Where are the Rockford Files DVD sets?

that is awesome

May it stay dead

NBC's planned reboot of the seventies private-eye classic series The Rockford Files, with mildly beloved rom-com prince Dermot Mulroney taking James Garner's iconic role, was one of the most hyped pilots of the fall. Many said it was a gimme to make the lineup: It's based on the iconic James Garner series, and was produced by Steve Carell and House executive producer David Shore. What could go wrong? Oh, wait, this could: A pilot so bad that it seemed like a crime. In fact, if it weren't for Carell and Shore's involvement, NBC would have written off the project days ago. Now, as the execs consider what to do, and with their upfront just four days away, this much is clear: If the show does make the fall schedule, it will be in a vastly different form from what was just shot.

Yeah just watch all the old eps on netflix streaming. So good.

Plans to remake the series are still active, with some "Lost" guy?... must...be...stopped

RIP Stephen J. Cannell

Saw this photo on one of the Southern California storm news articles and immediately thought that Jim was going to have a bad day.

http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/7/2010/12/107719326_01.jpg

!

so into rockford right now. two episodes each night between work & bed (with time for dinner and a few drinks) = perfect

Jim Rockford: This is Jim Rockford. At the tone leave your name and message, I'll get back to you.

Evelyn 'Angel' Martin: [hurried voice] Jimmy? Angel. Here's a tip but his hand writing's bad. Third Son in the fifth race at Belle Meadows. Wait! Could be Fifth Son in the third. Wait,,,this... might... be... next weeks race.

http://i54.tinypic.com/2ds06qp.jpg

n.b. i have never seen tRF

ROCKFORD.

are there any great episodic shows on anymore? All the water cooler shows are serials now, right? Idk I was thinking about this today in the wake of James Garner passing away, how every TV show these days seems to be such an investment of time and concentration and nothing seems to have what the rockford files had. I'm probably not thinking of something kinda obvious here. Also it makes me wonder how often anyone would return to some of these current shows, no matter how great, due that that commitment. Not bemoaning their existence, maybe bemoaning the lack of skillful episodics. Not really counting L&O/CSI/NCIS here, though I generally kinda like those to some extent.

It's a dying art for sure. I'm just guessing, but maybe it has to do with the changing economies of the syndication business. It must have been lucrative for their respective production companies when shows like Rockford and Ironside and Hawaii Five-0 etc. were on TV in reruns every day across the country. Now those shows are on DVDs but it seems that a show with a self-contained story arc is more attractive to people renting DVDs.

Also the difference between network TV and cable. Guessing again, but did it have to do with actors' contracts, financing, etc. that traditional networks liked to work with a September-to-April season whereas HBO and their ilk work more effectively one project at a time?

It seems to me quite a leap to assume that the show you're gonna do would be a syndication goldmine back then -- it had to run at least 3 years, p much, and Garner had some failed series that I'd never even heard of.

True, there were a ton of interesting shows from the 60s/70s that are now forgotten because they lasted one or two seasons and had no afterlife (David Janssen's Harry O is a good example..) Also I seem to recall there have been fading series that were extended another season or two to qualify for a better syndication deal.

But what was a long shot then is not even a possibility today, perhaps?

Watched the premiere last night... James Woods was his client! with Abe Vigoda as a union head very much like Tessio.

prob gonna stick to these right now to save time... looking fwd to the one w/ Joseph Cotten.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/james-garners-10-best-rockford-files-episodes-ever-2014-07-22

t/s columbo vs rockford

Rockford by a blue million miles. Columbo schtick got old with me after 2 episodes.

Ok, you like Rockford better. Thanks for your time.

Hmm.

But just one more question for you, if you don't mind?

Won't take a second.

Would you say you prefer Rockford over ... MAVERICK?

pplains I rly like the dad joke you kicked off this thread w/, were you a dad then?

not that i was aware of!

(^^ dad "joke")

Lieutenant, I can assure you I'd never heard of Maverick until my secretary told me about it yesterday.

Yesterday... That's interesting.

Again, thanks for your answer. enjoy the DVDs.

After years of hemming and hawing about it and never having seen an episode, I finally started watching this recently on Netflix. Goddamn, is this a good show. It doesn't feel aged in the half-sketched way that similar shows of the era do today. Super engrossing and well-written. And fun! Garner is a great lead. The guest stars on almost every episode I've seen moved on to their own shows or sizeable movie roles within a couple of years.

I think I might splurge on the complete series DVD set (partially for the latter-day TV movies, which don't appear to be on Netflix).

Also: so many car chases! I had no idea. One of the episodes had like a fifteen minute car chase scene with no dialogue whatsoever.

Also also: I hope the episode structures remain varied and unconventional. Lots of in medias res employment, etc. The show doesn't hold your hand.

Did anyone ever see the weird Philip Marlowe movie with Garner from 1969? It's loosely based on a Chandler story but goes in some fairly wacky directions, including Bruce Lee turning up as a heavy at one point. Garner's Marlowe is basically Jim Rockford in all but name.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIgTl-rXmOk

I watched it off and on in syndication over the years, but started proper-like from ep zero last summer, taking the odd break from time to time before finally wrapping up a few months ago.

It's pretty choice. One thing you'll notice in S3, once David Chase comes aboard, is he was already totally the 'Sopranos guy' already.

Need a Best TV Dad poll. Rocky was great but I'd probably vote for Gomez Addams.

XPS Three shots every time the Firebird gets wrecked/blown-up.

Golf-course car chase early in season 1 was a definite high point. Ned Beatty (with HAIR!) guest starring in that weird financial company kidnapping two-parter was cool too.

Low point is S1E6 “This Case Is Closed” - originally 90min movie re-edited & stitched into to a 2 hour episode (& later aired as two 1 hour eps for syndication)… it’s so bad it doesnt even play like a Rockford episode. There’s a point in a car chase where there’s reverse shots of the same cars going down the same street in the opposite direction.

Waiting for Netflix to call me back about my pitch for a Rockford Files reboot starring Hank Azaria.

My dad still talks about the time he met Angel at some airport bar in the late 80s.

"This Case Is Closed" is the Joseph Cotton/Sharon Gless one!

Definitely padded tho. The whole stock footage of rescue vehicles marathon at the beginning of Pt. 2 is particularly ridic.

The other Sharon Gless ep is quite good (the S3 premiere IIRC).

One of the things I love about the series is spotting all the actors and actresses that did guest bits before they got big/bigger.

yeah looking up the careers of the actors i recognize or even actors who seem really great that i don’t know is definitely one of the side-perks of a show like this, just seeing all the varied things they do in their lives, or don’t do as the case may be (i get the same kick with Star Trek TOS)

i also get a real joy out of how comfortable Rockford is with women, the way the show writers seem to give women a bit more more personality than they would normally get in a show like this, and if there is chemistry it comes through a bit more naturally than him just hitting on anything that moves & being creepy

i have yet to be skeeved out by Jim, which says a lot for a mid 70’s detective show

Four shots whenever Mills Watson shows up

https://img4.bdbphotos.com/images/230x300/1/r/1rk51zy0q0e30zqy.jpg

I think he played at least four different Rockford characters over the years.

You are inducing a Proustian rush and making me want to watch this whole thing again.

I want to live in the world where we got an actual spin-off with Louis Gossett, Jr. and Isaac Hayes instead of just the backdoor pilot.

The thing that bums me out is that I didnt have ~this~ level of appreciation for Garner while he was alive. i always liked him but jesus, what a singular talent.

the way the show writers seem to give women a bit more more personality than they would normally get in a show like this

From the terrific crimereads essay linked upthread:

For a 1970s detective, Jim Rockford has impressively few cringey moments with the show’s female guests, a series of vivid and believable women often created by writer-producer Juanita Bartlett. With women, Rockford is a courtly good listener who happens to live in a trailer. We are told that he used to date his lawyer, Beth (Gretchen Corbett) and the writers occasionally break Jim’s heart with a disappearing fiancée or a blind psychologist girlfriend who dumps him. (Rita Moreno won an Emmy portraying a prostitute and police informant whom Jim helps.) Old flames (Susan Strasberg or Valerie Pointer) return mainly when they want him to fix something in their lives or to set him up as the fall guy delivering a briefcase. He loyally complies, and often regrets it.

The thing that bums me out is that I didnt have ~this~ level of appreciation for Garner while he was alive. i always liked him but jesus, what a singular talent.

I want to live in the world where we got an actual spin-off with Louis Gossett, Jr. and Isaac Hayes instead of just the backdoor pilot.

Damn straight! Every few months I search YouTube in vain for the scene where they smash up the Nazi bar.

Is it Isaac Hayes who shows up at the trailer while Rockford's away, sits down on the curb, and starts smoking cigarettes until sunset?

Hate to say it, but my first impression of that was, "Wow, I guess smoking would be a good time-killer."

Yeah, that was him in his first appearance. He did three total, with the last one pairing him with Dionne Warwick (who sings a Stevie Wonder song)!

Stories are sometimes boring or over-complicated

imo they didn't really dial in the magic and tighten things up properly until partway through season 2 or thereabouts.

Maybe an unpopular opinion, but my favorite season is 4. The Mayor of Deer Lick Falls is one of the most entertaining hours of series televison ever. The Battle of Canoga Park is at once funny and eerily prescient, w story concerning a right-wing militia group and "patriots" obsessed with conservative talk radio. Irving the Explainer is David Chase going nuts spoofing absurdly convoluted Chandler-esque plotlines.

The season kicks off with Jim having to sheepishly explain to Rocky how he fucked up and gambled away a ton of money on what was supposed to be a modest vacation... The one dud I remember is one which almost becomes One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. But mostly the writing is so crisp, Jim's character is so crystallized by that point and effortlessly inhabited in a way that makes the average person's real-life persona seem hopelessly fraudulent, and Angel shines so brightly such that the imperfections are almost reassuring to us mortals.

Barnaby Jones is even better, but most of y'all aren't ready for that.

I've never heard a peep one way or the other about Barnaby Jones before but I've been slowly picking my way through Streets of San Francisco and enjoying it a helluva lot more than I expected to so I would be open to giving another A QUINN MARTIN PRODUCTION a shot.

Another banger of a theme tune.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mijBMpnS3a4

Barnaby Jones is even better, but most of y'all aren't ready for that

This is big, if true. I haven’t seen Barnaby Jones since the ‘70s but would be interested in hearing about its qualities.

Watching Rockford S4 on dell’s recommendation (p sure I’ve seen S1-S3 already). First ep has a swell performance from James Whitmore, Jr. as a slippery type everyone will recognize. As always it’s the realness of the characterizations and the acknowledgment that all humans are flawed that is the strength of the show. This ep also has the actor who played James Garner’s brother on Maverick.

Season 2 guest stars i have loved: Stephanie Powers!

holy cats she really was magnetic & beautiful from the getgo, huh

what a gal!

There's a good one coming up with a young Blair Brown as a stylin' 240Z drivin' city attorney.

holy cats she really was magnetic & beautiful from the getgo, huh

You should see Die! Die! My Darling.

...and Experiment In Terror, where she plays Lee Remick's sister.

And a season one episode of Streets of San Francisco!

i get it, she’s worked a LOT lol

TIL she dated william holden for 9 years until his death in 1981 & said they were soul mates

If I ever knew that I long ago forgot it so thanks. Probably belongs on Old time actors and directors that you were surprised to find out were married to each other once upon a time if we don’t already have it.

Just had the mental image of Angel trying explain NFTs to Rockford pic.twitter.com/iLISiCybCg

— Art Of Coop (@ARTofCOOP) January 4, 2022

I have the s2 DVDs, to watch concurrently with or when I finish s2 of Blakes 7, because I am clearly done with living in this century right now.

oh i am right there w you … we’re in S4 of Rockford and also watching Sanford & Son, and Taxi :D

oh and cosign this 100%
that was a killer episode

Precious, Grace, Hill & Beard LTD. (C. Grisso/McCain)
Posted: August 28, 2021 at 7:11:40 PM
I want to live in the world where we got an actual spin-off with Louis Gossett, Jr. and Isaac Hayes instead of just the backdoor pilot.
Damn straight! Every few months I search YouTube in vain for the scene where they smash up the Nazi bar.

deep into season 5 and I wince for Jim everytime they make him chase anyone on foot - have a heart, the poor guy’s knees are toast

lots more guns and violence now in this tail end of the series, more gimmicks to gin up ratings etc

we just watched S5E14 “Guilt” with a cool helicopter chase & explosion

also lol at this casually tossed off line from a minor character: “i’ve never lifted anything heavier than a coke spoon”

mr veg and i were both like “whaaaaaat did she just say!?”

Yeah, in addition to the added gunplay and violence, there's more grimey drug stuff too (I think because by that point you actually could do that on Network TV).

You've got "Return of The Black Shadow" w/Bo Hopkins coming up, which starts with one of the darkest premises of any ep so far.

And right after that is "A Material Difference", which was one of the best Angel eps.

Homestretch now - just finished s6e1 “Paradise Cove” costarring the Polaroid commercial lady :D

Any suggestions for generally good shows from the era that I should explore next? Doesnt have to be detectivey.

It's a little later (mid 80s), but I remember Spenser For Hire being slightly elevated against the riff-raff that was network tv at the time.

Looks like it's streamable, but not free. :(

Huh, looks like the only thing streaming is S1. That sucks. The dvd sets are out there, though.

Decades network is doing a Harry O marathon this weekend which I'm looking forward to...will report back re:it's viability.

Original Hawaii Five-O is amazing, especially the first six seasons.

Harry O starring David Janssen is v good - it had just two seasons. Farrah Fawcett-Majors had a supporting role in it for a while.

Not many people today talk about McMillan and Wife starring Rock Hudson & Susan Saint James, one of the mystery shows that rotated with Columbo in the '70s. It's like The Thin Man transposed to the swinging '70s. Often highly diverting, with cheekiness and charm taking precedence over believable plots.

A friend of mine swears by Vega$ starring Robert Urich. Tony Curtis is in it too.

Also - last year I finished watching all the episodes of Kojak. It's a cool show all the way through its run, though I would recommend starting with s1. Kojak was the best-dressed cop on American TV ever and I like how comfortably he mingles with the entire ethnic patchwork of NYC as it was then. Ethnicity is in fact the main theme of the show, I'd say.

ok this is pretty awesome
Rockford Files credits recreated w Lego

THE ROCKFORD FILES (1974-80)

in LEGO

(for my Twitter bro @RexChapman) pic.twitter.com/UmSCGA1NsJ

— Michael Warburton (@MichaelWarbur17) November 11, 2022

very cute.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhHqFN4K3O0

Rest In Power, King

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAivpss-irc

we should all place horse bets in his honor, RIP Angel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhHqFN4K3O0

🐐🐐 BOTH . #stuartmargolin RIP 🌈🌈🌈🌈 pic.twitter.com/kTVZT7KrZv

— Victor Sforza (@sforza_victor) December 13, 2022