Product Description

Can’t drive 55? There’s a ticket with your name on it – sign here, please. Just jumped three freeway lanes and endangered everyone in your path? Pull it over, pal, and dig out that license and registration. California Highway Patrol motorcycle officers Jon Baker and Francis "Ponch" Poncherello are on patrol. Erik Estrada and Larry Wilcox return as Ponch and Jon, and the action and fun are ready to roll in 22 road- ripping episodes. Also returning: Robert Pine as amiable Sgt. Getraer. Strap on helmets and goggles for a deadly chain-reaction crash, the appearance of a nettlesome TV-news crew, Ponch’s disco dancing, Halloween patrol and a caped biker daredevil. Remember: safety first. And always signal before turning.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13995 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2008-06-03
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Color, DVD, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French, Portuguese, Spanish
• Number of discs: 4
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 1066 minutes

Features

• Can?t drive 55? There?s a ticket with your name on it ? sign here, please. Just jumped three freeway lanes and endangered everyone in your path? Pull it over, pal, and dig out that license and registration. California Highway Patrol motorcycle officers Jon Baker and Francis ?Ponch? Poncherello are on patrol. Erik Estrada and Larry Wilcox return as Ponch and Jon, and the action and fun are ready to

Amazon.com
CHiPs returned with even more spectacular car crashes and more cute girls for Ponch (Erik Estrada) to charm. The series really hit its stride in this second season (aired in 1978 and '79), balancing nerve-tingling stunts with human drama and whimsical escapades. On the high-tension side, you have a school bus that careens out of control and Jon (Larry Wilcox) has to jump on the roof to rescue the kids inside; trucks jackknife across the highway, causing multiple pileups; an ambulance overturns, trapping a girl in an iron lung; an investigation of dirt-bike vandals leads to angel dust dealers. Then, to lighten things up, Ponch gets a boa constrictor wrapped around his leg and has to help out a team of stranded cheerleaders. But more than anything, this second season was a showcase for Estrada's easy, perfect-for-television charisma. Not only was he handsome and cocky, he could be surprisingly gentle and compassionate, as when he rescued a suicidal woman about to lose her home. Wilcox, even at his best, never seemed fully comfortable in his role, but Estrada radiated the kind of relaxed pleasure that invites the audience's adoration. There were certainly silly moments (the Supercycle! A tiger in a deli mart! Ponch and Jon help a woman give birth in a disco!) and the increase in cars bursting into flame stretches credulity, but most of CHiPs stays reasonably down-to-earth and is all the more enjoyable for it. In fact, the low-key cinematography, without a lot of frantic editing, often makes the car crashes all the more vivid and jolting. This season also introduced more supporting characters, including the first significant female officer on the show, Sindy Cahill (played by the charming Brianne Leary). The boxed set features only one extra, a promotional featurette about the real California Highway Patrol, who love the show about as much as the show loves them--though the real cops' hair is decidedly less fluffy. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews

Remember when television used to be FUN to watch?
Long ago, before the "reality TV plague" laid waste to most of the television landscape, there was a time when viewers could choose from a whole host of entertaining, fun, uplifting programs. If you're looking for escapist entertainment, likable characters, fun plots, and a few nifty stunts.... then you'll love Chips!

Although this series is over thirty years old, Chips has aged quite gracefully. This is due in part to great chemistry between the actors (all perfectly cast) and mostly lighthearted, fun scripts. If you're a dedicated fan seeking to feed your "nostalgia monster", you'll find yourself in the middle of a retro buffet! It just doesn't get any better than this!

With the recent trend being to release DVD "half seasons" at full season prices (Love Boat, Cannon, etc.), it's nice to see that fans of Chips have been treated fairly. An entire season of Chips is well worth the reasonable list price, and Amazon currently has a wonderful pre-order price to make this an irresistible purchase!

Let's hope that future seasons arrive in a timely manner! I just can't get enough!

Note:

Season one was released on SINGLE SIDED discs. This set is DOUBLE SIDED.

JM

Seven mary three and four, responding on willshire blvd.
I have to say that the amazon product review sums it up perfectly. This is a great retro gift to yourself or a friend. You feel good watching chips, even if you never saw it the first time. The same zanny antics from season one continue, with the blend of action and comedy going at 70 mph. Estrada's little special feature, where he interviews actual Chippies, is cute and shows how much he was influenced by the show. An odd episode, which I chalk up to being made in the 70s in a more innocent time, is where John befriends a 15 year-old girl who obviously has fallen in love with him, to the point of making him dinners, getting his slippers and hanging out at his place instead of with her mom. John never says she can't or shouldn't do any of these things, only says to tell her mom where she is at. It is very weird! What adult, much less a male cop, would hang out by himself with a 15 year-old in his apartment and tell her to stay there whenever she wanted? Weird! I may expect that sort of thing from Ponch, but John? Come on.

My only real complaint is that the sound is often terrible. At many points you have to turn it up all the way to hear the dialogue, then the music comes blaring in and you fall out of your seat. Also, it would have been nice to have other cast members make some sort of commentary or appearance, but along with nearly all of WB's other dvd sets, they refuse to pay anyone for their time, travel or comments, so once again their cheapness only hurts the fans who supported the show in the first place. But they know we will buy it anyway.

Still very much worth it, if for nothing else, Ponch's extended disco, freeze frame scenes at the end of one of the episodes. Man, this stuff gets funky!

"CHiPs" S2
Another great season of a great series, at least so far. The stories really moved (and I mean that very literally)--that is, there were plenty of chases, and also, there was plenty of other great action from our heroes Ponch and Jon. The chases gave this second season's worth of "CHiPs," like the first, sort of a "travelogue" feel; in essence, I got the sense that I was being led on a guided tour of L.A. and its environs, right from my own home. This second season's worth of "CHiPs" represents part of the time period in which the series aired on NBC Saturdays from 8 P.M. to 9 P.M. In total, I have truly enjoyed this second season's worth of "CHiPs," and I heartily recommend it. Warning: this season is presented on three double-sided discs (at least for the episodes).

The extras include a documentary presented by Erik Estrada, entitled "The Real CHiPs", and a feature-length special called "The Greatest Adventures of CHiPs" that recounts (according to the package) "the coolest cases from Seasons One and Two." The extras are presented on a fourth disc, which is single-sided.

This season (unlike the first) also includes English, Spanish, and Portuguese audio, and English, Spanish, Portuguese, and French subtitles.

Overall, an excellent release from Warner Bros. of an excellent NBC series from MGM, and like I said, I heartily recommend it.