The Original "CHiPs" Web Site
On May 11, 1995, Patrick Delahanty and Tim Lewis stayed up late to watch a "CHiPs" marathon on TNT. They had just finished their senior year at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and really had nothing better to do.
The show began and they started to wonder, "Is there a "CHiPs" web site?" Running to Patrick's new Power Macintosh 7100/80AV, they checked Yahoo! and a couple of search engines. Nothing...so they decided to make one.
That night, using the Macintosh for screen captures, they created The Original "CHiPs" Web Site. It was given that name because it was expected that other "CHiPs" sites would soon spring up as they had seen for other topics. Information was gathered about some of the episodes which aired in the marathon, some facts were written down for a makeshift FAQ, Volkswagens were counted (don't ask), and the screen shots were converted to poor-quality GIFs and put online.
In the late summer, Patrick moved to Boston to work as a "Websmith" at The Internet Company. He got the job, in part, due to the "CHiPs" site. Since his WPI account would be deleted in October, The Original "CHiPs" Web Site was moved to The Internet Underground on underground.internet.com.
In early 1996, the decision was made to rename the web site. This was partly because "The Original 'CHiPs' Web Site" sounded silly when there was only one...but mostly because of a problem with directories. Whenever the site was listed in a book or magazine, it was found under a different letter. It might be under "T" for "The", "O" for "Original", or "C" for "CHiPs". There was no consistent filing system. In order to solve these problems, the site was renamed to "CHiPs" Online.