The action film is a film genre that predominantly features chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work. The specifics of what constitutes an action film has been in scholarly debate since the 1980s. While some scholars such as David Bordwell suggested they were films that favor spectacle to storytelling, others such as Geoff King stated they allow the scenes of spectacle to be attuned to storytelling. Action films are often hybrid with other genres, mixing into various forms such as comedies , science fiction films , and horror films .
143-448: Starsky & Hutch is an American action television series, which consisted of a 72-minute pilot movie (originally aired as a Movie of the Week entry) and 92 episodes of 50 minutes each. The show was created by William Blinn (inspired by the success of the then recent movie Busting ), produced by Spelling-Goldberg Productions and starred Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul in
286-562: A Tom Scott written theme entitled "Gotcha". "Gotcha" is the best known of the show's themes, and has been covered by several musicians, including the James Taylor Quartet and The Ventures . It also appears on the title screen of the Nintendo Entertainment System game Treasure Master , covered by Tim Follin . A version of "Gotcha" was featured on Scott's 1977 album Blow It Out and is also on
429-486: A "modern reimagining " of the series was being developed with a female-led cast. The plot would follow two female detectives, Sasha Starsky and Nicole Hutchinson, who would be attempting to uncover the truth behind their fathers' wrongful imprisonment 15 years prior. At that time, no actors were attached to the potential new series, though Sam Sklaver and Elizabeth Peterson were attached as writers and showrunners, while Sony Pictures Television and Fox Entertainment would be
572-532: A 19.6 rating in the Nielsens. In 1977, a rising concern in America about violence on TV, along with Glaser's own concerns about the level of violence in the series, forced the writers to reduce the violent "action" scenes, with more romantically and socially themed storylines, and play-up the "buddy-buddy" aspect of the show's leads even more. At the same time, the lead actors—Glaser in particular—became jaded with
715-468: A 1999 cast reunion interview in the United Kingdom . Many fans were attracted not just by the characters, but the quality of writing during the first two seasons (despite the fact that the majority of first-season stories were actually existing scripts that were merely adapted to fit the series). The second-season episode "Long Walk Down a Short Dirt Road", featured country star Lynn Anderson as
858-573: A 22.5 share in the A.C. Nielsen Ratings. Season 2: Starsky & Hutch was moved to Saturday night for the second season and was up against tough competition on CBS with The Mary Tyler Moore Show followed by The Bob Newhart Show . NBC had NBC Saturday Night at the Movies . Although the show lost some of their viewers from the move from the Wednesday night time slot from the previous season, Starsky & Hutch held its own, finishing #34 with
1001-510: A Global release status of Chinese-language martial arts films, most notably Zhang Yimou 's Hero (2002) and House of Flying Daggers (2004), Stephen Chow 's Kung Fu Hustle (2004) and Chen Kaige 's The Promise (2005). Most Hong Kong action films in the first quarter of the 21st century, such as those in Cold War (2012), Cold War 2 (2016) and The White Storm film series have their violence toned down, especially compared to
1144-418: A Texas collector; at the time, it was mostly unrestored and somewhat battered due to wear and tear from TV-show filming and subsequent ownership. It still had its original 460 V8, interior, and paint; however, Mickey Thompson valve covers and a chrome air cleaner were added by the first owner after he purchased it from Barber Ford. The Texas collector has since done a "sympathetic" frame-off restoration. Torino #2
1287-409: A Torino option in 1976, they could not be installed on a fleet-ordered specialty-painted car, as Ford had no provision for producing those mirrors in anything other than the regular production colors listed for that year; since the 2B bright red was a special fleet-ordered color for the '76 model year, the cars came equipped with the chrome mirrors. The body-side mouldings were installed on these cars and
1430-502: A drug kingpin played by Vince Vaughn . The film grossed $ 170 million worldwide against a $ 60 million production budget. A video game based on the series was developed by Mind's Eye Productions and published by Empire Interactive for PlayStation 2 , Xbox , GameCube , Microsoft Windows , and Game Boy Advance in 2003. The game combines driving and shooting gameplay and features the original voice of Huggy Bear, Antonio Fargas. In February 2023, The Hollywood Reporter reported that
1573-436: A fight sequence. In the 1980s, American martial arts films reflected the national move towards conservatism, reflected in films of Chuck Norris and other actors such as Sho Kosugi . The genre would shift from theatrical releases towards the end of the decade with the rise of home video, the lower box-office of American martial arts productions, and a significant portion of direct-to-video action films that first were made in
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#17327971468871716-500: A global audience of these films in the United States and Europe, but was cut short on Lee's death in 1973 leading the phases popularity to decline. Following a period of stagnation, Chang Cheh and Lau Kar-leung revitalized the genre with shaolin kung fu films and Chor Yuen 's series of darker swordplay films based on the novels of Gu Long . Kung Fu comedies appeared featuring Jackie Chan as martial arts films flourished into
1859-554: A propensity for violent action, identified with the films of Chang Cheh . Violent female characters have been part of cinema since its early inception, with characters such as Kate Kelly brandishing a shotgun in The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906). Women traditionally appear in action films as romantic interests, tomboys , or sidekicks to male protagonists. Violent white women would appear in other genres as well such as
2002-410: A role in the pilot movie, one being "Starsky's" car, and the other being a similar car which is mistaken for Starsky's car by the film's villains. They each had body-side mouldings along with a black interior with vinyl bench seats. One of the pilot cars had the luxury remote-control chrome mirrors installed, while the other pilot car had the cheaper, entry-level manual chrome mirrors installed; in editing
2145-745: A significant portion. These films include Taxi 2 (2000), Kiss of the Dragon (2001), District 13 (2004) and Unleashed (2005). Whan asked about the Americanization of these French films, Christophe Gans , director of Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001) stated that "Hollywood ownership of certain elements [...] must be challenged, in order to show that these elements have also long been present in European culture." The most significant producers of French action films with international ambitions
2288-658: A similar level of popularity to that of the Western in the United States. The most internationally known films of this era were the films Kurosawa with Seven Samurai (1954), The Hidden Fortress (1958), and Yojimbo (1961). By at least the 1950s, Japanese films were looked upon as a model to be emulated by Hong Kong film production, and Hong Kong film companies began actively enlisting professionals from Japan, such as cinematographer Tadashi Nishimoto to contribute to color and widescreen cinematography. New literary sources also developed in martial arts films of this period, with
2431-463: A singer being stalked by a deranged person; it was based upon a real-life incident involving country music legend Dolly Parton . The part was written with Parton in mind, but Anderson wound up playing the role. Season 1: Starsky & Hutch aired on Wednesday nights at 10 p.m. and aired against Kate McShane on CBS and the second season law drama Petrocelli on NBC. Starsky & Hutch had no trouble beating its competition and finished #16 with
2574-406: A single genre and that streaming services such as Amazon Prime and Netflix similarly dilutes what is marketed and received as action. In transnational cinema, there are two major trends in action films: Hollywood action films and their style being imitated around the globe and the other being Chinese-language martial arts films. The roots of action films extend into the beginning of film but it
2717-451: A three-act structure centered on survival, resistance and revenge with narratives where the physical body of the hero is tested, traumatized and ultimately triumphant. The third shift in action cinema, the postclassical, was defined by the predominance of Eastern cinema and its aesthetics, primarily the wire-work of Hong Kong action cinema from the classical era, through the convention of the increasingly computer generated effects. This saw
2860-594: A tough police officer protects society by upholding the law against systematic corruption. This extended into films which O'Brien described as "knee-jerk responses" to perceived threats with rogue cop and vigilante films such as Dirty Harry (1971) and Death Wish (1974) where the restoration of order is only possible by force and antisocial characters prepared to act when society does not. The vigilantism reappears in other films that were exploitative of southern society such as Billy Jack (1971) and White Lightning (1973) and "good ol' boy" comedies like Smokey and
3003-416: A wider historical and cultural field. In their book Action Cinema Since 2000 (2024), Tasker, Lisa Purse, and Chris Holmlund stated that thinking of action as a mode is more helpful than thinking of it as a genre. The three authors suggested that action frames a certain manner of filmmaking and viewing exceed genre without eclipsing it stating that websites such as IMDb and Misplaced Pages rarely label films by
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#17327971468873146-508: A year to get them to put bucket seats in it so David wouldn't slide all over the place whenever I took a corner". The aggressive stunt driving required of the show resulted in many accidents and fender-benders for the Torinos. The time demands of a weekly production mandated quick body and paint repairs so the cars could get back to work as soon as possible, and many of the quick and often sloppy repairs are quite evident to eagle-eyed viewers of
3289-463: Is Luc Besson 's France-based EuropaCorp , who released films like Taxi (1998) and From Paris with Love (2010). EuropaCorp produced Transporter franchise starred British actor Jason Statham and made him an action film star, which led him to feature in The Expendables series by the end of the 2010s. The action film genre has been a staple of Bollywood cinema . In the 1970s,
3432-574: Is a generic term to refer to several types of films containing martial arts. The wuxia film is the oldest genre in Chinese cinema. Stephen Teo wrote in his book on Wuxia that there is no satisfactory English translation of the term, with it often being identified as "the swordplay film" in critical studies. It is derived from the Chinese words wu denoting militarist or martial qualities and xia denoting chivalry, gallantry, and qualities of knighthood. The term wuxia entered into popular culture in
3575-729: Is based on Twin Dragons (1992). Other films such as the martial arts film Bhadrachlam (2001), borrows from American cinema with the Jean-Claude Van Damme film Kickboxer (1989). SS Rajamouli 's RRR (2022) was among the highest budgeted films made in India, and became a rare hit film outside of Indian diaspora, where it broke box office records in Japan and performed exceptionally well in American box office. Japan
3718-442: Is itself empowering and, if not, whether a hypersexualized female character can still represent strength and autonomy. Hypersexualized female action leads had tight fitting or revealing costumes that Tasker identified as "exaggerated statements of sexuality" and in the tradition of "fetishistic figure of fantasy" derives from comic books and soft pornography . This originated in television with characters like Buffy Summers ( Buffy
3861-435: Is owned by a New Jersey man who supplied the main close-up Torino (featured on the movie posters) for 2004's big-screen Starsky & Hutch movie. During its life after Starsky & Hutch , #2 was wrecked and sold as salvage. It was repaired, although it was repainted the wrong shade of red and the iconic stripe was improperly painted. Although still equipped with bucket seats, #2 no longer has its original 460 engine, which
4004-531: Is the divorced, blond, Duluth, Minnesota native with a more reserved and intellectual approach. Under the radio call sign "Zebra Three", they were known for usually tearing around the streets of fictional Bay City, California. Much of the series was shot on location in the Los Angeles beach community of San Pedro . The building that was used as the Metropolitan Division police headquarters in
4147-432: Is what was required to get them painted in the previous year's Bright Red(2B), as Ford used a different shade of red for new standard-order Torinos by this point. These newer cars can be identified by their silver sight shields (bumper-filler panels) which Ford used on specially painted fleet-ordered cars. They also had the luxury-chrome mirrors like one of the pilot cars. Even though the body-colored sport mirrors were still
4290-578: The femme fatales in film noir and horror films of the 1970s. Violent women were common in action films since the 1960s. These films featured working-class women exacting revenge. Films of the 1970s featured black women such as Pam Grier in films like Foxy Brown (1974). In the 1980s, a new symbolically transgressive character emerged in the form of Ellen Ripley in Aliens (1986) and Sarah Connor in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) and
4433-550: The Bollywood action film consolidated with two films starring Amitabh Bachchan : Prakash Mehra 's Zanjeer (1973) and Yash Chopra 's Deewaar (1975). The box office success of these films made Bachchan a star and spawned the "angry young man" film in Bollywood cinema. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the action genre film declined considerably with new films predominantly featuring former bodybuilders failing to reach
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4576-517: The Hong Kong action cinema , such melodramatic male bonding and marginalized women characters, while the Korean films also have greater elements of tragedy and romance emphasized. Most martial arts films made before the mid-1960s were Cantonese-language productions. In comparison, Mandarin-language films were an integral part of Hong Kong cinema due to the influx of Shanghai film talent in
4719-564: The September 11 attacks in 2001, which suggested an end to fantastical elements that defined the action hero and genre. Following the release of Quentin Tarantino 's Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003) and Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004) revisited the tropes of 1970s action films leading a renaissance of vengeance narratives in films like The Brave One (2007) and Taken (2008). O'Brien found that Tarantino's films were post-modern takes on
4862-510: The xinpai wuxia xiaoshuo (or "new school martial arts fiction") coming into prominence with the success of Liang Yusheng 's Longhu Dou Jinghua (1954) and Jin Yong 's Shujian enchou lu (1956) which showed influence of the Shanghai martial arts films but also circulated from Hong Kong to Taiwan and Chinese communities overseas. This led to a growing demand in both local and regional markets in
5005-428: The 1960s with films like The Born Losers (1967) which was predominantly a drama, interspersed with martial arts scenes. American martial arts films predominantly came into production following the release of Enter the Dragon (1973), with the only higher-budgeted American film to follow in its wake being The Yakuza (1974). Lott noted the two films would lead to the two subsequent styles of martial arts films in
5148-556: The 1970s. James Monaco wrote in 1979 in American Film Now: The People, The Power, The Money, the Movies that "the lines that separate on genre from another have continued to disintegrate." Tasker said that most post-classical action films are hybrids, drawing from genres as varied as war films, science fiction , horror , crime, martial arts , and comedy films . In Chinese-language films, both wuxia and kung fu are genre-specific terms, while martial arts
5291-784: The 1980s. Other films again modernized the form with gangster films of John Woo ( A Better Tomorrow (1986), The Killer (1989)) and the Wong Fei Hung saga returning in Tsui Hark 's Once Upon a Time in China featuring Jet Li which again revitalized the swordplay styled films. By the turn of the century Hollywood action films would look towards Hong Kong cinema and bringing some of their major actors and directors over to apply their style to their films, such as Chan, Woo, Li, Michelle Yeoh and Yuen Woo-Ping . The release of Ang Lee 's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) led to
5434-560: The 1999 "reunion" interview. Several scenes of Glaser driving the car show him smashing the front wheels into curbs as he slides the car around corners and such, but that may also be attributable to the fact that he is primarily an actor, not a trained stunt-driver. Over the years, the Starsky & Hutch Torino increased in popularity and became a much-loved icon of the show and of the Seventies in general. Glaser has not grown to appreciate
5577-706: The 21st century have been comic book adaptations, which commenced with the X-Men and is seen in other series such as Spider-Man , and Iron Man series. Tasker wrote that despite the central characters in superhero cinema being extraordinary, occasionally even God-like, they often followed the traces of the central character becoming powerful of which is fundamental to action films, often dealt with origin stories in superhero films. Action films often interface with other genres. Tasker wrote that films are often labelled action thrillers, action-fantasy and action-adventure films with different nuances. Tasker later discussed that
5720-522: The Bandit (1977). This era also emphasizes the car chase scenes as moments of spectacle in films like Bullitt and The French Connection (1971). O'Brien described these films as emphasizing "the fusion of man and machine" with the drivers and vehicles acting as one, concluding with what he described as "the ultimate in apocalyptic modernity and social erasure" in Mad Max 2 (1981). O'Brien described
5863-754: The Bollywood press who reported on him in the headlines of Bollywood magazines for his public brawls and affairs with leading actresses. In Dabangg (2010), Khan continued with this public persona, which was repeated in several of his later films such as Ready (2011), Bodyguard (2011), Ek Tha Tiger (2012) and Dabangg 2 (2012). From the 1980s, generations of actors in Telugu cinema have invoked Hong Kong action films, such as Srihari who stated he wanted to become an actor after watching his first Bruce Lee film. Several films in Telugu cinema were remakes of Hong Kong films, such as Hello Brother (1994) which
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6006-598: The Dragon briefly allowed an influx of Hong Kong films to Japan, but the trend did not last, with 28 Hong Kong films, mostly kung fu films, being released in 1974, and the number decreasing to five in 1975, four in 1977 and only two in 1978. Ryuhei Kitamura , director of Versus (2000), said in 2004 that he grew frustrated with the Japanese film industry as producers felt they couldn't make action films in competition with Hong Kong or American productions. Versus grew to become popular outside of Japan, and Kitamura said he
6149-602: The Hong Kong film industry after the handover in 1997. Anglophone action film scholarship has tended to emphasize bigger budget American action films, with academics tending to find films that fall out of Hollywood productions as not quite fitting definitions of the genre. By 2024, many national and regional industries were known for action films. These include international films such as Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam , South Korean, Japanese, Thai , Brazilian , Chinese , South African , French and Italian action titles. At
6292-572: The Nielsen Ratings in its final season. Network reruns continued on ABC on Tuesday nights until August 21, 1979. After its prime-time run, Starsky & Hutch was sold into syndication , and has been shown on several local channels and cable networks (e.g., The National Network , and WWME-CA , also known as MeTV , in Chicago ). The series made its cable debut on TNT in 1994 and later appeared on TV Land beginning in 2000. In 2015–2016,
6435-807: The Red Lotus (1965) and King Hu 's Come Drink with Me (1966). In the 1970s, the Hong Kong martial arts films began to grow under the format of yanggang ("staunch masculinity") mostly through the films of Chang Cheh which were popular. This transition led to the kung fu film sub-genre at beginning of the decade and moved beyond the swordplay films with contemporary settings of late Qing or early Republican periods and had more hand-to-hand combat over supernatural swordplay and special effects. A new studio, Golden Harvest quickly became one of independent filmmakers to grant creative freedom and pay and attracted new directors and actors, including Bruce Lee . The popularity of kung fu films and Bruce Lee led to attract
6578-585: The Sony Pictures library including Starsky & Hutch in 2013. They re-released the first season on DVD on March 4, 2014. Mill Creek released Starsky & Hutch - The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1 on November 11, 2014. Stunt cars, camera cars, tow cars, dolly cars, and cars used for "beauty" shots varied in model year from 1974 to 1976 Ford Torinos , since the body style of the Gran Torino
6721-554: The Torino has many fans and sparked a collectors market in the United Kingdom, as evidenced by the large number of UK-owned replicas (both factory and aftermarket). The red Torino's fame also led to a number of people customizing their own red vehicles with the distinctive white vector stripe, and with varying levels of success. The first season of the show had a dark and ominous theme written by Lalo Schifrin that seemed to fit
6864-484: The United States, Europe and Japan had during this period. Yip described Japanese cinema as the most advanced in Asia at the time. This was showcased by the international breakthrough of Akira Kurosawa 's films like Rashomon (1950). The film genre known as the chanbara was at its height in Japan. The style was a sub-genre to the jidai-geki , or period drama with an emphasis on sword fighting and action. It had
7007-406: The United States, with films like Enter the Dragon about people who reveled in combat, often in a tournament setting, and The Yakuza which had several genres attached to it, but featured several martial arts sequences. By the end of the 1970s, the style was an established genre in American cinema, often featuring tough heroic characters who would fight and not think about their actions until after
7150-591: The Vampire Slayer (1997–2003)) and Xena ( Xena: Warrior Princess (1995–2001)). These series popularity demonstrated a growing market for female action film heroes, in films of the 2000s like Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), Charlie's Angels (2000), Ultraviolet (2006), Salt (2010) and series like Underworld and Resident Evil . These series like their television series earlier, had their leads eroticized as active and physically capable while also being scantily-clad, hyper-feminized similar to
7293-553: The action heroine's dual status of an active subject and sexual object was overturning the traditional gender binary because the films "assume that women are powerful" without resorting to justify her physical aggression through narratives involving maternal drive, mental instability or trauma. Purse found that female leads in films like Elektra (2005), Kill Bill , Underworld , Charlie's Angels and Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005) did showcase women having expensive cars, clothing, travel, homes and often high-paying jobs, but that this
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#17327971468877436-417: The album Best Of Tom Scott . For the third season, a more dramatic theme was used that highlighted the show's move to more socially conscious and light-hearted stories. It was written by Mark Snow and released on an LP around 1979. A reworked "Gotcha", similar in style (but not identical) to the version on Blow It Out , returned for the fourth and last season. The revamped version was the most easy-going of
7579-521: The backstreets of Cairo. British author and academic Yvonne Tasker expanded on this topic, stating that action films have no clear and constant iconography or settings. In her book The Hollywood Action and Adventure Film (2015), she found that the most broadly consistent themes tend to be a characters quest from freedom from oppression such as a hero overcoming enemies or obstacles and physical conflicts or challenge, usually battling other humans or alien opponents. By late 2010s studies of genre analysis,
7722-435: The book Australian Genre Film , Amanda Howell suggested that this label was used to help distance Australian cinema from Hollywood films as it would be suggesting commerce over culture and that it would be "quite unacceptable to make Australian movies using conventions established in the U.S.A." Howell stated this to be the case with action films of the 1970s and 1980s with Brian Trenchard-Smith 's Turkey Shoot (1982) being
7865-457: The car as he has learned to simply accept its popularity as a necessary component of the fans' appreciation of the show. In fact, during filming of the 2004 Starsky & Hutch film adaptation, Glaser had several opportunities to sit in the newest iteration of "his" car, and even drive them, but he refused. He just was not interested, but in 2004, during the last day of filming a movie in Canada,
8008-477: The car: First, in his opinion, it was big, ugly and childish-looking. Secondly, the idea that two undercover cops would drive around in a car with such an outlandish appearance seemed ludicrous, and lastly, he does not like Ford products (although in a picture that was printed in an issue of the National Enquirer , Glaser is shown on the side of a California freeway with a flat-tired Ford Explorer ). At
8151-550: The classical form of action cinema to be the 1980s. The decade continued the trends of formative period with heroes as avengers ( Lethal Weapon (1987)), rogue police officers ( Die Hard (1988)) and mercenary warriors ( Commando (1985)). Following the continuity of the car and man hybrid of the previous decade, the 1980s featured weaponized men with who were either also carrying weapons such as Sudden Impact (1983), trained to be weapons ( American Ninja (1985)) or imbued with technology ( RoboCop (1987)). O'Brien noted that
8294-402: The crew wanted a group picture of Glaser with a Starsky and Hutch Torino, so he agreed to sit in the driver's seat of a Limited Edition replica with the crew surrounding the car. In the summer of 2012 during the introduction to the "Las Vegas Car Stars 2012" charity event, Glaser drove up in a S&H Torino replica; after being introduced by the master of ceremonies, he got out of the Torino and
8437-464: The decline of overt masculinity in the action film which corresponded with the end of the Cold War in 1991, while the rise of self-referential and parodies of this era grew in films like Last Action Hero (1993). O'Brien described this era as being soft where the hard bodies of the classical era were replaced with computer generated imagery such as that of Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). This
8580-601: The difference between Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and Die Hard (1988), that while both were mainstream Hollywood blockbusters with hero asserting masculinity and overcoming obstacles to a personal and social solution, John McClane in Die Hard repeatedly firing his automatic pistol while swinging from a high rise was not congruent with the image of Indiana Jones in Raiders swinging his whip to fend off villains in
8723-427: The different themes for the series, reflecting the last season's increased "buddy cop" feel. Schifrin, Scott and Snow also scored several episodes; Alan Silvestri also worked on the series, scoring three episodes. A series of novels by Max Franklin (Richard Deming) were published by Ballantine Books in the United States and the United Kingdom between 1976 and 1978. The US and UK editions were identical except that
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#17327971468878866-559: The direct-to-video field, or in similarly low-budget theatrical releases such as Bulletproof Monk (2003). While the American styled-films were predominantly made in the United States, productions were also made in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong and South Africa, and were predominantly shot in the English-language. Heroic Bloodshed is a that originates with English-language Hong Kong action and crime film fan communities in
9009-406: The driver's side quarter panel and tail-light area were seen to be smashed up in 4th-season episodes, and at least one of the cars was shown to have a dented and twisted front bumper along with some visible damage to the grille behind. The last appearance of the Torino on the series seems to show that the driver's door and window will not even close correctly, possibly due to the rigours and effects of
9152-487: The earlier work of directors like Woo and Johnnie To . Antong Chen, in his study on the Hong Kong action film, wrote that the influence of China and the amount of Chinese co-productions made with Hong Kong created a shift in these films, particularly following the release of Infernal Affairs (2002). Harvey O'Brien wrote in 2012 that the contemporary action film emerged through other genres, primarily Westerns , crime and war films and can be separated into four forms:
9295-432: The early 1960s and saw a surge in production of Hong Kong martial arts films that went beyond the stories about Wong Fei-hung which were declining in popularity. These new martial arts films featured magical swordplay and higher production values and more sophisticated special effects than the previous films with Shaw Brothers a campaign of "new school" ( xinpai ) martial arts swordplay films such as Xu Zenghong's Temple of
9438-519: The early forms of the genre appeared in the wake of Kill Bill and The Expendables films. Scott Higgins wrote in 2008 in Cinema Journal that action films are both one of the most popular and popularly derided of contemporary cinema genres, stating that "in mainstream discourse, the genre is regularly lambasted for favoring spectacle over finely tuned narrative." Bordwell echoed this in his book, The Way Hollywood Tells It , writing that
9581-491: The end of the 1990s. Films such as Chunhang (2000) and Memento Mori (2000) and action films Shiri (1999) and Nowhere to Hide (1999) received commercial releases in North America, Asia, and Europe. The success of the latter two films was unprecedented, and was followed by other South Korean action films in the early 2000s reaching the top of the local box office. These South Korean films mimic some traits of
9724-525: The fact that the revised gearing would cause the engine RPM to go to a higher level, possibly leading to engine damage. In the "Behind The Badge" interviews, Glaser said that during the early stages of production of the pilot, Spelling took him outside to introduce him to the red & white-striped, mag-wheeled Torino. Glaser took an immediate and long-lasting dislike to the car, which has not changed to this day. According to Glaser in several early interviews, there were three main reasons why he instantly hated
9867-532: The female leads in implausible elements, such as in Charlie's Angels , Fantastic Four (2005) and My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006). The fighting styles of women also tend towards more traditionally feminine fluid movements of martial arts, over using guns or directly punching. Purse wrote that the contemporary female action film lead's sexualized brand had her in close proximity of post-feminism discourse about choice, power and sexuality. Marc O'Day interprets
10010-428: The film, Starsky and Hutch are shown to be driving around in each of the two cars at different times during the film. The cars were also custom painted (on top of the factory red paint color) with the distinctive white "vector" stripe designed by Spelling-Goldberg's transportation coordinator George Grenier. The rear ends were lifted by air shocks, and had Ansen Sprint 5-slot mag wheels added with larger rear tires. While
10153-534: The first season is now the City of Los Angeles' San Pedro Neighborhood City Hall. The detectives' main confidential informant was the street-wise, ethically ambiguous, " jive-talking " Huggy Bear ( Antonio Fargas ), who often dressed in a flashy manner and operated his own bar (first named "Huggy Bear's", and later, "The Pits"). The duo's boss was the gruff, no-nonsense-but-fair Captain Harold C. Dobey ( Bernie Hamilton in
10296-406: The first viewing of the car with David Soul (Hutch), Glaser remarked that the car looked like a "striped tomato". That nickname stuck, and very soon the show's writers had worked it into the show as Hutch's derogatory name for Starsky's beloved Torino. Glaser remarked to Soul that he hated the car and that he was "going to destroy that car...burn it down every chance I get", and repeated the story in
10439-399: The first-season were factory ordered in the bright-red color (Ford paint code: 2B), which was a regular production color for 1975 Torinos. Unlike the pilot-movie cars, the first-season Torinos had no body-side mouldings, but did have body-colored sport mirrors, and brocade cloth split-bench seats. With the acquisition of the new cars, the producers took the opportunity to improve the design of
10582-414: The following films were voted the top ten best action films of all time. In Hong Kong, the "new school" of martial arts films that Shaw Brothers brought in 1965 featured what featured what Yip described as "strong, active female characters as protagonists." These female-centered films were challenged with the rise of a new male heroic prototype marked by a strong sense of youthful energy and defiance and by
10725-448: The formative trends at this point had become "identifiably generic" as film industries began to reproduced these films during the decade producers like Joel Silver and production companies like The Cannon Group, Inc. began to formulate production of these films with both high and low budgets. The action films of this era have roots in classical story telling, specifically rooted from martial arts films and Westerns, and are built around
10868-610: The formative, the classical, the post-classical and neoclassical phases. Yvonne Tasker reiterated this in her book on action and adventure films , saying that action films became a distinct genre during the New Hollywood period of the 1970s. The formative films would be from the 1960s to the early 1980s where the Anti-hero appears in cinema, featuring characters who act and transcend the law and social conventions. This appears initially in films like Bullitt (1968) where
11011-551: The former was one of the highest-grossing movies of the year in Japan. Following LoveDeath , Kitamura's next directing work was in the United States. The action cinema of South Korea mostly existed on the margins of the film industry in South Korea. The genre was initially called the Hwalkuk ("living theatre") was a term that indicated plays and films driven by action scenes, while this term has not been used regularly since
11154-403: The front fascia piece. These new cars also featured the complete bumper-protection group option, which included horizontal black rub-strips on both bumpers that were not included on the pilot cars. For the start of the second season, these were replaced by two 1976 Gran Torinos that had vinyl split-bench seats like the pilot-episode cars. The new cars were ordered under Ford's fleet program, which
11297-437: The general theme; these and other factors contributed to the fading popularity of the series. Glaser indicated several times that he wanted to get out of his contract and quit the series; he even sued the producers to force a release from his contract before the start of the third season. It seemed that he would not be returning for filming, so to fill the presumed void, the character "Officer Linda Baylor" (played by Roz Kelly )
11440-528: The genre. David Bordwell in The Way Hollywood Tells It wrote that audiences are "told that spectacle overrides narrative" in action cinema while Wheeler Winston Dixon echoed that these films were typified by "excessive spectacle" as a "desperate attempt to mask the lack of content." Geoff King argued that the spectacle can also be a vehicle for narrative, opposed to interfering with it. Soberson stated that Harvey O'Brien had "perhaps
11583-430: The ground. While heroes in kung fu films often display chivalry, they generally hail from different fighting schools, namely wudang and shaolin . American martial arts films feature what author M. Ray Lott described as a more realistic style of violence over the Hong Kong wuxia films with more realism and are often low-budget productions. Martial arts began routinely appearing in fight scenes in American films in
11726-418: The hard action and violence of the season; the main title version was edited down from the chase climax cue of his score for the pilot episode (the climax contains the shot of Hutch leaping off a fire escape and landing on his car which appears in the opening titles of all subsequent episodes). The end credits featured a similar piece of ominous music. The first season theme was replaced for the second season by
11869-520: The late 1920s. These films were popular during the period, which comprised almost 60% of the total Chinese films. Man-Fung Yip stated that these film were "rather tame" by contemporary standards. He wrote that they lacked the kind of dazzling action choreography as expected today and had crude and rudimentary special effects. These films came under increasing attack by both government officials and cultural elites for their allegedly superstitious and anarchistic tendencies, leading them to be banned in 1932. It
12012-400: The late 1960s and 1970s drawing from war films , crime films and Westerns . These genres were followed by what is referred to as the "classical period" in the 1980s. This was followed by the post-classical era where American action films were influenced by Hong Kong action cinema and the growing using of computer generated imagery in film. Following the September 11 attacks , a return to
12155-570: The late 1970s, with "action movie" becoming the more familiar term. The Korean action films came from Japanese cinema, James Bond series , and Hong Kong action cinema. As North Korea borders China, it block access to the continent from a South Korean perspective, the Cold War allowed South Koreans to substitute deferred travel beyond the border through films with locations shot in Hong Kong. While melodrama and comedy were staples in South Korean cinema, most action films were sporadic and tied to
12298-444: The late 1980s and early 1990s. In the Chinese language, the term used for these films is jinghungpin , literally meaning "hero films". Academic Laikwan Pang asserts that these gangster films appeared at a time when Hong Kong citizens felt particularly powerless with the handover of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to China set for 1997. The key directors of the genre were John Woo and Ringo Lam , and producer Tsui Hark , with
12441-513: The late 1980s and early 1990s. Author Bey Logan stated that the term was coined by Rick Baker, in the British fanzine Eastern Heroes . The term is used broadly. Baker described the style as Hong Kong action films which feature gangsters and gunplay and martial arts that were more violent than kung fu films and academic Kristof Van Den Troost described it a term used to distinguish Hong Kong gun-heavy action films from period martial arts films from
12584-431: The late 1980s in the United States were martial arts films. Towards the end of the 1990s, production of low-budget martial arts films declined as no new stars in the genre developed and older actors such as Cynthia Rothrock and Steven Seagal started showing up in less and less films. Even internationally popular films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) had negligible effects in American productions in either
12727-425: The most convincing understanding of the genre", stating that the action film was "best understood as a fusion of form and content. It represents the idea and ethic of action through a form in which action, agitation and movement are paramount." O'Brien wrote further in his book Action Movies: The Cinema of Striking Back to suggest action films being unique and not just a series of action sequences, stating that that
12870-624: The most notorious. Smith had previously released films like Deathcheaters (1976) and Stunt Rock (1979) when financial incentives were available for overtly commercial projects. She commented that action films did tell identifiably Australian stories such as the Sandy Harbutt 's biker film Stone (1974) and Miller's post-apocalyptic film Mad Max (1979) derived from Australia's social and cultural realities, as well as how George Miller 's later Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) derived from Australia's long-standing cinematic fascination with
13013-604: The notion that traditional marks of masculinity are not exclusive to men and that musculature was not natural, but something to be achieved. Accusations of these muscular women of the era were levelled at that them by 1993 were that they were "men in drag" and that the films generally have to "explain" why their female leads displayed physical aggression and why they were "driven to do it." As the 1990s went on, Hollywood films began having more conventional looking women in their action films such as The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996). A vibrant debate exists about whether hypersexualization
13156-435: The physical effort required to completing a task and the abilities and skills acquired over time. Films from the period reflected on the cultural and social climate from the period, as seen in invoking Japanese or Western imperialist forces as foils. The kung fu film came out of the wuxia films. In comparison to the wuxia , film, the focus on the kung fu film is on the martial arts over chivalry, The martial arts films
13299-574: The popularity Bachan had. These films predominantly earned their revenue through longer runs at B-grade theatres. A cycle of action films came from these films in the 1980s and 1990s called the Avenging Woman film, where female protagonists seek justice for a rape victim, where the protagonist seeks revenge through violence. In 2009, the action genre was re-popularized with the box office success of Wanted (2009) starring Salman Khan . Khan reinvented his screen persona with that of his image in
13442-543: The postwar period. These films were targeted at the more educated and more refined middle-class audiences who saw themselves as above the contemporary martial arts films. Scott Higgins wrote in 2008 in Cinema Journal that Hollywood action films are both one of the most popular and popularly derided of contemporary cinema genres, stating that "in mainstream discourse, the genre is regularly lambasted for favoring spectacle over finely tuned narrative." Bordwell echoed this in his book, The Way Hollywood Tells It , writing that
13585-411: The production companies. As of September 2024, no other updates have been provided regarding the status of any potential reboot. Action film While the term "action film" or "action adventure film" has been used as early as the 1910s, the contemporary definition usually refers to a film that came with the arrival of New Hollywood and the rise of anti-heroes appearing in American films of
13728-476: The reception to the genre as being "the emblem of what Hollywood does worst." In the Journal of Film and Video , Lennart Soberson stated that the action film genre has been a subject of scholarly debate since the 1980s. Soberson wrote that repeated traits of the genre include chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work while other scholars asserted there were more underlying traits that define
13871-402: The reception to the genre as being "the emblem of what Hollywood does worst." Tasker wrote that when action and adventure films secured awards, it is often in categories such as visual effects and sound editing. Time Out magazine conducted a poll with fifty experts in the field of action cinema, including actors, critics, filmmakers and stuntmen. Out of the 101 films ranked in the poll,
14014-441: The road and cars and a history of cultural anxiety towards a bleak and forbidding outback landscape opposed to the optimism of American action films. France is a major European country for film production and has made co-production commitments with 44 countries around the world. Around beginning of the 21st century, France began producing a series of films explicitly intended for international markets, with action films representing
14157-529: The serialization of Jinaghu qixia zhuan (1922) ( transl. Legend of the Strange Swordsmen ). In wuxia , the emphasis is on chivalry and righteousness and allows for phantasmagoric actions over the kung fu film 's more ground-based combat. The Kung fu film emerged in the 1970s from the swordplay films. Its name is derived from the Cantonese term gong fu which has two meanings:
14300-538: The series aired on cable's El Rey Network on weekday mornings. Several episodes from the first two seasons can be viewed for free in Minisode and in regular format on Crackle . The show has also been broadcast on Cozi TV and getTV . Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has released 4 Seasons on DVD in Regions 1 and 2 between 2004 and 2006. Mill Creek Entertainment acquired the rights to various television series from
14443-631: The series, and gravel-voiced Richard Ward in the pilot). Series creator William Blinn first used the name Huggy Bear on-screen for a character, also a confidential informant, in an episode penned by Blinn for the TV series The Rookies during the 1973 second season, "Prayers Unanswered Prayers Unheard", there, played by actor Johnny Brown . In contrast to police characters on U.S. TV in prior years, Starsky and Hutch were open with physical gestures of friendly/brotherly affection toward one another, often declaring that they trusted only each other (in an "us against
14586-431: The series. The final episode, "Sweet Revenge" (which has Starsky fighting for his life after being gunned down), originally had its co-lead dying in the early drafts. The producers decided to have the character survive, as it was felt that a dead Starsky would disrupt the continuity of reruns /syndication, and preclude the option of the producers' reviving the series in the near future. Starsky & Hutch finished #36 in
14729-415: The series. The series later inspired a video game and a feature film . The series' protagonists were two Southern California police detectives: Sergeant David Michael Starsky ( Paul Michael Glaser ) and Sergeant Kenneth Richard "Hutch" Hutchinson ( David Soul ). Starsky is a dark-haired, Brooklyn transplant and U.S. Army veteran, with a street-wise manner and intense, sometimes childlike moodiness. Hutch
14872-427: The show. The front fenders seemed to have taken a lot of abuse, and the Gran Torino nameplates on the front fenders are missing in several episodes, as are the chrome wheelhouse moldings. Towards the end of the four seasons of production, the Torinos were noticeably worse-for-wear, and close watchers of the later episodes will spot many dents and other damage on the cars as they appear in various episodes. In particular,
15015-468: The spirited stunt driving the car suffered over the years. Glaser deliberately mistreated the cars during close-up stunt scenes when he drove (this was admitted to in a 1997 letter he wrote to the owner of the #1 Torino; and in a first-season DVD interview he said that he tried to "destroy" the cars) and would often stop the car by hitting the front wheels against curbs, as well as coming into driveways at high speed and bumping into garbage dumpsters. Due to
15158-485: The starting point of the genre being traced to Woo's A Better Tomorrow (1986) make a record-breaking HK$ 34.7 million at the Hong Kong box office. The style of these films would influence American productions, such as Michael Bay 's Bad Boys II (2003) and the Wachowskis ' The Matrix (1999). Korean media recognized the more fatalistic and pessimistic tone of these films, leading to Korean journalists to label
15301-425: The stripe was, unlike the pilot cars, integrated with the mouldings. They were powered by 460 Lima V8s (VIN code "A"), and Spelling-Goldberg kept these Torinos until production ceased. While these were the biggest, most powerful engines available from Ford at the time, even with dual exhaust, they were still somewhat underpowered at 202 net horsepower. A third car, owned by 20th Century Fox and 351 Windsor powered,
15444-433: The style as "Hong Kong noir ". The influence of these films was evident in early Korean films such as Im Kwon-taek 's General's Son (1990) and later films such Song Hae-sung 's A Better Tomorrow (2010), Cold Eyes (2013) and New World (2013). Postcolonial Hong Kong cinema has struggled to maintain its international identity as a provider of these types action films because the talents involved had abandoned
15587-472: The success of S&H, in 1976 (the Torino's final year) Ford released a limited edition (only 1,305 units total, plus three pilot production cars) Starsky and Hutch replica Gran Torino. Manufactured at the Chicago plant, one of these code "PS 122" units was leased by Spelling-Goldberg from the middle of season two until the series' end as a second backup for the main cars and was known simply as "Unit 129". It
15730-434: The term "genre" itself is often replaced or supplemented with the words "mode" and "narrative form" with all three terms often being used interchangeably. Johan Höglund and Agnieszka Soltysik Monnet said that the difference between these concepts are elusive, but stated that genre could be defined as belonging to specific historical and cultural moments while "mode" and "form" can refer to a larger pattern that operates across
15873-450: The term action film genre and adventure are often used in hybrid, and are even used interchangeably. Along with Holmund and Purse, Tasker wrote that the action films expansiveness complicates easy categorization and though the genre is often spoken of as singular genre, it is rarely discussed as singular style. Screenwriter and academic Jule Selbo expanded on this, describing a film as " crime /action" or an "action/crime" or other hybrids
16016-445: The themes that rescinded irony to restore " cinephile re-actualization of the genre's conventions." The genre went into full circle resurrecting films from the classical period with Live Free or Die Hard (2007) and Rambo (2008) finding the characters navigating a contemporary world while also acknowledging their age, culminating into The Expendables (2010) film. The most commercially successful action films and franchise of
16159-416: The tires were mounted so that only the black wall side would show, thus hiding any unauthorized brand-name display, in one first-season episode ("Kill Huggy Bear"), a close-up shot of the villain cutting the rear brake lines shows the letters on the inside-facing side of the tires to say Firestone. It is reported that the original 2.75:1 ratio rear axle gearing (standard on non-police Torinos from 1975 onward)
16302-529: The title character in China O'Brien (1990) who were physically muscular and or enacted more extreme violence that was usually reserve for male action leads. In her book Contemporary Action Cinema (2011), Lisa Purse described the media response to female leads in action films reveal a discomfort about their presence and are often described with hesitant terms of women moving into territories that are perceived as masculine. Revealing woman in this form deconstructs
16445-454: The title roles, Starsky and Hutch. It was broadcast from April 1975 (pilot movie) to August 1979 on the ABC network. Starsky & Hutch was distributed by Columbia Pictures Television in the United States and, originally, Metromedia Producers Corporation and later on 20th Television in Canada and some other parts of the world. Sony Pictures Television is now the worldwide distributor for
16588-448: The tone of the show, with a lot of the violence reduced and more of a focus on the friendship of the two leads, viewership remained steady during the season. From September to December 1977, the show stayed in its Saturday-night time slot, now up against The Jeffersons and The Tony Randall Show on CBS and NBC Saturday Night at the Movies . It was the first lead-in to The Love Boat and after its immediate success, The Love Boat
16731-539: The turn of the millennium, Australian genre films have gained increasing acceptance in the Australian feature film industry, while the action genre represented a small percentage of its output in the 21st century. Scholars of Australian genre film generally used the term "action-adventure" which allows them to apply it to various forms of narratives such as tongue in cheek heroic posturing stories like Crocodile Dundee (1986), road movies or bush/outback films. In
16874-422: The use of locations such as Hong Kong. These films often featured one-legged or otherwise handicapped action characters similar to those of Japanese films ( Zatoichi ) and Hong Kong films ( The One-Armed Swordsmen ). These included Im Kwon-taek's Returned Left-Handed Man (1968), Aekkunun Bak's One-Eyd Park (1970) and Lee Doo-yong's Returned One-Legged Man (1974). In the 1990s, the country's national cinema
17017-407: The white stripe painted on the cars. The original pilot-movie cars had the bottom horizontal edge of the stripe about an inch or so above the mid-body character line that ran along the car, which was apparently done so that the section of the stripe that passes above the front-wheel opening would not be cut off by the wheel opening, but for the first-season cars, the bottom horizontal edge of the stripe
17160-475: The woman of exploitation films of the 1970s such as Caged Heat (1974) and Big Bad Mama (1974). While characters like Frank in The Transporter series are permitted to visibly sweat, strain and be bloodied, Purse found a reluctance for filmmakers to have their female leads have any appearance warping injuries to ensure a perfectly made-up face. Comedy is often used in films of this period to place
17303-562: The words "ABC series" on the covers were changed to "BBC series" for the UK editions. Each book was a novelisation of a specific TV series episode, with the original script writer(s) credited on the cover. A theatrical film produced by Weed Road Pictures and Red Hour Productions and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures and Dimension Films was released in theatres on March 5, 2004. The film stars Ben Stiller as Starsky, Owen Wilson as Hutch and Snoop Dogg as Huggy Bear, as they attempt to stop
17446-423: The world"–type sense). While likely "normal" by American social standards since the 1990s, such body language conflicted with 1970s norms of (emotionally restrained) masculinity. In a show documentary tape made during the show's run that can be found on YouTube , the narrator intones that some Hollywood industry types referred to the characters as " French kissing prime-time homos ". Soul verified this statement in
17589-448: Was "only a semantic exercise" as both genres are important in the construction phase of the narrative. Mark Bould in A Companion to Film Noir (2013) said that categorization of multiple generic genre labels was common in film reviews who are rarely concerned with succinct descriptions that evoke elements of the film's form, content and make no claims beyond on how these elements combine. Film Studies began to engage generic hybridity in
17732-408: Was a difficult market for Hong Kong action cinema to break into. Prompted by the success of Enter the Dragon and the popularity of Bruce Lee, Toei made their own Bruce Lee-style martial arts films, with The Street Fighter and its two sequels starring Sonny Chiba as well as a spin-off with a female lead similar to Hong Kong's Angela Mao called Sister Street Fighter . The success of Enter
17875-466: Was aiming for the foreign audience, as he was disappointed with the current state of Japanese films. Kitamura's characters have been described as "a careful combination of the maverick independence of 1980s Hollywood action heroes and the calmness and acceptance of Japanese samurai, a consistent criticism of Japanese people today." Kitamura followed up Versus with two manga-inspired big-budget action films, Azumi and Sky High . Both released in 2003,
18018-437: Was cheered by the crowd. High-performance engine sounds were dubbed over scenes during the show because California law forbade mechanically modifying the engines of new cars. When the pilot was successful, Spelling-Goldberg ordered two new 1975 red Gran Torinos for the first season. These cars were powered by 400 V8s (VIN code "S") because extra power was going to be needed for additional stunt driving scenes. These new cars for
18161-454: Was created, and a number of alternative scripts featuring her instead of Starsky were written (whether the show's name would have remained the same is unknown). After being granted more creative control over scripts, opportunities to direct episodes, and a per-episode pay raise (to $ 35,000, up from $ 5,000), Glaser returned to the show. Ultimately, Officer Baylor only appeared in one episode the episode "Fatal Charm". Despite this major change in
18304-417: Was displayed in corresponding with corresponded with millennial angst and apocalypticism showcased in films like Independence Day (1996) and Armageddon (1998). Action films of mass destruction began requiring more overtly super heroic characters with further comic book adaptations being made with increased non-realistic settings with films like The Matrix (1999). The fourth phase arrived following
18447-469: Was in decline by the mid-1970s in Hong Kong in relation to the stock market crash which went from over 150 films in 1972 to just over 80 in 1975, which led to a downfall in martial arts films produced. When the economy became to rebound, a new trend of martial arts films, the Shaolin kung fu films emerged and sparked a revival of the genre. Unlike the wuxia , the kung fu film primarily focuses on fighting on
18590-509: Was in decline leading to Hong Kong gangster films filled in this void leading to large commercial success at the national box office. Early Korean heirs to Hong Kong action films include Rules of The Game (1994), Beat (1997), and Green Fish (1997) involving men who gain confidence and achieve personal growth as they embark on journeys to protect national state and meet devastating ends. South Korean cinema only received international attention in both art film and blockbuster formats towards
18733-469: Was introduced, in the episode "Starsky's Brother". It was intended that if Glaser was to quit, that the reformed Nick would take David's place on the police force (and allow the series to avoid a title change). Ultimately, the disgruntled Glaser decided to return, yet again, to finish out the season. Although a fifth season was planned, increasing production costs, Glaser's persistent (and oft-publicized) desire to move on, and declining ratings, brought an end to
18876-417: Was lowered until directly on the crease, which gave a more cohesive look to the design of the stripe. The section of stripe that runs across the front-wheel opening was gradually curved up and around the opening. The stripe was also thicker on the roof section, and whereas the front pointed section ended well behind the amber marker light on the pilot cars, the newer design had the point ending far ahead of it on
19019-513: Was moved up an hour in January 1978 into the 9:00 slot. Having been displaced on Saturday nights, Starsky & Hutch moved back to its original Wednesday-night time slot of 10 p.m. The ratings dropped a little bit, but Starsky & Hutch finished #33 (tied with ABC's Lucan ) with a 19.2 Nielsen rating. Glaser again voiced his desires to leave during the fourth and final season. This time, Starsky's wayward younger brother Nick ( John Herzfeld )
19162-599: Was not until the base of Chinese commercial filmmaking was relocated from Shanghai to Hong Kong in the late 1940s that martial arts cinema was revived. These films contained much of the characteristics of the previous era. During this period, over 100 films were based on the adventures of real life Cantonese folk hero Wong Fei-hung who first appeared in film in 1949. These films primarily on circuited within Hong Kong and Cantonese-speaking areas with Chinese diaspora . Yip continued that these Hong Kong films were still lagging behind in aesthetic and technical standards that films from
19305-504: Was only in the mid-20th century when action films developed into their own recognizable genre instead of being a collection of other types of films such as Westerns, swashbucklers or adventure films. Films have been described "action films" or "action-adventure film" as early as the 1910s. Only by the 1980s was the term action as its own unique genre used routinely in terms of promotion and reviewing practices. The first Chinese-language martial arts films can be traced to Shanghai cinema of
19448-567: Was only shown as being applicable to white middle-class women. Purse found that these women were empowered at the price of women of other ethnicities. This is seen in Aeon Flux (2005) where Sithandra dies protecting Aeon and Rain's death to make way for Alice in Resident Evil (2002). Kate McShane Kate McShane is an American legal drama television series that aired from September 10 until November 12, 1975. Kate McShane
19591-458: Was originally equipped with a 351 Modified (also VIN code "H"); however, during filming, one of the stuntmen damaged the engine beyond repair, and it was replaced overnight with a 429 Lima V8. During the last season of Starsky & Hutch , The Dukes of Hazzard premiered on CBS , and one of the factory replicas was used in the first episode, "One Armed Bandits", seen to be driven by regular character Cooter Davenport ( Ben L. Jones ). This
19734-469: Was replaced at some point with a 2.8-liter Ford V-6. The car underwent a full restoration in a Pennsylvania Shop and is back on the road. Finally, the 20th Century Fox Torino was purchased in 2009 by the owner of #2, sold to an Oklahoma couple in 2010, and restored. "Unit 129" was owned by a collector in New Hampshire; as of May 2018, it is for sale by a Florida collector vehicle dealer. In addition,
19877-402: Was replaced with numerically higher ratio gears for better acceleration during stunt driving scenes; in the 1999 interview, Glaser said that "we finally had to get a new rear end put in it so that at zero to sixty it had some pop". At least one of the second-season cars was known to have a Dymo label prominently attached to the dashboard which read "DO NOT EXCEED 50 MPH"; this was probably due to
20020-558: Was the only appearance of the Torino in the series, and many fans have speculated over its strange one-off appearance. One theory is that it was merely an in-joke, with the Torino's former iconic car status now being taken over by the Dukes' Dodge Charger car " The General Lee ". After Starsky & Hutch was canceled, the cars were returned to Ford's Studio-TV Car Lease Program and sold at a Ford Motor Company auction to A.E. Barber Ford of Ventura, California. The first retail sale of Torino #1
20163-542: Was to a resident of Ojai, California ; he owned it for one year, then sold it in a private sale to an Air Force officer that owned it for 17 years. In 1988, Torino #1 was purchased by an Ohio resident; he sold it in 2012 to Cars of the Stars Motor Museum in the United Kingdom. A few years later, Torino #1 was sold to Dezer Car Collection in Miami, Florida. Dezer sold Torino #1 in a private auction in January 2015 to
20306-466: Was unchanged. Originally, Blinn was to have Starsky drive a Chevrolet Camaro convertible because he fondly remembered a green and white one that he owned. However, when production started on the pilot episode, Ford Motor Company 's Studio-TV Car Loan Program was the lease supplier for Spelling-Goldberg. They looked at lease stock and chose two 1975 351 Windsor V8-powered ( VIN code "H") "Bright Red" (paint code 2B) 2-door Gran Torinos. Both cars had
20449-528: Was used as the first backup to the Ford lease cars. Over time, an unforeseen problem was discovered with the Torinos when they were used during stunt driving scenes. In sharp right-hand turns, Soul would sometimes slide accidentally across the vinyl bench into Glaser. Although a potential safety hazard at the time, the problem was solved by replacing the front bench of the number two Torino with bucket seats at Glaser and Soul's request; Glaser said in 1999: "It took us
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