CHiPs

[Styles Bitchley]

A CHiPs thread ... love it. Time to bring it back to life after 10 years of dormancy? Why not!

Should I be embarrassed to admit I've watched pretty much all of these during lockdown? Probably. UK satellite TV channel 'Forces TV' has broadcast all of these again including the much maligned season 6.

To be fair, I loved this as a kid and watching it again (with jno jr) has been a lot of fun.

Where do I begin? Erik Estrada ... is there ANYTHING this guy can't do? Of the two characters I must confess that Baker is my favourite, Ponch is a bird bandit, with more notches on his bedpost than Tom Jones.

Good family show? Absolutely. Just like the Dukes you can sit down and watch this without fear of blood, gore and excessive violence. Good morals? Hell yes.

Cheap and nasty? Definitely - the amount of goofs and stunt ramps visible on CHiPs is shockingly bad. Nevertheless, I still love it.

Then we get to season 6. Oh dear me, by this point there's regular shark jumping and the show descends into a weekly stroking of Ponch's ego and becomes a festival of cack. 'The Spacemen Made Me Do It' is Ponch vs Aliens, Ponch gets married, 'Day of the Robot', Bobby replaces Baker, Right Turn Clyde joins the CHP - seriously season 6 is embarrassing to watch.

To be fair there were some real stinkers during the Baker era (first five seasons) too. Most notably:

1. Season 5's 'Mitchell & Woods' - I had to turn it off it was so bad. This possibly the worst 50 minutes of American TV I've ever watched. Failed pilot 1, and this was an epic fail of mansize portions.

2. Season 2's 'The Greatest Adventures of CHiPs' which is a compilation of clips for 2 hours(!) intertwined with comments from the team - I almost fell asleep. Fast forwarded through the repeat parts, this was a painful watch.

3. 'Force Seven', Baker's final episode with Fred Dryer in it. John Rhys Davies as the ninja super villain is complete rubbish and for Baker to leave on this story is poor. Jon and Ponch just ain't in it either. Another failed pilot.

On the whole though, it's impossible to hate this show. The CHP are the good guys after all.

I'd be interested to know whatever became of season 6 actress Tina Gayle (Hernandez) who played Officer Cathy Linnahan - she seems to have done nothing TV wise after CHiPs and has disappeared off the radar.

I can't be the only one on here with fond memories of CHiPs?!

My memories are fond, for sure. But I still haven't seen an episode since the first run...I'll have to take a look. As someone who has seen it recently, what episode is a highlight of the good stuff?

[eagle]

CHiPs is one of my all-time favorite shows, and thanks to my TiVo I now have the entire series saved! I've been watching it with my kids, ages 9/11/13, who also enjoy it as I did when I was those ages.

[Little Garwood]

Did Ponch or Jon ever fire their weapons or kill a criminal? All I remember Disco dancing, some guy named Grossman, a Leif Garrett episode, a custom van theft and possibly an Eight-Track tape theft ring, which I know was done on Five-O.

[Little Garwood]

Magnum-Mania: a CHIPs treasure trove of knowledge.

[Nikita70]

I just got the set on dvd. I watched it growing up. I’ve seen about 15 episodes so far, not too bad. A little cheesy, Ponch is an absolute moron but I’m enjoying it so far.

[eagle]

It's a little cheesy, yes, but overall CHiPs has held up well over the years. I, too, watched it growing up, and still enjoy watching it with my kids.

[Nikita70]

I’m now into the last season where Jon is no longer around along with quite a few of the regulars. I’ve only seen 5 episodes so far but the scripts are borderline garbage. Hopefully there will be a few good episodes in this last season.