In 1977, the popular cop show Starsky and Hutch tackled a murder mystery centered around a Los Angeles gay bar, complete with a depiction of queer life that’s surprisingly nuanced for the late 70s. Then, less than a decade later, an episode of Murder She Wrote featured a similar storyline, but this time the setting is … well, not quite so realistic. So why are they so different? Well, something big happened in American culture between these two episodes that completely transformed TV gay bars. And it involved a presidential election, a pie, and messages from space. Watch bonus videos on Patreon: http://patreon.com/mattbaume Twitter: http://twitter.com/mattbaume Facebook: http://facebook.com/mattbaume Instagram: http://instagram.com/mattbaume My video about Charles Pierce: https://youtu.be/zFWFABpiTGw Watch Starsky & Hutch streaming: https://amzn.to/3fHi6Vf Watch Murder She Wrote streaming: https://amzn.to/2VDADuF Read Steven Capsuto's book Alternate Channels: https://amzn.to/3ApLYgz