CHiPs (1977–1983) User Reviews

Show was Over My Head, but I Still Watched

[view_and_review · 7/10 · 20 March 2024]

When you are a young kid it doesn't take much to entertain you. "CHiPs" was a crime drama that was well over my head, but I still watched because Officer Frank Poncherello (Erik Estrada) and Officer Jon Baker (Larry Wilcox) wore nice uniforms and rode cool shiny motorcycles. That's all I needed to see. If they didn't do anything all show but ride around, I would've been perfectly satisfied.

In fact, one of my favorite surprise gifts from my mom that I still remember forty years later was a CHiPs motorcycle. I woke up one morning and it was on my dresser. I could've done backflips, I was so happy. It wasn't even my birthday!

Not a bad show as a kid

[mm-39 · 6/10 · 29 June 2004]

I remember loving this show as a kid. As an adult, I did not find the show that interesting. Like the Duke's of Hazard Chips was geared for an very young auidence. Watching it late night on TBS, yes I could not sleep, I found some shows interesting, but others more childish. There were a few good shows, but others really dumbed down the auidence. I rememberd why I stoped watching the show as I got older, because it became too formulated. The predictability made the show not worth watching. In the end, I guess the predictability of these action show made them die out. Now, we have reality shows, and situation comedies to replace them. I wonder if tv will every go back to action shows.

Entertaining

[grantss · 7/10 · 21 April 2023]

Frank "Ponch" Poncherello and Jon Baker are motorcycle patrol officers in the California Highway Patrol. We follow their daily lives while they do their job, patrolling the highway. What they are faced with ranges from the mundane to dangerous crime.

An entertaining action series from the 1970/80s. Enjoyed it as a kid: the situations Ponch and Jon encounter, the action scenes, the camaraderie between the two, the humour, the light sub-plots. Wonderfully entertaining without being too serious.

Even looking back as an adult it holds up well, unlike many of my childhood favourites which now seem quite cheesy.

Glued to the backgrounds

[creid0000 · 26 August 2003]

Sure the formula was the same for every episode. Yes there were always two hotties for Ponch and John; criminals who scoff at the law at first then learn how foolish it was to run a gambling operation in the back of a tractor trailer after all. When I was a kid, I loved CHiP's. They were cops on motorcycles, for crying out loud.

I still love to watch it, but like many of you I can't take my eyes off the background. The best part of the show is the location filming. Real streets. I'm watching the cars, storefronts, etc. like an eagle. In a small way it's like walking through the world of my childhood again, taking notice of how some things have changed so much and others not much at all. It's very fascinating to me.

I don't think there have been many television shows as entertaining as this.

Needs to be remade

[oh_oh_oh_yeach · 6/10 · 16 November 2016]

This needs to be remade now. not as a politically correct version or with old characters remade as female characters. The first thing I remember is the theme song. I really like it. also. paunch was a Hispanic motorcycle cop and not a Hispanic car theft which many Hispanic actors were portrayed as. I wish Marvel had done a comic adaption like they did a short version of the a team series. The stunt scenes were exciting and you would see famous actors playing motorist. I sincerely hope they remake this and not make it anything it wasn't mean to be .just clean fun and not taking seriously. in the remake if they ever decide to do one have a Hispanic actor and white and have them be motorcycle cops in thrilling car chases leave political correctness behind!

perfectly mindless

[vesssper · 7/10 · 16 December 2023]

My dad has made me watch a couple episodes of this, Now sitting down and watching an episode of it, particularly if you have short attention span, will probably make you more bored than you would have been if you were instead just staring at a wall for 45 minutes. Half of these said 45 minutes are needlessly extended chase scenes or 2 minute long dancing or roller skating scenes and dialogue that just drones on.

That being said its perfect for putting on while drawing or cleaning, or any other primary occupation. You can go like 5 minutes without looking at the screen and not miss anything but still look up every so often to see an old shiny car being wrecked or exploded or maybe a somewhat interesting back-and-forth between whatever these guys names are

Im sure theres probably a good amount of episodes with actual substance and its definitely peak nostalgia for any 70s kids but if you give most of these more than 60% of your attention span youd be better off putting something else on.

Fun, Sun, and Law Enforcement

[jwrowe3 · 8/10 · 26 July 2003]

Face it, "CHiP's" was never a show designed for the Mensa set. It was a light Sunday night show on NBC, period. No deeper inner meanings, no political agenda, no amazing last minute plot twists, and cheesy and low budget special effects.....

Just a great example of 70's no-brainer TV. However, the 80's were not as kind, and the show saw the loss of one of the main stars, and ratings plummet to the bottom of the pile. Cancellation came, and the show went into syndication.

+++MINOR SPOILERS++++

"CHiP's" could always be counted upon for several things. First, there would be some crime that would require the bad guys to go onto the California freeway system. Second, some how, the bad guys would cause some sort of horrendous accident. Third, Ponch and John would be near by. Fourth, their boss Sgt. Getraer, would be unhappy, usually with Ponch, for some reason. And fifth, there would be a happy ending, and the guys would end up with two lovely Playboy Playmate wanna-be's. Formatic TV? You bet! But a pleasant enough distraction.

And both Erik Estrada and Larry Wilcox had great on screen chemistry. However, Wilcox left the show, and "CHiP's" left the air, the following season.

But why did I watch it in the first place? Well, the "eye candy", for one reason. Yes, there were plenty of very pretty young ladies crammed into painfully too small swim suits, and disco tight dresses, but it was the 70's and that sort of thing was expected. I was a teenager, at the time, and any chance to see good looking ladies was taken advantage of!

But the "eye candy" that gets me watching TODAY, are the cars that turn up in the show. Back when this show was new, many of these cars were just used vehicles, and prime for crashing and wrecking. There are plenty of rare and unusual cars seen in the background, as well. Forgotten cars like Rover sedans, Fiat Strada's, Datsun 310's and the like are seen in shots. A real car spotters delight.

Plus, am I the only one who notices that in almost every shot where Ponch and John are riding their motorcycles, there is a light silver first generation Honda Accord behind them. And, Ford Mustang II?

A great escape to the 70's.

Helped humanize the CHP.

[Scott699 · 4/10 · 29 June 2019]

This came out when I was 12, I watched it because everyone did. By the 80's it was so bad I couldn't watch it. They had Ponch and John doing things the CHP doesn't do, like extradition, vice/undercover work, robbery, chasing pick pockets, and fighting aliens, yes, aliens, right after ET came out, oh and don't forget the special assignment Ninja cops played by Fred Dryer that was going to be a spin-off. Now for about the accidents, really? The accidents were always spectacular, sensational and overkill, WTF? Can't Los Angelinos drive? Cars flying through trailers, explosions, cars flying through trailers at each end of the trailer going opposite directions, head on collisions in the air, etc, yet no one ever died, or even got hurt, the drivers always self extracted and waved off any need for medical. Horrible writing, insulting. And then there's Ponch, what an egomaniac Erik was. Every episode Ponch would rescue some pretty girl from some dire situation, whether they were hangliding, riding ATVs, surfing, disco, or Ponch just went to buy milk he would always encounter some damsel in distress and save her, always Ponch, never John. No wonder Larry left the show, Giving us a John lookalike and his little brother that was in the CHP academy, yet every show he would leave the academy to get involved in whatever Ponch and lookalike John was involved in because they couldn't do it without him. Oh, and they had the academy in LA, it's in Sacramento. To far away to be able to leave anytime a cadet wants to so he can fight crime in LA.

One of the Best Police Shows Ever Aired On Television and Still Is I Might Add

[voicemaster71 · 9/10 · 3 June 2008]

MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!!

I get disgusted seeing some of my favorite TV shows downed for their quality, but at the same time, I can understand to a limited extent. In terms of technology, we've come a long way. But there are some things from the late 70's and early 80's that will always be priceless. Like Buddy shows, whether it be police or otherwise.

For me, I categorize three shows in particular, Starsky and Hutch, The Dukes of Hazzard, and CHiPs. People down CHiPs for its quality, because you were guaranteed freeway chases and vehicular crashes and accidents in each episode, along with beautiful women who find CHP officers, Ponch and Jon in particular, attractive. And the 70's disco music soundtrack in each episode.

I compare police shows of the era to soft and hardcore sports, baseball and football. While most police shows are grim and gritty, not to mention violent crime dramas, henceforth like football games, I compare CHiPs to baseball. Both are light hearted and the violence level was at a minimum. I don't recall Ponch or Jon ever drawing their guns. And compared to the crap we call reality TV today, the realistic factor of CHiPs was similar to Emergency and Adam 12 in that we saw professionals doing their jobs and we even got to hang out with them off duty on these shows. Through CHiPs, when I applied for my driver's license as a teenager, I knew the documents to present a cop who pulls you over were your license and registration (thanks to Ponch and Jon). I knew that on my written test without studying that one factor.

Anyway, in a nutshell, CHiPs was the adventures of the CHP both at work and at play. The two main characters of this buddy cop show were Larry Wilcox and Erik Estrada as officers Jon Baker and Francis "Frank Poncherello, best known to everyone as Ponch. Unlike most people, I love the 1970's, the styles, and especially the disco music, which I wish I had on CD. For most of the time, Jon and Ponch were the main characters as well as one of their commanding officers, Sgt. Joe Getraer, whose relationship with Ponch was similar to the relationship Captain Dobey had with both Starsky and Hutch. Other than that, the only other cop who was there almost from start to finish was this pudgy cop named Artie Grossman. Other cops were cruiser cops, like Barry Barikza, who was there for most of the series seasons except the last one. Black cops, Fritz, and Turner (future Klingon Michael Dorn) and some very hot Chippies like Sindy Cahill,Kathy Linahan (final season) and my personal favorite Bonnie Clark (Randi Oakes). My least favorite character was the arrogant mechanic, Harlan. I could have done without that pathetic guy.

The show's two worst moments. A few episodes in season 5 when Ponch was temporarily replaced by Bruce Jenner as Officer Steve McLeish, who was Jon's partner while Erik Estrada was tied up in a legal contract dispute, and worse than that, all of season 6 with Larry Wilcox's departure due to the fact that he and Estrada were not getting along, probably due to Estrada's massive ego during the series. Though try as they might, neither Tom Reilly nor Bruce Penhall as the Nelson Brothers Bobby and Bruce could cut it with Ponch like Jon could, though Bruce was more interesting as we seem go from Cadet in training to official CHP before the series ended.

In the end though, you still have a great series. Erik Estrada as Ponch was the character cop who stole the show, but I was always more of a Jon Baker fan. To me, Larry Wilcox represented the type of cop I'd prefer to be stopped by or cited by.

If you want a decent reality based show, I highly recommend CHiPs. And unlike most shows, it's perfectly safe for your kids to watch. I give 2 thumbs up!!

CHiPs? Ha!

[dalemanderson · 2/10 · 12 November 2021]

CHiPs? After growing up in the Dragnet era, and loving old detective and police shows, I found CHiPs to be one of those Hollywood good looks popularity shows. It just makes a.joke of the genre. Gives The Love Boat a good run for the money ...

Two thumbs down!

Awesome

[Monika-5 · 6 April 2000]

CHiPS was such a fun show to watch. I loved watching Jon and Ponch racing those big Kowasakis chasing after the bad guys. It's a shame that plain old fun, action-packed shows like this aren't on the air anymore. Next to Dukes of Hazzard, this was the most fun show on the air from the 70s!

All Of It Was Good!!

[dataconflossmoor · 10/10 · 19 June 2007]

I like this show a lot!! It was wholesome entertainment that you could rely on!! The cast was great , Erik Estrada is a favorite on T.V.!! Larry Wilcox was popular on this show.. I also like Tom Reilly and Bruce Penhall...Brodie Greer was a great addition to this series, and my favorite cop was Bruce Jenner!! Sunny Los Angeles and road chase scenes with cars that got 12 miles to the gallon that "CHiPs" illustrated, became a staple to the late seventies and early eighties television prime-time lineup!! Innocuous and unassuming situations exemplified CHiPS to an nth degree!! The highway patrol cops made this show!! Erik Estrada became enormously popular as a result of being on this show!! I like watching the reruns of CHiPS all the time, and I will continue to watch CHiPS in syndication for the ensuing years ahead!! While it (CHiPS) will never be considered one of the best T.V. shows in the history of television, there really was not any aspect to this show you could dislike!! Most of CHiPS was very likable, funny, and by and large, entertaining!! This show definitely gets a thumbs up!! ALL OF IT WAS GOOD!!

Good show and a pleasant diversion.

[paulellerman · 8/10 · 29 August 2020]

There's nothing remarkable about this show, but Chips gets extra bonus points for being a great entertainment escape for anyone watching during the dreary 2020 corona-lockdown era. Apparently tv shows from the late 70's have the best ingredients for boosting cheerfulness and optimism. Highly recommended for people looking for new tv shows to watch in this unpleasant moment in time.

Classic 1970s show, it was even better as Summer Reruns in the '80s

[Cinema_Lover · 16 June 2007]

"CHiPs", what you can say. The California Highway Patrol got the best PR they could ever hope for in this classic buddy cop show from the 1970s. Built on comedy and riveting freeway chases, Larry Wilcox and Erik Estrada starred as officers Jon Baker and Frank "Ponch" Poncherrello. The series immediately found an audience, especially with children because of it's fantastic car chases and entertaining action stunts. It was guaranteed that a car would flip over or someone got thrown off a bike or flopped face first into cement in every episode. It didn't matter if they were so obviously staged, no one else was doing such things back in those days so it was fun to see it on CHiPs. There just had to be chase on the freeways in each episode, and they surprisingly hold up today. I guess a high speed chase at over 90 mph in 1977 is the same as one that happens in 2007. That's another thing, watching this series it's amazing how little life in North America has changed in the past 30 years. Only the fashions, music and obviously some media oriented (internet, fast computers, flat screen plasma and LCD TVs, palm pilots, etc, etc) electronic technology has changed. Otherwise look at how life in 1977 is still so much the same as 2007. It's weird watching Ponch and Jon today and reflecting that I'm now around the *same age* (freaky!) as those guys were back then (late 20s-early 30s). I see them in an entirely different light today then when I viewed this show as a child, as I can relate to more of their life and understand their still relatively young adult problems.

CHiPs had a tendency to be cheesy, especially with the way Erik Estrada hammed it up as Ponch. But who cared, Estrada and Wilcox had terrific on screen chemistry (even if they didn't get along in real life), that you just were glued to TV to watch these guys chase bad guys. The corny nature of the show has famously turned off people who were older and "too cool" during CHiPs run, but they missed out on a great TV show if only had they been children. Who cares what they think now anyway, they're old farts in 2007. Although CHiPs was clearly a '70s TV show, it actually ran over into the early 80s and in my opinion probably found it's massive cult audience in the 1980s. CHiPs was rerun ENDLESSLY in the '80s. It was on every freakin' day, Monday-Friday. Home sick from school? Watch CHiPs. Holidays? Make sure to watch CHiPs. And of course the summer months, watch CHiPs, usually airing at 8am or 4pm, sometimes both timeslots. Rainy days were and still are great for CHiPs viewing. Basically what I'm saying is that this is a show that didn't have a lot of depth to it, which is why children were so hooked onto it. It makes fantastic viewing for anyone that wants to pass the time with nothing but pure TV entertainment, with enough adult sensibilities going on to make it still very watchable. I slightly missed the original run of CHiPs, either I wasn't around or was too young, but I grew up as a child in the 80s and every single damn summer I watched CHiPs. I wasn't alone, every kid who was 12 and under in the 80s watched this show during the summer months. What an awesome way to pass an hour when you had no school. The cops never drew their guns and the violence was almost non-existent, this is a series that could never be made today. You got the day off from work and it's raining outside, time to watch an episode of CHiPs.

Still a classic

[zapdude · 8/10 · 27 January 2013]

The stars of CHiPs are not actually Eric Estrada or Larry Wilcox (both of whom I met at a car show years ago), the stars are the cars, the streets, the freeways, the city of LA, and the entire culture of its era, grasped and documented in a snapshot of life in those days.

Of course CHiPs was cheesy, even for its day it was about as authentic as Miami Vice... but they were both enormously popular shows that captured something more than they realized they were at the time.

The show started when I was 14, at a time when there were only a few channels and if you watched TV you probably watched it. Really, it's very low key, relatively non-violent, and the cops were more human and fallible, as well as forgiving. Very few people are wearing seat belts, people are smoking, cars are smoking too (gotta love the smoggy days that were more common back then), and the girls... really smoking, even if their jeans rode above their navels and the hairstyles took 3 hours.

My then-teenage friends and I followed CHiPs, we discussed each episode, we dreamed about a land far south of our native Calgary where January had sunny shirtsleeve days. We wanted to believe that THIS was the world we would grow up in. Too bad things took a hard left turn as the drug culture and violent crime continued to erode society.

If you ever want to see what the ACTUAL world outside of studios looked like in the late 70s and early 80s, the cars and trucks on the streets, the hairstyles and (sorta) music, this is the show to watch. I went to LA for two weeks in early 1980, and can confirm that this really IS what the city looked like at the time.

By the way, the first season's music is less disco and more Funk... it was the 2nd season theme song that really kicked it into the Disco Era, which died a well deserved death even while the show was still in production. But even now, the theme song shows the raw excitement and exuberance that Disco brought to the world at the time (Disco, rest in peace, and we won't ever actually miss you).

I loved this show, I can't even imagine a series of this type making it in today's market. It still amazes me that these two cops could ALWAYS KNOW exactly what to do in every situation, from freeway crashes, hazardous materials handling, foam truck managing, delivering babies, etc. etc. Nobody could know everything they were expected to know.

Not your typical police show

[MovieBuffMarine · 9/10 · 30 March 2019]

While this was classified as a crime drama, and had plenty of bad guys, our heroes rarely drew their firearms when dealing with the antagonists of the show and there was little violence.

What we got every week was well written stories that caught the viewers' attention. The real life California Highway Patrol (CHP) was the featured law enforcement organization with their two main heroes, motorcycle cops, Jon Baker and Frank Poncherello plus a myriad of excellent fellow officers.

The series followed how the two cops and the rest of their station performed their careers and their lives outside the CHP, whether personal or dealing with others.

The portrayal was probably more accurate to how police work is done in real life. No doubt there were liberties taken, audiences still appreciated the stories put out every week.

While we missed Larry Wilcox's Jon Baker for the sixth and final season, Tom Reilly as newcomer Bobby Nelson was able to win some fans.

This cop show was wholesome entertainment that was enjoyed by all. It wasn't too "kiddie" or watered down to have a bland show or too "adult" with too much violence or other grown up themes aimed only at the latter, but just right. The cast and crew of CHiPs had an awesome formula that delivered for six seasons.

love to see it again now

[scifisuede · 27 February 2005]

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.

Can't go wrong with these guys!

[mitchrmp · 10/10 · 20 October 2012]

The first season of CHiPs starts off great and ends even better. These two sexy men, blond haired-blue-eyed John and Mexican hotty Ponch aren't the only characters that make this show what it is. The other characters add to it. The good "Sarge" must be present to make this show what it is. Yep, adventure awaits us at every time on the streets of LA as those guys on motorcycles take to the streets to save lives and get the bad guys.

Also in this season we see the beginnings of ponch's police career. The episodes have little mention of sex, little cursing, and a lot of adventure and comedy. It's just something you can watch with the entire family!

reliving my past

[olsent-46072 · 8/10 · 6 November 2023]

I just found all the seasons of CHiPs to watch again on streaming media. Used to watch this every evening as a kid. It's kind of like watching that show of the kids growing up in the 80's, it brings back a lot of memories. 55mph speed limits on the freeway, gas prices well under a buck (in Cali even).

As an adult like another reviewer said i love watching the scenery and seeing what's changed. I also get a kick out of seeing how low budget the show was. The ramps on the back of the cars anytime there's an accident. The high speed car chases i used to be glued to the edge of my seat on i now realize were at like 25mph or so.

Character cast seems to be limited also. A lady that car theif was brought back as a roller skate leader, and then used later as a female CHP officer, reforming criminals back then must have worked very well.

And then there's the actors and actresses i never realized were on the show and were big stars later, or big back then with guest appearances. Pretty cool to see these old geezers like me when they were young again.

Nice, big, juicy, round, orange fireballs

[billys · 19 April 2003]

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!

Loved This Show As a Kid

[shelbythuylinh · 8/10 · 27 November 2021]

As a kid love this show. As me and my older brother used to pretend we were Ponch and Jon.

Jon was the serious and mature of the two. Ponch was the more laid back and fun loving of the two. But they put aside their differences while working to prevent criminals from roaming the streets as well as worked out their personal lives as well.

It was really good fun there. Back in the disco era there.

The Best TV Show Ever!

[Vandal-3 · 10 May 1999]

'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!

Great Fun, Perfect Late '70's Time Capsule

[josephjbivona · 8/10 · 17 May 2023]

I loved this show as a 12 year old for the car chases and pile ups and what kid didn't idolize Jon and Ponch (and love Sindy and Bonnie)?....now loving the old reruns as a time capsule of my youth....the clothes, hair, music, cars, trucks, etc.

Of course, the plots and non stop pile ups with the flying cars are ridiculous....it's always fun to look closer and see the goofs such as stunt drivers, ramps, obvious stunt cars, continuity errors, etc.

The plots are pretty much all the same, but usually wholesome and harmless. I don't think Jon or Ponch ever pull out their guns in the entire series, and I think there is only one episode where there are any casualties. Good, clean television fun.

Anyway, great to catch up on an old favorite to relive my youth though the Chips gang.

California at its best

[safenoe · 8/10 · 10 October 2017]

It's kind of a coincidence that CHiPs debuted when Jerry Brown was Governor of California in the 70s, and the reboot movie was released earlier this year when Jerry Brown was, yes you guessed it, Governor of California again.

Here the cops aren't corrupt and they really want to help out decent folk against corrupt electricity companies and other ne'er-do-wells who infest the Californian landscape.