Terri Lynn Wood | 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!

It’s time for the fourth season! Ponch and Baker — but especially Ponch — continue to keep Los Angeles safe for pedestrians and motorists.

Episode 4.1 “Go-Cart Terror”

(Dir by John Florea, originally aired on September 21st, 1980)

It’s time for season 4 of CHiPs, a.k.a The Ponch Show!

Seriously, if there’s anything that really stuck out about the fourth season premiere, it’s that Baker’s character was pretty much superfluous. Yes, Baker was out there on his motorcycle and helped Ponch catch this week’s bad guys, two thieves played by Larry Storch and Sonny Bono. But, ultimately, it was Ponch who did the important things.

Who coached the CHP-sponsored go-cart team to victory over the fire department’s? Ponch!

Who rescued a woman from a van after she crashed into a lake? Ponch!

Who always knew the right thing to say? Ponch!

Who did everyone talk to when they had a problem? Ponch!

This episode established that Frank ‘Ponch” Poncherello is the greatest human being who ever lived. Baker …. well, he tries. Baker’s nice and dedicated to the job but, in the end, he can only watch with amazement as Ponch solves all of the world’s problems.

I read over on the imdb that Larry Wilcox did not enjoy working with Erik Estrada and he felt that Estrada was the producer’s pet. Watching this episode, I can see why Wilcox would have felt like that. It’s hard to believe that, when this show first started, Baker was the competent one while Ponch was the nervous screw-up who kept making mistakes and who always seemed to be on the verge of getting written up. The fourth season premiere celebrates Ponch as being the supercop who the rest of Los Angeles looked up to. Sorry, Mr. Wilcox …. you may be the better actor but it’s hard to compete with the Estrada of it all.

As for the episode itself, it was typical CHiPs. The criminals were captured after being chased on the freeway and a bunch of kids learned an important lesson about proper go-cart safety. When the go-cart team had to raise money to compete in the next race, Ponch told all the adults that the kids had to come up with a plan because it was their team and the whole point of the go-cart experience was to learn responsibility. You tell ’em, Ponch! I mean, goddamn, Ponch is the man! Anyway, the kids held a car wash and I think the only reason they did that was so the show could have an excuse to have Randi Oakes show up in short shorts and get sprayed by a hose. I hope Ponch talked to the producers about treating Randi Oakes with respect.

I liked this episode, even though I did feel bad for Larry Wilcox. It was silly and fun.

CHiPs got preempted this week, due to our Monday celebration of St. Patrick’s Day and Kurt Russell. Here’s the late review of this week’s episode!

Episode 3.13 “Second Chance”

(Dir by John Florea, originally aired on December 1st, 1979)

Someone is breaking into the homes of rich people, stealing their jewelry, and then making a fast escape on a motorcycle. I say “someone” but, actually, we know who it is because the show tells us early. It’s a two-man operation. One guy works as a valet parker at a trendy restaurant. The other guy sits in his van until the first guy brings over the keys of whoever they’re going to rob. We know it but the cops don’t know it so we still have to sit through Ponch and Baker investigating the robberies and somehow not figuring out what’s going on, even though it’s extremely obvious.

So, the crimes weren’t that interesting this week. This show was mostly about celebrating the local children’s hospital and, even more importantly, celebrating Ponch’s popularity at the local children’s hospital. All the nurses love Ponch. All the children love Ponch. Only the recently paralyzed Kelli (Dana Laurita) is immune to Ponch’s charms but he wins her over eventually. Given the way this show treated Ponch, I’m surprised he didn’t magically heal her.

In other words, this is another episode in which Baker does a lot of work and Ponch gets all the credit. There are a few exciting chases, as there were with every episode of CHiPs. Whatever else you may want to say about the show, it’s obvious that the producers understood that people were watching for the high-speed pursuits and the crashes. This episode even features Ponch on a boat. The bad guys can’t even swim away to safety! Of course, it’s Ponch who got on the boat. There’s no way that Baker was going to get do anything like that. I’m surprised Ponch even needed a boat, to be honest. If nothing else, Ponch should be able to walk on water by this point.

Anyway, it was an okay episode. Ponch appears to be full recovered from his injuries from earlier in the season so watch out, bad guys!