The Good

A fun, buddy police show that makes L.A. Cops look good.

The Bad

Why do they almost ignore Larry Wilcox on the extras?

CHiPs: The Complete First Season serves up the first 22 episodes of this well crafted, buddy, cop show. Erik Estrada broke big here as the hot shot Officer Frank "Ponch" Poncherello. His partner, played by Larry Wilcox, was Officer Jon Baker. Together these two officers play good cop/bad cop while it was usually Ponch getting one or the both of them in hot water with the Sergeant (Robert Pine). Filled with action, CHiPs is the kind of show that managed to both elevate and infuse the police show genre.

We open with the "Pilot" episode in which we are introduced to Ponch and Jon. We also see how these two aren't full-fledged officers, and how Ponch's need to bring down some car thieves often defies logic and good sense. "Highway Robbery" has Ponch and Jon enlisting an elephant to help them get a truck off the road. Things aren't all laughs however as Jon realizes that an old friend is no working on the right side of the law. I usually don't do this but I am going to talk about the finale episode. Titled "Flashback," this show is just that as Ponch is reflecting (yes, reflecting in the first season!) about his early days as a new officer. While I know that this action filled show probably cost a pretty penny, going the "flashback" route in this episode screams bush league.

Other than that minor hiccup, CHiPs: The Complete First Season does its duty the best it can.

Features

The Ride Out of Spanish Harlem

Herbie J. Pilato is on hand here to give a historical perspective to this show but more importantly, Erik Estrada as an actor. The best part is that Estrada's interview scenes are shot at the Los Angeles Police Department, and Estrada is either sitting on a bike or wearing a police uniform. He explains how he used his mom's boyfriend as the model for Ponch, and how when he showed a bad temper during his audition, that convinced the network that he was right for this role. They talk about his relationship to Larry Wilcox and at one point Pilato describes his and Estrada's on-screen chemistry as "awesome."

Erik Estrada Offers Trivia Tips and Reminiscences on Select Episodes

Video

Standard Version. Presented in a format preserving the aspect ratio of its original television exhibition. These shows were superbly compressed. I didn't see any dirt on the picture and there was no graininess in some of the exterior shots like their sometimes is. Also, with all the action in the show, I was happy to see it presented in such a traditionally, edited way. So many of today's shows cut things so quickly, it is very hard to tell what's even going on during the action scenes. Here, everything was fluid, and I was quite impressed with how much the CHiPs creators pushed the scenes in this sense.

Audio

Dolby Digital. English: Mono. Close Captioned. The audio was done well for this release. The thing I have noticed about Warner Bros. (and Fox does this as well) is that I never get the impression that they don't check all the discs for a multi-disc release. Everything sounded equally good from the first disc to the last, with the only thing I noticed upfront being that things sounded sort of low. Once I turned things about halfway up on my set, everything played the same throughout, save for the Special Features.

Package

Ponch and Jon stand ready for action on this orange, white and blue slipcase cover. On the back we get a promo shot of Jon and Ponch on their bikes, as well as two small images of them in uniform. There is a succinct description of what this show is about, a Special Features listing, a tiny credits list and technical specs. All six discs are stored in three slim cases and on the front and back of them they list out: the episodes, their airdates and descriptions for all the episodes. There are also more pictures from the show on these cases as well.

Final Word

Running for 6 years, CHiPs was a show that I watched, but I think I was a little too young to really understand everything that was going on in it. The thing I most remember was what a great presence on screen Erik Estrada was. In fact, as I got older and began to watch more and more movies and TV, I couldn't help but wonder why this actor, who was so good, didn't seem to be getting on more TV shows and in more movies. None of this really made much sense to me, and also thinking about it now, I am still baffled that Larry Wilcox didn't become a bigger actor. In addition to this, it sort've seems like this show kept him down a bit. They gave Wilcox a really simple name and it feels like they didn't develop the character too much. All the meaty moments seem a lot more weighted in Estrada's favor. Whatever the case, that's the way it goes and I am glad that the TV on DVD lords have seen fit to give this movie a proper release.

If you like good, 1970s, police shows that have well shot and composed action, as well as two actors with chemistry to burn, CHiPs: The Complete First Season is for you.

CHiPs was released .