“This is Jim Rockford. At the tone leave your name and message. I’ll get back to you.” “Hey Rockford, very funny. I ain’t laughin’. You’re gonna get yours.” The fun of this message is not in its words, but in…
ROCKFORD FILES: “The Countess” S1 E3
Category: television
ROCKFORD FILES: “The Dark and Bloody Ground” S1 E2
“This is Jim Rockford. At the tone leave your name and message. I’ll get back to you.” “Hey Jim, this is Louie down at the fish market. You gonna pick up these halibut, or what?” Sirens blare and flash across…
ROCKFORD FILES: “The Kirkoff Case” S1 E1
“This is Jim Rockford. At the tone leave your name and message. I’ll get back to you.” “Jim, it’s Norma at the market. It bounced. You want us to tear it up, send it back, or put it with the…
Hello, COZI-TV! Muchas Gracias for Bringing Steve and Oscar Back Into My Life
There’s a new channel on my television, and it couldn’t have come sooner. It seems like every time I put on MeTV these days, Raymond Burr is there, interrogating people in black and white or wheeling around in color. A…
The Rockford Files Pilot Episode Revisited
“Backlash of the Hunter” is the movie-length pilot for the TV serial, “The Rockford Files,” which ran for six seasons beginning in 1974. The pilot aired on Mar. 27 of that year, while the first season didn’t kick off until…
Jack Tripper: Was He Good for the Gays?
As the legend goes, aspiring chef Jack Tripper awoke one morning passed out in the bathtub of Janet and Chrissy’s apartment after crashing the sendoff party for their third roommate, Eleanor, who was leaving to have her baby. Turns out…
The Rockford Files, S2-E1, “The Aaron Ironwood School of Success.”
After a triumphal debut season, “The Rockford Files” kicks off its sophomore year with an action-packed thriller. There’s nothing fancy here, no romantic female lead for Jim to work with, no very special guest star, no two-parter. Instead, they double-down…
Laverne, Shirley, & a Mid-Life Crisis
For the first time since Alexander Haig was Secretary of State, I had the opportunity to watch an episode of “Laverne & Shirley” from the very beginning. I still remembered that distinctive theme song as if it were yesterday, but…
Joyce Brothers (1927-2013)
In another indicator of the subtle but steady changing of the times, the death of Joyce Brothers earlier this week went by largely unnoticed. To anyone who watched a respectable amount of television in the Seventies, Joyce Brothers was instantly…
TV Invented the Rock Star (Part 2)
(In Part I of this essay, the origins of the rock star figure in Western culture were examined, beginning with Elvis and leaving off with the Beatles’ triumphal debut appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.) To be sure, America’s youth…