Friday 15 April 2016

379 CHiPs


First  viewed  :  Early  1979

CHiPs   promised  to  be  Starsky  and  Hutch  on  choppers  as  it  featured  two  buddy  cops , dark  Ponch  ( Erik  Estrada )  and  blonde  Jon  ( Larry  Wilcox )  fighting  crime  as  they  rode  the  L.A.  freeways  on  their  fancy  hogs  as  part  of  the  California  Highway  Patrol.

Unfortunately  CHiPs  was  tailored  to  an  early  evening  audience  and  lacked  any  bite  in  its  storylines,  with  violence  kept  to  a  minimum. As  a  result,  although  I  think  I  watched  it  a  fair   bit  at  first,   I  don't  remember  any  of  the  plots ; they've  all  dissolved  into  a  general  impression  of  sunny   blandness .

It  must  have  been  popular  though  because  it  ran  for  six  years. It  didn't  keep  its  prime  time  Saturday  evening  slot  after  Mork  and  Mindy  but  the  ITV  regions  stuck  with  it  to  the  end  in  various  time  slots. Estrada's  kept  his  acting  career   going   in  low  budget  films  and  daytime  TV   though  latterly  you're  more  likely  to  find  him  in  reality  TV  programmes. Wilcox moved  into  TV  production  though  still  taking  the  odd  acting  job  and  doing  community  service  for  a  securities  fraud  in  2010.

1 comment:

  1. This was still being shown when I was a kid, but I don't remember watching it. I guess a lack of interest in motorbikes would be the reason, much preferring the likes of Knight Rider.

    ReplyDelete