Michael Peña says US media overplays police brutality Read more

You know who’s not happy about Dax Shepard’s forthcoming movie reboot of police drama CHiPs? The series’ original stars, Larry Wilcox and Erik Estrada – Jon and Ponch themselves. Wilcox tweeted after a preview screening: “Way to go Warner Bros - just ruined the Brand of CHIPS and of the Calif Highway Patrol. Great choice!” while Estrada retweeted hostile comments from fans vouchsafing that CHiPs never drew their guns.

I take their point: the remake – starring Dax Shepard and Michael Peña in place of Larry and Erik – will likely traffic in heavy dick and fart jokes, straying far from the tonal perfection of the TV show that ran from 1977 to 1983. Except … no. Because CHiPs was always mesmerisingly terrible. It was one of those shows that had the backing of a major California police agency (Dragnet did the same for the LAPD; SWAT for its titular LAPD commando outfit), and was thus tied down by the Highway Patrol’s gung-ho, white-boy Eagle Scout illusions about itself (and, if we’re honest, about people like Ponch). And just how exactly has “never drawing your gun” made for great television at any time since 1954? The only cure for that is fart jokes.

Six to watch: LA cop shows Read more

Truth is, if they remade CHiPs straight today, we’d laugh it out of the movie house: it’s a figment of the bygone white SoCal of Darryl Gates and Walt Disney. So writer-director-star Shepard and his collaborators chose the path of least resistance for their route to CHiPs-revivification: they Buddy-Movied it. They dropkicked it through the “48 Hrs” squabbling-duo template, as they always do. And then they’ll turn the comedy guns inwards, and unload on everything that was rubbish about the show in the first place.

It’s a dependable formula, and it worked with Starsky and Hutch, The Dukes of Hazzard, and 21/22 Jump St, or mixed teams such as The Mod Squad, Charlie’s Angels and Get Smart (only two of those seven are worth a second viewing). Mission: Impossible and Miami Vice did manage to take their originals seriously, which was commendable, I suppose, but only because neither show was ever noted for its wit.

No one has dared to remake any of the great lone-hero series like The Rockford Files, Columbo, Cannon or Kojak (you can have your way with Magnum, PI, see if I care). That’s because those shows, unlike CHiPs, had integrity and wit by the bagful first time round, and stars of real grit and presence to carry them. The only way we’ll ever see them adapted now is as “Rocky and Columbo - Together at Last!” But, please: don’t.

CHiPs is out in cinemas on Friday 24 March