Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Names and faces
■ Hardcore CHiPs fans hate it and the real California Highway Patrol seems not quite sure what to make of it. But
Larry Wilcox, who rode his motorcycle to everlasting fame in the old CHiPs
TV series, says that for now, he’ll give the benefit of the doubt to CHIPS, the forthcoming film based loosely — very loosely — on the show that made Erik Estrada and him two of the biggest stars of the 1970s and early ’80s. “I have not seen the film, but the trailers looked like a soft-porn version of Dumb and Dumber,” Wilcox said recently. “However, I hear the actors are both very talented and funny, so maybe it all works.” Fans of the original CHiPs, still widely seen in reruns and on DVD, are far less forgiving. They’ve been posting angry messages all over the Internet since the first trailers for the R-rated action comedy emerged, calling it garbage and disrespectful to police officers everywhere. Fans are upset because the original CHiPs was a gentle, family-oriented shows. California Highway Patrol Sgt. Jon Baker (played by Wilcox) and his partner, Estrada’s officer Frank “Ponch” Poncherello, were hunky young straight-arrow cops cruising sunsplashed, surprisingly uncrowded Los Angeles freeways on their motorcycles as they chased down miscreants when not cracking jokes or flirting harmlessly with cute female sheriff’s deputies. In the film version, however, Dax Shepard as Baker and Michael Mena’s Poncherello are anything but straight arrows. They accidentally destroy vehicles, cause fiery crashes, blow stuff up and sometimes shoot the wrong people. Estrada, who has a cameo appearance, did not respond to multiple phone and email messages. But in a video clip from a recent premiere, he described it as “a movie you have to view with your adult sense of humor.” As for Wilcox, he says he’ll probably see it — eventually. “I think I will wait for the video,” he added.
■ Tina Fey’s stage adaptation of Mean Girls will make its world premiere at The National Theatre in Washington, D.C. The new musical is based on the 2004 film about a naive girl who falls in love with her new high school’s coolest, prettiest, most treacherous triumvirate of girls, called The Plastics. The show will run from Oct. 31-Dec. 3. It will feature a story by Fey, based on her screenplay for the film, music by three-time Emmy Award winner Jeff Richmond ( 30 Rock, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt), and lyrics by Tony Award-nominee Nell Benjamin ( Legally Blonde). Tony Award-winner Casey Nicholaw ( The Book of Mormon) will direct and choreograph. The film version starred Lindsay Lohan, but there was no word on who would star onstage.