This 1977-78 Season of this police drama is the season that started it all about 2 of California's Finest bachelors that rode together for 5 years who were virtually inseperable 24/7 even on their days off and were often surrounded by foxy women on and off-duty.California Highway Officer Frank "Ponch" Poncherello(Erik Estrada)was the often hot-headed, more trouble-prone traffic officer and his faithful partner was California Highway Patrol Officer Jon Baker(Larry Wilcox); an ex-Marine/Vietnam veteran whom was the more fortunate & more laid-back traffic officer and California Highway Patrol Sgt. Joe Getraer(Robert Pine)was their ornery superior officer from CHP Central Division in L.A. who frequently butted heads with Ponch & Jon along with the fact that CHiPs was the show that launched the acting career for both Erik Estrada & Larry Wilcox and made them stars along with the fact that Ponch & Jon were TV's sexiest cops back then on top of that.Additionally, CHiPs took place in the L.A. Area like most other police dramas did, except CHiPs was the first cop show about Highway Patrolman instead of another cop show about policemen since most other cop dramas were either about police officers or Deputy Sheriffs like ADAM-12, DRAGNET, TJ HOOKER, HUNTER, 240-ROBERT, SHERIFF LOBO, etc., for instance which was part of the reason why CHiPs was so unique back then in the late 70's and early 80's along with the fact that CHiPs was the most popular cop show on television with the most action at the time, especially when it made its debut on NBC back in the Fall of 1977 which also made me want to be a cop & made me want to move to Southern California, especially since its way prettier than the Imperial Valley is, which by the way is where I come from & where I was living at the time since I was an Imperial County resident from 1974-1995.Therefore CHiPs was not only the first cop show about California Highway Patrol Officers instead of another cop drama about police officers or sheriffs deputies, CHiPs was also the first cop drama about motorcycle officers as well since most other police dramas pertained to cops either patrolling in a cruiser or working investigations unlike CHiPs along with the fact that CHiPs was probably the first cop show about a Latino and an anglo partnering up together on a police force, especially way before NYPD BLUE came along in the 90's.The 1st Season of CHiPs also shows you how Ponch & Jon started out earlier in their law enforcement career with the California Highway Patrol and how they ended up meeting each other and how they became partners, like in the pilot episode and in the "Flashback" episode for instance when it tells us the untold story about Ponch & Jon all the way back to when they first became motor-cops and even before they went to CHP motor-school all the way back to the days when Jon was a solo patrolman in a cruiser like every chippie has to do for at least 2 years before they can ever become a motor officer or a CHP pilot.It was also interesting seeing guest stars like*Gerald McRaney in the "Aweigh We Go" episode before he became a star on his co-starring days as the short-tempered gonzo private investigator(Rick Simon)on SIMON & SIMON & before his co-starring days on MAJOR DAD, and TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL*Joe Penny before his co-starring days on RIPTIDE and JAKE & THE FATMAN*Mills Watson in the "Rustling" episode before his co-starring days as the doofus(Deputy Perkins) on SHERIFF LOBO*Ellen Travolta in the "Cry Wolf" episode before her co-starring days on CHARLES IN CHARGE*Deborah Pratt in the "Crash Diet" episode before her co-starring days as Archangel's assistant(Marilla) on AIRWOLF*G.W. Bailey in the "Rustling" episode before his co-starring days on POLICE ACADEMY*H.R. Puf'n'Stuf doing a cameo in the "Green Thumb Burglar" episode along with the voice of Lennie WeinribThis 1977-1978 Season also takes you back to Ponch & Jon's earlier days in their career when Ponch was living in his RV and had no car and when Jon had his little car instead of his bitchin blue 4X4 GMC Sierra Classic pick up, which goes to show you how Ponch and Jon worked their way up in life, especially by the 2nd Season along with the fact that CHiPs didn't even have a lady fellow officer in this season nor their own CHP mechanic in this season either along with the fact that CHiPs 1st Season was also the only season without a female co-star, without a female fellow officer, and without a mechanic, since California Highway Patrol Officer Sindy Cahill(Brianne Leary) and CHP mechanic Harlan Arliss(Lou Wagner)didn't even join the cast and crew of CHiPs till the 2nd Season.The one thing that I can't help finding kind of odd about this police drama is Getraer along with quite a few other California Highway Patrolman would mention Sacramento and all the California Highway Patrols contacts up there since Sacramento is where the CHP headquarters and the CHP academy are both located at along with the fact that Sacramento is the capital of California on top of that, but I noticed that they still never ever showed one single episode of CHiPs in Sacramento or anywhere else in Northern California for that matter either and not even at the CHP academy either.Therefore, every single episode of CHiPs was only filmed here in Southern California and foremost in L.A. County even in the episodes where Jon & Ponch had a temporary transfer to patrol for another CHP division away from Central.For instance, in the "Aweigh We Go" episode; Getraer had Jon & Ponch temporarily transferred to the weigh station in the San Fernando Valley to patrol there to help local authorities crack down on semi-truck shipping thieves, which by the way even showed Ponch & Jon stopping at the "Six Flags Magic Mountain" amusement park in Valencia at one point.In the "Surfs Up" episode, Jon & Ponch request for an easier beat away from Central and Getraer surprisingly ends up temporarily transferring Ponch & Jon to patrol in beautiful Malibu where Jon & Ponch end up nabbing car strippers towards the end of the episode just before Jon & Ponch get transferred back to Central Division in Los Angeles.In the "Great 5K Star Race & Boulder Wrap Party", Ponch & Jon end up patrolling in Malibu to do traffic control on Pacific Coast Highway between Santa Monica & Malibu when a rock slide occurs causing a vicious mulitple traffic collison and when all the chippies end up at an event with numerous famous celebrities doing a cameo there like Milton Berle, George Peppard(The A-Team), Donna Miles, Gil Gerard(Buck Rogers), Susan Richardson(Eight Is Enough), Richard Kline(Three's Company), Todd Bridges(Different Strokes), Michael Warren(Hill Street Blues), Conrad Bain(Different Strokes), Chuck Woolery(Love Connection), Brian Kerwin(Sheriff Lobo), etc.Unfortunately, they never showed Ponch & Jon in Sacramento, but my hunch on why they never had any episodes in Sacramento is probably due to the fact that L.A. is the movie capital of the world along with the fact that Los Angeles is a lot more significant than Sacramento, plus has a lot of nice suburbs, unlike Sacramento along with the fact that LA is right next to Hollywood, not to mention that Hollywood is where they have the studios for the lookalike police station on CHiPs, which was the so-called CHP Central Division underneath the Santa Monica Freeway in L.A., plus Los Angeles is the biggest city with the largest population in the whole state of California on top of that, unlike Sacramento, which is why so many people believe that Los Angeles is the capital of California rather than Sacramento, despite the fact that L.A. was never the California state capital in the first place.Something else about this season that I couldn't help finding intriguing was I noticed that Michael Dorn which played Ponch & Jon's fellow Officer(Jeb Turner)in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Seasons of this show which by the way replaced Officer Gene Fritz(Lew Saunders)as the new 7-David in the 1979-80 Season, was used as an extra in a CHP uniform in a lot of episodes in this 1977-1978 Season, especially at the police station like in the episodes "Undertow", "Career Day", "Hustle", "One Two Many", "Rustling", etc.Something I couldn't help finding odd about this cop drama was even though Ponch & Jon along with the rest of their fellow officers always wore their CHP Summer uniform in the first half of each season & would wear their CHP Winter uniform in the second half of each season, except none of them ever wore a tie with their Winter uniform unlike most other California Highway Patrolmen which sometimes made their long-sleeved uniforms look less professional since the blue tie on the CHP's Winter uniform stands out a lot more & looks a lot more professional just like the tie does on most other law enforcement agencies Winter uniforms like LAPD and the L.A. County Sheriffs Office does too.So now, I can hardly wait for the 2nd Season and beyond to come out on DVD, since the Second Season is even better and is obviously a definite serious upgrade to the First Season of CHiPs.