1976 Starsky & Hutch The VAMPIRE

In 1976, I was 12 years old and the United States was celebrating our Bi-Centennial. Starsky and Hutch was one of my favorite TV shows. Here, for your viewing pleasure, is an episode from 1976...
Season 2, Episode 7 Original Airdate October 30, 1976 Happy Halloween.
When dancers are discovered strangled and with their necks punctured, Starsky and Hutch head out to put the bite on the blood-sucking freak behind the series of vampire-style slayings.
STARS: David Soul, Paul Michael Glaser, Antonio Fargas, John Saxon.
The cool thing about the Halloween season is that EVERYONE suddenly embraces and celebrates the things we love all year round. Non-horror television shows have proven to be no exception to that rule over the years, often getting their horror on in the weeks leading into the greatest holiday of the year. Of course, no show did Halloween better than Roseanne, but that’s not to say there aren’t other gems out there.
Originally airing on October 30th, 1976, ‘The Vampire’ was the one and only true Halloween episode of Starsky and Hutch‘s four-year tenure on ABC. Directed by Bob Kelljan, who previously tackled blood-suckers in Count Yorga, Vampire and Scream Blacula Scream, the Season 2 episode saw the boys hunting down the man (or monster) responsible for biting the necks and draining the blood of female dancers.
Not only was ‘The Vampire’ armed with horror credibility on the directorial front, but it was also written by a duo who would go on to pen one of the most iconic fright flicks of all time. Michael Grais and Mark Victor co-wrote the script for Starsky and Hutch‘s foray into horror, the episode airing six years before they achieved their greatest success with Poltergeist. At the time, however, they were unknowns.
Guest starring in ‘The Vampire,’ as the title character, was none other than A Nightmare on Elm Street‘s John Saxon, who we meet in a opening scene wherein he vows to resurrect his deceased bride – and live alongside her for all of eternity. He flashes a set of pearly white fangs, suggesting he is indeed a vampire, and in a follow-up scene ripped out of a horror film, he attacks a hapless blonde and sucks her dry.
*FUN FACT: DAVID SOUL, WHO PLAYED DETECTIVE HUTCH, FOLLOWED UP THE SHOW’S RUN BY STARRING IN THE 1979 TV MOVIE SALEM’S LOT – AGAIN DOING BATTLE WITH A VAMPIRE!*
John Squires
bloody-disgusting.com, [email protected]