Season two of CHiPs begins with a show called Peaks and Valleys, which refers primarily to Jon Baker (Larry Wilcox) and his mood at the moment. He’s become temporarily disenchanted. It starts at the beginning when a paramedic reads him the riot act for moving a man who might have spinal injuries. The thing is, Jon never touched him; neither did his partner, Frank ‘Ponch’ Poncerello (Erik Estrada).

Troy Donahue guest stars as Bob Niles, the man with the injury with Kaye Stevens as his wife. Stevens was okay, but I really felt that Donahue was flat. I didn’t even recognize him, to be honest. I was very disappointed with the lack of spark; it was like he was just quietly droning his lines.

Richard Gates plays Stan Bosca, an old friend of Jon’s who tries to convince him to rejoin the private sector and quit the CHP. That gives us some of the drama to the story, since Jon is feeling conflicted at the moment.

For the first time, Lou Wagner appears in the show as Harlan, the well dressed and very clean mechanic. He’s quite different than one would expect. He even has a dog named Dave. Wagner remains with the show for the rest of its seasons. He’s an officer wannabe, only he’s too short.

Another guest star I noticed was Martin West. He plays Lundsford, one of those attorneys out to get what he can from an accident. He’s the one trying to get the Niles’ to pursue their claim. I know West from his role on General Hospital which was pivotal for many, many years long before everyone went gaga over Luke and Laura.

The show began the ‘Frank is hot’ theme that continues for seasons by having Estrada parade his stuff all over the dance floor as if he were John Travolta. Seriously, there was no one there but him and everyone was applauding. I think it was overkill, and I’m a Ponch fan.

On the down side, two guys absolutely destroy Officer Baricza’s car with tommy guns. Then he gets the drop on them, but the sad part is that the way one of them was holding the gun, he could have gotten off a bunch of shots before Baricza could have done anything. It just looked odd, especially with Ponch over on the side just watching and not announcing his presence. This was very poorly staged and came off like a school play.

I thought the show was actually a little slow for the first third of it. There was some action, but even it seemed to move like a snail. I was a little disappointed.

Unfortunately, season two doesn’t have the great endings like the first season did where action occurred during the final credits. Like Adam-12, which did similar things in its first season, this was cut, probably for budget considerations.

Finally, there was a slight change to the theme music that wasn’t for the better; it added more computer tech or something to the beats. I just don’t like the alteration.

Rating: 7