In this case, it is the latter, which feels appropriate given that this was a Show about fast Cars and Bikes.
In Season 5, the Producers of CHiPs tried twice to spin-off the Show. The first time was about two Lady Cops (CoPs?) who were once in the Department.
The time I'm focusing on, however, features Ninjas (or NiNJAs), a Nuclear Missile and...John Rhys-Davies.
Well, it wasn't his last Backdoor Pilot (see here), but was it his worst?
This is...
That's their cue to exit as we meet a young Cop assigned to Force Seven, which is led by...a one-eyed French-American Karate Master.
Rounding out Force Seven is the Token Asian Lady and a big strong guy with *sigh* a slightly-racist Puppet. And yes, he does the voice.
I wonder why they didn't pick up this Show...
After investigating the case, Force Seven finds out who the culprit is- evil mastermind Nakura.
Naturally, this super-evil Japanese bad guy is played by, of course, John Rhys-Davies. And no, he does not do the accent.
Was Mako busy?!?
The big finale- some of which is available to see on YouTube- sees the quartet break into 'Nakura's' compound, take out his guards and fight the man himself.
It is 'Hunter' vs. Kingpin...but mostly their stunt doubles.
The group stops him, stops the attack and is commended by Larry Wilcox, giving him his final lines ever in the original run of CHiPs. No, really.
What a weird idea. What a silly idea. What a dumb idea. This Backdoor Pilot doesn't even feel like the original Show. The most effective way this works is by having a new Neighbor/Uncle/Brother show up, hopefully steal the Show and then draw an audience from there. What you DON'T do is sideline the leads, do something completely different and then slap them back into things. Officially, the only way to watch this Episode on Streaming is by paying for it on YouTube/iTunes. That Episode runs about 48 minutes long. Unofficially, a version of this exists online that is *just* the Force Seven stuff. That Episode runs just under 42 minutes long. So, to be clear, if you cut out the Leads and basic premise of CHiPs, you lose less than 10 minutes! Ironically, Cop Shows have a pretty great record with these. Law & Order managed to connect their Shows to intro them, as they later did with the newer Chicago {Insert Group Here} Shows. On top of that, CSI managed to do this with their two spin-offs with no problem. I guess it worked, since they didn't try to something crazy like have an Episode of LOST feature the gang from Hawaii Five-O taking over! The actual Show- excised from CHiPs- is still pretty damn silly. The Master (known to MST3K fans as The Master Ninja) got a whole Season out of a similar premise just 2 years later, so it could have worked (to some degree). Supposedly Fred Dryer had friends in high places and they kept getting him chances like this until Hunter became his big break. Speaking of big breaks, Larry Wilcox as Ponch's partner would be out between Seasons (cut to save money) and the young Lead from Force Seven would take his place...
A silly attempt to make a new Show, especially given that it was their SEASON FINALE. It isn't great, but it is good fun in hindsight.
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