CHiPs - any real cops on here?

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

I started rewatching CHiPs for the first time since I saw some of them as a kid in the 80s. My question, if we have any cops on here, is would the highway patrol really deal with a lot of the things they did on the show? I would guess that highway patrol would only deal with highway issues or things directly adjacent. I always thought if they pursued someone off the highway they would call the local PD to take over. I ask because on the show they will come of the highway and answer calls about burglaries or car thefts in progress which are clearly in neighborhoods or side streets. I know that if they are in transit and see something they would probably respond to it like any cop, but on the show they specifically come off the highway to answer those calls.

 

[dbuck]

Any road, any code is a CHP mantra.

“The CHP has primary patrol jurisdiction over the following: all of California's state highways and freeways, and roads and streets outside city limits.”

But yes, they can enforce laws anywhere inside California. As for running around solving urban crimes, they generally assist criminal investigations rather than take lead, depending on jurisdictions, etc, unless directly involved. The show isn’t ‘wrong’ to show them doing day to day ‘city’ police duties, but it’s more common in smaller cities that ask the CHP to perform as law enforcement due to lack or shortage of a local police force.

 

[batguy]

That show is classic car porn. So much footage of Cali freeways in the late 1970s.

 

[ZeroSum]

I wish I was Ponch.

 

[Riceball]

In CA the Highway Patrol fills the role of State Trooper, so whatever a State Trooper does in other states, the CHP does (more or less) in CA. But there is probably some exaggeration of what they do in real life on the show to make it more exciting.

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

Thanks for the info!

That show is classic car porn. So much footage of Cali freeways in the late 1970s.

That's one of the most fun things about watching this again. My grandpa had a 69 Opel GT (rollover headlights were my fav as a kid) and in the first season you would regularly see a yellow on driving on the highway. It's funny watching because I'm on season 2 and they made a radio call on a 1969 Camaro and I had to laugh because that was only a 9 year old car at that point. I also think it's cool because the restaurants and some food packaging look more like what I remember in the early 80s. I was born in 77 so by the time I started recognizing stuff while driving around with my mom, it looked more like the buildings on the show.

I wish I was Ponch.

I was really little, like 3-6yo or so when I originally watched these and I always thought Ponch was more cool. Jon didn't definitely did not do bad in the lady department though. I keep wondering how many kids my age became cops (I know one) because of watching this show and then were disappointed when every call they went to didn't look like a SI swimsuit model photo shoot.

 

[batguy]

That's one of the most fun things about watching this again. My grandpa had a 69 Opel GT (rollover headlights were my fav as a kid) and in the first season you would regularly see a yellow on driving on the highway. It's funny watching because I'm on season 2 and they made a radio call on a 1969 Camaro and I had to laugh because that was only a 9 year old car at that point. I also think it's cool because the restaurants and some food packaging look more like what I remember in the early 80s. I was born in 77 so by the time I started recognizing stuff while driving around with my mom, it looked more like the buildings on the show.

There is something really Transformer-cool about flip up headlights on a sporty car.

I love anything like that when it's manually operated. The powered ones invariably failed. Mankind could land on the moon in that era but we were incapable of making good flip-up headlights. The mechanisms were either vacuum or electric powered and both ways pretty much failed on a schedule. The vacuum ones had too many places to leak with all the rubber diaphragms & hoses. The electric ones had crappy gears/linkages with plastic parts that couldn't stand up to the force of the motors.

'CHiPs' was re-using the same batch of background cars a lot. Certain ones kept reappearing. Some even got wrecked multiple times.

 

[Captain Dunsel]

Someone please tell me that all members of the CHP really do spend their off hours “gettin’ down” at the disco!!

 

[dbuck]

'CHiPs' was re-using the same batch of background cars a lot. Certain ones kept reappearing. Some even got wrecked multiple times.

I remember reading (probably from tv guide back in the day) that it was mostly the crew’s own cars, except for the main or stunt vehicles. They filmed on a closed stretch of freeway and everyone drove about 25-30. You could always spot which car was gonna roll because it was a cheapie early seventies gas guzzler.

 

[batguy]

I remember reading (probably from tv guide back in the day) that it was mostly the crew’s own cars, except for the main or stunt vehicles. They filmed on a closed stretch of freeway and everyone drove about 25-30. You could always spot which car was gonna roll because it was a cheapie early seventies gas guzzler.

Yes that's common for the era. Many of those car-oriented 1970s-80s shows had recurring background cars that belonged to crewmembers.

In 'Kight Rider' there was recurring VW Beetle that showed signs of a Herbie history.

As for speeds, that's pretty much standard procedure in Hollywood. Same with human fight scenes. They do the action at a slower rate and recoup the difference by speeding up the footage. It's more controllable and the injuries are less severe.

With cars, you wouldn't want to see the chases done a real highway speeds even if you could. The cars would look more sluggish trying to dart & weave in traffic. And the takeoff ramps would send them into big cartoonish flights.


Here's a real-life CHiPs type of crash. Notice that the car doesn't appear to be going that fast before it hits the rollback ramp, and yet the flight is huge. It was moving at the speed of normal highway traffic but nothing excessive.

 

[Ron]

Yes that's common for the era. Many of those car-oriented 1970s-80s shows had recurring background cars that belonged to crewmembers.

In 'Kight Rider' there was recurring VW Beetle that showed signs of a Herbie history.

View attachment 1796054

As for speeds, that's pretty much standard procedure in Hollywood. Same with human fight scenes. They do the action at a slower rate and recoup the difference by speeding up the footage. It's more controllable and the injuries are less severe.

With cars, you wouldn't want to see the chases done a real highway speeds even if you could. The cars would look more sluggish trying to dart & weave in traffic. And the takeoff ramps would send them into big cartoonish flights.


Here's a real-life CHiPs type of crash. Notice that the car doesn't appear to be going that fast before it hits the rollback ramp, and yet the flight is huge. It was moving at the speed of normal highway traffic but nothing excessive.

I like this version better...

Seriously, how does this happen?!?!?! HOOOOOWWWWWW??????

 

[Halliwax]

After wwii my grand father and his cousins came home and all became police officers

I always wanted to be one but I just don’t have the nerves for it.. one prostitute spitting on me and I’d lose my mind

I have so much respect for the men and women who protect us every day

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

Someone please tell me that all members of the CHP really do spend their off hours “gettin’ down” at the disco!!

That episode was really cringey now. On top of that, a pregnant woman, at a disco dance contest..., goes into labor. Her husband/boyfriend has her laying down, cradling her head, and without announcing they are cops, Jon immediately goes over and shoves his hand up her dress. Her guy didn't say a word.

 

[Captain Dunsel]

That episode was really cringey now. On top of that, a pregnant woman, at a disco dance contest..., goes into labor. Her husband/boyfriend has her laying down, cradling her head, and without announcing they are cops, Jon immediately goes over and shoves his hand up her dress. Her guy didn't say a word.

Michael Dorn has some interesting recollections about working on the CHiPs set…

Go to the 40:40 mark of the video:

 

[batguy]

Michael Dorn has some interesting recollections about working on the CHiPs set…

Go to the 40:40 mark of the video:

Yep, that was standard stuff for the time. The whole industry was awash in white powder and groupie fans.

I mean, Hollywood is still full of that stuff now. But in the 70s/80s it was worse even by their standards.

James Cameron said that for his first B-movie directing job in the early 1980s, the producers gave him two brown paper bags to pay the crew with. One bag had cash and the other had drugs.

 

[joberg]

That episode was really cringey now. On top of that, a pregnant woman, at a disco dance contest..., goes into labor. Her husband/boyfriend has her laying down, cradling her head, and without announcing they are cops, Jon immediately goes over and shoves his hand up her dress. Her guy didn't say a word.

It was the '70s and early '80s

 

[blewis17]

Seriously, how does this happen?!?!?! HOOOOOWWWWWW??????

Driver distraction, not paying attention. Not too long ago, My wife and I had a (west bound) impatient driver pull around me on the left to speed ahead, and did not see the right side street car trying to cross our 3 lanes of traffic to reach the east bound lane. Well, he T-boned the car crossing the street, which sent it spinning into the east bound lane where it struck a third vehicle. We kept driving but got on the phone with 911 to report the event.

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

Michael Dorn has some interesting recollections about working on the CHiPs set…

Go to the 40:40 mark of the video:

I have been wanting to rewatch this series, but I saw him interviewed (maybe Michael Rosenbaum's channel?) where they mentioned CHiPs and I didn't know he was on it. I didn't even know who he was until TNG came on, when I was 10. It's interesting to watch these older shows and see people now who are celebrities. Dee Wallace was on an episode I watched last night.

 

[Captain Dunsel]

I have been wanting to rewatch this series, but I saw him interviewed (maybe Michael Rosenbaum's channel?) where they mentioned CHiPs and I didn't know he was on it. I didn't even know who he was until TNG came on, when I was 10. It's interesting to watch these older shows and see people now who are celebrities. Dee Wallace was on an episode I watched last night.

Raise your hand if you want some Blood Wine…

 

[robstyle]

As a kid I used to bike all over LA looking for film sets. A few times I stumbled upon Chips. One episode was at Venice Beach. One of the actors playing a punker handed me, if memory serves, a sandwich. Recently 80's Life did a YouTube video about that episode and realised it was a young William Forsythe. 80's Life also did the episode filmed down the street from where I lived. We had stopped at a 7/11 to grab a cup of ice and there was Chips filming.
Not sure about another episode filming locally the same days as Grease 2 at Hawthorne Bowl. It could be my memory is crossed.