07/18/2023
40 years ago today, July 17, 1983, the final episode of CHiPs aired. It originally aired on NBC from September 15, 1977, to July 17, 1983. CHiPs followed the lives of two motorcycle police officers of the California Highway Patrol. The series ran for 139 episodes over six seasons, plus one reunion TV movie.
CHiPs was a lightweight action crime drama, which included elements of comedy in every episode (several of the first season episodes play as out-and-out comedies). Over-the-top freeway pileups, which occurred in almost every episode, were a signature of the show. There was little if any actual violence on CHiPs, and the show can be classified as a dramedy. The episodes filled a standard hour-long time slot, which at the time required 48 minutes of actual programming.
The show was created by Rick Rosner, and starred Erik Estrada as macho, rambunctious Officer Francis ("Frank") Llewellyn "Ponch" Poncherello and Larry Wilcox as his straitlaced partner, Officer Jonathan "Jon" Baker. With Ponch the more trouble-prone of the pair, and Jon generally the more level-headed one trying to keep him out of trouble with the duo's gruff yet fatherly commanding officer Sergeant Joseph Getraer (Robert Pine), the two were Highway Patrolmen of the Central Los Angeles office of the California Highway Patrol (CHP, hence the name CHiPs).
