‘CHiPs’ Retro Recap: ‘Forty Tons of Trouble’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

​Season four of CHiPs has been quite the wild ride thus far. For this year’s adventures have taken us all over the storytelling spectrum, complete with fluffy and silly adventures, and tales that quite frankly, go to some supremely dark places. But while we’ve been privy to some unique and powerful storylines along the way, something that this particular season has shied away from, are stories that take us into the everyday lives of CHP officers. Which is something that is paramount to a saga such as this since it helps us relate to the characters and it helps them grow. But thankfully this little oversight was remedied by the next episode of this series.
 
Because ‘Forty Tons of Trouble’ finally us immersed in the off-duty activities of the officers of Central and we came to learn in this story that a great many officers in that building, love cars and love diving into new adventures involving vehicles. And this time around, they were getting into a unique style of drag racing, wherein they had to build up old cars with parts they funded, and this was quite cool to watch. Because it got them out of their uniforms and allowed for them to work together as team. Plus, it brought forth some solid comic relief since Grossman wanted in on this venture but didn’t want to spend any money, making him the awkward outsider of this endeavor.
 
But while it is always nice to get to know these characters inside and out and enjoy their hobbies as well, the Creep of the Week is paramount to driving an episode and this time around, our intrepid officers faced off against two separate sets of them. Oddly enough, the first batch related to their hobby. Because a rival team was failing miserably at building their car to be a winner. So, they resorted to stealing parts from local stores to get their vehicle running, and in their desperation, they managed to swipe parts that Harlan had custom ordered for the CHP car. But thanks to Grossman’s desire to contribute, he put himself on the case and discovered what was going on, and that allowed for the team to bring these guys down in thrilling fashion.
 
As for the other set of Creeps, well they turned out to be some bold thieves, the kind that were looking for big scores and that motivated them to go after some unique prizes; construction equipment. Because they had a buyer that would give them top dollar for that kind of gear and unfortunately for them, a botched attempt to steal a loader from an independent construction company, put them on Ponch and Jon’s radar. And our dynamic duo hoped that they could work with the owner of said company to trap these guys. But alas, she didn’t want anything to do with their plan in the hopes of steering clear of any further trouble. Eventually though, these Creeps made another run at her gear but since Ponch and Jon were keeping a close watch on her work site, they were able to bring these guys in as well.
 
If anything, this really was quite the entertaining episode. Because not only did it manage to pack in a lot of plot into its 48-minute run time, it figured out how to bring each story arc to its logical and satisfying completion and that was impressive for certain. Plus, it was lovely to see some humanity on display from our favorite CHP officers once again and as an added bonus; this particular story features an early career appearance from a horror legend. For Robert Englund is a guest start in this tale, and he would go on to play the iconic Freddy Krueger in a few years after this episode aired, and it was just so awesome to see him here well before he became the man of our dreams. Sorry, couldn’t resist. But also, worth it. Either way, this goes to show that we are in the midst’s of season four’s finest stretch of storytelling and it should be quite interesting to see exactly how long the show can keep this hot streak rolling. Until next time.

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