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, it’s all about sibling rivalry and crashing cars.

Episode 5.18 “In The Best of Families”

(Dir by John Florea, originally aired on February 21st, 1982)

Getrear is not in a good mood.

He’s got a big inspection coming up but the members of the Highway Patrol keep screwing up.  Bonnie’s patrol car is stolen while she’s on a coffee break.  Baricza’s car is stripped of its lights and its CHP insignia.  Ponch and Baker chase the thieves but somehow never manage to catch them.  Finally, someone breaks into Getraer’s dry cleaner’s place and steals two of Getraer’s uniforms.

The Highway Patrol is squabbling, as all families do.  They worry that Getraer is angling for a promotion and that they’ll have to “break in a new sergeant.”  Fortunately, Getraer isn’t planning on going anywhere.  Ponch, Baker, Bonnie, Turner, Grossie, Harlan, and Bear all get to keep their surrogate father figure.

Meanwhile, a real family is fighting.  Anne Francis has planned the perfect armored car robbery.  Now, she just needs her teenaged sons (Michael  Morgan and Timothy Patrick Murphy) to steal a patrol car and some uniforms….

This episode had a pretty silly story but that doesn’t matter because it also featured some truly spectacular stunt work.  The first crash occurs on a freeway and involves so many cars that it almost becomes a symphony of destruction.  A reporter assures us that no one was killed or even seriously injured in the accident but having watched it (in slow motion), I’m not really sure how that could be true.  Later, Turner’s car goes flying over a hillside and again, it’s such a spectacular crash that I’m shocked Turner was able to step out of the wreckage.

This was definitely an episode for those of us who enjoy watching spectacular car destruction.  This was a pure demolition derby and entertaining in the mindless way that those often are.  Even the best families enjoy automotive mayhem.