Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Mondays, I will be reviewing CHiPs, which ran on NBC from 1977 to 1983. The entire show is currently streaming on Freevee!
This week, Jon and Ponch play matchmaker!
Episode 2.17 “The Matchmakers”
(Dir by Harvey S. Landman, originally aired on January 27th, 1979)
Cora (Jenny O’Hara) is an eccentric woman who lives in an old farmhouse with a bunch of animals. Her landlord is evicting her and the county is planning to not only bulldoze her home but also take and possibly destroy all of her animals unless she can find a new place for them. Twice, she tries to commit suicide by driving her truck recklessly. Both times, she is saved by Ponch and Baker.
Dirk Hutchins (Gregory Walcott) is a crotchety old man who has served with the Highway Patrol for 30 years and is now on the verge of forced retirement. He doesn’t know what he’s going to do with himself once he’s no longer on the job. Hutchins spends his last work week taking outrageous risks, leading Ponch and Baker to worry that he’s trying to go out in a blaze of suicidal glory.
What solution do Ponch and Baker come up with for Cora and Dirk? They decide to play matchmaker! Cora ends up moving onto Dirk’s property (and brings along all of her animals) and maybe Dirk will end up falling in love with Cora. And then, they’ll both have a reason to live!
Listen, this episode’s heart is in the right place. I’m certainly not going to fault the intentions of any episode that features Ponch and Baker trying to help two suicidal people. But, seriously, Cora was such an annoying character! The show portrayed her as being so unhinged and so emotionally unstable that you couldn’t help but wonder if having her move in with grumpy old Dirk was really the best way to go about things. Cora really did seem like she needed professional help, the type that went way beyond having a place to keep her animals.
As for Dirk, I was happy to see that he was played by Gregory Walcott. As many of you already know, Walcott’s greatest claim to fame was starring in Ed Wood’s Plan Nine From Outer Space. Walcott survived Plan Nine and went on to become a durable character actor, appearing in westerns and war films. Walcott gives a believably ruggedly performance as Dirk, even if the character himself is not exactly someone you would want to get stuck on an elevator with.
There is a subplot involving a private investigator (Danny Wells) who had been hired to kidnap a kid and bring him back to his no-good father. And there’s a fairly well-done scene where Dirk and Getraer work to keep a truck from turning over on top of a car. There is a little action but still, this episode didn’t quite work.
Through the Shattered Lens 