The Rockford Files

1948-present

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308GUY
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Re: The Rockford Files

#51 Post by 308GUY »

Thanks M...$107 is not bad at all.

Like you said, the prices seem to be all over the place, depending on where and when you look.

You mean I can't rub it in if I find it for less? :lol:

I've got a few Chan reels, like Matlock and PM, if I could find the "right" deal, I'd already have all of em'.

I like Matlock for a few different reasons.

I like how Andy Griffith is kind of a chameleon over the length of his career, and how different Ben is than Andy was.

I like quite a few of the stories/plots, and I like the fact that like Magnum, each episode is labeled and stands on it's own, even though they did, as I recall, do fairly well with continuity throughout the entire series.

Also like MPI, there were quite a few different writers over the course of the series.

Didn't care that much for the later seasons, but I do respect the fact that AG was loyal to his past casts, kind of like TS.

Griffith knew how to do tv, he sure did it for a long time!

I'll keep watching for the right deal, thanks. :P
"C'mon TC...nothing can go wrong!"

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Little Garwood
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Re: The Rockford Files

#52 Post by Little Garwood »

So is anyone else here watching The Rockford Files as part of their tv routine? I watch it every Friday night, followed by an episode of Kolchak: The Night Stalker, a show I've watched continually since its DVD release ten years ago.
"Popularity is the pocket change of history."

~Tom Selleck

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Little Garwood
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Re: The Rockford Files

#53 Post by Little Garwood »

Simon & Simon star Jameson Parker remembers James Garner.
"Popularity is the pocket change of history."

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Mrs. Higgins
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Re: The Rockford Files

#54 Post by Mrs. Higgins »

Little Garwood wrote:So is anyone else here watching The Rockford Files as part of their tv routine? I watch it every Friday night, followed by an episode of Kolchak: The Night Stalker, a show I've watched continually since its DVD release ten years ago.
I just treated myself to an early Christmas present and bought season 5 & 6 to complete the collection. I rented a few discs from my library but Rockford is a series worth owning in its entirety.
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Little Garwood
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Re: The Rockford Files

#55 Post by Little Garwood »

Mrs. Higgins wrote:
Little Garwood wrote:So is anyone else here watching The Rockford Files as part of their tv routine? I watch it every Friday night, followed by an episode of Kolchak: The Night Stalker, a show I've watched continually since its DVD release ten years ago.
I just treated myself to an early Christmas present and bought season 5 & 6 to complete the collection. I rented a few discs from my library but Rockford is a series worth owning in its entirety.
Oh, so you now have the Complete Lance White Collection! Way to go!
"Popularity is the pocket change of history."

~Tom Selleck

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Re: The Rockford Files

#56 Post by terryfromkerry »

Little Garwood wrote:
Mrs. Higgins wrote:
Little Garwood wrote:So is anyone else here watching The Rockford Files as part of their tv routine? I watch it every Friday night, followed by an episode of Kolchak: The Night Stalker, a show I've watched continually since its DVD release ten years ago.
I just treated myself to an early Christmas present and bought season 5 & 6 to complete the collection. I rented a few discs from my library but Rockford is a series worth owning in its entirety.
Oh, so you now have the Complete Lance White Collection! Way to go!
Hi Little Garwood & Mrs Higgins,

I have the first 4 seasons of The Rockford Files DVD box set on my DVD shelf. Bought it for forty five euro, coming across it unexpectedly in a HMV store 5 years ago. Great price and could not believe my luck. My wife and I love it. Most of my 8 season MPI collection was bought in NYC. At full price but oh! so worth it for the years of multiple viewings I have enjoyed while sipping my Old Dusseldorf .......... sorry got a bit carried away there ! I mean Guinness or to quote Magnum " a pint of porter". I have a multi region DVD player fortunately. We would absolutely love to get Rockford Season 5 & 6. Might try ebay but I know there were several feature length TV movies subsequently in the '90's I think. Are these available on DVD in the USA ? Have you seen any and how did they compare to the original series.

Always enjoy both your posts,

Mahalo, :magnum: :higgins: :)
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Mrs. Higgins
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Re: The Rockford Files

#57 Post by Mrs. Higgins »

terryfromkerry wrote:
Hi Little Garwood & Mrs Higgins,

I have the first 4 seasons of The Rockford Files DVD box set on my DVD shelf. Bought it for forty five euro, coming across it unexpectedly in a HMV store 5 years ago. Great price and could not believe my luck. My wife and I love it. Most of my 8 season MPI collection was bought in NYC. At full price but oh! so worth it for the years of multiple viewings I have enjoyed while sipping my Old Dusseldorf .......... sorry got a bit carried away there ! I mean Guinness or to quote Magnum " a pint of porter". I have a multi region DVD player fortunately. We would absolutely love to get Rockford Season 5 & 6. Might try ebay but I know there were several feature length TV movies subsequently in the '90's I think. Are these available on DVD in the USA ? Have you seen any and how did they compare to the original series.

Always enjoy both your posts,

Mahalo, :magnum: :higgins: :)
Two volumes of Rockford Files Movies are indeed available here. If the price goes low enough, I just might snatch them up.

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss ... +collecton
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Re: The Rockford Files

#58 Post by terryfromkerry »

Many thanks Mrs. Higgins ........ I must seriously check out Amazon. :)
"Oh Jonathan !....oh Jonathan, come quickly ...... your hot cross buns are smoking".

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Re: The Rockford Files

#59 Post by marlboro »

IMO, The Rockford Files movies were pretty disappointing. The tone was too different. Just a generic made for tv mystery. There was a pretty funny bit with Angel during the LA riots in one of the first movies though.

I'd try catching them streaming online before I bought them.

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Re: The Rockford Files

#60 Post by terryfromkerry »

Good suggestion Marlboro :)
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Re: The Rockford Files

#61 Post by Little Garwood »

marlboro wrote:IMO, The Rockford Files movies were pretty disappointing. The tone was too different. Just a generic made for tv mystery. There was a pretty funny bit with Angel during the LA riots in one of the first movies though.

I'd try catching them streaming online before I bought them.
I remember seeing a couple of the Rockford movies on The Hallmark Channel some years ago. It was just great to see Jimbo back in action, despite any shortcomings the tv movies themselves may have, which is how I mostly feel about Tom's Jesse Stone movies.

If the price is low enough on TRF movies dvds, I'd get them. Otherwise, wait for a sale. Speaking of which, I recently got TRF S1--finally on single-sided discs--for $8.99 on Amazon.
"Popularity is the pocket change of history."

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Re: The Rockford Files

#62 Post by Mrs. Higgins »

Just watched "Nice Guys Finish Dead" for the first time in about 30 years. Very very funny. I was shocked (more like pleasantly surprised) when Larry popped up. I wasn't expecting that. I enjoyed the banter between him and Simon Oakland. Tom was excellent of course as Lance White. The scene in his office with Rockford and Freddie Beamer had me giggling along with the highway scenes in which Lance easily found Freddie's glasses and Rockford's award. Freddie was a pretty funny character, a better "sidekick" for Rockford than Richie Brockelman who I found to be quite annoying for some reason.

Not sure if I caught a flub or not but...I thought I heard to the place where the St. Could's held their press conferences as "The Hopalong Cassidy Suite at the Gene Autry Hotel" then the "Gene Autry Suite at the Hopalong Cassidy Hotel". Or, perhaps it was a joke...

Next up "The Hawaiian Headache" Season 6 Episode 8 8)
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Re: The Rockford Files

#63 Post by Luther's nephew Dobie »

Little Garwood wrote:
Luther's nephew Dobie wrote: Hi Garwood,
I agree with you, except for one episode. That would be the two part "This Case is Closed" with the great Joseph Cotton. There is a nice episode hidden here amongst the dreck, some good scenes but good lord the needless and endless car chases and plain filler. The director must have been some studio hack with no idea how to edit.

Anyway, I guess if you have "This Case is Closed" on DVD you could fast forward past the lame parts. There is a gem of a scene where Cotton's powerful wealthy man character tries to intimidate Rockford and Rockford gives it right back, explaining that as his own boss he doesn't have to take that sort of guff. It's one of my favorites out of the whole series.
Just watched this last night. I rate it a 6/10. I don't share your dislike of the episode and I maintain that "Love is the Word" is probably the series' low point, relatively speaking.

I enjoyed the Cotten-Garner scenes--Cotten does have a rather interesting accent--and Beery was his usual charmingly good-natured self. His "Greatest Generation"-era mentality makes for a fine counterpoint to Jim's ex-con, post-Watergate cynicism, which is why I must respectfully disagree with our friend marlboro about "Pilot Rocky" being a better fit than our cherished Beery Rocky. The running gag about the ashtray is pretty funny! :lol:

The one bit I didn't get was when Rockford was driven out to almost the middle of nowhere and just...dropped off. What was the purpose of that scene, other than to sort of set up the amusing bit with the cabbie and Rocky? Sharon Gless could have been better used; all she does is watch Rockford down a hot-sauce-covered taco (served by future Officer Billings and Garner crony Luis Delgado).

Enjoyed the nighttime car chase through old L.A. and its atrocious streets; they're all cracked and crumbling. It all adds to the unique atmosphere that makes TRF so great to me. Most shows rely on the Universal Lot, whereas TRF actually "takes it to the streets." The fact they actual film at night is another plus, as it is with most Universal shows.
Garwood,
I have discovered that there was several Rockford Files that ran 90 minutes when it originally aired. When it was time to sell the rerun package, Universal's editors added stock footage to flesh them out to 2 hours(with commercials) so they could be cut into two hour long episodes, a "two parter".
"This Case is Closed" was one of them. Instead of a 2 minute chase, expand it to 10 minutes years later by lifting elements of chases from other episodes and then splice. Throw in a scene of Rockford getting a taco, and Bob's Your Uncle.
Universal turned this sort of thing into a art form. McCloud had episodes of 60 minutes, 90 minutes and two hours. So for rerun purposes, they added footage or combined 2 separate episodes, bridging the two together by explanatory/connecting scenes in Chief Clifford's office where they dubbed in new dialog so obviously dubbed by other actors and not matching the original actors mouthings it was shameless. Or adding in a shot of Clifford with his back to the camera, a later added on voice - as Clifford -explaining how the 2 story lines intersected.
The editing is generally terrible, it ruins the mood, continuity and sense of the original stand alone episodes. Which were a lot of fun.
By the way, in the opening montage of McCloud scenes, there is a shot of Dennis Weaver holding on to the runners of a coptor when it lifts off a skyscraper and he is dangling in mid-air 80 stories over NYC. That was him not a double, he missed his cue to let go as the stuntman was slightly tardy running over to take his place and hook on the safety lines, so that was really Weaver hanging on for dear life with no harness.
Even worse than McCloud's editing was what happened to Rod Serling's Night Gallery(shown on the ME network at 4:30 am weeknights). They needed to have enough episodes for a rerun package but the series only ran a few years(3?).
They split the hour episodes in to half hour ones, hard to do with 3 separate 16 minute stores in each hour long episode. So they took a failed series about a shrink, starring Gary Collins, and added scenes from that to the beginning and end of the half hour versions, making no sense whatsoever but such was the studio's contempt for the viewer at home. Supposedly Collin's patient was telling him of his nightmares, which was that episode's Night Gallery offering.
Or they would butcher 2 16 minutes stories down to 11 minutes each, giving you 22 minutes of content and 8 minutes of commercials. It's a total train wreck.
Last edited by Luther's nephew Dobie on Tue Apr 11, 2017 1:06 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: The Rockford Files

#64 Post by Little Garwood »

If you watch the episode as it is presented on the S1 (single-sided discs) DVD set, you may soften your view on This Case is Closed. I rate it a 6/10. It's by no means a classic, but it wouldn't be one I'd skip or otherwise dread watching as I made my way through the season.

Yes, I recall that about Night Gallery. I never saw it with the Collins show shoehorned into it, but I do recall some dire-looking syndicated prints of episodes when they were aired in the early '80s.
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Re: The Rockford Files

#65 Post by Luther's nephew Dobie »

Little Garwood wrote:
Mrs. Higgins wrote:
Little Garwood wrote:So is anyone else here watching The Rockford Files as part of their tv routine? I watch it every Friday night, followed by an episode of Kolchak: The Night Stalker, a show I've watched continually since its DVD release ten years ago.
I just treated myself to an early Christmas present and bought season 5 & 6 to complete the collection. I rented a few discs from my library but Rockford is a series worth owning in its entirety.
Oh, so you now have the Complete Lance White Collection! Way to go!
Hi Garwood,
I hope I don't come across as some know all but, in my opinion, the complete Lance White Collection must include Maverick episode number 48, The Saga of Waco Williams. Rockford is Maverick updated to the 1970's and Lance White is a updated but totally recognizable Waco Williams. This episode was the highest rated of the series and one of the best, illustrating both Maverick's and Rockford's worldview, with a wonderful ending with Maverick looking directly into
the camera and addressing the audience. I imagine because it came off so well Garner suggested they do it again for Rockford.
Last edited by Luther's nephew Dobie on Sat Jun 23, 2018 5:22 am, edited 1 time in total.

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