James Garner is an easier sell than Cop Rock. That’s okay. This is at least my third watch-through of this series myself, and I don’t expect it to be the last. Now, I come by that honestly; my mom is a big James Garner fan. (She may deny a childhood crush on Guy Williams, but I know what she told me, and it confirms that my mom has a Type.) Still, I fully expect more of you to be interested in this show than in the last one that Anthony and I went through together; possibly, some of you have watched it already. It’s a classic show, one that actually deserves to be watched for its merits, not for fascinated bewilderment.
Jim Rockford (Garner) is a private investigator specializing in closed criminal cases. He lives in a trailer on the beach. One day, a homeless man (Bill Quinn) is strangled, with an unexpected gush of blood. The case is closed. Sergeant Dennis Becker (Joe Santos) suggests his daughter, Sara Butler (Lindsay Wagner), contact Rockford and hire him to solve the case. Of course, she can’t really afford him, but she’s determined to find the person behind her father’s murder. She’s suspicious of one Mrs. Mildred Elias (Nita Talbot), in no small part because she has out of nowhere volunteered to put Sara’s brother Nick (Bill Mumy) through medical school.
A lot of the basics are set up in this episode. Jim and his Pontiac Firebird. The trailer. Dennis. Angel Martin (Stuart Margolin), Jim’s prison buddy and informant. Jim’s state of perpetual broketitude. $200 a day plus expenses (which apparently works out to slightly over a thousand bucks a day). Jim’s distaste for carrying a gun—for which he does not have a permit—and preference to not even get into physical altercations, though of course we also see his ability to hold his own when necessary.
It’s worth noting, though, that one of the consistencies with later in the series is also an inconsistency. See, Jim’s father is a truck driver. He’s a fairly genial fellow by the name of Joseph Rockford whose biggest problem is that he wants Jim to give up being a private eye and be a truck driver instead. He thinks it’ll be safer for him—probably true—and more consistent money—definitely true. He goes by the nickname Rocky and has friends all over the place. The big difference, though, is that in this pilot, he’s played by Robert Donley.
Another thing clearly set up here is that Jim is, let’s be real, a total softy. He wants to be a Sam Spade hardboiled type, but it’s not in him. So fine, he spent years in prison for an armed robbery he didn’t commit and was pardoned. It still didn’t harden him. He knows Sara can’t afford him, but he wants her to find whatever closure she can about her father’s death; he’s just not sure that going into debt to him is the best way for her to get it. Honestly? Even with Jim’s solving the case at the end, which of course she has, her issues aren’t that easily resolved.
Take Care Of Rockford Files: Jim has a fight in a bathroom. One car chase through the Nevada desert culminating in shots exchanged with a light plane.
I love The Rockford Files, and the pilot really does a good deal to establish the show, but I needed to watch this twice and really give it a chance to get into the rhythms and then slide into the show proper. 70s TV drama moves at its own pace even with car chases and Jim Garner charm. But Jim Garner charm buys you a lot. As does Lindsay Wagner, who hasn’t quite come into her own this early. And boy, original Jim’s dad is a lump.
This is a good chance to note that I have been listening to a podcast called “Two Hundred Dollars a Day Plus Expenses,” which is two Canadian college professors just schmoozing about the show week by week. It’s hardly the greatest podcast ever, but I find it relaxing and these guys love 70s TV.
There are a lot of good seeds here, but we’ll get to the proper first episode next week to see how they’d bloom.
Good excuse to get back into The Rockford Files! Garner is one of the best TV stars to ever do it, up there with Ted Danson and Bea Arthur in sheer watchability.