So look, I am not a lawyer. Anthony is not a lawyer. Neither of us are sure if the plot in the episode makes any legal sense. I have a friend who’s a lawyer, but she does family law, and I certainly wouldn’t ask her to track down the information for me. I know there’s no 17 U.S.C. 24, but that doesn’t mean that whoever put the law in the episode didn’t have the basic law but not the details right. Still, we’ll pretend the whole thing makes sense, because why not?
Jim’s attorney, Beth Davenport (Gretchen Corbett), is representing a penniless woman accused of murdering her husband. Beth, it’s established, can afford to work pro bono. Jim can’t, but she talks him into it anyway. (We will, as time goes by, learn that Jim is a sucker for Beth.) The pair had been at a Bel Air party the night of his death; the widow insists they were invited, and the hosts insist they crashed. This leads to the world of publishing, copyright, and film adaptations.
Jim’s Los Angeles: When Jim seeks out the party’s hosts, he finds them at the Santa Anita Racetrack. This is a location I know very well. As it happens, I was born across the street from there. Filming was long over at that point, but three days before the episode aired, my older sister was born across the street from there. Arcadia Methodist Hospital is across from the track in Arcadia, California, in Los Angeles County. This isn’t even the farthest Jim travels in the episode, where he goes to Arizona.
I like Beth, but she’s taking advantage of Jim here. At the very least, couldn’t she barter services? In later episodes, she grumbles about how Jim hasn’t paid her, but come on. He gets $200 a day plus expenses. This episode takes place over the course of several days, so she owes him easily six hundred bucks. Logically, she should be acknowledging that he does a lot for her. Beth is rich—she gets a snobby moment about old money versus new money—and she knows Jim very much is not. Don’t haggle about toothpaste, Beth.
The fact is, Jim’s never going to fit in with the class of people who can afford him easily. They expect him to act like a servant. He doesn’t have the temperament for that. He’s a skilled contractor. He provides a service that not everyone can do, and he expects to be treated accordingly. Beth treats him as a client even when she’s his client, and he puts up with it frankly because he’s attracted to Beth. Most of the time, he’s less inclined.
Take Care of Rockford Files: Jim is in a car chase with footage lifted from Duel. Jim’s brake fluid gets drained. Jim and Beth are shot at, and Jim pursues the shooter in a car chase through the streets of Los Angeles.
This one’s written by Juanita Bartlett, who would write 33 episodes plus four of the reunion movies, and work with Stephen J. Cannell through the rest of his career. The director is Michael Schultz, a Black director who started in theater, worked on such groundbreaking films as Car Wars and Which Way Is Up?, and was the director of record on the Sgt. Pepper movie. Following that infamous dud, he would move to TV. He’s still working at the age of 86, having directed episodes of the NBC series Found.
Well, that sounds like someone who should be on the Celebrating the Living list!