Where are the Rockford Files DVD sets?

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 can see that. Rockford reminds me of no one as much as Gould's Marlowe in The Long Goodbye.

I guess the show happened not long after that movie was released. Wonder if it was an inspiration.

seems unlikely - long goodbye kinda flopped and didn't really become widely accepted as classic altman for a while. apparently it was meant to be vaguely remaking maverick only making him a pi and setting it in the present. i've thought that maybe this show garner did before rockford called nichols was similar cuz he's kind of a scoundrel/loser in that too and there was a lot of carryover in personnel but i've never actually seen an episode so no idea.

Yeah, I mean, Altman somehow doesn't seem like he'd be Cannell's thing, but I don't know how much "slobby everyday joe P.I." was a thing at that point in time and the timeline certainly works out.

The two-parter with Ned Beatty as the crooked CEO of a corporation that kept having people killed off was pretty gripping. Rockford has already almost been murdered more times than I can count and I'm only halfway through the first season.

hmmmm i think Gould is a rather more shaggy-dog PI ... i mean, there's no real interest by Altman in making that character "plausible" in his profession. Rockford has at least one foot in believable plotting.

Too true. Rockford feels fully-realized from the start. Perhaps helped by the fact that he's meant to basically be Maverick transplanted to a different era.

Why is this show never repeated (in the UK)? The other great US series of the 70s, Columbo is on all the time, I've even seen some Kojaks... and what about that theme tune: lead moog, folksy harmonica, country rock lead guitar - it couldn't be any more 70s...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yg1Cx26-928

the movie this show reminds me of just a bit is NIGHT MOVES, just with the whole era and the scuffling PI and the whole milieu. Rockford is just the lighthearted version.

I don't know if it was actually in the title sequence, but in childhood I had a recurring image (maybe dream) of the Rockford Files title sequence, in which there's a close up of the aftermath of a car accident. Some muscle car like a Trans Am crushed at the side of the Pacific Coast highway, with a brief glimpse of the crushed body in the driver side footwell.

I don't know, and doubt, that was ever part of the title sequence. All I know is that I can't hear the Rockford Files theme without thinking of some crushed limbs and sprawling viscera. It prevented me from ever watching the show in reruns.

https://crimereads.com/falling-in-love-with-the-rockford-files-all-over-again/

Writing a piece for NYT Sunday Styles on how people these days present on social media as Columbo (enigmatic, one step ahead, always nails the rich bastard) but live as Rockford (mobile home, broke, beaten up every week)

— 'Weird Alex' Pareene (@pareene) May 8, 2021

I’ve been watching Rockford Files for the first time, courtesy of Mr Veg who is a fan. We just started S2.

This show, man, I love it.

I am in love with everything about it. Stories are sometimes boring or over-complicated but Jim Garner makes up for any and all of the slight missteps. He’s so cool & funny & charming …It’s really a joy to sit down and watch.

I love the car chases the most, also all the locations & street scenes, I love Jim’s clothes, i love that Garner does all his own stunts, and I love that he never checks behind the door before entering a room.

I also found quite a good podcast about the show called “Two Hundred A Day” - they recap random episodes & talk about the writing etc, its very enjoyable. I think the hosts are game writers/designers.

i saw someone post on twitter that a while back they decided to start a blog of all the payphone scenes in Rockford Files but gave up not far into into season one. Dude was like, “it got super boring because there’s SO many!”

i was like, lmao yeah dude, its about as much fun as posting cell phone photos from modern tv shows.

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