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, we say goodbye to a member of the highway patrol.  Excuse while I wipe the tears away from my myopic eyes.

Episode 5.11 “Concours d’Elegance”

(Dir by John Patterson, originally aired on December 13th, 1981)

This is it.  This the final episode to feature the character of Steve McLeish.

Played by a pre-transition Caitlyn Jenner, Steve was introduced as a replacement for Ponch while Erik Estrada was recovering from a stunt gone wrong.  Once Ponch rejoined the series, there really wasn’t much for Steve to do but he still stuck around for a few episodes.  He only appears for a few minutes in this episode.  He arrests some joyriding teens who are constantly trying to get older people to buy them liquor.  Maybe they should have asked Steve.  He always seemed like was eager to please.

(I should mention that both of the “teens” appear to be in their 30s.)

I’m going to miss Steve, largely because Jenner’s bland performance was so bad that it actually became rather fascinating to watch.  In this episode, he continues to deliver his lines with a puppy-dog earnestness that can’t disguise his total inability to show any emotion beyond wide-eyed wonderment.

As for this episode, it featured Baker and Ponch getting involved with a rich family.  While matriarch Hannah Chadway (Claudette Nevins) tries to see Baker up with her niece, sleazy Anthony Chadway (Gary Graham) is illegally selling cars and using the family’s charity as a front.  At one point, Hannah offers Baker a private security job.  Baker turns her down.  Couldn’t he have at least put in a word for his friend Steve?  Ponch and Baker eventually take it upon themselves to tell Hannah that she needs to get her spoiled family under control.  Hannah realizes they’re right.  Personally, I would have told Ponch and Baker that it was really none of their business but that’s just me.

This episode feature two slow motion crashes, both of which are so severe that everyone involved should have been killed.  (One accidents features not one but two cars flying through a trailer as it explodes.)  Oddly, no one is seriously injured.  I’m getting the feeling that CHiPs may not have always been a realistic show.