Although there had been many outlandish, poor, or substandard episodes by the time Force Seven had been greenlit and filmed (too many to list, but if you're a CHIPS-phile, you can think of many such episodes prior to Force Seven), the continued attempt to spin off another series with Force Seven by the shows creators was the final straw in more than one way.
As it was, the show went from (what I personally preferred) the first couple of seasons where the show combined a lot of light heartedness, even silliness (like Ponch wearing the fake goatee and mustache so as not to be recognized by Rosie Grier in traffic school), with the more serious moments which were intertwined. It was an entertaining, and good balance, but then they decidedly began to adopt a more serious tone until the show took itself too seriously and became totally a drama-action centric show.
We who loved CHIPS didn't want to see episodes where Jon and Ponch were absent from 99% of the episode, like in Force Seven or Mitchell and Woods. Even the episodes where either Erik or Larry were out due to real life accidents, contract disputes or on set tension related issues, weren't the same. We wanted to see the guys together.
This episode itself was horrendous. It was totally, 100% cartoonish. Perhaps they were actually trying to get approval for a cartoon series?
Lastly, it was Larry Wilcoxs' last time appearing on the beloved series and there was absolutely no replacing him.
They brought in the blonde pretty boys to add youth and to make up for the shine that had worn off Erik/Ponch by 1982 when he wasn't the heart-throb he became soon after the shows creation, but it definitely wasn't the same ever again.
To this day, I stop watching when the reruns reach the post Jon days, but then everything has it's run and finale.