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Rating:  - One of the best shows ever on TV, still great near the end!
The Rockford Files, in case you haven't seen it, is one of the best examples of dramatic television in the 1970's (if you have seen it you already know that). The Rockford Files was/is a witty, well written "detective" show, a genre that was extremely popular in the 70's and 80's. If you like Magnum P.I. or Simon and Simon or any other show like that then you'll like The Rockford Files. Rockford did the same thing before they did it, only better.
James Garner was absolutely perfect as Jim Rockford. It's just about impossible to imagine anyone else in the role. The show's writers and producers managed to find a perfect balance of drama and comedy (with the comedy coming in the form of dry, sarcastic one liners, usually coming from Rockford) without hurting the dramatic impact of the stories.
The fifth season of the show found those writers and producers on a roll. The Rockford Files was one of those shows that never saw a slip in quality. It was a great show from start to finish. And now nearly the entire run of the series is available on DVD.
Watching the DVD's is almost like going back in time - these episodes (for the most part) haven't looked this good since they first aired back in the 70's. It's nice, too, to be able to watch uncut episodes (as a couple minutes from each episode of shows from that era are cut for additional ad time when shown on TV in syndication). Unless you watched the shows in the 70's you might not even know what you were missing when watching the shows in syndication - but now you will get to see those scenes previously deleted for commercial time.
If you're a fan of detective shows with a wry sense of humor then The Rockford Files is for you.
Rating: - Season 5 Shines Bright
Season Five continued the fine writing and impeccible acting that defined The Rockford Files as one of televisions best ever offerings.
In addition, this season has some fantastic guest stars: Rita Moreno, Bo Hopkins, Tom Selleck, Abe Vigoda, Robert Loggia, Jason Evers, Robert Alda, Kathryn Harrold, Mary Fran, Erin Gray, Ted Shackelford, Paul Koslo, Dennis Dugan and Harold Gould to name just a few.
A few of my favorite episodes from this season include:
White on White and nearly Perfect - Wherein Jim works with Lance White (Tom Selleck), a goody two shoes Detective who always comes up smelling like a rose, usually at Rockford's expense.
Black Mirror - A two parter where Jim protects and falls in love with a blind psychologist played by the scrumptious Kathryn Harrold.
A Different Drummer - A strange but absorbing tale that has Rockford on the trail of a sociopath who is harvesting organs from live donors.
Episode list and original air dates are as follows:
Heartaches of a Fool 9/22/1978
Rosendahl and Gilda Stern Are Dead 9/29/1978
The Jersey Bounce 10/6/1978
White on White and Nearly Perfect 10/20/1978
Kill the Messenger 10/27/1978
The Empty Frame 11/3/1978
A Three-Day Affair With a Thirty-Day Escrow 11/10/1978
A Good Clean Bust With Sequel Rights 11/17/1978
Black Mirror (1) 11/24/1978
Black Mirror (2) 11/24/1978
A Fast Count 12/1/1978
Local Man Eaten by Newspaper 12/8/1978
With the French Heel Back, Can the Nehru Jacket Be Far Behind? 1/5/1979
The Battle-Ax and the Exploding Cigar 1/12/1979
Guilt 1/19/1979
The Deuce 1/26/1979
The Man Who Saw the Alligators 2/10/1979
The Return of the Black Shadow 2/17/1979
A Material Difference 2/24/1979
Never Send a Boy King to Do a Man's Job (1) 3/3/1979
Never Send a Boy King to Do a Man's Job (2) 3/3/1979
A Different Drummer 4/13/1979
What a shame there's only one more season (and a truncated one at that) of the Rockford files to go after this. Hopefully they'll include all the reunion shows with the 12 episodes of Season Six.
Oh and don't forget "At the tone leave your name and number, I'll get back to you."
Rating:  - Rockford's Best Season
I think this 1978-79 Season of The Rockford Files was the best and probably the most successful season of them all throughout Rockford's whole 6-year run on NBC along with the fact that this was also the last full season of The Rockford Files.
Additionally, this is the season when Rockford's often exasperated cop buddy Dennis Becker(Joe Santos) gets promoted to lieutenant as well as the first season without Rockford's gorgeous attorney girlfriend Beth Davenport(Gretchen Corbett), which unfortunately gave Becker's grumpy superior officer Lt. Doug Chapman(James Luisi) an advantage over Rockford(James Garner) whenever he got busted, since Beth wasn't around to back Rockford up anymore like she did in the first 4 seasons, plus I also noticed that Rockford's cheesy, but funny ex-con buddy Angel Martin(Stuart Margolin) started coming out less and less in this season as well as the 4th and 6th Seasons of THE ROCKFORD FILES and I'm just kind of surprised that Beth's departure from the show didn't make the ratings go down, at least not to the point where NBC had cancelled it right away or even right after completing a successful 5th Season of The Rockford Files on NBC either.
On the other hand, THE ROCKFORD FILES unfortunately started getting a slight decrease in ratings when newer more popular shows like THE DUKES OF HAZZARD came out in 1979 when the Dukes made it's debut on CBS in January of 1979, since Rockford was starting to lose a lot of viewers through the Dukes, since THE ROCKFORD FILES and THE DUKES OF HAZZARD were both on Friday night around the same time slot.
The 5th Season was also the season when Rockford met and befriended disbarred lawyer and ex-biker John Cooper(Bo Hopkins), whom ends up helping Rockford nab the culprits who framed Rockford for murder in "The Jersey Bounce" episode and then helps Rockford infiltrate the motorcycle gang that raped Cooper's sister(Laurie Jefferson) and clobbered Rockford in the "The Return Of The Black Shadow" episode.
It's just too bad that they didn't provide a bonus episode from The Rockford Files Sixth Season on this 1978-1979 Season DVD of Rockford like The Rockford Files-Season Four DVD had a bonus episode from the Fifth Season, by adding the "White On White & Nearly Perfect" episode on it, because it would've been cool if they would've at least provided one bonus episode from the 1979-80 Season of Rockford on The Rockford Files-Season Five DVD.
As a matter of fact, it would've been awesome if they would've added the "Nice Guys Finish Dead" episode from The Rockford Files 6th Season on this 1978-79 Season DVD of Rockford, since it was probably the best episode from the Sixth Season, just like the "White On White & Nearly Perfect" episode was probably the best and most intriguing episode in the Fifth Season, especially since the "Nice Guys Finish Dead" episode is the episode when Rockford reunites with hot shot private investigator Lance White(Tom Selleck) at a private eyes convention where a murder ends up taking place leaving Rockford to team up with the almost perfect Lance White again to solve the homicide at the hotel where the homicide took place at leading Rockford to be outclassed by the impeccable Lance White again, since the goody two shoes Lance White ended up stealing Rockford's thunder and show since the astounding Lance White ended up making all the leads and finding all the clues and being the hero again for being the private investigator who solved the case practically K.O.ing Rockford in the process, just like Lance White did in the "White On White & Nearly Perfect" episode, except Lance White ended up getting the trophy for being private investigator of the year in the "Nice Guys Finish Dead" episode, which Rockford had won originally at the beginning of that episode, which of course was before the Senators murder took place there.
In addition; Rockford's Fifth Season also had some interesting guest stars in it too, such as
-Tom Selleck as hot shot fellow gumshoe(Lance White) in the "White On White & Nearly Perfect" episode before his MAGNUM, P.I. days.
-Jerry Douglas in the "A Good Clean Bust With Sequel Rights" episode during his earlier John Abbott days on THE YOUNG & THE RESTLESS
-Sorrell Booke in "The Jersey Bounce" episode before his days as Boss Hogg on THE DUKES OF HAZZARD
-James Sikking in the "A Good Clean Bust With Sequel Rights" episode before his HILL STREET BLUES days
-Carl Franklin in the "Black Mirror" episode before his co-starring days Col. Deckers sidekick(Capt. Crane) on THE A-TEAM, which may be a little hard for some people to notice, since Carl Franklin didn't have the mustache on in the "Black Mirror" episode of THE ROCKFORD FILES
-Richard Moll in the "A 3-Day Affair With A 30-Day Escrow" episode before his Bull Shannon days on NIGHT COURT.
In fact, I found it amusing seeing Richard Moll getting beat up by Rockford(James Garner)after Richard Moll caught him off guard and broke into Rockford's trailer in Malibu in the "Three Day Affair With A Thirty Day Escrow" episode, plus I find it intriguing that I didn't quite notice Sorrell Booke with the mustache as Rockford's new attorney in "The Jersey Bounce" episode along with the fact that THE DUKES OF HAZZARD premiered on CBS 3 months later after Sorrell Booke's guest starring appearance on THE ROCKFORD FILES.
This season also takes me all the way back to memory lane when THE ROCKFORD FILES was on Friday nights during NBC's Friday night line-up at one time around the same time slot as THE DUKES OF HAZZARD's Friday night line-up on CBS, since the Dukes was kind of starting to steal some of Rockford's thunder and viewers when THE DUKES OF HAZZARD premiered on CBS back in January of 1979, which therefore also helped contribute to NBC cancelling THE ROCKFORD FILES all of the sudden in the middle of it's short-lived Sixth Season in January of 1980, since the Dukes basically K.O.'d Rockford in the ratings department since THE DUKES OF HAZZARD was continuing to soar with the ratings while THE ROCKFORD FILES was unfortunately getting a gradual decline with the ratings, despite the fact that THE ROCKFORD FILES wasn't cancelled because of low ratings in general, but was cancelled due to James Garner having health issues, due to back & knee problems.
Therefore, you could say THE DUKES OF HAZZARD pretty much killed THE ROCKFORD FILES, since THE DUKES OF HAZZARD had outclassed THE ROCKFORD FILES, because for one thing Jim Rockford was outclassed by the Duke boys, since Bo(John Schneider) & Luke(Tom Wopat) were both eyecandy and a lot younger, a lot spunkier, and more attractive than Rockford(James Garner) was.
For another, the General Lee had outclassed Rockford's Firebird.
For another THE DUKES OF HAZZARD was a lot more hilarious than THE ROCKFORD FILES was.
So now that Universal has had Rockford's 5th Season on DVD for a while since the beginning of 2008 and since Univeral already has all 8 Seasons of MAGNUM out on DVD and Warner Bros. already has all 7 seasons of THE DUKES OF HAZZARD on DVD, I can hardly wait till THE ROCKFORD FILES 6th Season finally gets put on DVD, which I'm hoping will be released on DVD by the end of this year so it can at least be released in time for a X-Mas present by the end of 2008 along with the fact that Rockford's 1979-80 Season was also the last and final season of this show as well as the shortest season of them all.
Rockford's 5th Season also takes me all the way back to memory lane when NBC's motto was "NBSee Us", which was NBC's motto from the Fall of 1978 thru the Spring of 1979.
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