This came out when I was 12, I watched it because everyone did. By the 80's it was so bad I couldn't watch it. They had Ponch and John doing things the CHP doesn't do, like extradition, vice/undercover work, robbery, chasing pick pockets, and fighting aliens, yes, aliens, right after ET came out, oh and don't forget the special assignment Ninja cops played by Fred Dryer that was going to be a spin-off. Now for about the accidents, really? The accidents were always spectacular, sensational and overkill, WTF? Can't Los Angelinos drive? Cars flying through trailers, explosions, cars flying through trailers at each end of the trailer going opposite directions, head on collisions in the air, etc, yet no one ever died, or even got hurt, the drivers always self extracted and waved off any need for medical. Horrible writing, insulting. And then there's Ponch, what an egomaniac Erik was. Every episode Ponch would rescue some pretty girl from some dire situation, whether they were hangliding, riding ATVs, surfing, disco, or Ponch just went to buy milk he would always encounter some damsel in distress and save her, always Ponch, never John. No wonder Larry left the show, Giving us a John lookalike and his little brother that was in the CHP academy, yet every show he would leave the academy to get involved in whatever Ponch and lookalike John was involved in because they couldn't do it without him. Oh, and they had the academy in LA, it's in Sacramento. To far away to be able to leave anytime a cadet wants to so he can fight crime in LA.
