Chips

This was hands down my favourite TV series as a child. It was probably the first time I've ever been a fan of anything. I can still recall bits and pieces of some episodes even now!

I didn't have any problems comprehending the story lines, as far as I remember, so the other comments saying it's dead simple must be right. But while the series might seem dire for grown-ups, it was pretty impressive for children.

I would love to see this again just to see it from an adult's point of view, but I won't retract my comment that it's a very enjoyable series in its simplicity, and is a beloved personal memento of my childhood.

Officers Francis "Ponch" Ponchorello and Jon Baker were the CORNIEST cool guys in the history of Hollywood TV. Make no mistake, these dudes were cool. Two young and reasonably handsome guys, athletic and fit looking while living that romantic fast life in Southern California. They were the man on bikes, high pursuit cops who enforced the law. Off duty their weekends could be spent jet skiing, sailing or sky diving, when the rest of us are off at the movies or perhaps hanging out at the mall. They also had the badge and gun, the uniforms, and of course the bikes that they would race at 90 mph on the highways while chasing bad guys, they were cool dudes. Then of course they romanced plenty of disco era honeys. But Ponch and Jon were not cool cool, they were just too over the top corny and Ponch was way too hammy. Then there was that silly freeze frame smile they all did at the end of the show. If you are over considerably over 40 today you probably think CHiPs is ridiculous because you were likely a teenager or young adult back then and you yourself were just too hip and cool back in the day to have appreciated CHiPs. And if you are 25 and under today then you are likely on the other side of being too cool for CHiPs because you may think the show is just flat out stupid. The series would likely look way too old for much of the early 20s and teenager crowd. The show had silliness, but not Dukes of Hazzard or Knight Rider silliness, Ponch and Jon were still grounded in something very close to our real world. If you are a middle-late Gen Xer born in the 70s and had a childhood in the 80s, then CHiPs was part of your syndicated TV diet. You know you watched.

"CHiPs" was the best of the late 70's early 80's it was what childhood was all about, i loved Ponch then and i still think that he is the best thing on a plate (being chips of course). The re-runs are still going on every day here in the UK on the channel bravo, we just cannot get enough.

If you want more check out the great Taking care of chips site.

we have lots of fun there, and welcome new members, from all over the place.

Erika

'CHiPs' is one of the most fun TV shows ever aired. It is a genuine feel good show, and each episode usually taught us a lesson. Erik Estrada and Larry Wilcox make great partners and are both underrated actors. 'CHiPs' has some of the most horrific car crashes ever seen on television. Add to that the great early 80's vibe the series has, and you can't go wrong. God bless CHiPs!

This was one of the shows that made up my afternoon routine as a grade-schooler in the early to mid '80s. "CHiPs Patrol" as the syndicated reruns were tagged, played every day at 4 pm, in their scratchy 16mm glory, on our local NBC affiliate, and for a little car-fixated youngster like me, it was like...well, like a car crash played in slow-motion. Literally. Set to bad disco music. The whole thing was so outrageously bad that I couldn't turn away. All the impossiblly stupid motorists doing impossibly stupid things on the sunny LA freeways, invariably ending up in a bloodless, perfectly timed explosion of the said automobile's fuel tank, held me rapt. Ah, the explosions. Large, chrome laden '70s cars flipped through air, jumping *through* telephone poles, turned into piles of twisted sheetmetal, or even just sitting there on the asphalt broken down...somehow they'd ALWAYS end up exploding spectacularly (except when they'd land in someone's swimming pool...damn physics!) with disco-horror music on the TV speaker. Even if it's a diesel powered school bus (which by definition can't explode) it's gonna explode as soon as Ponch and John courageously escort the last bowl-haircitted '70s child to safety.

Did I mention Ponch and John? Or rather Ponchenjohn? I almost forgot about them. These two suntanned, good-looking-in-a-70s-kind-of-way motorcycle cops were the viewers' guides through this wacky world of nonstop car crashes. They seemed reasonably okay, as did all their identically dressed CHP colleagues, rescuing vapid motorists when they weren't comically discussing Ponch's impending hot date or the practical birthday joke they were planning to spring on John. But the two storylines rarely mingled. Nothing of real emotional or dramatic depth ever happened. At the end of the closing credits, as the afterimage of Ponch's Pearl Drop smile begins to fade from your retina, all you can think of is: "Man, that was a beautiful '71 Trans Am they blew up."

In other words:

Mindless eye candy with a wonderfully plastic '70s sheen. Don't miss it!