One (or two) perfect episodes…well, now three…

Check out my take on the perfect episode of one of my childhood favorites here.

This the tenth installment of a series reflecting on a sabbatical that ended one year ago. It will run each Wednesday through the summer. 

One of the more enjoyable projects I worked on while I was away from the classroom found me in a message from a former student, Sean. He writes and edits for Drunk Monkeys, a site I frequent for quick, pithy film takes and writing that often finds depth in its brevity.

In particular, Sean thought I might have something to contribute to one of their features, One Perfect Episode. The series features 1,000-ish word takes on the singular episode of the author’s television series of choice. Given my penchant for all things pop culture, this was not a bad assumption on his part.

Specifically, of course I had something: CHiPs. 

The genesis of my childhood television consumption begins with afternoon rebroadcasts of shows like Emergency and SWAT and Ironsides. But the first show I claimed as mine is the buddy cop classic depiction of swinging bachelor lawmen on bikes, cruising the LA freeways and doling out justice. The show had everything I was looking for: twenty-car pileups and high-speed chases, a slick disco soundtrack that matched the zeitgeist of the culture, and highly implausible storylines that always ended with the good guys coming out ahead just in time to share a good-natured joke at each other’s expense.

CHiPs was my gateway drug to shows like The Dukes of Hazzard, Knight Rider, and Air Wolf. Popcorn action with heroic possibilities and some humor to lighten the burden of the real-world experience of growing up in the 80s.

As for that one perfect episode of CHiPs, well, that was easy. “Roller Disco, Parts 1 & 2” is the singular achievement of all the show wanted to be. It is the moment of triumph and the exact point at which the show began to descend into a parody of itself. The argument could be made that it was the exact same moment for the end of the 70s and disco culture.

But that’s a big claim, and while the action of CHiPs was always larger than life, it’s issues were not. And that’s why is still resides in my head as a priori form of engaging with culture, even as I have watched my heroes, Ponch and Jon, go on to sell cheap land in Oklahoma and bad financial advice respectively.     

Enjoyably, the CHiPs post led to another on a show I love even more, Psych. Check out my working against type One Perfect Episode on “Lock, Stock, Some Smoking Barrels, and Burton Guster’s Goblet of Fire.”

You know that’s right.

And if you want more, here’s my counter-popular-opinion take on “Mistaken Identity,” the perfect episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.