If you're new to Starsky & Hutch fandom...

Recently, I've had a few mails from people who said my site was the first one they'd ever found in Starsky & Hutch fandom (Wow. Fame at last.) Now, while of course I'm convinced that my site is just fab, it's not actually very newbie-friendly, so I thought I'd add a page in which I give just a small number of links to other stuff and actually explain what they're good for at the same time. Most of the links here are also on my general 'links' section, so unless you're new and likely to find the commentary useful, don't waste your time here.

Episode guides

One of the first things people tend to be looking for is a decent episode guide, with brief descriptions of the eps, the correct titles, and the order in which they were screened. The best of the available guides is still at Green Stamps; even though the site itself is no longer being updated, it has lots of information. There's also a much flashier guide which actually has a search facility, at the Sony Site - don't try to run this if you have an older browser without the latest plug-ins or your computer will crash.

Pictures

Check Cindy's Site for hundreds of framegrabs taken directly from the episodes, and Blue's Site for lots of pictures scanned in from a variety of sources. 

Fan Fiction

S&H Fan Fiction is stories about the guys written by fans (duh.) It tends to fill in 'missing scenes' (ever wondered what happened after Hutch emptied a glass of water over Starsky's head in the squad room?), to speculate about what happened after the last episode, or to take the guys to a different plane or universe altogether. Some of it is stunningly good, most is mediocre, and some of it is abysmal - if you hit a bad one at the start, don't give up, keep on looking. 

The best place to start is the Starsky & Hutch Gen Archive, which has lots of stories and also links to other sites. You will find slash fiction (fan fiction which includes an explicit, or implied, sexual relationship between the two partners) at the Starsky & Hutch Slash Archive. ('Slash' stands for the "/" which commonly replaces the "&" in short references: S&H is general fiction, S/H is slash fiction.)

On that subject...

Fan Terminology

You'll soon notice that fans have their very own lingo which can be hard to follow. Some helpful people have compiled glossaries, such as the Fannish Definitions or the list of Common Terms and In-Jokes. If you want to know what an A/U is, or a PWP, why some people have problems with Mary Sues and others can't live without h/c, these sites will tell you.

Finding Other Fans

Most of the fun happens on the mailing lists. The oldest, general-purpose mailing list for S&H is Zebrathree. To join it, send email to majordomo@jbx.com, and write subscribe zebrathree youraddy@yourhost in the body of your mail. However, this list isn't very active. 

There are two very active fiction lists which also have general discussions: The Pits and SHGfanfic. Both are part of yahoogroups, so first you have to go to www.yahoogroups.com and register your email address with them. Once you've done that, a search for "Starsky" will bring up a number of lists including SHGfanfic. The Pits Fic is more difficult to find - the best way is to go straight to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ThePits/

Both lists have stories posted to them (often the same story will go to both lists). The difference between these two lists: The Pits will host and discuss both gen and slash, and it will have discussions about general writing techniques as well as aspects of the characters. SHGfanfic doesn't allow slash, and the discussion of writing as a craft is discouraged.

If you are interested in joining a S&H slash list, mail me and I'll point you in the right direction.

I hope all this is of some use. If there's anything that should have been in here, anything else you want to know, mail me. I can always add a new section and dedicate it to you!