Exposure to “CHiPs” probably left me with the false impression at the time that there were a ton of these Sky Birds roaming the streets across the United States. Included among them were a silver Ford Mustang II hatchback, a black, H-Body Buick Skyhawk, a ’76-or-so Toyota Corona Mark II sedan (when’s the last time you saw one of those?), a white, mid-’70s Camaro with a camel-colored vinyl roof, and perhaps my favorite, a ’77 (or early ’78) Pontiac Firebird Esprit Sky Bird, pictured above. In my opinion, the music of “CHiPs” deserved its own casting credit for being such an integral part of the show, being no less indispensable than the “motors” the officers rode on or Erik Estrada’s perfect teeth.Īlso cast on this show was what seemed to be the exact same roster of maybe ten cars that were used and reused, intended to be seen as completely random background traffic.
#Pontiac thunderbird 1977 tv#
American composer Alan Silvestri, who would go on to score myriad movies and TV shows, contributed a very late-’70s-Los Angeles soundtrack to “CHiPs” with sounds that ranged from yacht rock-ish incidental music to frenetic disco with a four-on-the-floor beat, both during opening credits (starting in Season 2) and also during some of the heated chase scenes. Mensa material it wasn’t, but it’s still one of my favorite shows, ever.Īs a young kid, the big draws for me were the cars, the camaraderie between the officers, especially Ponch and Jon, the action shots on the expressway, and lastly and not at all the least important, the music. Actress Brianne Leary, who played officer Sindy Cahill, checked out after just one season, the show’s second, to be essentially replaced by Randi Oakes’ Bonnie Clark character for the next three years. It had a funny, likeable, attractive, and somewhat diverse cast (by late-’70s standards), which also usually showcased one strong female officer prominently in the story line amid the all the testosterone in the briefing room. “CHiPs”, set in Los Angeles and a loose acronym for “California Highway Patrol”, was one of those rare shows that had a little something for everyone watching in the living room. Among those shows was “CHiPs”, which was originally broadcast on NBC from the fall of ’77 through the spring of ’83, turning actors Larry Wilcox and Erik Estrada into household names. In an essay that ran a couple of weeks ago, I had name-checked a short list of prime time action shows from the late ’70s through the early ’80s that placed spectacular car chases and crashes front-and-center. I have been reacquainting myself over the past couple of years with many of the television programs I used to love when I was growing up.
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