Trained for Trouble

Trained for Trouble
Episode #	523
Air Date	April 4, 1982
Briefing	?

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.
• When Bonnie visited Chippendales in Alarmed, she described the female mud wrestling as "vulgar, demeaning and debasing". Apparently seeing men strip off at the same venue is different, as she tells Grossman when he questions her about the show she's going to: "... because the striptease dancers are men? Big deal Grossie. Welcome to the 1980s."
• Chippendales opened in 1979 at a club that had been a disco called Destiny II. Originally it was a nightclub with female mud wrestling before becoming synonymous with male strippers. Located at 3739 Overland Avenue, the building is now an adult daycare center.

Mistakes

• 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"