Coffee, Cats, Comics

Let's talk panel topics!

What's the hardest part of SHareCon programming?

It's not the games; they're already planned. It's not the play; it's ready to go. (Applause, please, for our hard-working CONspirators!) It's not the vids, either. While we always look forward to brand new premieres from our amazing vidders, we also have hundreds of tried-and-true older vids we can use to create wonderful vid shows.

No, the hardest part of SHareCon programming is finding fresh panel topics. Let's face it. We've been talking about these guys and this show for 50 years now. Haven't we said it all?

We refuse to believe that. In spite of our lengthy lists of panel topics, we always manage to add new topics every year. That's why we use a poll to determine which topics are your favorites.

Are you a new fan who has questions you need answered? A veteran fan who has that one topic that never gets discussed? Now's the time to bring your idea forward! We want it!

You can suggest your topic here, or if you're shy and would rather keep it private, send to [email protected]. Your idea might be just the spark that keeps our programming fun and interesting! And makes picking panel topics a little easier.

typically, the formula for a ‘gay episode’ involves one or two (if it’s a couple) queer people entering the cisheteronormative space of the main characters in order to teach them that queer people are just like them. there’s nothing wrong with this, in fact it’s not a bad way to introduce queerness to straight people especially during times of less widespread acceptance. it’s just not my cup of tea as a queer person because im intensely aware of the vulnerability a real queer person would have in that sort of situation.

on the other hand, the structure of starsky and hutch requires the opposite to happen. starsky and hutch has a small cast with each episode throwing the titular characters into a new situation involving new people and environments, so it naturally follows that in order to interact with queer characters, they had to be the ones to seek out queer spaces. and because they needed to gain the trust of these queer characters to solve the murder, it flips the script and puts them in the more vulnerable position as the outnumbered strangers/outsiders (though we also can’t forget that they retain the power of being cops with guns and the law behind their backs so it’s far from perfect)

Starsky has died, but his ghost is still there, haunting Hutch.

It wasn't actually that hard, just time-consuming! I made a video showing the process, in case others were interested.

But Death in a Different Place? Bro…every scene reads like Hutch is about to soft launch his own coming out to Starsky. To summarize for those of you who may need a refresher, another (and much older, and married) cop is killed and it quickly becomes apparent he was leading a double life and had ongoing affairs with men.

Starsky struggles with some homophobia, meanwhile Hutch is very quietly accepting about the whole thing. There’s a brief moment in the beginning where he’s surprised and even a little defensive, presumably given the fact the guy was married to a woman for 22 years. He says things like “John being gay doesn’t take away any of the other things he was” and, to Starsky, “if he’d come out to you how would you have felt” with this sense of resignation. It’s like he’s speaking from experience. Yall can tell me if I’m delusional but that’s 100% how it reads to me. Then at the end we have the absolutely iconic scene that’s been screenshot a billion times and also is, and always will be, insane

Hutch: “Starsky, would you consider that a man who spends seventy-five per cent of his time with another man has got certain tendencies?”

Starsky: “Seventy-five – you mean three-quarters?”

Hutch: “Right.”

Starsky: “Yeah. Sure. Why not. You mean that was the case between John and…”

Hutch: “No, no, that’s the case between you and me.”

Starsky: “What?!”

Hutch: “Well, figure it out. In a five-day week, there are about eighty waking hours, right?”

Starsky: “Yeah.”

Hutch: “We work, eat, and drink about twelve of those hours, right? That’s sixty hours a week, seventy-five per cent of the time we spend together and you’re not even a good kisser.”

Starsky: “How do you know that?”

There's an academic book called Ethereal queer: Television, Historicity, Desire. It has a lengthy analysis of this episode, and I love this quote:

pride flag 🏳️‍🌈 colorpicked from photos of starsky & hutch and mash shooting scripts on ebay:

and one for the writers - script revisions pride flag: