Freddye Chapman – Through the Shattered Lens

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 is busy. The rest of the Highway Patrol is impressed.

Episode 6.11 “Day of the Robot”

(Dir by Phil Bondelli, originally aired on January 2nd, 1983)

Years ago, Emily’s younger brother was killed by a reckless driver. Now, Emily (Melody Anderson) is the leader of a group of young women who drive their motorcycles up and down the highway and keep an eye out for people who run stop signs and make unsafe lane changes. They issue their own tickets. They attempt to make citizen’s arrests. They always call the Highway Patrol before going off in pursuit but Ponch, Getraer, and even Bobby still think that they’re putting their own lives at danger. When two stereo thieves decide to get revenge on Emily for a ticket, can Ponch save the day?

Meanwhile, a robot named MERV has been loaned to the Highway Patrol to help with filing and other tasks. When it turns out that MERV has a short in its system that’s turned it into a “ticking time bomb,” can Ponch figure out how shut it down so it can be repaired before it accidentally blows up the children’s wing of the hospital?

Of course, he can. Ponch can do anything!

This episode was a good example of how, during the show’s final season, everyone at the Highway Patrol was pretty much useless except for Ponch. Ponch is the one who knows exactly what to say to Emily. Ponch is the one who saves a bunch of sick kids from a potentially explosive situation. Ponch is practically the only member of the Highway Patrol who couldn’t easily be replaced by a robot.

One gets the feeling that the show’s producers were getting a little desperate during season 6. Not only have we had a UFO and a tragic death but this season has also given us a robot. Remember how the early seasons mostly just tried to be a realistic portrait of the day-to-day activities of the Highway Patrol?

Those days are over. The episode reminds us that CHiPs is now….

On the plus side, at least the robot was cute.

This week, the fourth season comes to an end.

Episode 4.21 “A Special Operation”

(Dir by Leslie H. Martinson., originally aired on May 17th, 1981)

Season 4 comes to an odd end with A Special Operation.

Getraer is injured when he crashes his motorcycle. He takes a piece of metal to the face and he nearly loses his eyesight. Luckily, the abrasive but brilliant Dr. Patterson (James Sloyan) is able to save both Getraer’s eye and his ability to see with it. However, the idealistic young Dr. Rhodes (A Martinez) worries that Patterson may have missed something. Can Patterson set aside his ego long enough to listen to his younger colleague?

Hey, wait a minute, isn’t this CHiPs?

I don’t have any way to prove this but there’s a part of me that strongly suspects the season finale of CHiPs was also a backdoor pilot for a medical show. So much time is spent with Patterson, Rhodes, and the nurses at the local hospital that it just feels like there was some hope that viewers would call in and demand to see more of Dr. Rhodes. A Martinez even gives a very Erik Estrada-style performance in the role of Rhodes.

Speaking of Estrada, he’s barely in this episode. (Ponch, we’re told, is preparing for to testify in a big court case.) It largely falls to Jon Baker to stop the assassin (Eugene Butler) who has been hired to try to take Getraer out of commission. This, of course, leads to the assassin stealing an ambulance and Baker chasing him. The ambulance flips over in slow motion but somehow, the assassin survives to that Baker can arrest him.

It was a strange end for a season that’s largely been dominated by Erik Estrada and his performance as Ponch. (Larry Wilcox, I will say, looked happy to have the finale to himself.) For the most part, Season 4 was an uneven season. The writing so favored Estrada over Wilcox that the show sometimes felt like it was turning into a parody of itself. The show that started out about two partners on motorcycles became a show about how Ponch could literally walk on water and do no wrong.

Next week, we start season 5!