Frienz/Issues 41-42

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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 41 (March 1997)

Frienz 41 was published in March 1997 and contains 23 pages.

cover of issue #41

• TOTM: There was no set topic for this issue.
• a fan describes seeing David Soul in the play "Blood Brothers" in London

Issue 41: Sample Fan Comments

Where have all the US fans gone:

And thank goodness for international fandom. Last issue, except for mine and [Linda's], all letters of a full page or longer came from our members in the UK. I know there used to be more of us; is anybody else still out there?

From a new fan:

I am a devoted fan of our two favorite cops now but that wasn't always the case. I was dragged kicking and screaming into the fandom by a friend yelling, "I don't have time for another fandom and I don't want another universe to keep up with!" Every time we had lunch at her place, she insisted on showing me "the good parts" of various episodes of S&H. I told her she was wasting her time. She didn't give up. Soon we were watching entire episodes and I finally quit complaining and started enjoying myself. Thanks Denise, I owe you one.

A fan's strong headcanon:

It is VERY important to me for “my” Hutch to be raised in a financially privileged but emotionally deprived background and “my” Starsky to be raised in a poor but loving family. So I can’t possibly allow Hutch to be brought up anywhere that didn’t have domestic staff!

[...]

I choose to interpret Hutch’s constant demonstration of his knowledge of fine living not as the enthusiasm of a recent convert, but as puzzlement of the “let them eat cake” variety. However, I interpret almost everything he does as affirmation of his insecurity and I agree that deep down he is one hundred per cent convinced he is not as good as everyone else.

“Cold unloving home environment” - Yes, Hutch tells his mother all about his walk on part in “Murder on Stage 17”, but you could say that it’s not Hutch who doesn’t love his parents, maybe he believes his parents don’t love him.

Another fan's headcanon:

My own view of Hutch is that somewhere, before Vanessa, he felt lost/abandoned/unloved. I say that because of the sometimes desperate need he feels for Starsky's friendship i presence. I don't think that a person who grew up surrounded with love and friendship would be so desperate. I believe it goes beyond the reasonable closeness in any effective team of law enforcement folk.

Hutch and his disguises:

Mentions of Hutch and his undercover disguises prompts me to ponder that maybe the reason he is good

at them (Tap Dancing, The Groupie spring to mind), is because they allow him to be somebody other than himself.

Recalling a statement in the first season:

Yes, Hutch is dangerous looking in the fourth season. Although as early as the pilot episode, the partnership declared they wouldn’t mind getting burned so long as it was out on the street. By the fourth season, I have come to believe them. A “nothing to lose” air of desperation has surfaced in Hutch by then. I have no doubt that he would have shot the hit man in cold blood, in the “tell me something I don’t know” scene in “Targets”. Dangerous indeed.

A fan is interested in tracking some fanon:

As for Hutch's early years/family life, could anyone identify the first published story which presented the negative picture which is common in fanfiction?

Could be interesting to trace the concept to that particular source and to follow its subsequent development. The idea certainly took root, often alongside the implication that 'fine living' would be somehow intrinsically linked to flawed personal/moral/ethical values. Maybe writers adopted it on assumption of dramatic potential, but direct, series evidence of an unhappy child in an uncaring family is surely sparse, which is no prohibition on writing it that way.

Issue 42 (May 1997)

Frienz 42 was published in May 1997 and contains 20 pages.

cover of issue #42

• TOTM: S&H in the series are Sergeants; if they continued as cops, they might have become Lieutenants. What do you think they would be like giving orders, instead of ignoring orders?

• there are only a handful of letters, and the letterzine seems to be coming to an end
• report by Ruth Kurz of the S&H Fanday in England in April 1997 (includes photos)
• "Starsky & Hutch: Are They Bucking for a Suspension?", reprinted article from an unknown source
• ads for Risk, From the Cutting Room Floor, Heart and Soul #4
• some comments about David Soul in the play, "Speed the Plow" in England, comments about his girlfriend Alexa and their dog, Checky
• comments by Viv Gibbons about various official fan promotional things for Starsky & Hutch, being on Radio 5 for an interview, the Bravo SH Roadshow in Covent Garden on October 23, 1996 which was a publicity day in London with Antonio Fargas (Huggy Bear) and the Torino

Issue 42: Sample Fan Comments

A plug for a story:

On the subject of stories generally, I'll endorse Tabby's recommendation of the short story "Family Favourites" from the "Double or Nothing" zine. I loved this. It's a must for anyone seeking to know more about Hutch's family and just why he is so uptight on that subject. I don't know when this idea first surfaced in fanfic, it seems to have been around forever. Perhaps, originally, someone thought that it made him more interesting. It was always harder to provide an "early life" background for Hutch, compared to Starsky's extrovert relatives who cropped up in the series from time to time.

About the TOTM (last issue's topic):

I'm in a quandary here because I think that they would have left the LAPD after "Sweet Revenge". According to a recent TV show I saw that talked about the current training of police, a large number of officers used to quit after a traumatic incident (usually involving a shooting), but the training has reduced that percentage. Whether or not Starsky could recuperate enough to return to the force, I think that Hutch would want him safely out of it and not mind finally quitting himself I But, in some alternate universe where they stayed cops, they would be hard pressed to continue working together unless they became instructors at the Academy (as one fan writer has them). There, I think that they would be strict but fair, explaining the reasons for things the recruits had to learn or procedures they had to follow. Not liking arbitrary rules themselves, I'd like to think that they would help the cadets understand the ones they made them follow.

Some fourth season thoughts:

I love your suggestion that Hutch may possibly be so good at undercover disguises because it gives him an opportunity to be someone other than himself. I think he's trying to escape from some part of himself throughout the fourth season.

The TOTM, neurotic Hutch, and why:

Now to the subject which continues to engage my interest, the multi-layered neurotic Hutch. The wording in the ransom note in "Class in Crime." Okay, he could have been employing a standard style one not his own, the professor’s analysis of it may not prove he came from a lower, socio-economic background but does that automatically suggest the only other option is a privileged upbringing? Surely any other possibility remains open. I agree with you. One needn’t (shouldn’t?) assume that a privileged upbringing necessarily leads to a flawed character. It might, if H suspected his family’s wealth and position had been achieved immorally or illegally and that could explain his choice of career, but surely such an extreme reason would have been referred to in the scripts. (But, perhaps that is the province of the zine writer?)

Maybe neurotic Hutch is based on real life:

Actually I have another theory which some may not like as we’re always so determined to separate actors and characters. When you' listen to interviews or talk to the David of the present he comes over as insecure, a little self centered, lost, as if he still hasn’t pinned down who he is. If that’s him as he always has been perhaps we’re only tapping into something he found easy to do - draw on his own insecure personality and build it into the Hutch character. All the more convincing because it was based on fact.