Pilot

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 Directed by
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## Briefing

A spate of car thefts leaves the CHP confused as to how they are moving the cars out of California.

## Traffic Violations

* Speeding Carrera driver
* Tending to a glue spill across the freeway.
* Bushkin truck with a leaking oil - Citation given.
* Speeding biker causes a VW Beetle to overturn when he enters onto the freeway.
* Stop a speeding child on the road - Advice given.
* Small pile up when a Bushkin truck loses its load to get away - herded into the County Jail.

## Report

The pair chase a stolen Carrera but lose it giving chase.

During the briefing, Getraer gives the low down on the MO of the car thieves. They steal high end cars by staking out garages and then print fake parking tickets to collect the cars 20 minutes later. They also steal cars from parking lots, by jimmying the lock and then make master keys. They always hit one area and steal a maximum of six cars. Getraer informs them that the APB they responded to regarding the stolen Carrera was the sixth car. Getraer advises his men to stop any high end vehicle that looks suspicious. When the briefing is over Ponch tries to sneak out but Getraer stops him and asks him about anything he should know about that he doesn't know about. Ponch avoids the question so Getraer advises him that a certain CHP Officer was dirt biking at night on a CHP bike and asks him if he knows who that was. Getraer tells Ponch he has two more days left on his probation and tells him not to blow it. Getraer dismisses them due to a spill on the highway and tells them to look after it.

They arrive to find a glue spill and while Jon diverts traffic, Ponch goes to speak to the driver of the overturned truck. The driver tells Ponch a car cut in front of him and before he knew it he was square dancing across the freeway. The glue is still spilling out and is now going under Ponch's bike.

While Jon is diverting traffic around the spill, he notices oil leaking from a Bushkin van and tells them to pull over. Inside the van are the stolen vehicles and the oil is coming from the Carrera they were chasing earlier. Jon tells them that they are leaking oil in the back and it can be dangerous to motorists as well as motorcyclists. Ponch notices his bike is stuck in the glue and attempts to free it. Ponch revs the engines and eventually frees the bike, however there's not enough room to maneuver so he crashes the bike into the overturned trailer as well as taking a roll in the glue. Jon notices that their tyres are low as well, he starts writing a mechanical (citation) to the drivers of the Bushkin van only to be interrupted by Ponch who's angry at Jon since he's being social leaving him to do all the work as well as have people laugh at his expense, he finishes the ticket and tells the van to move out. Jon gives Ponch a word of advice, Ponch apologises.

Back at the station, Getraer is waiting expectantly outside. Ponch has a mechanical stuck to his thigh and hands it over to Getraer who has problems trying to get rid of it. He escorts the pair to his office where he is finally freed from the sticky ticket, he opens a filing cabinet with some difficulty due to one folder being overstuffed. It's Ponch's file. Getraer tells Ponch that his jacket doesn't have anymore room for another one of his accidents and wonders why everytime he goes out, his bike always comes back ready for a funeral. Ponch walks out telling Getraer he has a report to write, after walking some distance from the office Ponch shows utter relief at surviving his torturous lecture.

Getraer asks Jon about Ponch, and he defends him. With no other bikes for Ponch to ride on, Getraer loans him his own bike. Ponch calls it a lead bomb. After stopping a Jaguar to check it a biker tears past, the pair give pursuit.

The biker fails to check on coming traffic when joining the freeway and causes a red VW Beetle to overturn.

Ponch man handles the biker so Jon tells him to take care of the woman in the beetle while he takes care of the biker.

Ponch asks the woman her name and she tells him it's Carol Rosen, she tells him she's fine but when he attempts to move her she cries out in pain. Ponch reassures her until the paramedics arrive.

During a racketball match, Getraer tells Ponch that the truck they gave a mechanical cite to belonged to an auto carrier not a box van. Ponch tells Getraer that it was a box van and Getraer tells him the computer says it's an auto carrier. Ponch tells him to run it through again, Getraer is adamant that the van was an auto carrier. Ponch puts it down to a mistake when he wrote it.

After a racketball game, Ponch is trying to woo a woman in the bar, Jon is feeling a little left out so he scares her off by telling her they are cops.

At the briefing, Getraer tells everyone that the car thieves struck again this time at a party. The real attendants were found unharmed but guns were involved so he tells everyone to be extra careful when pulling anyone over. Fritz asks Ponch to confirm the plate for the Bushkin truck he's looking for. He wants to prove Getraer wrong by confirming the mechanical he wrote was for a box van.

Since it's Ponch's final day on probation he requests that they have a nice quiet day. Soon they stop a 6 year old for riding on the wrong side of the street and speeding. Baricza spots the truck Ponch is looking for and informs him of its location.

They pull the truck over but there's a problem with the plates, Ponch checked them and they are for an auto carrier but the truck they pulled over is definitely a box van. Jon notices that the plates don't match the paperwork they've been handed over. Jon checks it with dispatch while Ponch asks them about the dodgy plates. The men tell Ponch that that's not their plate and they've been driving the same rig for over two years. Jon returns and tells Ponch that Bushkin confirmed that the plate is not one of theirs. Jon deduces that the thieves must have switched the plates to take the heat off themselves after receiving the ticket. Ponch concludes that the truck they stopped the other day was the auto carrier and that the thieves maximum steal is six cars, enough to fit into an auto carrier. Jon agrees due to the low tires on the supposed empty truck and the oil leak must have been from one of the stolen cars since it wasn't coming from the engine.

They put out an APB on the Bushkin truck with the real plates from the truck they stopped. Gene Fritz in his patrol car spots the Bushkin truck and begins following it and calls it in.

The driver in the truck notices the patrol car following them, but since the truck has a full load they can't make a getaway. They decide to dump the trailer by causing a small pile up and driving off without the carrier attached. Jon and Ponch give chase. The truck decides to lose them downtown. Ponch notices which area they are in and they pull off some elaborate moves to herd the truck where they want it to go, right to the LA County Jail.

Getraer is waiting outside the precinct again, this time to tell them they received a commendation for their efforts in busting the car thefts. Getraer declares Ponch's probation over.

Jon waves off Ponch who can now ride solo. He spots a car drifting across lanes on the freeway, he tells the woman driver to pull over and waves her to the side lane. While he's waving her to pull over she drives down an embankment.

She is Edna Gellar, who is related to Bill Gellar, a big Captain up in Sacramento. Getraer tells Ponch to synchronize his watch.

## Notes

* The boy on the bike that Jon and Ponch stop is Rick Rosner's nephew and it's how Larry Wilcox received his characters name.

### Ponch's Good Luck

* Inadvertently solves the car thefts when proving Getraer wrong about writing a mechanical citation.
* Passes Probation.
* Meets his future wife, Carol Rosen in a traffic accident.

### Ponch's Bad Luck

* Falls off his bike.
* Caught riding his CHP bike off duty in the hills. (mentioned only)
* Wrecks his bike & uniform after trying to free it from a glue spill.
* Gets sprayed with beer when the guy riding shotgun in a Bushkin truck throws it out of their window.
* Placed back on probation when he causes an elderly driver to drive down an embankment when he asks her to pull over.

### Codes used.

* Code 4 - No further assistance needed.
* 10-97 - Arrived at the scene.
* 187 - Homicide.
* 10-4 - Message received.
* 23-1-10 - Person throwing objects at vehicles.
* 10-20 - Location.

## Quotes

* Jon: Keep the tack in the black, baby.
* Ponch: Now I know why people are scared of cops.

## Cast

### Main

* Larry Wilcox: Jon Baker
* Erik Estrada: Frank Poncherello
* Robert Pine: Joe Getraer

### Recurring

* Brodie Greer: Baricza
* Lew Saunders: Gene

### Others

* Brooke Bundy: Carol Rosen
* Paul Mantee: Eddie
* Michael Christian: Jerry
* Thomas Huff: Mike
* Hoke Howell: Tex
* Eric Server: Greg
* Philip Simms: Van driver
* Darlene Duralia: Sherri
* Richard Cangey: Van helper
* Charles Huskey: CHP Mechanic
* Mary Moon: CHP Clerk
* Jonathan Andrew Baker: Boy on Bike