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The Rockford Files: Love Is the Word (1979)
Chase is the Word
The reason that The Rockford Files is such a great show and one that stands the test of time even with some of the dated material from the time it was made, is that it focuses on character and who these people are as opposed to what they are doing. Jim begins this episode by showing up at his girlfriend's house, cracking a beer and falling asleep to the baseball game on the radio. The girlfriend is Dr. Megan Dougherty, the blind psychologist from the Black Light two parter and she and Jim have been casually dating on and off from that time. Megan has some big news for Jim - she's getting married - and Jim takes it pretty hard (a chance for James Garner to show off his acting chops) but wishes her well. The case for this episode involves the fiancé, his brother, some coke dealers and a business deal gone terribly wrong. It all works out, but the show is all about Jim and Megan, their relationship and how it was not meant to be. You really don't have to see the writing credit if you are a fan of the Sopranos to see that David Chase wrote this one. He weaves the mystery of the fiancé, pop culture references (roller skate disco, designer hot tubs, drug use) and humor all around the main story which is the relationship. A cynic would say that nothing happens in this one - a common grumble during The Sopranos run - but we learn more about Jim Rockford and who he is in this episode than in many others. I had to laugh at the dream Megan describes at the end - sounds exactly like something that came from the other great show Mr. Chase wrote.
The Rockford Files: Exit Prentiss Carr (1974)
Enter Jim Rockford
This is a very good Rockford episode that includes a damsel in distress (or maybe not), crooked cops (or maybe not), an innocent victim (or maybe not) and a solid performance by James Garner (absolutely). Jim is hired by an old flame to find her husband. He ends up finding him in a hotel in Bay City (to Rockford fans, home of the Bay City Boys Club), but he isn't necessarily breathing. He doesn't let on to the cops (three very defensive, yet experienced policemen) that he was in the room and is discouraged when he hears that they are ruling it a suicide, when he knows from the evidence that it wasn't.
A great set up as it keeps the audience guessing if the police rigged the crime scene, if Rockford's client isn't telling the truth, or if there's a third hidden possibility in there that we haven't seen. I think that this episode really captures the character perfectly, as he is unflinching when calling out an old flame, but still loyal to the end. He is serious when it comes to his work, but shows his sense of humor, especially when dealing with the testy members of Bay City's police force.
The plot turns away from the people we know to people that we see and not hear from much - an insurance executive, a blond woman with a nice car and no lines, and a guy who never wears a shirt, even in pictures. There is a great chase scene with the shirtless wonder, and everything is quickly tied up.
It's a quick but satisfying ending and it also sets us up with the types of women that Jim will fall for in future episodes - smart, savvy types that operate under their own agenda. Beth falls into this category and it really adds depth to the Rockford character - he doesn't fall for the beautiful, ditsy secretary, he's looking for substance. A very good episode, minus the recurring characters (save for a brief Rocky appearance), but a great look into who Jim Rockford is and will be.
The Rockford Files: Find Me If You Can (1974)
Rock Solid
It's never good to deceive Jim Rockford. But that's what Joan Van Ark does (and will do in later episodes) at the beginning, middle and end of this episode.
She plays a harried woman who calls on Jim and asks for his services to find a missing person. That missing person is her, or she, or whichever pronoun works in this sentence. As we later find out, this damsel in distress is not who she says she is and is using a private eye in order to see if her small time mobster boyfriend would be able to find her.
James Garner is great in this one - he knows he's being used, but he goes along with it, because he believes that his client is in danger. The common sense / morality struggle in Jim Rockford makes him such an engaging character, on the one hand, he wants to drop this case because it will more than likely get him killed. On the other hand, if he drops it, his client will more than likely take a bullet. There is also a great scene with Rocky that sets up the father / son relationship for the rest of the series.
This one travels a bit too, as he heads to Denver to investigate the mobster (I'm guessing not the first choice for a person interested in organized crime). He runs into some static with the police (shocker) and a lawyer who isn't Beth (again, I'm floored), but ends up getting timely and effective cooperation in the end. So much so, that I wonder why he didn't relocate his business to the Rocky Mountains. I mean, with his name, that would be a perfect fit! Anyway, solid episode, as most of them are. A question I have on the show is how much did Jim have to watch his back for all these mobsters he busted? From the geeky (Paul Michael Glaser) to the goofy (Abe Vigoda) to the awesome (Robert Loggia), he beat them all. Wouldn't you think either they or their goons would be sent to whack this guy who lives in the easiest to find house / office in California? I guess Denver mobsters are easier to put away than those David Chase later created in New Jersey.
The Rockford Files: The Dexter Crisis (1974)
Lost Wages
Two attractive young women go upstairs to their beach front pad and one of them looks through binoculars to get a license plate. It's written down and then we are whisked to the very stuffy office of the very stuffy Charles Dexter, who is having a meeting with Jim and scolding him about his habits while complimenting him on his reputation. Jim looks to ash in what looks like an ash tray, but he's yelled at that the dish isn't there for that purpose. Dexter doesn't have an ash tray for him, so he calls his secretary in to dispense of Jim's cigarette - classy.
The issue at hand is a missing person's case, one that has been closed by the police after two days. Seems that Dexter's mistress has gone missing but there are no signs of forced entry, etc. Rockford pushes for info, none of which Dexter is too excited to divulge, as admitting to adultery is not as exciting as committing adultery. After a ridiculous undershooting of Jim's fee, Dexter agrees to pay him his $200 / day plus expenses. He gives Jim a key to the beach house he pays for and that his girlfriend lives in and we're off.
The investigation leads to the girl with the binoculars, who is an innocent law student who just wants to find her friend, a rival PI that once sucker punched Jim, and the 1974 version of Las Vegas. The missing girl is found, with a pseudonym and big sunglasses. Jim pretends to be a professional gambler with a system and strikes up a relationship. There are some multiple cons going on here, but nothing as mysterious as the page for Nick Angelos (please pay attention to the announcements during the casino scenes - they are in Vegas for a couple of days, and no one can seem to find Mr. Angelos). The cons are revealed, the girls are looking to make off with Dexter's $250K of company hush money, the rival PI was hired by Dexter's wife to prove some expected infidelity, and the final scene ends with Rockford's expected pay day to be (as usual) much less than was expected. Great throw away line here, too, as Dexter zings Jim about his "lavish" expenses, the room that Jim stayed in while in Vegas was about as lavish as his trailer.
Missing from this episode are the regulars and the regular haunts - no trailer scenes, no restaurant scenes, no walks back to the trailer with fish just caught with Rocky. That said, this was a good story with a nice punchline - 7/10
The Rockford Files: White on White and Nearly Perfect (1978)
Wah, wah, waaaaah
Wow, Jim Rockford can't catch a break. This very well written episode (thanks, Stevie J.) starts off with Rocky reading a detective novel and Jim getting dropped off at the trailer at sunrise. Rocky thinks that it's the glamorous part of Jim's job, just like the book he's reading: excitement, danger, and dames. Alas, it's just the secretary of Jim's bail bondsman dropping him off after the card game he was at got raided. A great set up and wonderful contrast for the episode that pits Jim against a peer. Hey, it's Richard from Friends! Yes, Tom Selleck appears as the perfectly dressed, perfectly mannered and perfectly perfect P.I. Lance White. Jim contends that his line of work is nothing like what Rocky is reading, but Lance begs to differ.
Lance is a detective with ethics, enthusiasm and a moral compass who also has an office, a sweet ride (described by a mob goon as "a parade float" in this episode), a sweet secretary and a way with the ladies. So, he's the exact opposite of Jimbo, all charm and looks with no street smarts. Did I mention the no street smarts? In this episode Lance unnecessarily: Upsets a strip club owner, walks into a bullet, gets caught eavesdropping on the mob and believes a story told by someone named Belle Le Belle. James Garner sets the world record for eye rolling, especially in the scene where Chapman and Dennis arrive at the scene of a murder, and Lance is revered while Jim is sneered at. Even by Dennis! Seriously, everybody loves this guy! The case they work on together is the kidnapping of the daughter of a wealthy businessman. There are some interesting choices in direction here - Senor Sock mentioned the friendly Dragnet interrogation by Chapman, but there was also a distracting element. There was an obsession with clocks - Lance's watch kept going off and he had this speech about wanting to be reminded that time doesn't stand still and there was this constant focusing on pendulums. Maybe because there was a definite time limit out there for the bad guys, or maybe it was just expounding on Lance's overall attitude, but it didn't dig any deeper than that, which took a little away from the great interaction between Garner & Selleck.
My summary title is my attempt to spell that music popular with cartoons and sitcoms when the goofy guy tells a bad joke or a touch of irony is thrown into a situation. Wah, wah, waaaah. It could pretty much be used at the end of every one of the scenes in this episode, with Jim Rockford doing the shrugging and the aforementioned eye rolling to Lance's comments and the unabashed adoration he receives. This is true especially at the end of the episode, where Lance gets the girl and something extra and all Jim gets is some free champagne after once again blowing the chance for some extra scratch. An entertaining episode, well acted and well written as always, with a star making turn by Tom Selleck.
The Rockford Files: A Good Clean Bust with Sequel Rights (1978)
Hector Rules
Rocky is a big fan of the TV show "Falcone", in which the hero of the show is a tough Chicago cop of the same name with a catch phrase - "freeze, turkey". Wouldn't you know it, Jimmy just got hired to escort the actual Frank Falcone around town and make sure he doesn't get into trouble. Turns out that they are making some action figures and cars and weapons, you know, kids toys that tie into the popular TV show, and the people that represent Frank Falcone are worried that he may get into trouble and screw up the deal. There is also the problem of Falcone's former partner's book and some old enemies from Chicago, and, well, that part gets a little tedious. The real reason this episode worked for me is Hector Elizondo.
Not the Hector Elizondo from Flamingo Kid, or Pretty Woman, or Chicago Hope. No, this is a hyper, hopped up on something kind of Hector, a guy who can't sit still, needs to walk in order to clear his head and gets into bar fights. The bar scene is great, in a seedy part of town, where the reason for going in was to have chili. Hectors order? "A bowl and a beer". That should have been another catch phrase in the TV show. Anyway, he picks a fight with the two dumbest people in the place to get away from Rockford and then bolts out to beat up his former partner, he of the tell all book, as he has found out he is in town and up to no good. Another great Elizondo scene is when he is confronted by a mothers group against violence on TV. Our guy tells them off, calling them bad mothers and demanding that they go back and take care of their own kids instead of busting his you know whats. Priceless stuff, and really well played by Hector, who takes his licks only to give them back times two.
The whole episode goes poorly for Frank Falcone, as he ends up thwarting a mob hit which costs him his toy deal and the TV show in return. Rockford even ends up hogging the reward for the good Samaritan work and when Frank comes back, all Jimmy offers Frank is to go out for a beer. Presumably not to the same place they busted up earlier in the episode. He refuses, as he wasn't offered to go out for a "bowl and a beer" and then one of the worst ending scenes in Rockford Files history ensues. Hint - catch phrase recall.
The Rockford Files: The Battle-Ax and the Exploding Cigar (1979)
Character Study
Jim Rockford is on the way back from another tough luck trip to Vegas, only this time he is accompanied by a stranger drinking a fifth of something. They are pulled over, and things take a turn for the worse, as guns and gun stuff are found in the trunk of a car that is certainly not a Firebird. This leads to an interesting foray into the inner workings of the paper pushers in the US government. A brand new ATF agent is brought on to interrogate Rockford's passenger who turns out to be an arms dealer being set up by National Security. Rockford's lawyer is typically inept, as was the case after Beth left, and Jim once again is a perfect fall guy for the government. The whole story centers around this arms deal and the double cross thrown in by the government, but the episode is about something else - the people who are affected by it.
At first, I didn't like this episode, but after it was over, I liked how much effort was put into the development of all the characters - from Mrs. Bateman, the taskmaster general of the governmental secretarial pool, to Donnegan, played by Lane Smith, who I will always know as the prosecutor in "My Cousin Vinny" (I (clap) dentical!). Everyone's motives are put out there, from the governmental departments, to Mrs. Bateman, to the mysterious passenger Petrankis, to, of course, Jim Rockford himself. I always prefer the older episodes, when Rockford is allowed to riff off of his peers, be it Beth, Angel, or Dennis, but this episode works because as he is trying to save his own hide, he ends up saving someone else, Mrs. Bateman. That last sentence sounded like an after school special, but the care that the writers put into developing the characters pays off with a nice final scene of Mrs. Bateman returning to work.
The Rockford Files: Rosendahl and Gilda Stern Are Dead (1978)
"Fish"ing for an ending
Jim's favorite lady of the night Rita Capkovic returns as she, ahem, escorts a doctor out of a hotel in LA. The doc wants to take a cab, while Rita being the New Yorker that she is, and reminds us of that constantly, wants to walk. That leads to a favorite Rockford staple, the "two guys talking in a car while watching people they are about to either rough up or talk to" scene. They grab Rita and her man, take them to a limo where none other than Abe Vigoda leans out and gives the two street toughs instructions, that, if followed, would lead to a considerable jail sentence. Rita gets away though, which leads the viewer through some fun stuff: 1) Rita skirting the issue of where her inheritance money from the last episode she was in went 2) The prostitute community coming out in force in support of their comrade 3) Robert Loggia playing a doctor with a lush for a wife and a secret to hide 4) Abe Vigoda playing a mobster who has an owie.
The plot is tough to swallow, as we are led to believe that a hip replacement gone wrong (faulty parts) would lead to the downfall of a mob kingpin. Loggia is wasted here, as he goes from former Rockford parts playing the mob, to someone sort of in with and afraid of the mob. Not enough scenes with him, and way too many for Rita Moreno, who blasts through her lines with such annoyance that I was left rooting for her case to fall through. The end of the episode seems thrown together and way too convenient, and the reveal regarding the money Rita inherited is unsatisfying, but there is enough Rockford charm here to make it a barely passable episode.