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 Prime!

This week, two dumbs kids case a lot of trouble.

Episode 3.18 “Kidnap”

(Dir by Gordon Hessler, originally aired on January 26th, 1980)

Ponch and Baker have been assigned to escort to stupid kids — Pete (Brad Savage) and his weirdo friend Ray (Christopher Holloway) — to the country courthouse so that they can receive some sort of an award for an essay that they wrote about traffic safety.  I don’t know, it sound pretty dumb.  For some reason, local news reporter Pat Blake (Jayne Kennedy) is there to cover the story.  Ponch gets busy flirting with Pat and Baker’s busy hitting on Pete’s older sister (Judy Strangis) and nobody notices Pete and Ray getting into an unlocked limo and starting the engine.

Meanwhile, two crooks named Solkin (played by legendary character actor Timothy Carey) and Bickel (Warren Berlinger) escape from custody, run down to the parking garage, and hop in the limo.  Because those dumb kids turned on the engine, Solkin and Bickel steal the car with the two stupid kids in the backseat!

Even though this is entirely the fault of Pete and Ray, the entire Highway Patrol mobilizes to rescue them.  This episode is one long chase scene.  Solkin and Bickel want to drive up to Canada.  (Draft dodgers!)  Pete and Ray are trying to figure out a way to escape.  Ponch and Baker are trying to discreetly follow without letting the crooks know that they’ve been spotted.  Unfortunately, two stoners in a van try to help and almost give away the entire operation.

Of course, the kids are rescued and, of course, it’s all because of Ponch.  Ponch dresses like an auto mechanic and then borrows a banged-up Cadillac that has fuzzy pink seat covers.  Ponch follows the men and continually plays La Cucaracha by honking the car’s horn.  While Baker and the other members of the Highway Patrol struggle to keep track of the kidnappers and continually screw up, Ponch solves this case almost single-handedly!

Okay, that’s a little unfair on my part.  This is one of those episodes where the emphasis really is on team work.  Everyone — from Grossie to Getraer to Bear to Ponch and Jon — does their part to follow the limo and to come up with a plan to save the kids.  Still, it’s hard not to notice that, when it comes time to save the kids, it’s pretty much Ponch doing it on his own.  We’re closing in on the end of the third season and it’s pretty much undeniable that CHiPs has become The Ponch Show.

This episode was kind of annoying, despite the presence of the always entertaining Timothy Carey.  The main problem was that the two kids were jerks who had no one to blame but themselves for getting into that bad situation.  I hope they were grounded for the rest of their lives!