Posted on 04/07/2022 12:00:08 PM PDT by Kaslin
April 7th marks the birthday of one of Hollywood’s best – the late, great James Garner – whose multi-decade career spanned everything from early TV westerns like "Maverick," to movies of all genres, from "Grand Prix" to "The Great Escape" to "Hour of the Gun." And, prior to his life on the screen, he served in both the U.S. Merchant Marine and the U.S. Army National Guard – that latter stint in uniform included combat in the Korean War where he was wounded twice in action, and received two Purple Hearts and the Army’s Combat Infantryman Badge for his service. Garner would have been 94 this year.
And while Garner’s career spanned multiple decades on both the big and little screen, it was The Rockford Files where he shined – eventually earning an Emmy for Best Actor on the show. The character – a tough, good-natured and sharp-skilled but perennially down-on-his-luck ex-con (pardoned) private detective – was basically tailor-made for Garner. In fact, he was so perfect for the role that it is almost impossible to envision any other actor playing the part.
But The Rockford Files was more than James Garner. And it was more than superb writing and plots, or excellent characters with chemistry – which it all was, of course. Beyond all of that, it was a tribute to and a defense of the middle-class. Rockford spoke to all of us stuck between the protected polar ends of society, putting in the hours, footing the bill for everyone else, and making just enough to stay above water…but never enough to sit completely high-and-dry. And while The Rockford Files regularly highlighted societal injustice, it was done via a character clad in off-the-rack blazers who lived in a trailer house and drank canned beers…a far cry from the sanctimonious moralizers who endlessly brow-beat the common citizen with their selective outrage today.
Even if it wasn’t intended, Rockford was an everyman hero – the “Average Joe” who is simply trying to get by, earn enough cash to make the payments on his Firebird, and live peacefully enough to throw a few casts into the surf with his old man. Rockford – and often his retired truck-driver Dad “Rocky” – took it on the chin for good people in nearly every episode. And while the villains didn’t succeed with their schemes, Rockford never got rich for his troubles. The hard-knock lesson here is that even if evil gets punished – a big “if” it seems these days – good never seems to get properly reimbursed.
And the villains of Rockford were authentic – not cartoonish heavies from action fantasy land…but the kind of real-life schemers and frauds we read about in the news every day. Larcenous swindlers – who lie and collude for self-enrichment. Crooked lawyers – who bilk their clients to maintain superficial lifestyles. Greedy corporatists – who cut corners to pad their pockets. Charlatan pols – who ignore the constitution on the way to higher office. Some episodes were serious about this stuff – including one from Season Three entitled “So Help Me God” where Rockford is unfairly trapped by an underhanded prosecutor in a grand jury proceeding – a commentary on how easily the average citizen can be destroyed by credentialed authorities in secretive legal structures without transparency or oversight. Sound familiar?
And more often than not, Rockford was implicated as the suspect in the very cases he was working – often by vain and egotistical authority figures who were lazy, blinded by prejudicial notions, and who seemed to operate on the idea that one is guilty until proven innocent. Notably, his only friend on the police force was another honest blue collar stiff, detective Dennis Becker, who personified the overworked and underpaid. Nearly every episode found Rockford either hemmed up and worked over by sundry goons and thugs – or screwed over and left hanging by the nameless, soulless system that grinds up and spits out the individual, without mercy or apology. Ironically, it’s the system that we – and the fictional Jim Rockford – all pay taxes to support.
The Rockford Files was of course a product of its time – the cynical 70’s – and like a great many productions of the era, it questioned everything. It distrusted the words and motives of the influential. It looked skeptically at the company line. And it poked the powers that be. It didn’t matter if it was government, big business, local politics, attractive women or handsome men – Rockford showed that malice and ill-intent could manifest itself anywhere, in anyone, at any time.
It’s hard to ignore the uncomfortable parallels between now and Rockford’s time – the only difference is that the 1970’s had better movies, shows and music. In fact, you could do worse in your off-time than catching a few re-runs of Rockford and watch a guy like us take down the hacks and the creeps – it’s one of the gems from when TV had thought and character. And you might as well, anyway…because with everything going on now – the lies, the chicanery, the usury, the inflation, and the disillusionment with failing leadership and untrustworthy institutions – it basically feels like we’re all part of Rockford’s Files now.
(The Rockford Files)
Tune into a hit FM radio station in the 1970s and the theme song would come on.
Good times back then.
Loved that show and have the first two seasons on DVD.
A&E’s best times were back in the ‘90s when it aired Rockford daily, along with other 1970s mystery shows Banacek, McMillan and Wife, McCloud, Columbo, Delvecchio, City of Angels, and O’Hare US Treasury.
I’m remembering the instrumental theme song.
Yup, excellent. I even notice that 50 years later, it’s cool to dress like him.
Did ya ever see the episode where Tom Selleck got his start on TV? Very humorous. It turns out I won a radio call-in contest by knowing that little tidbit. Got to treat my wife to a date.
Will watch Rockford File episodes over and over. Had a huge crush on his attorney "Beth".
Always enjoyed The Rockford Files. Very smartly written, unlike todays crap.
We might all be part of Rockford’s Files, but it is getting harder to find those Pontiac Firebirds, and in a few years they will all be EVs.
“I’m remembering the instrumental theme song.”
That and its arrangements used throughout the shows was excellent.
Some of the plots are silly but Garner keeps the shows amusing.
I recall reading an interview with Tom Selleck in which he mentioned that the very good way he saw Garner treat everyone (including the production assistants) while filming Rockford inspired him to be the same way when he starred in Magnum PI.
Gretchen Corbett. I always get her mixed up with Kay Lenz.
No purple, blue, or pink hair in Rockford, I don't think. No nose rings or other piercings or tattoos either that I can recall. Maybe a bad guy had an earring once in a while, or a rat tail.
I was born in 1951, so James Garner was and will always be Bret Maverick on the 1957-1962 TV show. I never saw a single episode of Rockford Files!
There were so many great westerns on in the late 50s and early 60s: Sugarfoot, Cheyenne, Maverick, Rawhide, Wagon Train, Gunsmoke, Bat Masterson, Tales of Wells Fargo, Tombstone Territory, Wanted: Dead or Alive (with McQueen’s “Mare’s Leg”), The Rifleman.
Sigh, back when TV celebrated America, celebrated white men, didn’t fill the airwaves with LGBTABCXYZ crapola and try to subvert our kids.
“...throw a few casts into the surf...”
What does this mean?
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Article makes me interested in the show.
I neve really watched it or when I did never got in to it.
Mike Post was the King of theme songs through the ‘70s and ‘80s.
I’m all hopped up on Rockford right now. Been watching an episode per day for about a month. He was a really devoted lib but I bet he’d turn over in his grave if he knew what the dem party was like now.
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