blank. For the straight version, that is. The X-rated alternate is another matter, but Pat can't put that in a g-rated l/z, and I don't want to be accused of rocking what is at present a most stable and unsinkable boat. So how's this for a compromise? If you want the straight stuff, continue crossing your fingers that I don't run out of inspiration. If you want SOMETHING ON ACCOUNT, write to me, or to Jody Lynn Nye. I'll ask her to xerox copies, and you can drop her a couple of bucks for postage and costs. (Any excess pennies will go to the Lemon Aid Fund, which has been able to contribute considerably to various charities close to our hearts. I'll list 'em one day, just so you know!)

A fan writes of a piece of unfinished drawerfic another fan had been working on called "Driftwood":

She got as far as having Starsky lying in the Hutchinson family bathroom (or one of them) bleeding quietly to death. HE'S STILL THERE. By now a withered husk! Since she began the story seven years ago, it could rival BIRD OF PARADISE as a no-show. Maybe we should point this out to her...