When asked what draws them to their roles, Wilson replies, “What I look for in scripts is who’s gonna be involved. And then the character—if it’s funny and believable.”

“You told me you’d do it if you can do a three-way kiss scene,” Stiller interjects. At one point on the mission, while an accidentally drugged Starsky is asleep, Hutch successfully charms two cheerleaders, played by Carmen Electra and Amy Smart, into a ménage-a-trois. Wilson reconsiders.  “Well there’s that too,” he jokes.

Also in keeping with the spirit of the ’70’s, at one point Starsky engages in a disco dance-off, perhaps perpetuating the trend that started with the infamous Zoolander walk-off scene. “It was just coincidence,” says Stiller. “Just those last two.”

And audiences, both old and new, won’t soon forget the car—Starsky’s red and white striped, souped-up 1974 Ford Gran Torino, a visual icon of the era from the original series. In the movie, when Starsky gets behind the wheel of his beloved car, his uptight intensity lets loose, literally hurling his character—as well as Hutch—to wild extremes. “I did take driving classes and I got to do a couple of peel outs and skid stops,” Stiller states. “Owen wasn’t too comfortable about driving with me though.”

“That was the worst part of working on the movie,” Wilson says, “driving with Ben.”

—Staff writer Christine Ajudua can be reached at cajudua@fas.harvard.edu