Rocky may be ashamed of having a son who’s a private investigator, but that surely doesn’t mean he has no intention of taking advantage of the situation when it suits his purposes. If a friend of his needs help or he doesn’t like a situation, that’s something that Jim will take care of. Whether that’s what Jim had in mind or not. Now, it happens that Jim is, in his way, as softhearted as Rocky is. This is no doubt because he was raised by Rocky, of course. But it does mean that he spends a lot of time doing work that doesn’t end up paying because Rocky pressures him into it.
Jim and Rocky are going on vacation to Baja, but a girl (Kim Richards) is sitting on one of his chairs, waiting for her Aunt Cecil (Marged Wakeley). Jim insists on taking her to the authorities, but quickly changes his mind. He agrees to help the girl out. Her name turns out to be Marin Rose Gaily. Her father is on the run—she doesn’t know from what, but we see someone shooting at him, so we can be pretty sure it isn’t good.
Marin is, frankly, a neglected child. She loves her father, Stu (Burt Young), but he hasn’t been taking proper care of her. She doesn’t have enough food. She does her own cooking. All she seems to do is watch TV. She doesn’t have proper clothes. Now, Stu seems to be suffering from depression, not to mention alcoholism, but it’s still not fair to Marin. She says she hates her father, even though she obviously loves him quite a lot, but it seems to me that she’s mostly angry at being left alone.
Jim doesn’t want to put Marin into the system. He’s pretty firm on that point. One of the problems is that Rocky, who would make a great foster parent, isn’t going to qualify for it. Rocky’s a sweet, kindly old man who’s not in bad physical shape for someone his age. Honestly, having a foster kid or two—teenagers, who need foster parents and have a hard time getting them—in his house would probably be good for him. And for them. So the system is overcrowded, because Rocky’s old and single and therefore wouldn’t qualify.
Minor Actors Alert: Kim Richards is, of course, Tia from the Witch Mountain movies. She’s also Paris Hilton’s aunt and one of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Which is I guess better than some child stars do with their lives. Meanwhile, Burt Young would in the year this episode aired become Paulie in the Rocky movies. He’s done a fair amount of other stuff in the years since then, but that’s where most people know him from, I’m sure.
Take Care of Rockford Files: Yes, that is what he thinks it is, an electric cattle prod, though he manages to dodge it in a fight. Held at gunpoint. For a really long time. Fist fight, wrecking Angel’s already pretty grotty apartment.