Survival

S2 E18: A sleazy racketeer, realizing that Hutch's testimony will send him to prison, hires a hit man to eliminate Hutch by forcing his car to crash in a canyon on "Starsky and Hutch." The episode marks David Soul's television directorial debut. In "Survival," Hutch sets himself up as the payoff man between mobster Vic Humphries and an Eastern syndicate in a hot car deal. At the rendezvous, Humphries double crosses Hutch and plans to kill him, but Starsky and the police arrive to arrest the racketeer. Humphies' lawyer posts his bail but they realize Hutch's testimony will convict the mobster. In desperation, Humphries hires a hit man who uses his own car as a battering ram to send Hutch's car crashing to the canyon floor where Hutch is left for dead.