The Rockford Files (TV Series) The Deep Blue Sleep (1975) User Reviews

Not bad!

[mm-39 · 7/10 · 22 December 2018]

Not bad. The Deep Blue Sleep is not a memorable episode, but a good one! What works: The story has death of Bev's friend and Jim finds out there is more than just murder. A good story to follow. Jim's character is like able and a sucker with a soft side. Beth and Jim have a back an forth which builds ones logic against the other. The dynamic for a great show. What did not work: It sort of works, but is there always a mob connection. There is no memorable cons, and or funny moments. Entertains, but not memorable. 7 stars.

Sleazebags on the big screen and small

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 12 March 2013]

Gretchen Corbett who played James Garner's lawyer on permanent retainer calls one in from Rockford. Beth Davenport is worried about the sudden disappearance of an old friend who is now a big time fashion model. She hires Garner to find the friend after Dennis Becker tells her what she already knows that missing persons complaints have to wait 24 hours.

When the woman's body is found it's a homicide yet Rockford puts his license in jeopardy still working the case when it's an open police investigation. Corbett's friend worked for fashion designer Janet MacLachlan whose firm is backed by mobster Robert Webber.

Webber in his career played a nice variety of sleazebag characters in film and television and this guy is right in the mold. MacLachlan's secretary lets it slip to Rockford accidentally on purpose that Webber enjoys picking the fruit off the fashion tree. But that's far from his only reason for hanging around.

Later on when MacLachlan is in jeopardy you have to admire Garner's fast thinking to get the cops there. That's worth seeing this episode alone for.

Hill Street Blue Sleep

[stones78 · 27 June 2014]

While this show isn't quite up to snuff just yet, and I usually recommend episodes starting in 1976, I have to say that it's getting close to becoming the great show we all know and love. There was some fine acting performances from Gretchen Corbett, Michael Conrad(Hill Street Blues), Janet MacLachlan, and especially Robert Webber, who plays a great bad guy; look for the first acting gig from Robert Hays, who has a cameo, but doesn't add too much. I'm not going to go into much of the story, but a few interesting tidbits include the rare shot of Jim sleeping in the trailer at night, and a nice red Firebird being yanked from the river, which was the victim's; seeing such a cool car destroyed almost broke my heart. I thought the angle of the original bad guy looking guilty, then unexpectedly getting himself killed, was some great writing. Dennis and the Firebird make a few appearances to round out a solid episode.

Fashion Emergency

[zsenorsock · 6/10 · 8 November 2006]

This episode starts out very promising. Jim gets awakened in the middle of the night by a panicked phone call from a woman named Margo Adams(the future Mrs. Craig T. Nelson) that he doesn't know. She hangs up before she can tell him what's going on. A short time later he gets a call from his attorney, the fetching Beth Davenport (Gretchen Corbett) who's worried about her friend, model Margo Adams. She hires Jim to investigate.

The case leads Rockford in to the world of fashion where he once again meets Robert Webber, this time playing Ben Coleman, a slick shady financier of Clark Fashions, which is run by Adrian Clark (Janet MacLachlan). When Adams turns up dead, everybody is pretty sure who the murderer is, they just don't know what the murderer's motive was.

So it's not much of a mystery and I found my interest begin to wane as soon as Rockford stashed Beth out of harm's way (and unfortunately off screen). Michael Conrad plays a mob boss and Robert Hayes of "Airplane" has a small part as Adrian's assistant and there is a pretty good confrontation at the end of the episode as Rockford steals a cop car to give pursue the bad guys, but all in all this is kind of a pedestrian episode.