What if Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, a show from the late 80s, happened about a decade earlier, in The '70s? The Rod Squad--In Color!
is the Fan Fiction answer to this question. It was written by The Enduring Man-Child of Home Is Where You Hang Upside Down fame under the pseudonym of D.B. Cooper.
It all started out at The Acorn Cafe, the main Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers fan forum, when the Cafegoers imagined a 1970s version of CDRR. As an illustration, an artist named Kat drew a picture of Gadget in bell-bottom coveralls. This in turn inspired The Enduring Man-Child to write this fic. It was published around 1998.
As for the plot, The Rod Squad is about Chip Baretta and his team being hired by baseball manager Charles O. Finley to try to find out who is behind announced riots against Disco music and stop them. That said, this fic isn't about the story, it's about 1970s lingo and 1970s Shout-Outs.
The title is a play on the TV series The Mod Squad.
These ripped-off tropes will HASSLE you in this fic, man:
- Alternate Universe Fic: Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, but in The '70s. Also, Monterey Jack is Gadget's father,
Foxglove has been renamed Foxy Glove, and, of course, everyone wears different outfits than in the show. - Author Vocabulary Calendar: The Enduring Man-Child invoked one that's probably from 1979 and contains examples like:
- variations of "hassle" (20 times, and this is a short story)
- variations of "boogie" and "boogey" (11 times, all of which stand for locomotion involving a dune buggy)
- "gritty inner city" (10 times)
- "Right on!" (6 times)
- variations of "ripoff" (6 times)
Foxy Glove: So what hassle or ripoff has brought you into the gritty inner city, my main man? - Blaxploitation Parody: Dale and Foxy Glove seem to come right out of this genre, especially Foxy, hence her changed name. And Dale gives chipmunk power salutes (Foxy doesn't, she's a bat).
- Call-Forward:
- While comforting Tammy, Foxy Glove predicts cable TV.
- Harsher in Hindsight: Invoked by her claim that it's going to be "all FREE".
- She also hints at cell phones way ahead of their time.
Foxy Glove: Besides, the call was probably made from a pay phone. It's not like someone can carry one of those things in his POCKET! - While comforting Tammy, Foxy Glove predicts cable TV.
- The City: Also known as the "gritty inner city".
- Costume Exaggeration: What is not exaggerated in this fic?
- The late Seventies were an era of wide neckties. Chip has one that's so big it doubles as a surfboard.
- Gadget's platform shoes. The dress-up variant requires a crane to get into them.
- Crossover:
- Briefly with Kojak.
- The Enemies Of All That Is Good turn out to be the Wilderness Family.
- Disco Sucks: The Rod Squad has to investigate on a case of anti-disco riots. They can barely keep the Enemies Of All That Is Good from having their own Disco Demolition Night.
- Funk: Dale has got two tickets for P-Funk. Also, apparently the "chukka-chukka" theme tune.
- Funny Afro: Yes, this is pulled off in a fanfic with no illustrations whatsoever.
- Dale wears a big afro.
- Foxy Glove wears an even bigger afro in comparison to Dale's.
- Historical AU: Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers in The '70s.
- Impractically Fancy Outfit: You know your platform shoes are too high if you can't put them on without the help of a crane. Gadget has such shoes.
- It's Popular, Now It Sucks!: In-Universe, Disco for people into Folk and Country Music. The Rod Squad has to keep the Disco Demolition Night from happening at the Oakland-Alameda County Colosseum.
- Like Is, Like, a Comma: Dale, like, speaks like this sometimes.
- Malaproper: Dale, as usual. England Dan and John Ford Coley become England Jim and John Wilkes Booth when he mentions them.
- Martial Arts Movie: Averted being a martial arts fic, much to Dale's dismay, because he couldn't put his kung fu skills to use on this case.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The Enemies Of All That Is Good, the group that announced the anti-disco riots.
- One-Shot Fic: It's too short to have multiple chapters.
- Overcrank: In a fanfic. In order to keep the cannon with disco recordings in it from being fired, the Rod Squad boogies onto the field in slo-mo.
- Pimp Duds: Dale dresses in these in an attempt at getting Gadget to go to a P-Funk concert with him.
- Pimped-Out Dress: Chip, Dale and Gadget at the end.
- Script Fic: It feels more like a TV show episode this way.
- The '70s: All rolled up in one Period Piece of a fic written in The '90s but by someone who has experienced The '70s first-hand.
- Shout-Out:
- The title is one to The Mod Squad.
- Foxy Glove is one to Blaxploitation actress Pam Grier and especially the film Foxy Brown, hence her name change.
- Theme Mobile: The dune buggy which the Rod Squad uses to boogie everywhere, including but not limited to the gritty inner city.
- Totally Radical: The '70s flavor, man.
- Virtual Soundtrack:
- Peter Frampton's Frampton Comes Alive plays as the Rod Squad boogies to meet Charley O.
- Seals and Croft play when they boogie to the gritty inner city to meet Foxy Glove. The Average White Band plays when they arrive.
Right on!
