Always Room for Some "CHiPs"

CHIPS (1977)

The adventures of the California Highway Patrol as brought to the audience by motorcycle cops Jon Baker (Larry Wilcox) and Frank Poncherello (Erik Estrada). Each episode normally consists of a main storyline that takes the episode to solve, as well as several side adventures of crashes, speeding or general California highway shenanigans that the duo and the rest of the squad have to clean up.

It could be cheesy. It could be corny. But closing in on 50 years after airing, it’s still immensely rewatchable and just as much fun as it was back in the day. The fashions may have changed, but stupid drivers remain (see YouTube if you don’t believe me) and that was half the fun of show.

Boiling it down to picking a favorite episode is hard, but I bet you that “it’s the one with the crash on the freeway” probably sums it up for most fans. :)

Currently CHIPS is streaming for free on PLEX. Limited commercials (approx. 2 minutes about 4 times per show) and as the season moved along, the people that put the commercials in actually got a little better about sticking them where the original commercial breaks happened instead of right in the middle of the scene! :)

Of the shows I’ve been watching, CHIPS has the most episodes I’ve rewatched in Season 1. I will most likely continue through season 5, but when Jon leaves, I’m out. I don’t need to see the mashups of poor partner choices they saddled Ponch with.

All in all, a great show, and it’s part of my childhood DNA. Glad to see it’s still playing after all these years. I’m also happy that it still holds up well, at least in my opinion.