[QUOTE=C K Dexter Haven0]
We used to love the show back in the day, but we tried watching recently and found it tedious and predictable and … well, boring.
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I re-watched some a while ago, compared to shows now there’s a lot of scene setting, long shots of Jim driving from place to place, establishing shots of buildings, that sort of thing. If you give it some slack for the slow pace the plots and characters hold up. (Some of the clothes look hilarious though)
Season 1 is the weakest, it gets much better later on.
From spending a lot of time with grandma growing up, I’m a fan of Murder, She Wrote, Matlock, Columbo, etc. but I could never get into The Rockford Files. I’ve tried watching it on Netflix at least a dozen times and I’ve found it’s the surest way to put me to sleep; I’ve still never seen the end of an episode.
Rockford is being driven off by the bad guys to do him in.
He stomps on the driver’s foot on the accelerator and they crash into a swimming pool.
Rockford is the first guy out with a gun and says from the diving board, “Okay, everybody out of the pool!”
Was it his Firebird?
I started watching it in 1997 on syndication and really enjoyed it.
The appeal for me was James Garner and just seeing him interact on the show. Being born in 1975, I seem to have a soft spot for seeing how life was in the 70s.
I’ve recently watched it a bit on Netflix, but I think I have watched them all too much now. I still enjoy Garner a lot, but I can’t really get into the show as much now.
Margolin and Garner teamed up several times. Besides Rockford they were in the new version of Maverick, Nichols, the Rockford movies, and maybe something else I can’t remember.
Back to the OP, we had family friends who lived in a mobile home in Paradise Cove in the 70s. It was a very working-class neighborhood (trailer park, really) at the time.
Yeah me, too. And apparently brain addled. I read “Mannix” but thought “Cannon”, who I recall was played by William Conrad but have no recollection if he drove a cool car.
My favorite episode was when Angel had the idea for a scam where he’d pretend to be a hit man - he’d take half the money up front (it’s always half now, half after the hit), but then not do the hit. :smack:
Watching them now, there’s just* too much* of that car. Half an episode might be Jim driving.
I love the Angel character. I know a guy named Angel who is always in trouble for his attempted scams.
Some of the episodes had a lot of car scenes because Garner was often unable to perform because of his back injuries. He barely appeared in some episodes as a result. But it was the 70s and car scenes were very popular, and that Pontiac was a much cooler car than the ones featured in many other shows. Later, whole shows were based on action car scenes.
Anyway, I haven’t seen the show in years but it’s one of my all time favourites. I liked the fact that Rockford was constantly getting the short end of the stick; he came across as a genuinely likeable character.
No, it was a 1968 Ford LTD. Episode 2.18, “In Hazard”.
Rockfish Firebird trivia(from the Rockford Files book): The producers chose the base-model Esprit because it would be something that “Joe Lunchbucket” could afford. The cars used for the show were Esprit bodies with TransAm engines and suspension. The “official” color of the car is “Medium Camel Tan”
Garner got beat up a lot during his career, and not just in fight scenes. In his autobiography he mentions that he used marijuana for help with ongoing pain issues.
He discovers the half-buried Statue of Liberty and realizes it was [del]all a dream[/del] earth all along.
Seriously, shows didn’t typically have ending episodes back then. The last episode was ‘normal.’ In the 90’s they made a few made-for-TV movies, like with Perry Mason and Colombo.
