Taheen Lopez 2008-12-17

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CHiPs 1981-82 Season was my favorite season, even though CHiPs 5th Season had some twists and turns and set backs in it.

For instance, This was the last season with Ponch's old partner Jon Baker(Larry Wilcox), since Jon was replaced by Ponch's new partner Bobby Nelson(Tom Reilly) in the 6th Season, due to rivalry between Erik Estrada & Larry Wilcox in the first 5 seasons of CHiPs, even though Ponch & Jon seemed quite inseperable during all 5 years of their partnership on the show.

This 1981-1982 Season was also the season when famous world athlete celebrity(Bruce Jenner)briefly joins the cast & crew of this show as Jon's interim partner(Officer Steve McLeisch) in the episodes "The Killer Indy", "Anything But The Truth", and "Diamonds In The Rough", since Erik Estrada(Ponch) had unfortunately left the show temporarily due to a salary dispute in the Fall of 1981, but Ponch had returned to the show permanently in the "Finders Keepers" episode, due to slumping ratings.

Fortunately, the ratings on CHiPs surged back up when Ponch came back permanently and when McLeisch departed the show after the "Concours d' Elegance" episode.

In other words, the producers of CHiPs had to bring Ponch back permanently to save the show in order to prevent it from cancelling, despite the often rivalry between Larry Wilcox & Erik Estrada.

What I found baffling about CHiPs Fifth Season was in all 3 of the episodes where Steve McLeisch subbed for Ponch as Jon's partner, they still used Erik Estrada's name & picture on the introduction and nobody on the show, including Jon and the cynical Sgt. Joe Getraer(Bob Pine) ever even mentioned a word about Ponch or why he wasn't around or anything as if Ponch never even existed, which didn't make a lot of sense, but was apparently due to the rumor that the producers were trying to get rid of Ponch.

Additionally, CHiPs 1981-82 Season had a lousy season finale episode on top of that, which by the way was the "Force Seven" episode, since they only showed Ponch & Jon in only 2 brief scenes, but in the rest of the episode, it had absolutley nothing to do with Ponch or Jon and it involved a martial arts gang infiltrating sadistic criminals who were involved in highly illegal activities, which was certainly no way to have a last episode with Jon Baker, especially since it didn't give us a chance to see Jon in action one last time or see Jon do his best one last time as Ponch's partner, but it just so happens that Tom Reilly guest starred in this episode as a rookie LAPD officer who gets involved with the Force Seven group before his first appearance as Ponch's new partner(Bobby Nelson) in the following episode "Meet The New Guy".

It was also neat seeing
-Bill Lucking in the "Moonlight" episode before his co-starring days as Col. Lynch on THE A-TEAM
-Doug McClure in the "Battle Of The Bands" episode before his co-starring days on OUT OF THIS WORLD
-George Lindsey in the "Bright Flashes" episode after his co-starring days on THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW
-Susan Richardson in the "Battle Of The Bands" episode after her co-starring days on EIGHT IS ENOUGH
-Anne Francis in the "In The Best Of Families" episode after her co-starring days on HONEY WEST
-Bill Boyett in the "Silent Partner" episode after his co-starring days as Sgt. MacDonald on ADAM-12
-Norman Burton in the "Tiger In The Streets" episode after his co-starring days as Joe Atkinson on WONDER WOMAN
-Don Stroud in the "Trained For Trouble" episode before his co-starring days as Capt. Lussen on THE NEW DRAGNET