Any time a show uses sports terminology, it could be making it up for all I know or care. Searching the term on Wikipedia leads to a part of the page for “blitzing,” and there are definitely words in the description of what’s happening, but it’s another one of those summaries that makes it clear that you ought to know a fair amount about the subject before you look at the Wikipedia page, which kind of misses the point of how Wikipedia works.
Jim is hired by a woman calling herself Jennifer Sandstrom (Stefanie Powers), who wants him to look into her sister’s murder. Oh, the police are calling it a suicide, but she knows her sister was actually murdered. Alas that it’s one of Diel’s cases. He goes to talk to Jennifer Sandstrom about her late sister, Alice, and it turns out she’s actually played by Sherry Jackson. However, Jim’s pretty sure Alice really was murdered. It turns out the woman who hired him was actually named Christine Dusseau, and she’s also a private investigator, using Jim to block interference.
Mostly from Diel, as she’s right and he’s a cluck. Honestly, Diel strikes me as a bad cop in pretty much every sense of the word. He’s not only a jerk, he’s incompetent. There’s no reason to believe that he’s going to solve any given case. Dennis is considerably more competent than Diel is, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he actually solves more crimes than Diel does. Sure, Jim gets to because he’s the main character, but even Dennis is shown as having more on the ball.
There are lots of other private investigators in LA, and the show is always open about that. Jim is often hired by people who pick his name out of the phone book, and in the ’70s, I’m not sure how else you’d go about it. I couldn’t afford to hire a private investigator, I grant you. But if I could, and if I had to, I don’t know how I’d go about finding one. No one I know has ever hired one, so I can’t go by word-of-mouth. Presumably these days you can find online reviews, but basically, I’d be picking out of a phone book, too.
Minor Actor Alert: Beyond Stefanie Powers, we’ve also got Bruce Kirby. He worked with Columbo a few times, including once in an episode with his son Bruno. He did literally dozens of cop shows in his career. It’s always nice to see him. We also have George Wyner, who likewise has a long and varied career. If you close your eyes and think about his telling you a story about a goy’s teeth, you might even recognize him as Rabbi Nachtner!
Take Care of Rockford Files: Shots fired. More shots fired, car chase.
I feel like I have followed Bruce Kirby from cop show to cop show but I always enjoy his visits.
Was a bit disappointed that Stephanie Powers didn’t come back, especially given that later in the run some of the other PIs Jim met returned at least once. But given how long it took to sell the idea of a show about a woman PI – and how even that got masculinized in Remington Steele – I suspect one appearance was all that we could get.