The BEST episodes of Starsky & Hutch

Every episode of Starsky & Hutch ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Starsky & Hutch!

Tough Starsky and educated Hutch are plainclothes cops taking on dope dealers, muggers and other thugs, aided by their red 1974 Torino and informant Huggy Bear. Both bachelors' private lives play as interweaving threads in the drama. This was TV's coolest buddy cop show, fueled by full-throttle car chases, offbeat humour, colourful characters and a hip vibe.

Last Updated: 11/11/2024Network: ABC (US)Status: Ended
Manchild on the Streets
star
8.63
8 votes

#1 - Manchild on the Streets

Season 3 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/10/1977

When a friend of Starsky and Hutch's is wrongfully shot dead by a rookie Cop after the drunk driving of the man's pal leads to a Police pursuit, the pair must do their best to steer his confused teenage son away from a life of crime, as he grows intent on avenging his father's needless death and becomes involved with a small-time thief...

Directors: David Soul
Watch Now:Amazon
Starsky's Lady (a.k.a. Revenge; a.k.a. Snowball)
star
8.46
13 votes

#2 - Starsky's Lady (a.k.a. Revenge; a.k.a. Snowball)

Season 2 - Episode 19 - Aired 2/12/1977

Crazed killer Prudholm returns to extract his revenge on Starsky, who he blames for the death of his son while in Police custody. By targeting Starsky's beloved girl-friend, making sure that she is shot in a supermarket heist, leaving her with a bullet fragment lodged in her brain and facing impending death...

Writer: Robert Earll
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Fatal Charm
star
8.36
11 votes

#3 - Fatal Charm

Season 3 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/24/1977

While Starsky, Hutch and Officer Linda Baylor are working on an operation to trap a wanted drug dealer, Hutch receives a minor wound, and reports to hospital, where he meets nurse Diana Harmon. After they meet later at a bar, they spend a romantic evening together. But when afterwards Hutch, concerned by her possessive ways, doesn't plan to continue with the relationship, Diana starts displaying unbalanced, obsessive behaviour that not only jeopardises the Police operation, but puts Hutch in great danger...

Directors: Earl Bellamy
Writer: Jeff Kanter
Watch Now:Amazon
Deckwatch
star
8.33
9 votes

#4 - Deckwatch

Season 3 - Episode 23 - Aired 5/17/1978

A serial killing seaman, who preys on prostitutes, is badly shot during his latest attack. Wounded and on the run, he resorts to holding Hutch's friend and her wheelchair-bound mother hostage in their home. Hutch poses as a paramedic to get inside the house as he and Starsky try to apprehend the desperate killer and safely free the hostages...

Watch Now:Amazon
The Game
star
8.17
12 votes

#5 - The Game

Season 4 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/19/1978

When they blow the capture of a wanted felon, Starsky and Hutch each blame the other, and lay down a bet to see whether or not Hutch can successfully elude Starsky for a whole weekend. But the exercise in hide-and-seek becomes more than just a game when Starsky realises that Hutch has unknowingly eaten contaminated soup, and could die from the potentially lethal botulism poisoning. It's a race against time as Starsky struggles to locate Hutch to warn him, but Hutch, unawares to the poisoning, assumes it's all part of Starsky's attempts to draw him out, and dons a number of disguises in order to stay one step ahead...

Directors: Leo Penn
Writer: Tim Maschler
Watch Now:Amazon
Hutchinson - Murder One (a.k.a. Hutchinson for Murder One)
star
8.15
13 votes

#6 - Hutchinson - Murder One (a.k.a. Hutchinson for Murder One)

Season 3 - Episode 19 - Aired 2/22/1978

Out of the blue, Hutch's estranged former wife Vanessa suddenly contacts him, attempting to rekindle their relationship. Hutch doesn't want to know, until Vanessa claims that she's ill with a cancerous tumour. But the next day, Vanessa is murdered in Hutch's apartment - and Hutch is the prime suspect. With two Internal Affairs agents investigating and seemingly convinced that Hutch is guilty, Starsky must help his partner trace the real culprits in order to clear his name...

Directors: Bob Kelljan
Watch Now:Amazon
Survival
star
8.10
10 votes

#7 - Survival

Season 2 - Episode 18 - Aired 2/5/1977

After Hutch plays the key part in a successful undercover operation to nail a wanted racketeer, the captured felon hires a hit-man to prevent Hutch from testifying in court. The assassin runs him off the road and down an embankment, leaving Hutch trapped under the wreckage of his car, near death, in a desolate area, while Starsky desperately searches for his missing partner...

Directors: David Soul
Writer: Tim Maschler
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Murder Ward
star
8.10
10 votes

#8 - Murder Ward

Season 3 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/8/1977

The intrepid cops go undercover at a mental hospital, with Starsky as a patient and Hutch as an orderly, to investigate a number of mysterious patient deaths that have occurred at the asylum. With a female journalist, also undercover as a patient, they uncover that someone in the hospital is illegally using patients as human guinea-pigs for the testing of behaviour modification drugs...

Directors: Earl Bellamy
Watch Now:Amazon
The Fix
star
8.07
41 votes

#9 - The Fix

Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/8/1975

Hutch is dating a girl who was formerly associated with a big-time mobster. But Hutch is abducted by the jealous mobster, who forcibly gets him hooked on heroin, in order to find out where the girl is. Starsky must find his friend and the people who did this to him before it is too late and Hutch ends up dead...

Directors: William Crain
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
The Action
star
8.00
10 votes

#10 - The Action

Season 3 - Episode 13 - Aired 1/7/1978

Starsky and Hutch set out to bust an illegal gambling ring behind the brutal beating of a friend after he failed to pay off his debts. The duo end up playing for very high stakes as they infiltrate the illegal club, run from a mobile casino in the back of an 18-wheeled truck...

Directors: Ivan Nagy
Watch Now:Amazon
The Velvet Jungle
star
8.00
8 votes

#11 - The Velvet Jungle

Season 2 - Episode 22 - Aired 3/5/1977

An illegal immigrant witnesses the murder of a co-worker who was threatening to expose the illegal activities of crooked Immigration officials, and is forced to hide out in fear as she too is now hunted by the killer. The detective duo step in to investigate and uncover an illegal-alien smuggling operation...

Directors: Earl Bellamy
Writer: Parke Perine
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Strange Justice
star
8.00
6 votes

#12 - Strange Justice

Season 4 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/24/1978

When his daughter is raped, long-standing, veteran Detective Slate is devastated, and shoots her attacker, who's been brought in for questioning. With the wounded rapist looking like he'll get off scott-free and Slate facing serious charges, the distinguished Lieutenant takes the law into his own hands to get even with his daughter's assailant - and it's up to Starsky and Hutch to stop him in time...

Directors: Reza Badiyi
Watch Now:Amazon
Ninety Pounds of Trouble
star
8.00
5 votes

#13 - Ninety Pounds of Trouble

Season 4 - Episode 16 - Aired 2/6/1979

When a contract is put out to kill a top union official, Starsky and Hutch go undercover as hit men to protect him. But while Hutch rehearses his performance as a trigger man, Starsky is plagued by a young admirer who may compromise his cover.

Directors: Leo Penn
Watch Now:Amazon
Savage Sunday
star
7.95
107 votes

#14 - Savage Sunday

Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/10/1975

An elderly couple, desperate to draw attention to the poor living conditions in their old folks home, have rigged the trunk of their car with fifty sticks of dynamite and a timer, planning to set it off outside City Hall. But the car is stolen by two thugs on a spree of armed liquor store robberies, unaware that the car is loaded with explosives, ticking towards detonation in the trunk. Starsky and Hutch initially are on the hunt for the two robbers – when they learn that the car is rigged with dynamite, they have mere hours to track it down before disaster strikes...

Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Blindfold
star
7.92
12 votes

#15 - Blindfold

Season 4 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/26/1978

Responding to a jewellery store robbery, Starsky is distraught when he accidentally shoots an art student caught in the cross-fire, costing the girl her sight. Guilt-stricken, he forcefully strikes up friendship with the blinded young woman, without confessing that he's the law officer that caused her to loose her vision. But their subsequent relationship soon proves to be very dangerous, as someone seems determined to keep him away from her, and Hutch comes to question just how much of a chance by-stander she really was in the incident...

Directors: Leo Penn
Watch Now:Amazon
The Committee
star
7.90
10 votes

#16 - The Committee

Season 2 - Episode 21 - Aired 2/26/1977

After the streetwise detectives capture a rapist, they are outraged when the thug is let of with a lenient court sentence. Starsky openly vents his disgust at such light punishment - attracting the interests of a vigilante Police 'death squad', who are executing criminals that are given such lenient sentences, and see him as their next possible recruit...

Directors: George McCowan
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Partners
star
7.90
10 votes

#17 - Partners

Season 3 - Episode 21 - Aired 5/3/1978

Starsky's reckless driving in pursuit of two robbers lands both himself and Hutch in hospital, with Hutch seemingly suffering from amnesia, unable to remember his partner or anything about their jobs. Starsky reminds him of some of their past adventures in an attempt to revive his memory...

Directors: Charles Picerni
Watch Now:Amazon
Huggy Can't Go Home (a.k.a. Huggy Can't Go Back)
star
7.88
8 votes

#18 - Huggy Can't Go Home (a.k.a. Huggy Can't Go Back)

Season 4 - Episode 17 - Aired 2/13/1979

An illegal poker game puts Huggy Bear in a tight spot - holding a dead man's hand and facing a choice between covering for a friend or obeying the law.

Directors: David Soul
Watch Now:Amazon
The Bounty Hunter
star
7.85
20 votes

#19 - The Bounty Hunter

Season 1 - Episode 22 - Aired 4/21/1976

When a Cop is shot dead, apparently by a bail-jumper, the Detective duo pursue the alleged murderer. But as Starsky and Hutch search for the felon, they find that they are not the only ones after the felon - an extortionist bail-bondsman and her accomplice are also on his trail...

Directors: Don Weis
Writer: Steve Fisher
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
The Set-Up (1)
star
7.80
10 votes

#20 - The Set-Up (1)

Season 2 - Episode 16 - Aired 1/22/1977

First episode of a two-part story. The tough detective partners are working incognito as truckers, in an operation to safely transport Joe Durniak - a man with Mob connections who Starsky knows from his childhood - who is promised protection and a new identity in return for giving testimony as a key state witness. But when Durniak is shot dead by a lone gunman convinced that Durniak was behind the murder of his wife, Starsky and Hutch find themselves uncovering a complex plot of bizarre deception. But as they investigate, they themselves come under suspicion for being involved with Durniak's murder..

Directors: George McCowan
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Long Walk Down a Short Dirt Road
star
7.78
9 votes

#21 - Long Walk Down a Short Dirt Road

Season 2 - Episode 23 - Aired 3/12/1977

The dashing detectives try to catch the deranged stalker who is hounding a successful country singer, and will only stop if she pays him $10,000. At first, the anonymous madman just issues threats via phone, but when he turns to murder, Starsky and Hutch must piece together just who the extortionist is and capture him before anyone else is killed...

Directors: George McCowan
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Bust Amboy (a.k.a. Nightlight)
star
7.76
17 votes

#22 - Bust Amboy (a.k.a. Nightlight)

Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/23/1976

The detective pair are determined to nail the wealthy Amboy, a crafty narcotics dealer who is supplying young prostitutes, and always avoids police arrest with legal loop-holes...

Directors: George W. Brooks
Writer: Ron Friedman
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Sweet Revenge
star
7.75
8 votes

#23 - Sweet Revenge

Season 4 - Episode 22 - Aired 5/15/1979

As Starsky lies in a hospital bed at death's door, Hutch goes after the powerful man who tried to have him killed

Watch Now:Amazon
Nightmare
star
7.75
12 votes

#24 - Nightmare

Season 2 - Episode 11 - Aired 11/28/1976

A gang of rapists who attacked a retarded 19-year-old girl may go free because an ambitious district attorney thinks that the victim's testimony may be worthless in court.

Directors: Randal Kleiser
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
The Set-Up (2)
star
7.71
7 votes

#25 - The Set-Up (2)

Season 2 - Episode 17 - Aired 1/29/1977

Conclusion of this two-part story. The duo try to uncover the truth behind Terry Nash - the well-intentioned gun-man out to avenge the murder of his wife and who, until recently, didn't seem to even exist - but in doing so, they are framed and wind up suspended from duty and becoming fugitives. Determined to unlock the secrets about Terry and to clear their names, the twisted trail of their investigations leads to a complex operation in which innocent victims are brain-washed into murdering those that they believe to be their enemies. But with the investigations getting too close to home, the masterminds behind the brain-washing set-up have new murder victims in their sights - Starsky and Hutch...

Directors: George McCowan
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV