‘CHiPs’ Retro Recap: ‘Rainy Day’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

If there’s one thing I truly enjoy when it comes to watching the first season of a television series, it’s seeing stories that basically throw caution to the wind when it comes to the show’s established structure. Because year one often features a lot of experiments and tests with the plot lines and the settings, just to see if something different might work and that makes for entertaining tales that captivate and surprise and one particular series that I’m noticing did this a plenty in year one is CHiPs. Because the Creep of Week has come and gone over the course of this first year, replaced by day in the life stories that help us to get to know Ponch and Jon better, or in more recent episodes, they’ve been replaced by characters that are full of depth and in need of help, and as we close in on the season one finale, it’s clear the series is outright going for broke since the next episode, ‘Rainy Day’, felt the need to mess with the formula further by taking our dynamic heroes, off of their bikes.
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Which at first glance seems like a cardinal sin because, that’s why we tune in, to watch Ponch and Jon hop on their bikes and chase bad guys down. But the title should serve as an indicator as to why they’re off their motorcycles for this particular tale since the sky lets loose in this story, forcing our heroes to spend their day in a patrol car and well, they don’t like it in the slightest but that sure doesn’t stop them from stopping crime, since the dynamic duo is eventually able to corner a group of thieves that work in pairs to steal cars and surprisingly, despite being stuck in a cruiser, the chase scene to bring these scumbags down was pretty exciting to say the least. Because it included a run through the Los Angeles drainage system, something we’ve seen featured before in other chase scenes in other stories, but I digress, because the show was just getting started when it comes to making things interesting in this story.

Because while Ponch and Jon cruised about town in the rain, something sneaky was happening on the highway. As it turns out, a couple of gents were running an illegal gambling operation aboard an RV, so that no one was the wiser, and while it seemed as though this operation would go off without a hitch, one fussy customer made the day more interesting for our crooks. For a Mr. Sanders was losing, and when he loses he gets grumpy, and for his troubles and complaints, he got a refund and a knuckle sandwich and a concussion and of course, he ran into Ponch and Jon when the moving casino dropped him off ‘gently’, meaning they were on the case and that’s where the character development that’s suddenly permeating this season came into play. Because Sanders, and his addiction to gambling, allowed for us to see what kind of impact that kind of life has on a family, in up close and personal fashion.

For Ponch and Jon took the time to visit Sanders’ wife, Juliet, to deliver the bad news and hopefully get some kind of lead on who hurt him and while she was as helpful as she could be, hearing about her husband’s condition and basically coming to terms with the fact that yet again her hubby let her down and screwed them over financially, prompted her to finally leave him behind and it was just fascinating to see this kind of fallout on display and surprisingly enough, the show wasn’t quite done with exploring the impact this kind of lifestyle can have on people and the next phase of this twist involved Sanders himself since he was now desperate and broke and alone, and all of that pushed him over the edge and he went to the extreme by grabbing his shotgun to deal with the guys that ripped him off, which of course, led to a high speed chase wherein Ponch and Jon busted everyone with Bear’s help.

If anything, I have to admit I was quite impressed with the twists this story had to offer, and really, this was compelling stuff to watch because the gambling problem that Sanders had really did screw his life up in every way imaginable and while the episode offered no easy answers on his mistakes, it was refreshing to see this show present the dangers of addiction and raw anger for that matter. Yet, all of this makes it sound as though this episode was devoid of humor but there was plenty of that be found as well by way of a plot line involving a teacher that Ponch saved since she brought her class tour to the station during a busy time and the whole running gag involving Ponch and Jon keeping their cruiser dent free paid off in spades thanks to Grossie, and well, this is just another great episode from a magnificent series and I really did enjoy this one through and through and well, I’m ready for more. So, if you’ll excuse me, it’s time to hit play and see what amazing adventures on the highway await me. Until next time. 

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