Moonlight

Moonlight
Episode #	503
Air Date	October 18, 1981
Briefing	Look out for "hopped-up" Camaro/Volunteer needed for traffic control detail/Take tire impressions.

Title screen

Brief Plot

Jon and Ponch visit Robbie's trucking company to see if she might know who's been illegally dumping toxic chemicals. Ponch's moonlighting leads to rumors flying around Central that he's close to bankruptcy.

Plot

Bonnie talking into the CB Radio while sitting in her own patrol car.

Some guys are dumping toxic waste and one of them speeds off to keep Ponch and Jon away from the dumping. He ends up causing a major accident. After the briefing on that car, the other CHP officers try to get Sarge in on the celebration of Ponch and Jon's 4th anniversary.

Out on the streets, two women on motorcycles start shooting at a car. They end up distracting the driver as he drives through an explosives truck. Ponch just stands by watching and holding back traffic because it's for a movie called "Angel Patrol". When a horse is spooked, Jon jumps off the back of Ponch's motor and onto the horse. He stops it. Meanwhile, a girl gets sick after playing around toxic waste.

Ponch and Jon visit some old friends looking for info on who may have dumped the chemicals. When they return to the dump site, they end up chasing that Camaro again. Jon gives up the chase when chemicals burn a hole in Ponch's tire, causing him to fall off. Baricza finds the chemical barrels.

After the second briefing, everyone thinks Ponch is hurting for money because he keeps taking on extra traffic details. Out on the streets, Ponch and Jon finally manage to stop the Camaro. That night, everyone shows up at Ponch's apartment. (Sarge says he came because he just wanted to play a record and he doesn't have a record player.)

It turns out, the chemical dumper was in debt so he used his boss, Charley's, car (that was supposed to be in the shop) while dumping. Robbie tells Ponch and Jon that there's another dumping run in progress. Charley and Gil get in a fight and the truck goes off the road and starts to burn. To prevent the explosion from sending up a cloud of poison gas, Ponch and Jon send the cab down the hill away from the trailer. At the third briefing, Ponch presents Jon with the speakers he was eyeing at the top of the show. Jon tells Ponch he sold his stereo to get Ponch a record changer/turntable. Then Ponch tells Jon he sold his stereo too. Everyone has a good laugh as the credits begin.

Guest Stars

• Tige Andrews as Charley
• Bill Lucking as Gil
• Judy Strangis as Sharon
• Katherine Cannon as Robbie
• Paul Linke as Grossman
• Lou Wagner as Harlan

Co-Starring

• Brodie Greer as Baricza
• Michael Dorn as Turner
• Thom Koutsoukos as Director
• Harv Selsby as Arnie
• Alison Balson as Amy
• Candi Brough as Midge
• Randi Brough as Margo

Featuring

• Sandi Cornell as Kathy
• Courtney Witas as Jennifer
• Leigh Kim as Dr. Lee
• Randi Oakes as Bonnie Clark

Crew

• Executive Producer: Cy Chermak
• Produced by: Paul Rabwin
• Written by: Rudy Dochtermann
• Directed by: Earl Bellamy
• Executive Consultant: Rick Rosner
• Story Editors: L. Ford Neale & John Huff
• Associate Producer: Randall Torno
• Developed for television by: Paul Playdon
• Music by: Alan Silvestri
• Theme by: John Parker
• Music Supervisor: Harry V. Lojewski
• Director of Photography: Robert F. Sparks
• Art Director: Stephen Myles Berger
• Editor: Joe Morrisey
• Unit Production Manager: Donald Gold
• First Assistant Director: Chuck Lowry
• Second Assistant Director: Leslie Jackson
• Script Supervisor: Jack Gannon
• Set Decorator: W. Joseph Kroesser
• Production Consultant: Dave McDannel
• Stunt Co-ordinator: Paul Nuckles
• Recorded at: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios
• Sound: Harlan Riggs, M. Curtis Price C.A.S.
• Wardrobe Supervisor: Shelly Levine
• Makeup: Richard Cobos S.M.A., Walter Schenck
• Hairdresser: Don Lynch
• Casting: Cathy Henderson
• With Appreciation to Glen B. Craig, Commissioner California Highway Patrol
• Motorcycles Furnished by: Kawasaki Motors Corp., U.S.A.
• Filmed in METROCOLOR / Titles and Opticals MGM
• Rosner Television in association with MGM Television

Fun Facts

• Candi and Randi Brough made an uncredited appearance, along with many other celebrities, in The Great 5K Star Race and Boulder Wrap Party (Part 2).
• Judy Strangis (Sharon) played Karen Costello in Kidnap.
• Katherine Cannon's fourth and last appearance in CHiPs, and her third as Robbie. It's also Tige Andrews' third and last appearance as her father, Charley.
• The first Camaro chase goes through the tunnel on Mount Hollywood Drive in Griffith Park, previously seen in The Grudge. Jon then asks Bonnie to set up a road block at the west end of the last tunnel, obviously referring to the tunnels on Kanan Dume Road (where the chase is meant to be taking place) that were used in Career Day.
• The first exterior shot of Valley General Hospital originally appeared in A Simple Operation.
• A short clip of Jon and Ponch on a dirt road, just before their second encounter with the Camaro, is recycled from The Poachers.
• William Lucking (credited here as Bill) spent three episodes pursuing The A-Team as Col. Lynch. He also made three appearances in Star Trek: DS9, two of them with Michael Dorn.

Mistakes

Cab next to trailer

• When Jon and Ponch first chase the Camaro, Jon calls in the pursuit as southbound on Kanan Road between Ventura Freeway and the Pacific Coast Highway. Including Kanan Dume Road, that's a twelve and a half mile stretch of road, which seems like a very vague location.
• The tunnel in Griffith Park is used twice in the opening chase, supposedly as two different tunnels, but the graffiti at the entrance gives it away.
• The flaming truck cab is to the side of the trailer when it rolls down the hill.

Preceded by: "Vagabonds"

Moonlight 503

Followed by: "The Killer Indy"