Late Night Retro Television Review: CHiPs 3.20 “Tow Truck Lady”

Posted on May 12, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

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!

Larry Wilcox sits in the director’s chair for this week’s episode!

Episode 3.20 “Tow Truck Lady”

(Dir by Larry Wilcox, originally aired on February 9th, 1980)

Danny (Chris Robinson) is a tow truck driver who is short on cash, in debt to a loan shark, and being forced to pay off his debt by stealing cars for the mob. Danny happens to be friends with Ponch and Jon. Ponch and Jon take it upon themselves to look after Danny’s daughter, Marla (Tonya Crowe), while Danny is out working. Of course, Danny is actually committing crimes during that time.

This was one of those episodes where a guest character, whom we’ve never seen before, suddenly becomes the main character and it throws off the entire episode. The majority of the episode is Danny arguing with the loan shark and Marla acting precocious. Jon and Ponch weren’t really that involved, until the big chase at the end of the episode. I guess it makes sense. Larry Wilcox was busy directing and I imagine Wilcox was probably more than happy to have a chance to point the camera at someone other than at Erik Estrada. From what I’ve read, the two co-stars may have played best friends but they couldn’t stand each other in real life. Wilcox apparently felt that the producers always sided with Estrada and it is impossible to deny that the show, which began with Baker and Ponch evenly matched, had become the Ponch Show by the time the third season rolled around.

(I should note that this episode does feature a pretty exciting highway smash-up, featuring cars flying through the air in slow motion. I always love that slo mo of doom!)

In the end, Danny does the right thing and turns on the loan shark. The loan shark is arrested. So is Danny. Baker says that he’ll arrange for Marla to live with his friend, Ellen (Liberty Godshall), until Danny gets out of prison. It’s entirely probable that Marla is going to be traumatized for the rest of her life but Ponch and Baker still share a good laugh at the end of the episode. Being a member of the Highway Patrol is fun!

Late Night Retro Television Reviews: CHiPs 2.23 “The Greatest Adventures of CHiPs”

Posted on December 2, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, the second season of CHiPs comes to a close. Now, if you don’t remember much about what happened during the first two seasons of the show, don’t worry. This finale has got you covered. But first, let’s watch the opening credits and chair dance to the CHiPs theme song.

Episode 2.23 “The Greatest Adventures of CHiPs”

(Dir by Don Weis, originally aired on May 12th, 1979)

With Ponch and Baker absent from the morning briefing because they’ve gone to Bakersfield to teach a class, Sgt. Getraer announces to the assembled members of the High Patrol that they have been nominated for an award for going beyond the normal call of duty. Everyone’s totally excited for Ponch and Baker. Armed with a bulky 70s tape recorder, Grossie asks everyone for their favorite Ponch and Baker stories so that he can write a speech honoring them….

Yep, it’s a clip show.

It’s not just any clip show, either. It’s a 90-minute clip show. Of course, there’s only about fifteen minutes of new footage. The rest of it is made up of scenes of Baker yelling at motorists and Ponch smiling. Even when CHiPs attempts to show why both of them deserves a reward, it’s obvious that Baker does all the work and Ponch gets all the credit.

I understand the logic behind clip shows. They’re cheap and it allows almost everyone to have the weekend off. They’re not very entertaining to watch, though perhaps they carried more weight in the days before streaming and DVRs ensured that you could rewatch your favorite scenes whenever you wanted to. They are, however, very easy to review.

This clip show marks the end of the show’s second season. A clip show always seems like a weak way for a season (much less a show) to go out but again, I get it. Everyone’s tired. Everyone wants to head to Cabo for the summer. Get us out of here! CLIP SHOW!

(That said, this clip show does get some credit for including some pretty groovy disco footage! SOLID! Estrada gets to do his Travolta impersonation while everyone watches and claps.)

The second season of CHiPs was actually pretty entertaining, even if it is kind of silly just how much the show highlights Ponch over Baker. Technically, of the two of leads, Larry Wilcox was the better actor but Erik Estrada always seemed like he was having more fun. The second season had a few dud episodes but it also had its share of spectacular stunts and a lot of lovely California scenery. Sindy Cahill being perfect at everything got old pretty quickly but at least Arthur “Grossie” Grossman was around to provide some comic relief.

Well, that’s it. There’s not too much you can say about a clip show. Next week, we’ll start season three!

Retro Television Reviews: Fantasy Island 1.12 “King For A Day/Instant Family”

Posted on November 29, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Tuesdays, I will be reviewing the original Fantasy Island, which ran on ABC from 1977 to 1986. The entire show is currently streaming on Tubi!

This week, Mr. Roarke proves himself to be the expert at granting fantasies and teaching lessons. One group of visitors deals with international diplomacy. The other group deals with taking care of children. It’s time for …. FANTASY ISLAND!

Episode 1.12 “King For A Day/Instant Family”

(Directed by George McGowan, originally aired on May 6th, 1978)

There are a lot fantasies in this episode.

For instance, Ernie Miller (David Doyle) is a plumber who wants to be treated like a king. When he arrives on Fantasy Island, he is informed that he is now the King of Carpathia and that he is married to Queen Auroroa (Diane Baker). What Ernie doesn’t realize is that there actually is a country called Carpathia and that he just happens to look exactly like the nation’s recently deceased king. It turns out that Aurora is not just an actress hired to pretend to be the Queen. Instead, she actually is the Queen! Aurora had a fantasy of her own. She wanted the king to come back to life so that he could prevent the country by being taken over by the sinister Ambassador Soro (Theodore Bikel).

Roarke combines their two fantasies into one. Ernie gets to become king, on the condition that he abandon his former life and identity. (That’s something that Ernie has no problem with and, quite frankly, actor David Doyle wasn’t exactly the most convincing plumber that I’ve ever seen. Some actors were just meant to play men who wore suits to the office and David Doyle was one of them.) Aurora gets her husband back, except of course it’s not actually her husband. It’s just someone who looks like him. But Aurora is cool with that. This is kind of a weird fantasy. One has to wonder what would have happened in Ambassador Soro had announced that his fantasy was to conquer Carpathia. WHAT THEN, MR. ROARKE!?

As for the other fantasy, it involves a woman named Gail Grayson (Melinda Naud), whose fantasy is to get a job working for the world’s number one expert on how to raise children. Gail, it turns out, has written a thesis about how housewives are unnecessary and how being a mother isn’t as difficult as everyone says. (It’s hard for me to imagine any woman actually writing something like that but whatever. We’ll just go with it.) Gail gets to put her thesis to the test when she discovers that she’s been hired to act as a babysitter! It turns out that the world’s number one expert on raising children has several unruly children of his own.

Accompanying Gail is her mother, Mildred Grayson (Jane Wyatt). It turns out that Mildred didn’t appreciate Gail’s thesis (and really, who can blame her?) and her fantasy is for Gail to discover firsthand just how difficult it is to take care of a house and several bratty children. Again, Mr. Roarke decided to combine everyone’s fantasies. Gail gets to work for her mentor and Jane gets to watch as Gail is humiliated by the children. Eventually, Mildred comes to feel guilty about wishing so much trouble on her own daughter but everything work out in the end. Gail gets her dream job and Mildred gets to say, “I told you so.”

Yay! Everything works out for everyone!

This is one of those episodes where you really have to wonder if Mr. Roarke actually had a plan or if he was just making it all up as he was going along. If Ernie hadn’t agreed to become the king in real life, Carpathia would have been conquered by the communists. If Gail hadn’t realized her thesis was wrong, one of the children could have died on the island. Sometimes, I just think that there are better ways to teach people a lesson than taking them to a mystical island that is ruled in a somewhat arbitrary manner by a friendly but occasionally condescending host. That said, I would totally go to Fantasy Island if it did exist. I imagine the same was true of the majority of the people who watched the show when it first aired.

After all, who doesn’t have a fantasy or two?