The California Highway Patrol served as the setting for this fast paced action/adventure show starring Eric Estrada and Larry Wilcox as fun loving motorcycle cops. Estrada played Officer Frank "Ponch" Poncherello, the disco-dancing macho man with a heart of gold who lived in a swingin' singles apartment complex. Larry Wilcox played Ponch's sidekick, the awkward but decent Country and Western boy Officer Jon Baker, who lived in a trailer park. The two paired up every week in a new adventure, often going far beyond the usual ticket writing routines of real-life CHP officers, getting involved in everything from busting up teenage dope rings to shutting down counterfeit currency operations.

One of the hallmarks of the series was the car crash. It wasn't enough to simply have a car crash on CHiPs; any accident inevitably resulted in a chain reaction of crashing cars cascading into a multi-car pile up, often with several cars flying through the air in slow-motion in the process. Very often when this occurred somebody would be trapped in a car, be it a mother, a child, or even a beloved cat or dog, and Ponch would have to pull them to safety, always just moments before the car would explode. In the entire 5 year history of the series, only one episode made it on the screen without at least one multi-car pile up.

Another hallmark of the series was it's focus on the social life of the officers. No matter what the corniest trend in popular culture was at the time, Ponch and Jon would be in the swing of it, be it dancing at the roller disco, joining a new wave band, or hanging out at a nude beach. One of the finest moments of the series featured Ralph the Mouth of Happy Days fame as a Kiss-like shock rocker, who began hearing backwards Satanic messages in his songs and feared the Devil was out to kill him. It was up to the dynamic duo of Ponch and John to get to the bottom of things and kick Satan's ass, which they did in style. Another episode featured a gang of surly punk rockers ripping off musical instruments from the kids in the pop bands that just wanted to have good clean fun, and another episode featured some surfer guy who drove around in a converted ambulance. That was pretty cool. No matter how bad the crimes got, though, the episodes would always end on a high note, with the bad guys caught and the camera focusing on freeze-frames of the actors laughing and smiling as the credits rolled.

CHiPS
VITAL STATISTICS:

CAST:
Erik Estrada as "Ponch"
Larry Wilcox as Officer Baker
Robert Pine as Sgt. Getraer

Aired from 1977 - 1983 on NBC

CATCHPHRASE:
"Right away, Sarge!"

CHiPs Resources on the World Wide Web:
-CHiPs Online