The TV Series:
- Actor Leaves, Character Dies: Midway through the final season, Tom Reilly (Bobby) was arrested for drug possession. This resulted in his role being reduced, with Bruce Penhall having his role as Bobby's brother Bruce being increased. The California Highway Patrol also threatened to revoke the show's use of their badge and related imagery, over the bad publicity, due to the arrest.
- Cast the Expert: In the episode "Fox Trap", Laura Branigan played the lead singer of an all-female band whose manager is out to sell them to a white slavery ring.
- Completely Different Title: In Japan, the series became Shiro-Bi Yarou Jon & Ponch (Motorcycle Police Guys Jon & Ponch) "Shiro-Bi" is a Japanese shorthand for a motorcycle used for law-enforcing use, in this case it stands for "Shiro(i) Bi(ke)" (White Bike, because most motorcycles used for police use are painted white).
- Directed by Cast Member: Both Larry Wilcox and Robert Pine each directed two episodes of the series. Wilcox directed the episodes "Ride the Whirlwind" and "Tow Truck Lady", while Pine directed "Overload" and "Things That Go Creep in the Night".
- Fake American: British actor Harvey Jason plays the American leader of an annoying TV news team in "Disaster Squad".
- Fake Nationality: Illinois-born Les Lannom plays a very Eastern European motorcycle stuntman (quite possibly Hungarian) in the episode "Suicide Stunt".
- Hostility on the Set: Larry Wilcox and Erik Estrada were often said to frequently clash, and did not get along well with each other during the production of this show. This was reported to be a factor in Wilcox's decision to quit the series. Estrada was said to be similarly displeased working with Tom Reilly, who replaced Wilcox as Poncherello's partner Officer Bob "Bobby" Nelson.
- On-Set Injury: While filming an episode, Erik Estrada lost control of his motorcycle and was hurled into a parked car before the 900-pound motorcycle landed on him. Estrada sustained fractured ribs, partially collapsed lungs, a fractured right wrist, and a cracked sternum and clavicle.
- The Other Darrin:
- The parts of both Melanie Mitchell and Paula Woods were recast between their appearances in the season 4 two-parter "Ponch's Angels" and the Poorly Disguised Pilot for the "Mitchell & Woods" Spin-Off in season 5; in the latter episode, Mitchell is played by the actress who played Ponch's love interest Jennifer in "Ponch's Angels". They're also now working for the fictional "Ocean City Police Department" instead of the CHP; no explanation for the reassignment is given.
- Timmy Getraer, the son of Joe and Betty, appears in three episodes, each time played by a different actor: Marc Gilpin (the episode "CHP-BMX"), Lindsay Kennedy ("Vigilante") and Rossie Harris ("Diamond in the Rough").
- The Other Marty: Mike Post and Pete Carpenter wrote a theme that was unused.
- Playing Against Type: "Rock Devil Rock" gives us Don Most (Ralph Malph) as an Alice Cooper/KISS/Ozzy Osbourne-type Shock Rock star named Moloch, and Peter Marshall, genial host of The Hollywood Squares, as his greedy, corrupt manager.
- Recast as a Regular:
- Randi Oakes played an unnamed member of the secretarial pool in the first season episode "Baby Food", a car thief named Kim Balford in the Season 2 episode "Down Time", and joined the cast as officer Bonnie Clark at the beginning of Season 3.
- Tom Reilly was the Audience Surrogate new member of the ninja-cop team in the "Force Seven" Poorly Disguised Pilot, the last episode in Season 5, then shows up in the next episode aired (the first episode of Season 6) as Ponch's new partner, Bobby Nelson.
- Real-Life Relative:
- Gwynne Gilford, Robert Pine's real-life wife, played Betty Getraer, wife to Pine's character Sgt. Joe Getraer.
- Derek Wilcox, Larry's son, appears in the episodes "Moving Violation" and "Second Chance".
- Christopher Stone and his real-life wife, Dee Wallace, appear together in the episode "Death Watch".
- What Could Have Been: Robin Williams claimed that when he started out, his agent had him audition for this show:They wanted a strapping six-footer who could ride a Harley Davidson. I'd never ridden a motor-cycle and I stood five-eight, maybe 135 pounds...I realised: This is not good. This man is not for me.
- Written-In Infirmity:
- Erik Estrada suffered a very serious motorcycle accident while filming an episode. Until he recovered, he literally shot scenes from his hospital bed.
- The pregnancy of Gwynne Gilford (Betty Getraer) was written into a subplot in the episode "Satan's Angels" where she and Joe were awaiting the birth of their next child.
The 2017 Film:
- Awesome, Dear Boy: Dax Shepard was primarily motivated to create the movie due to his desire to combine his love for motorcycles and comedy into one, and admitted that he used the CHiPs brand primarily so that he could have an excuse to get away with it.
- Backed by the Pentagon: Thoroughly averted. The film opens with the message: "The California Highway Patrol does not endorse this film...at all." The department is referred to as "the CHP" while the real one is just "CHP" with no "the", and the uniforms, badges, patches, and patrol cars are Bland-Name Product versions of the real thing.
- California Doubling: The opening scenes set in Miami were filmed in Long Beach and San Pedro, California. At least one shot has the battleship USS Iowa prominently visible in the background.
- The Cast Showoff:
- Dax Shepard is an avid motorcyclist in real life, and performed many of his own stunts for the film.
- Downplayed by Michael Peña, who had no prior motorcycle experience but learned to ride for his role as Ponch. While Ponch doesn't have to do anything nearly as dangerous on a bike as Jon does, Peña still filmed most of his motorcycling scenes himself and had to adjust to reciting his lines while driving at 75 miles per hour.
- Channel Hop: The original series was produced by MGM Television; the movie is from Warner Bros., who inherited the rights via the Time Warner-Turner merger of 1996 (Turner having acquired MGM's library in 1986).
- Descended Creator: Writer/director Dax Shepard co-stars as Jon Baker.
- Disowned Adaptation: Larry Wilcox has expressed extreme displeasure with the film's main characters pulling out guns, something that his character from the original TV series does NOT do. Even his fans completely agree with this criticism. Averted with Erik Estrada, who agreed to cameo in it without any objections.
- Dyeing for Your Art: Kristen Bell avoided breast-feeding her children for a week in order to make her breasts bigger to fit with her character's "shallow Trophy Wife" image.
- Fake Nationality: Officer Taylor is played by Australian actress Jessica McNamee.
- Follow the Leader: Its "Ruder and Cruder R-rated take on a retro cop show property" stylings are very clearly in the same mold as 21 Jump Street.
- Life Imitates Art: Jon is a Functional Addict as a result of the vast quantities of painkillers he had to consume after sustaining motocross injuries. Dax Shepard is very open about his own history with drug abuse, and briefly relapsed after taking painkillers while recovering from an accident three years after the film was released.
- Irony as She Is Cast: Happily Married celebrity couple Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard play the estranged Karen and Jon Baker.
- Playing Against Type: Kristen Bell is known for playing characters that are either out-and-out Nice Girls or at the very least extremely charming, but plays a loathsome Hate Sink here. Dax Shepard admitted that he initially didn't want to cast her in the part of Karen because he worried that she would be too likable of a screen presence for the character to be as unbearable as he intended it to be.
- Production Posse: Ryan Hansen, who is a good friend of Dax Shepard and has worked with both him and his wife Kristen Bell on several projects, appears as Officer Grieves, while Dax Shepard's Parenthood co-star Mae Whitman cameos as one of the fairground coordinators.
- Real-Life Relative: Husband and wife Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell weren't known for being in the same show before this.
- What Could Have Been: The film was announced in the late 2000s and Wilmer Valderrama was cast as Ponch.
