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, Ponch and Baker go to school!

Episode 3.17 “E.M.T.”

(Dir by Phil Bondelli, originally aired on January 19th, 1980)

Thinking that it will be an easy class and a chance to meet female college students, Ponch convinces Baker to attend a special EMT course at UCLA.  Ponch also thinks that they’ll get paid overtime for taking the class but it turns out that he didn’t read the fine print.  No one gets paid for going to the class.  Oh well.  At least he and Baker will get a chance to relax, right?  Nope!  The instructor, Michael Adams (played by veteran screen bad guy William Smith), is someone who Ponch and Baker earlier stopped for a minor traffic violation.  He takes an immediate dislike to Ponch and Baker and basically spends the entire class accusing them of just wanting to show off.  And, considering everything that we know about Ponch, he’s probably right.

Michael Adams is bitter because his son, Warren (Pat Petersen), was in an accident and, due to the cops not knowing how to handle someone with a spinal injury, Warren now has to use crutches to get around.  Michael is so bitter that he almost seems to be embarrassed by his son’s disability.  Boo, Michael, boo!  Seriously, what an unlikable creep.  And yet, I get the feeling that we’re supposed to understand and respect Michael, even if he is a jerk.  Part of the problem is that William Smith was one of those actors who always came across as being naturally sinister.  Smith played a lot of bikers and corrupt cops over the course of his career.  He was someone who just looked menacing and perpetually annoyed.  In this episode, I kept expecting him to try to kill Baker and Ponch.  Don’t get me wrong.  William Smith was a good actor but, in this episode, he just seems miscast.

Ponch and Baker do put their training to good use, especially when a makeshift cave collapses on two boys who were using it as a hideout.  Ponch and Baker also use their skills to save a man who fell out of a truck.  In one of those weird coincidences on which CHiPs thrived, Ponch and Baker just happened to be hang gliding nearby when the accident with the truck happened.  Oh, Jon and Ponch!  Don’t ever let anyone say that you guys spend way too much time together.

(Seriously, does Baker have no friends outside of the police force?  At least Ponch seems to know his neighbors.)

Eventually, Ponch and Baker win Michael over, especially when Michael himself needs to be rescued.  Later, they visit Michael in the hospital and everyone has a good laugh as the end credits roll.  Good for them!  As for this episode, I actually liked getting to see Ponch and Baker doing something other than riding their motorcycles on the highway.  To me, this show’s main worth is as a time capsule and this episode allowed us all to see what UCLA was like back in 1980.  It was pretty nice!