The Heavyweight

DVD, Starsky & Hutch S3 (The Heavyweight)

Wrestling had long been a part of the series, and now boxing is the theme. Or is it? The theme, which you could also say boxing shares, is about standing up and being a man, taking the punishment and pain, not knowing what you're going to lose. Overcoming fear and choosing courage, rather than giving in and taking the easy way out is what this episode is all about. I like that it comes neatly in threes, with three confrontations between the good guys and the bad, three people being given the same kind of choice, and… there should be a third thing that there were three of, but I can't think of it right now! The story is about Jimmy Spenser, the heavyweight of the title, though that could just as well refer to his conscience as his boxing division. Right from the start we see he's the sort to keep away from trouble - he continues in the sport, even if he's not winning much these days, but his trainer, Jeeter, still shows confidence in him. It's difficult to know how much we can trust anything Jeeter said in the episode, because he's always in the know - his outburst slamming Spense's chances might be how he really thinks, or his usually optimistic impression may be true, it could also be that he's looking back at the good fights rather than thinking of the future until he's forced to confront his own mortality.

He appears familiar with Haley Gavin and his mob connections, though it must be the first time Spense has been told to throw a fight, evidenced by the fuss he puts up. If Spense knows he must buckle under and accept defeat if he's to avoid repercussions, or the 'trouble' that his understanding of 'the rules' has always taught him to avoid, it's because he still thinks he's got a future in the sport. But Jeeter's also thinking of his own future, I would presume. The difference between them is that Spense has a family: a wife he's separated from after she could no longer accept the danger of the sport, and the only voice speaking out about what would be classified as a 'blood sport,' ("Watching the man that I love being brutally beaten and calling it a profession"), and his young son, Stevie (I don't know how S&H unknowingly happened to sit next to the boy at the fight!). We don't hear if Jeeter has any family, and by the way he's always out late at Main St. Gym, and never mentions family, plus his dedication to training, the impression I had was that this was his life. Once Spense has broken 'the rules,' sparked by his son's encouragement into doing something unthinkable, and refusing to stage his own loss, he's in big trouble with Gavin and his heavies. But Jeeter still has his own career to think about. This is where he comes across as the selfish man of the story who, out of the three tested, fails to stand up, brokenly accepting what he's told to do, betraying and lying to his friend of twelve years in order to save his own hide. It's a sad personal defeat in the episode, as if Jeeter never had the backbone that he inspires in fighters, or lost it along the way.

It's not that he's a particularly bad man, just that he's an ordinary bloke who gives in to fear. This is in stark contrast to the third of the people examined in the episode: Booker Wayne. He's got nothing to feel warm and fuzzy about towards Spenser or Jeeter, since he was the guy who lost. But, and this is a key point, as otherwise what would be the point of it being an episode of this series, S&H give him a stern talking to which changes his mind, pointing out that Jimmy Spenser is him, ten years from now. His righteous indignation for the way life has treated him is punctured, and rather than take it as a personal insult, he stops to think. It might not have gone any further than that if he hadn't stumbled upon Jeeter's conversation with Gavin on the phone, setting up Spenser in cold blood, but it's what he chooses to do with what he knows that matters (prompting Hutch to welcome him to the human race). I have to say that it became slightly comical to me the way Wayne pops out of that other room each time he wants to expose Jeeter: first by mistake, walking in on Jeeter's phone call, which is fair enough. Then he waits around until Spenser arrives and pops out again to tell him what's happened, which almost makes it look as if he's been hovering behind that door all the time. Then he does it again when Hutch shows up, springing out like a jack-in-the-box, and as good as the intentions were, I couldn't help but be amused, despite the gravity of the situation! The worst thing is, I didn't know where the door led to, so I was imagining a cupboard.

Leaving aside the unintentionally funny execution, Booker is the man who technically has the most to lose: he's a young, up and coming fighter, whose way is being paved by Gavin, and who, if he just gave in and did what he was told, could have been quids in. But he's also an honest fighter, a proud young man that boasts he's got where he is by the work of his fists, and it sticks in his craw that Gavin set him up to win, because he thinks he could have taken Spenser without help. He was wrong about that, since Spenser won fair and square, but the point is that he chooses to get involved, informing on Jeeter to both Spense and the police, and it couldn't have been any more hurrah-making unless he'd gone down to the warehouse himself with Hutch for the final showdown against Gavin and the goons, which I'd have loved to see! I've been largely quiet on the subject of S&H, but that's only because the plot doesn't hinge on them as much as it does on those three central characters of Spenser, Jeeter and Wayne, but they are the essential catalyst or balance that upsets the plans of the unjust and inspires confidence in the forces of right. It also helps that they make it a fun, banter-filled episode, often through the one running gag that spans the episode, something we don't see so much in the third season. There's really nothing about this episode that would place it in that category of being more serious compared with the previous seasons, and it could fit neatly into either Season 1 or 2, the only negative aspect I could see being Booker and Starsky's heated words about crawling out of the slime. The gym itself was extremely cramped, so you didn't get a sense of scale and prosperity, but that hardly matters in the wake of the personal grappling that goes on.

It's Spenser's story really, of course, first ignoring the death of a cop investigating the warehouse at the beginning (though he claimed he didn't know the guy had been killed), then regretting his stroke of inspiration from Stevie, claiming you can't fight a guy like Gavin, that's his defeatist philosophy, or his sense of self-preservation, but it also means losing his pride, so recently fired up by Stevie hiding out to avoid Gavin's gang rather than face up to them, something which changes by the end of the episode (the Dolphin Hotel which he chooses as a refuge looked very much like the place Callendar was going to sniper his target in 'The Plague,' and could well have been the same location). But he can't hide forever… or can he? His plan originally is to get his share of the prize money and leg it out of town, but once that's proved a fruitless endeavour thanks to the actions of Jeeter, he decides to just go ahead and face the enemy. I'm not sure it was the anger and disgust of being betrayed by his good friend, or Jeeter's harsh words about him being all washed up that stung him into action (though I think that was said to S&H), or his own sense of pride that gave him the recklessness to take on his enemy. He's not the most reckless of people, as he said, keeping out of the way of trouble, but maybe he sees a vision of the hopeful future, either taking on Gavin and losing, or happy ever after with his family and pride intact.

Notably he doesn't call for backup, doesn't enlist the help of S&H who'd already stood with him twice against these same villains (though technically it was their stunt doubles in the locker room rumble, you can clearly see in long shots). I like that progression, from the first showdown between S&H and Gavin's muscle while undercover investigating the murder of the cop (again, no assumed names), Spenser stepping in to help when Starsky's sunny friendliness is met with grim bullying (in his hilariously casual and jolly way in the face of brutishness: "…The happy brotherhood of labour - happy hands, busy feet…"), though he hid it under a front of protecting his own wages. It's a little hint that he's a man with a bit of a conscience, but who keeps a lid on it and doesn't like to seem helpful. The second time Hutch has to practically drag Starsky away from the locked gaze of his current girlfriend, Sharon (just another ditzy blond, who looks so much like others we've seen, I thought she'd been in it before, though she hadn't - she's so vacant she doesn't even get who Spenser is, or who's winning in the fight, and then she gets back together with ex-fiancee 'George' because she filled Starsky's absence when he's called away to talk to him!).

A good job Hutch's sixth sense was working, because it would have been a tough struggle for the cornered Spense, who's stuck with three on one in the locker room! Jeeter isn't much help, another little hint of the way a character will behave later, one punch sending him reeling through a door from whence he doesn't emerge until the villains have gone. I don't know why Spenser put the chair in front of him, as it wasn't much of a block, but I suppose it was instinct taking over. It's another thing I'd have loved to see: if Spenser had taken on Berl, Cruiser and the other guy, and at least made a good account of himself until S&H came to even the odds. The third and final confrontation happens at the warehouse, three different people meeting the three villains, each not knowing about the others until it all kicks off (though Hutch knew Starsky was there as the Torino was out front): it shows each man's bravery, as Spenser approaches the dangerous Gavin, and would have been shot if not for the intervention of Hutch and then Starsky, too, who arrive at different times. It reminded me of a similar scene in the 'DS9' episode 'Empok Nor' with a villain creeping around a warehouse-like environment, about to kill someone while someone else hunts them (it's suitable to mention a 'Star Trek' connection as Gary Lockwood, who played Jimmy Spenser, had been in the second 'TOS' pilot, 'Where No Man Has Gone Before'). It's actually a bit of a weak resolution compared to the rest of the episode, with a quick scuffle between each opponent, never any real jeopardy after the first shot's rung out.

There's never any mention of the mob again, but as ever, the series likes to end on a positive note, which is no bad thing, with one of the best tag scenes of the series, because it genuinely is funny: they're all at 'The Pits,' and after a heartwarming moment where Starsky makes Spenser look even bigger in the eyes of his son than he already does, Sharon arrives to tell him the good news: she's back with George thanks to him. Hutch can't keep from laughing along with her delighted good humour, turning into a guffaw at Starsky's expense (what Jimmy would have been if he'd got shot), prompting his partner to tip a beer into his lap! It was that kind of warm humour that ran through all their scenes, and you have to remind yourself that this isn't really their fight, they don't really have anything to lose. Spense has his family to lose and his life, Booker and Jeeter their careers, but for S&H taking on big bads is what they do all the time, no sweat. That's why it's important to have guest characters who you really feel for, and care what happens to, certainly accomplished with this episode. Casting helps, as does writing, but the actors have to sell it.

Amazingly, this episode is the first in a while not to have any actor from another episode of the series… Actually, it does, but only one this time! Layne Britton, (Jake the nightwatchman who didn't do a very good job!), had also been in 'Murder On Stage 17.' The guy that played Jeeter was especially noteworthy, giving us a man you could both believe was a good friend and trainer, but equally a turncoat, albeit with pangs of conscience, though not enough to stop him carrying out his part. Whitman Mayo was given a 'Special Guest Star' billing, so he must have been a name back then. I'm not sure when the first 'Rocky' film came out, but it would have been around this time, though it's difficult to know if the series was responding to the success of such films as that, or just sensing the zeitgeist in general. What makes it work isn't the setting of life in the ring, however, it's the general formula of a good bit of humour, some fist action where S&H come to the rescue, sticking up for each other in fights, and enjoyable banter (more from Hutch as Starsky's too tired - it's a mix of the familiar joke about their lifestyle outlook, with Hutch being more active and Starsky a little out of shape, with his tiredness over having a new girlfriend who keeps him up, or when she's not there he must be thinking about, constantly mentioned throughout), and a good guy doing the right thing. What more can you want from an episode? Not much, it about covers all the bases, though there was room for a little more emotional investment, perhaps in the negative aspects of the sport, if Lillian Spenser had had more scenes.

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