# chips vrs. adam 12? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 24, 2017, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chips-vrs-adam-12/785168 "2017-04-24T21:40:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![escaped](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@escaped](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/escaped)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2017, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chips-vrs-adam-12/785168/1 "2017-04-24T21:40:46Z")
Which in your opinion was better? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2017, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chips-vrs-adam-12/785168/2 "2017-04-24T21:56:17Z")
I’ll have to go with _CHIPs_. Both were products of their time, while I enjoyed _Adam-12_ when I was a child, it seems a bit stilted now. Of course _CHIPs_ was a bit hokey with cars and such blowing up all the time and the wacky Special Guest Stars. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2017, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chips-vrs-adam-12/785168/3 "2017-04-24T22:10:45Z")
Nah _Adam-12_ for me. At least, they tried to make it a little realistic. Yeah, it was earnest and a little gung ho. It was an offshoot of Jack Webb’s _Dragnet_. _CHiPs_, what little I saw of it just looked stupid. Full crashes and spills at full speed on the highway, and everybody gets up like nothing happened. Like _The A-Team_. Dumb. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2017, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chips-vrs-adam-12/785168/4 "2017-04-24T22:13:23Z")
Fun fact, I met Ponch at a local carnival a few years ago. My buddy also lost his wallet. We like to think Ponch lifted it while we got a picture taken with him. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2017, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chips-vrs-adam-12/785168/5 "2017-04-24T23:42:47Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > Nah _Adam-12_ for me. At least, they tried to make it a little realistic. Yeah, it was earnest and a little gung ho. It was an offshoot of Jack Webb’s _Dragnet_. I’ll agree with that. ‘Earnest’ was the word I was looking for. More realistic, for a Jack Webb production, for its time. But it does seem a bit dated. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2017, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chips-vrs-adam-12/785168/6 "2017-04-24T23:46:01Z")
CHiPs. More fun spotting '60s and '70s cars, as I recall. Also, Ponch and Johnny’s off-duty fashions were a hoot. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2017, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chips-vrs-adam-12/785168/7 "2017-04-24T23:46:08Z")
_“One-Adam-Twelve, see the man about no comparison whatsoever.”_ CHIPS had those goofy episode-ending frozen-laugh frames. Say no more! ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2017, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chips-vrs-adam-12/785168/8 "2017-04-24T23:51:06Z")
CHiPs is the best show of all time, so the answer is obvious. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2017, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chips-vrs-adam-12/785168/9 "2017-04-24T23:52:51Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > _“One-Adam-Twelve, see the man about no comparison whatsoever.”_ I was going to say that, and started typing it. But they’re both about two cops on the beat, one pair in a car, and the other on K1000s. Both had criminals that needed to be caught, both had ‘personal’ stories… Stylistically, they’re completely different. But the premises are pretty much the same. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2017, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chips-vrs-adam-12/785168/10 "2017-04-24T23:54:37Z")
> [@Ponch8](#): > > CHiPs is the best show of all time, so the answer is obvious. Erik, is that you? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chips-vrs-adam-12/785168/11 "2017-04-25T00:08:00Z")
**Ponch8** : So is your name pronounced ‘Ponch-eight’, or ‘Ponch-Ocho’? (I saw a license plate on a truck driven by a Hispanic guy in L.A. that was ‘8A’. I figured his name was ‘Ochoa’.) ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chips-vrs-adam-12/785168/12 "2017-04-25T00:14:27Z")
_Emergency_ was the best of the shows set in LA. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chips-vrs-adam-12/785168/13 "2017-04-25T00:18:04Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > _Emergency_ was the best of the shows set in LA. I might have to agree with this. And one great thing about _Emergency_, you could be halfway across the house when the theme song started, and you’d hear it. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chips-vrs-adam-12/785168/14 "2017-04-25T01:03:33Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > **Ponch8** : So is your name pronounced ‘Ponch-eight’, or ‘Ponch-Ocho’? (I saw a license plate on a truck driven by a Hispanic guy in L.A. that was ‘8A’. I figured his name was ‘Ochoa’.) Ponch eight, although I suppose Ponch Ocho would make more sense. The 8 comes from another website I signed up for many years ago. I assume that plain old Ponch and Ponches 1-7 were already taken. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chips-vrs-adam-12/785168/15 "2017-04-25T01:05:20Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > Erik, is that you? Unfortunately not. Erik Estrada was awesome in the CHiPs movie that came out last month. He had a cameo as a paramedic near the end of the movie. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chips-vrs-adam-12/785168/16 "2017-04-25T12:25:57Z")
Lincoln, X-ray, Ida. Got to go with Adam-12, and Dragnet before that. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chips-vrs-adam-12/785168/17 "2017-04-25T13:02:58Z")
Absolutely Adam-12. Points for realism and earnestness. A lack of half-assed Hollywood stuff because Jack Webb ain’t playing that. Toss in the shared universe thing - Dragnet, Adam-12 and Emergency all happened in the same version of LA - and it’s a no-brainer. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chips-vrs-adam-12/785168/18 "2017-04-25T15:19:10Z")
Adam-12. No comparison. The CHiPpies were the absolute worst in chases. They couldn’t catch a semi truck in a sports arena (at least, in the first or second act). It should have been embarrassing. And how can they talk to each other or on the radio? the wind noise would make them all “WHAT?” “WHAT?” Though Adam-12 did have a propensity to have all the characters start talking like Jack Webb at random times. Adam-12 made me want to be a LAPD cop. CHiPs made me want to be a crook. Shows like Southland make me hate the LAPD. Maybe they were always corrupt, but at least Adam-12 made me believe they could be something to aspire to. I enjoyed the few episodes of the New Adam-12 that I saw. Seemed to capture the “earnestness” of the original. I wonder if they’ll ever put them out on DVD. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chips-vrs-adam-12/785168/19 "2017-04-25T15:26:54Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > Toss in the shared universe thing - Dragnet, Adam-12 and Emergency all happened in the same version of LA - and it’s a no-brainer. Technically…they both inhabited a moebius-strip universe that wrapped around itself. In one episode, the Station 51 crew are watching Adam-12 on TV, and in another they are interacting with Adam-12. Chester B Kelly was a crook in more than one Adam-12 episode, and Marco was a fellow patrol cop to Reed and Malloy. Dragnet might be just a bit\* too\* earnest for my tastes, but at least they had them doing the forgotten parts of detective work - bunco, fraud, theft. They weren’t the glamour boys of homicide (let alone the elite RHD). ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chips-vrs-adam-12/785168/20 "2017-04-25T15:27:06Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > Toss in the shared universe thing - Dragnet, Adam-12 and Emergency all happened in the same version of LA - and it’s a no-brainer. Oh yes, definitely a plus. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chips-vrs-adam-12/785168.md?page=2)