As someone who watched the show back in 1970s when it first aired, I can tell you that beginning with the season 3 opener, things took a drastic turn for the worse. In the fall of 1977, we were all looking forward to the debut of season 3 of Starsky and Hutch. And boy we were in for a shock, starting with the new unmelodic theme song, changed over from the beloved season two definitive one. Then this whole business of our heroes being "kidnapped" for their assignment briefing, which itself was a ridiculous premise, on loan to the Federal government! Things just got worse from there and became a jumbled mess with too many characters and unintentional two female lead look-alikes. The undercover characters S&H portray are completely pointless and silly. And don't even get me started on their succumbing to the "voodoo powder". Part II is only slightly better, as much as S&H have abandoned their stupid covers and start acting like themselves again. But then it is ruined by a dopey twist and car chase. All in all, very little is redeemable in this two-parter and worse yet, it was a forewarning of the series decline in season 3, which was the most blah of the entire series, alternating between the unrealistic and dopey like this episode, the mundane and the afterschool special type viewings. At least in season 4, there were attempts to recapture some of the grittiness of season one and the cheesy charm (but with grittiness too) of season two. But alas, by then, too many viewers had already tuned out.
