Daily Inspiration Quote by Paul M. Glaser

A “striped tomato” is the kind of insult that lands because it’s both childish and exact. Paul M. Glaser, forever tethered to Starsky, is poking at the signature prop that made the show instantly legible: the red Ford Gran Torino with white zebra stripes, a car so loud it practically announces, “undercover police arriving now.” His intent isn’t to litigate realism for its own sake; it’s to puncture the TV logic where style gets to cosplay as strategy. If you’re meant to disappear into a city, you don’t do it in a rolling billboard.

The line works because it lets Glaser play the exasperated insider. He’s not a critic sneering from the outside; he’s an actor admitting that the engine of pop entertainment often runs on contradiction. Calling the car a “tomato” shrinks macho cop mythology down to produce aisle comedy, deflating the hardened, streetwise aura the show sells. It’s a small act of rebellion against a genre that demands seriousness while dressing its heroes like cartoons.

Context matters: 1970s cop television was a negotiation between grit and gloss. Networks wanted edge, but they also needed icons you could recognize in a split second, then merchandise. The “striped tomato” is Glaser naming the real undercover operation at work: not policing, branding. The joke carries an affectionate sting, acknowledging that audiences weren’t fooled - they were in on the deal, watching for the flash as much as the chase.