Kitsch and CHiPs on Friday nights

By TIM WATKIN

Actor Robert Pine says CHiPs was "a man's show." But I was only a boy and I loved it. It was one of a series of shows that filled childhood Friday nights — from Planet of the Apes, through Logan's Run to The Dukes of Hazzard.

Now that was television. Why aren't there more re-runs? Well, to be honest, looking again at CHiPs via True Hollywood Stories (TV3, 7.30 pm tonight), it was pretty formulaic stuff. Then again, running round the living room going "vroom, vroom" and twisting your wrist like you're revving a motorcycle isn't as much fun as it used to be either.

Still, nostalgia forgives many sins. Those big bikes and the wide, empty highways under sunny skies (before the Santa Monica freeway was stuck in perpetual gridlock, obviously) meant action and adventure enough for any youngster. Although they never once drew their guns, Jon and Ponch were modern-day cowboys.

CHiPs was in the vanguard (or should that be mudguard?) of the action shows that brought stunts and car-
chases previously reserved for the movies to the small screen. But it was almost canned during its first series due to poor ratings.

Then came "the doctor" who saved sick programmes, Cy Chermak. He snazzed up the action and worked the stories around all the latest crazes — from jet-skiing to roller disco. It was 1978 and it got cool, man.

Who would have thought things were heating up behind the cameras? Actor feuds, near-fatal stunt accidents, pay walk-outs, even naked girls on motorbikes.

Of course the naked girl was with rugged Erik Estrada, described as the male equivalent of Farrah Fawcett. He was the unknown who, thanks to CHiPs, got to live life in the fast-lane and wear really tight uniforms.

By contrast, Larry Wilcox, sweet old Jon, was an experienced TV hand after two years of chasing Lassie round the screen. He was a "serious actor" who complains that women would come up to him in the street and "French kiss" him. Poor boy.

Although Wilcox was hired as the star, Estrada was soon getting 750 fan letters a week to his 250 and, well, you work out the rest.

This being Hollywood, the story ends happily. It seems to play too scarily according to type, but Wilcox, having narrowly missed out on the part of Sonny Crockett in Miami Vice, is now an "internet entrepreneur," while Estrada is a spokesman for the Psychic Revival Network and a huge soap star in Mexico.

On second thoughts, let's throttle back on the CHiPs re-runs. But Logan's Run, now that was a programme.