‘CHiPs’ Retro Recap: ‘Hot Wheels’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

​The old saying ‘the show must go on’ is heard often in regard to the entertainment industry, because stars push through just about everything to make sure that a respective series or a movie gets completed and that’s why we hear stories about them suffering through the flu or working through a pregnancy on a consistent basis. But from time to time, stars get badly hurt or super sick, putting production into a precarious place while they rest up and/or heal. However, there are some shows that see a health issue involving a star as an opportunity to get creative storytelling wise and tell unique tales and oddly enough, that particular set of circumstances happened on CHiPs.
 
Because shortly after I watched ‘Hot Wheels’, I found myself quite curious as to why this series was putting Erik Estrada on the back burner of the series by having Ponch stay in the hospital after the events of ‘Return of the Supercycle’ and as it turns out, Erik suffered an actual injury back in the day that forced him to stay off of a bike for a bit, during the filming of season three. Which prompted the writer’s room to integrate this injury into the overall season three arc and I have to give them credit, this all worked together seamlessly. For it allowed for Mister Estrada to properly heal and it made for some fascinating storytelling. Because this story managed to separate Ponch and Jon for an extended period of time and let’s be honest, the thought of Ponch and Jon not being on the road together is a weird idea to say the least. And never mind how that thought process ends because yes, I’m aware of season six’s casting changes and we will get there in due time.
 
But I digress, because I’m getting ahead of myself here. For what matters most about this story, is how creative the script turned out to be since it gave Jon a temporary riding partner to work with named Bill Clayton, who just so happened to be his old riding partner, and Bill, was quite the prankster. In fact, we saw him pulling a goof on just about everyone in this episode and it was actually kind of cool to gain a little insight into Jon’s professional past by having Bill return to the forefront of the story here and see it impact Ponch and Jon’s relationship, thanks to Bill’s need for validation and desire to immediately catch up on old times. But make no mistake about it, while Clayton was one quirky cop, he was a damn good one for certain, as evidenced by his actions during a thrilling rescue in the hills.
 
As for the Creeps of the Week in this tale, well Jon and Bill were given quite the group of nasties to deal with. For our baddies were using disguises and Los Angeles County service vehicles to rob jewelry stores left and right and their ability to blend in made them impossible to catch. But Ponch used his downtime to help the team out with some potential leads when it comes to this little problem, and his advice on the matter was thankfully taken to heart. Because it allowed for Jon and Bill to learn that one of the culprits worked at the county’s central repair facility and he’d take the various vehicles out to ‘test’ them after repair and return them after the deed was done so that no one was the wiser, and thanks to Ponch’s tips they were able to apprehend the guy and his group of thieves at last and as an added bonus, everyone at Central Division was able to prank the great Bill Clayton.
 
In the end however, this really was quite the magnificent episode. For the story definitely drew me in, and the acting was simply top notch all around, and Erik Estrada did a great job of selling his worries about losing his partner. And speaking of performances, I’d be a fool to not point out how many big-time guest stars were in this one. Because Martin Kove plays one of the baddies and he would go on to play the twisted John Kreese in The Karate Kid and Cobra Kai saga. Plus, this episode also featured a stint from Anne Ramsey would who eventually play Mama Fratelli in The Goonies and Andrew Robinson, who played Bill Clayton, eventually found himself deep in the Alpha Quadrant playing Garak, everyone’s favorite tailor/spy on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. If anything, these guest spots once again serve as a reminder of the fact that this series often attracted some of the modern greats with its quality storytelling and well, after this one, I’m quite curious to see how much longer Jon is going to ride without his partner and the only way to find that out, is to dive back into this magnificent series. Until next time. 

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