Reviews & Ratings for
"The Rockford Files" The Real Easy Red Dog (1975)

4 out of 4 people found the following review useful:

Hart to Rockford

Author: zsenorsock from Argentina
8 November 2006

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Stephanie Powers, the former "Girl From U.N.C.L.E." co-stars in this episode as Christine Dusseau, a P.I. that uses Rockford to get a couple of cops off her tail by conning him to investigate what seems like an obvious suicide. Only the more Jim investigates, the more the suicide looks like murder.

Universal might have been testing Powers in this episode for a possible series of her own, much like they did with Dennis Dugan as Richie Brockleman. If so, it doesn't go very far. As attractive and talented as Powers is (I was always a big fan of her as April Dancer!) she doesn't really come to life here as Dusseau. Her character was never brought back for one of Jim's brushes with other detectives and there is little chemistry between her and Garner. Perhaps she was already pining for Robert Wagner! Fans of "Make Room for Daddy" might not recognize Sherry Jackson ("Terry") in her bikini as Jennifer Sandstrom. She's all grown up, and how!

1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:

Rockford and football

Author: stones78 from United States
11 January 2011

I agree with the other poster about the average performance of Stephanie Powers, who teams up with Jim, mainly after Jim finds out that she conned him regarding a few cops on her trail. Now that's out of the way, I'm a fan of football(used to be), and was a big fan of the Los Angeles Rams in the late 70's, early 80's; when we first see Jim, he's watching a Rams game getting ready to snack, while calling a bookie about a bet on the 2nd half, when Christine knocks on the door. I think this episode may have "borrowed" the football angle and the "drowned in her own pool and made to look like she drowned elsewhere" idea from earlier Columbo episodes. Maybe I'm wrong about that, but perhaps some of the writers admire each other's works. In any event, I did enjoy this segment for the most part. A great quote is when Rockford mentions a "red dog" to Christine, and I wasn't even aware of it. It has to do with the defensive line sacking the unsuspecting quarterback, as she tried to do to him. You got to get up early in the morning to con Jim, a great con man himself. I read that James Garner was a big Oakland Raiders fan, and was allowed to roam the sidelines during games.

I admit that I didn't expect a baby racket being the main motive of the murders, but it ended the episode on a good note. I'm also a fan of Tom Atkins' character Diel, who loathes Rockford and even Christine, who helps Jim solve everything. I sometimes wish Jim didn't have to force a kiss with every actress at the end of many episodes like this one. There really was no reason to kiss her in the last scene.

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