Tom Selleck guest stars as private investigator Lance White. He's a naive go-getter with the good looks and charm to have hard-sss cops like Chapman eating out of his palm. Even Garner's own buddy Dennis seems to prefer dealing with him. To say the women all love him would be an understatement.
Rockford, a hard-bitten veteran of the private investigating scene, has to be wily and patient to succeed. Selleck just bumbles and charms his way through.
It's a fun contrast. And there are plenty of laughs. But it's a VERY uneven episode. One minute White is talking like a film noir private detective. The next minute he's talking like soft-spoken Magnum P. I. As much as Magnum P. I. is my favorite weekly TV series of all time, this wasn't really all that impressive a showing by Selleck. Or maybe that was the point. Maybe the meta joke on viewers is that Selleck just lopes his way through the episode delivering lines however he feels like it, and the viewers will eat it up because he's so darn good looking and charming. Just like the characters in this episode do. If that's what they were going for, this might be the most subversive episode in TV history.
Plot involves a kidnapping, arms deals and a flight to Israel. I don't think it actually matters. I certainly wasn't all that invested.
I submit this episode is so highly rated only because Selleck went on to star in Magnum P. I. (not to mention Blue Bloods). There are funnier episodes of Rockford Files, Every one featuring Stuart Margolin, for one thing. There are better plots. And to be honest, as far as guest stars go, the episode that came right before this one, with Bo Hopkins as Rockford's new lawyer, gave us a better character that, in and of itself, would have made for a better spinoff show.