NEWPORT BEACH : Arresting Sight for TV Police Fans

Reruns of 1970s television shows may captivate daytime viewers, but Steve Hanson has taken his love for one series of old a step further.

Hanson collects memorabilia of the buddy-cop series “Starsky & Hutch.” His finds--including toys and other gear commemorating the series--recently earned him a blue ribbon for adult collections at the County Fair, beating out stamps, coins and other traditional sets.

Now, a few of his treasures are on exhibit at the Mariners Branch Library, 2005 Dover Drive, Newport Beach.

“I have always wanted to start a collection,” Hanson said. “It’s really been fun collecting this stuff. I’m a firm believer that everyone collects something.”

Unlike many television show fans, Hanson said he never watched the rough-and-tumble police series during its original airing from 1975-79 but discovered it while channel-flipping one afternoon in early 1980 when the show was in reruns.

After becoming a fan of the show, he began noticing leftover “Starsky & Hutch” toys in local stores near his Santa Ana home, and he started buying any trinkets he saw that had wrappers showing the small, tough Starsky character, and the blond, equally tough Hutch ready to fight bad guys.

He started with popgun sets and plastic Ford Torino “striped tomato” cars modeled after the one the duo drove weekly on the hourlong drama. From there, he branched out into other collectibles he would stumble across, such as a series of eight paperback books and a hard-bound biography of the actors.

Within a few months of collecting the mementos, he hooked up with ZebraCon, a national group of “Starsky & Hutch” aficionados, which holds annual conventions and also swaps memorabilia from other television police shows.

Hanson recently returned from the annual gathering where he picked up a plastic gun set and a pair of rare children’s Halloween costumes depicting the twosome. His collection includes dozens of pieces, some from England and France. He wishes there was a list of all the items produced so he could see how much of the total he actually owns.

The collection is worth several hundred dollars, depending on the market, with the most valuable item being a “Starsky & Hutch” set, complete with handcuffs, plastic guns, identification wallets and a poster that he bought a couple of years ago for $175.

“A lot of the companies that made this stuff are out of business now. They don’t make these things anymore,” he said.

He laments that his home isn’t big enough to display the wares, most of which he keeps tucked away in a closet.

He took only about 20 items to the library exhibit, including a limited-release coffee mug, and dolls of the duo and other cast members, such as Huggy Bear, their informant, and Dobbey, the police captain. But other favorites--a walkie-talkie set, jigsaw puzzles and board games--were left at home.

Hanson added that he would like one day to donate his collection to a toy or television museum or to the national ZebraCon group because after the County Fair award he realized that he had something special. “That was great. That was the first thing I ever won,” he explained.

But before he gives it away, he added, he would like to meet the actors, Paul Michael Glaser, who played Starsky, and David Soul, who was Hutch. “I’d like to meet the stars, shake their hands and let them know I’m such a big fan,” he said. “This is the one possession that’s really kept me going. I look forward to these (trade) shows because I’m just like a kid again.”

The exhibit will run through Dec. 2 at the Mariners Branch Library.