Before “Hill Street Blues” broke the network procedural mold in the early 1980s, the television landscape was filled with hour-long series about cops, firemen and doctors, etc., which would involve their characters dealing with some crime or problem of the week. (sometimes the ripped-from-the-headlines variety). The narratives were entirely of the standalone variety (with the occasional two-part episode), so the key elements that kept audiences coming back for more were the threads and the stars. In terms of longevity, this formula may become stale for a while as long as the stars still somehow remain attractive enough to draw viewers to the show. But when people grew tired of the cast – or, worse, a major cast member left the series – the Nielsen ratings could quickly go down.
Is that why “Chips,” the popular NBC series about photogenic Southern California highway patrolmen Francis “Ponch” Poncherello (Eric Estrada) and John Andrew Baker (Larry Wilcox), rides around on their motorcycles and busts up traffic hassles? Worse, it is called. Left after six seasons in 1983? In a sense, yes.
The series became a sensation in the late 1970s partly on the strength of its cast’s chemistry, but primarily because of the attractive appeal of Estrada’s masculine but suave hunk to market audiences, who plays well in a police uniform. It seemed. Wilcox’s John himself was not hard on the eyes, but he mostly played the straight man disapproving of Ponch’s loose-cannon antics.
It seemed like a sweet, high-profile gig for everyone involved, so why did Wilcox inadvertently bail on the series before its final season?
Estrada and Wilcox weren’t really best friends
Estrada might have been the BMOC in “CHiPs”, but without Wilcox to keep his ego in check, his rude demeanor wasn’t as offensive. Alas, Wilcox also clearly had an ego, and as the series progressed, this caused a rift between the two.
As Robert Pine confessed in The Classic TV History Blog“There was some resentment, and it was a shame. But that’s the way it goes. I try not to take sides in this, because that doesn’t get you anywhere.”
The rivalry apparently reached its peak when Wilcox refused to invite Estrada to his wedding. Given that the show was shooting at the time, the tabloids made a fuss about the story. Wilcox could have simply let the story die by not commenting, but he chose to speak openly with people about the matter. “I thought about it a lot and decided not to invite them,” he said. “There is no point in telling people that Eric is my best friend because he is not and never will be.”
Wilcox was replaced by Tom Reilly for the show’s final season. Although he wasn’t invited to make a cameo in the 2017 “CHiPs” movie, he eventually developed such a good friendship with Estrada that the two met at a reunion-themed fundraiser in Indianapolis for the police nonprofit Blue Angel Connect. Be able to be seen. ,
In addition to acting, Wilcox has been busy over the years creating shows and films through his production company, Wilcox Productions. well, that and embroiled him in securities fraud,
