Trained for Trouble

Trained for Trouble
Episode #	523
Air Date	April 4, 1982
Briefing	Male Strippers at Chippendales, Animal Control Officer, Animal Trainer, Bank Robberies, Mental Health Patient, Stolen CHP Uniforms, Stolen Property, Narcissistic Ex-Girlfriend, Dirty Female CHP Officer, Woman is Hospitalized at UCLA Medical Center.

Title screen

Brief Plot

A guy teaches his animals to rob banks. A new stripper at Chippendales, who performs as a CHP motorcycle cop, bears a striking resemblance to Ponch, and just about every woman in LA seems to think that Ponch is the mystery stripper. A guy called Herzog keeps claiming he committed robberies that he reads about in newspapers.

Plot

At a bank, dogs and chimps are robbing it while Bonnie, Grossie, Ponch, and Jon are having lunch. As they leave, Ponch and Jon chase the animals down an alley and onto a roof. The chimps and dogs are too fast for them though and get away when their owner drives them off in a truck.

Later, someone comes to HQ confessing to the crime...but he doesn't know any details so they know he didn't do it an send him home. That night at Chippendales, a CHP look-alike shows up to strip. Bonnie arrives just before he leaves and misses seeing the guy strip. The next day she shows the pictures to Ponch because her friends thought it was him. After the commercial break, Ponch and Jon pull over a speeding Mercedes. The woman they stop thinks that Ponch is the stripper.

Meanwhile, Turner sees a bird steal money bags from a Pervis armoured car shipment. Ponch and Jon chase after the bird. When Ponch gets distracted from looking at the bird, he drives off the road and tears his shirt. Back at Central, the guys make stripping music while Ponch takes his shirt off. After the confesser gets let off again, Ponch goes to Chippendales and meets the manager. He gets the impersonator's name and number so that he can talk to the guy.

Later, on patrol, Ponch and Jon chase after a motorcycle rider with a dog on his back. They call ahead and have a roadblock set up. It turns out it's not the guy sending animals to rob places so they let him go with just "evadin arrest". That night at Chippendales, the confessor dons a mask and goes inside while Ponch meets his look-alike. When the confessor robs the safe, the look-alike goes after him. When he shows up and confesses, Grossie and Baricza are about to let him go when he recognizes Ponch. They realize that he DID do the crime. When they finally arrest him, he starts denying everything.

When Ponch and Jon go to the hospital to meet the look-alike, they find the animal man, chase him, and arrest him. Back at Central, Ponch is offered a job at Chippendales.

Guest Stars

• Don Stroud as Lou Poole
• Belinda Montgomery as Elaine Price
• Dan Hedeya as Herzog
• Frank Aletter as Dr. Johnson
• Nita Talbot as Nita
• Paul Linke as Grossman
• Lou Wagner as Harlan

Co-Starring

• Brodie Greer as Baricza
• Michael Dorn as Turner
• Jo Anna Lehmann as Nurse
• Carole Wyand as Sharon
• John Macchia as Farren
• Terri Hanauer as Cynthia
• Richard Reicheg as Bank Manager

Featuring

• Angelo Bernardi as Officer Richard
• Richard Charles Barsh as Emcee
• Chrissy Kellogg as Blonde
• Marty Davis as Wino
• Scott Dimalante as Doorman
• Debbie Anthony as Bank Teller
• Randi Oakes as Bonnie Clark

Crew

• Executive Producer: Cy Chermak
• Producer: Paul Rabwin
• Story Supervisor: William D. Gordon
• Written By: Larry Alexander
• Directed By: Barry Crane
• Executive Consultant: Rick Rosner
• Story Editors: L. Ford Neale & John Huff
• Executive 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: Albert P. Wilson A.C.E.
• Unit Production Manager: Donald Gold
• First Assistant Director: Steven P. saeta
• Second Assistant Director: Leslie L. Jackson
• Script Supervisor: Jack Gannon
• Set Decorator: W. Joseph Kroesser
• Production Consultant: Dave McDannel
• Stunt Co-ordinator: Paul Nuckles
• Rerecorded 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 T. Schenck
• Hair Stylist: Don Lynch
• Assistant Editor: Bill L. Theobald
• Sound Editor: Edward M. Osborne
• Music Editor: Jan Gershkoff
• Casting: Cathy Henderson, Barbara Hanley
• 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

Chippendales sign

• The Pervis armored car was last seen in the episode In the Best of Families.
• Don Stroud (Lou Poole) previously appeared as Sonny Matson in Crash Course in season 4.
• Belinda Montgomery (Elaine Price) is probably best known as the mother of Doogie Howser M.D.. She also played Sonny Crockett's ex-wife in Miami Vice.
• Dan Hedeya (Herzog) played Carla's sleazy ex-husband Nick Tortelli in Cheers and its spin-off The Tortellis.
• Somen Bannergee along with his partner attorney Bruce Nahin, had bought a failing night club that was originally called Destiny II in 1974, deciding to venture into a disco, including a casino, they had finally decided to change the name to Chippendales in 1977 because of the style furniture that was originally inside the club, which they had later decided to venture into female mud wrestling, exotic dancing, stripping for the male audiences, after failing several times because of successful business venture the Hollywood Tropicana, finally in 1979 they had teamed up with choreographer Nicolas De Noia, including nightclub promoter Paul Snider, into order to a venture around from female to male mud wrestling, old wrestling, exotic dancing, stripping for the female audiences after several lawsuits, including murders, the club finally closed its doors on December 15, 1988, located at 3739 Overland Avenue, Palms, Los Angeles, CA 90034, and the building is now an adult daycare center. View in Google Maps
• The entrance of Chippendales was actually used by mistake during the last minute of editing the episode Alarmed that was filmed at the Hollywood Tropicana which actually consists of female mud wrestlers later during November of 1981, considering parts were Randi Oakes visits this night club which is actually consists of male strippers in this episode as part of going undercover during a bachelorette party on Saturday night, Erik Estrada visits the same night club, and both these scenes were filmed in early October of 1981.
• This is actually first episode of Season 5 that contains animal control, bank robbery, including male strippers, bachelorette party, the second episode the contains lasers was called Bright Flashes, and both of these episodes were actually weird written scripts.

Mistakes

• After the robbery via bird takes place, the dispatcher gives the "suspect" description and Jon picks up his radio mike and says "What?" at which point the dispatcher repeats the description. Radio procedure would be for Jon to call in using his designator "7 Mary 3" and ask the dispatcher to repeat the transmission. As a seasoned officer, Jon would use this procedure as a matter of routine, which he does in the following scene. Additionally, even though Turner sees the crime, he is never heard on the radio.
• After arresting the motorcyclist, Getraer tells Ponch that there is the possibility of false arrest. Since the officers observed the motorcyclist commit several traffic violations and he then tried to evade arrest, the arrest was lawful.
• Getraer tells Ponch and Jon that Herzog is facing 5 years for robbery and 14 years for hit and run. Circa 1982 in California, the penalty for felony robbery was more severe than for traffic offenses such as hit and run. Additionally, the injury to the dancer was not an accident but was an intentional act, so a hit and run (accident) charge would be improper.
• In an earlier episode Alarmed, Bonnie brings her cousin Tom (who is visiting from out of town) to the Chippendales to watch female mud wrestling. Bonnie is horrified by what she sees, and describes female mud wrestling as "vulgar, demeaning and debasing", and storms off, saying that the act is degrading and demeaning, yet in this episode, Bonnie has no problem with watching men strip, and she acts as if she has never visited Chippendales before. Apparently seeing the men strip off their clothes at the same venture is different, as she tells Grossie when he questions her about the show she's going to: "... because the striptease dancers are men? Big deal Grossie. Welcome to the 1980s."
• When the hawk returns to Poole with the bag of money, the bag the bird is carrying is much smaller than the original bag that was stolen.
• When Herzog is first confessing to the night club robbery to Grossman and Baricza the time on the wall is about 12:30. When they then take him to talk to Gatrear the clock on his wall reads 3:50.
• Since Herzog was a known false confessor, Baricza and later Bonnie would not have wasted their time arresting him. Both would likely be reprimanded for doing so. Additionally, the CHP does not investigate robberies such as the ones depicted, so anyone confessing to one would have been referred to or handed off to local law enforcement such as the LAPD or LASD.
• Getraer is shown following up on the bank robbery by trying to find animal trainers, and assigns Ponch and Jon to contact some former circus acts. The CHP does not investigate bank robberies, and despite what is often depicted highway patrol officers do not perform investigative work other than traffic.
• Even though it was the 1980's (as noted by Bonnie), a female CHP employee at the CHP station waving a dollar bill as Ponch and Jon walked by and Ponch accepting it after kissing her on the lips would be considered improper workplace conduct.
• The cornering/banking forces involved while the dog is shown sitting on the rear of the black motorcycle during the pursuit would have thrown the dog off the motorcycle.
• When the guy is running away with the dog on his back, the motorcycle's headlight causes a ghostly reflection to hover between the motorcycle and the camera. This was presumably due to a plastic shield protecting the camera from any rain that might fall since it was a very overcast day.
• The guy with the dog on the motorbike rides up and down the same bits of Griffith Park Drive, but it's shot from different angles to make it look like a continuous road.
• The scene where Lou Poole crashes his pickup was filmed in daylight, but the part where he's pulled out of the flaming wreck was obviously filmed at night.

Preceded by: "A Threat of War"

Trained for Trouble 523

Followed by: "Ice Cream Man"