‘CHiPs’ Retro Recap: ‘One Two Many’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

​I have to admit, that my re-watch of the classic police serial CHiPs has continually surprised me. Because every single episode in the titular first season of this saga, have worked to provide me (and likely audiences in ’77 and ’78) with some outright unique storytelling since it’s clear this series figured out early on how to balance action and adventure and drama, all while providing the audience with depth when it comes to its stories, its characters and well, everything really. Yet, of the many things this series accomplished in season one, what matters most is that it always finds a way to keep the stories supremely lighthearted and fun since it is good old-fashioned family entertainment. Which brings me back to how this show continually surprises me, because the next episode, ‘One Two Many’, did something that I didn’t think CHiPs was even remotely capable of, since this story embraced a touch of darkness.
 
For in this tale, our Creep of the Week was an individual like no other, since we quickly came to learn that a dude who looks just like Jon Baker, felt the need to pretend to be a CHP officer, to the point where he made himself a replica uniform and he souped up his bike to make it look like it belonged to the Highway Patrol as well and what made this storyline so dark, is what this ‘officer’ did while he was ‘on duty’. Because this nutjob, would pull over women that he was attracted to, and he quickly crossed the line with every single one of them, terrifying them to the point where one caused an accident and really, the most chilling moment when it comes to this particular plot thread, is when a woman he pulled over, fought back. For things got violent between the fake officer and his victim and this was downright scary since I certainly didn’t have a clue as to what he was going to do when confronted for his aggressive actions and it’s a wonderful thing that Ponch and Jon showed up when they did and scared him off.
 
But what matters more when it comes to this storyline, is what I made mention of a moment ago, in that, he looked like Jon, and this imposter’s behavior prompted some complaints to find their way to the Sarge, making Jon look bad in every way imaginable and the capture of this COTW was hands down the most satisfying one to date, since this guy got exactly what was coming to him. Yet, what’s equally as surprising is that the bleak nature of this tale wasn’t exclusive to the imposter storyline. There was also a dude that straight up hated cops for Ponch and Jon and the Sarge to contend with, and his garbage attitude put lives in danger and he was remorseless when confronted about his rotten behavior, and he even tried to goad Getrear into a physical altercation and really the only plus to come out of that plot line, is that we were able to learn just how much of a calculated badass the Sarge really is.
 
However, while that’s a lot of ugly to find in a show such as this, thankfully there were some laughs to be found, and all of that was accomplished by way of a bit of a crisis for Ponch. Because his mobile home had a nasty breakdown, the point where he had no power or water pressure, which meant, he needed a place to stay and Jon was of course nice enough to invite him to stay at his condo, with disastrous results. Which was ironic since at first, it seemed like things were going to work out just fine, but Frank’s proclivity to keep a messy place started to get to Jon, as did the fact that Ponch couldn’t sleep properly without blasting music in the middle of the night and all of this led to some pretty darn hilarious moments, such as the little riff-off between the two in front of everyone at the station and this was definitely a welcome change of pace from the Maniac ‘Cop’ that was roaming the streets.
 
If anything, I’m still quite impressed with this episode when all is said and done, simply due to the darker storylines present here. Because all of that speaks to the versatility of this show and now, I’ve got to stay on my toes as I continue this re-watch since the series will likely make another attempt to surprise me with a vastly different type of tale somewhere down the line again. But all surprise aside, I tip my cap to this tale for handling the ugly stuff in proper and intelligent fashion and this Creep of the Week still sticks out in my mind since he was just so incredibly remorseless and twisted and I guess if I have any complaint about this episode, it’s that it would have been satisfying to find out exactly how his sentencing went. But, minor complaint. Because this was a damn good episode and I cannot wait to see more like it in the days to come. Until next time. 

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