Still a classic

zapdude

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.

score 8/10

zapdude 27 January 2013

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2743729/