The Rockford Files: Season 5

"The Rockford Files" was a wildly popular, and now, iconographic, television detective series based on the life and work of Jim Rockford, a private detective living in southern California in the 1970's. The series is undoubtedly one of the best television shows ever produced: so good that one almost winces when the word "television" is mentioned in context with the show. Although television was the format and forum for the series, the work lays clearly outside the norms of "good television," and moves into areas generally only found in film and drama.Jim is a genuinely good-hearted, but nevertheless cynical, hero of the common man who makes his sometimes meager income pursuing his unusual and often dangerous job. As an ex-con himself who spent time in jail for a crime he did not commit (and for which he eventually received a full pardon), Jim's street smarts equip him to move through all types of dangerous and unexpectedly dramatic situations that arise as he works his way through his revolving caseload, the "files" part of "The Rockford Files." Jim's response to questions about his daily rate, usually asked by someone in most every episode, is "200 dollars a day, plus expenses." Jim's duties might be to look for a missing person, collect on a debt owed, solve a crime, or anything else that someone might hire a private detective to do.Jim makes frequent use of his friend in Los Angeles Police Department, Sgt. Dennis Becker, to get important information, but as often as not, pays the favors back by providing help to Becker which allowed Becker to make arrests. Jim claims to be averse to picking up any job that involves real danger. He owns a gun, but rarely uses it, and makes a point of telling anyone who will listen that he doesn't like guns. Nevertheless, it is Jim's care for the individual that generally moves him into danger to help someone else in need. His closest real friend, Angel Martin, is a small-time grifter and con artist who is always trying to con someone out of a few dollars, but never manages to lose Jim's friendship for reasons that may rest more with Jim's sense of responsibility to a person who needs SOMEONE to care for him than for more selfish reasons.Jim's gold Pontiac Firebird became one of the enduring visual representations of the decade. The car was routinely bruised, dinged, crashed, vandalized, and in one episode, even blown up, but was nevertheless kept in steady repair throughout the entire run of the series. Few automobiles have been so closely identified with a dramatic character while never being the central focus of attention.The Rockford Files was well-known for extremely strong plot lines, with virtually every episode in the run of the series an outstanding piece of dramatic writing and acting set to full musical score. The music in the first season or two is often exceptionally strong, where we often discover entire episodes seemingly a continuous musical score underpinning the story. (The theme song for the series, played at the beginning of every episode and revisted within episodes as variations on a theme, was immensely popular during the series run, and was catchy enought to be released commercially on the radio waves at some point in the show's run.) Individual episodes focus on a variety of themes, either comic, intrigue, mystery, problem solving, and others, but the common thread in them all is life as viewed through the lens and experiences of Jim's efforts to stay out of trouble while he faces trouble. Episodes typically contains enough twists and turns to keep even the most seasoned watcher on the edge of the seat in trying to figure out the angle or angles that are at play. The commanding and reassuring presence of James Garner, a greatly-loved figure in American movies and television, carries virtually every scene while keeping the plot believable and engaging. The fact that the series could maintain such high levels of realistic credibility while not allowing the viewer to assemble all the pieces until the near end of each episode is simply a marvel of narrative storytelling. These are some of the best examples of premier storytelling in the history of television, and arguably, film.Many reviews of television shows contain lists of "best" episodes. In my own mind, it is simply not possible to create such a list for The Rockford Files. To do so would perhaps do some injustice to the series, because virtually every episode is "good" in the basic sense. Yes, there are indeed some episodes that are archetypical examples of mastery in video storytelling, but to be perfectly honest, you can basically pick any episode of The Rockford Files at random, and, assuming you understand the basic premise of the show, chances are you'll have a great viewing experience. But perhaps this is a series best watched by starting with Season One, and watching each episode in order, so that one can fully appreciate the cast of characters, their relationship to one another, and the unfolding story of Jim's life. Along the way, we come to love Rocky as a father and human being, appreciate Denis as an honest and hard-working police officer, admire Beth as a skilled and knowledgeable lawyer, and feel some level of understanding, and yes, even sympathy, for Angel as he cons his way through small-time scams. Running through it all is Jim, a person who often puts others above himself, and has a touch of humanity that appeals to most everyone, and easily makes the series one of the most endearing to ever appear on television.

I think this 1978-79 Season of this detective drama 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 since Rockford's 6th Season was only a half season since this private detective drama was cut short when it was abruptly cancelled in the Winter of 1980, due to James Garner developing health problems.Therefore, Garner had ran out of steam and the ROCKFORD FILES started becoming overshadowed by the premiere of much newer and more popular shows like the DUKES OF HAZZARD when the Dukes made their debut on CBS in the Winter 1979 which resulted in Rockford being up against The Dukes since they were both on at the same time-slot every Friday night from the Spring of 1979 till the late Fall of 1979, along with the fact that the down-on-his-luck P.I. Jim Rockford was huffing & puffing with health problems while Bo and Luke Duke were humming along with no health issues, but NBC had briefly moved the ROCKFORD FILES to Saturdays at 10PM in February of 1979, but had changed their minds and moved Rockford back to Fridays at 9PM in April of 1979 which resulted in Rockford losing a lot of viewers through the Dukes.Additionally, this is the season when Rockford's often irritated cop buddy Det. Dennis Becker(Joe Santos)from the LAPD gets promoted to lieutenant as well as the first season without my favorite character which was Rockford's foxy attorney girlfriend Beth Davenport(Gretchen Corbett)since Beth abruptly left the show in the 2nd half of Rockford's Fourth Season due to the fact that the inclusive Gretchen Corbett had unfortunately left the show in the Winter of 1978 due to a salary dispute over her contract with Universal leaving us mourning the loss of Beth which unfortunately gave Becker's bitter superior officer Lt. Doug Chapman(James Luisi) a.k.a. "Chappy" an advantage over Rockford whenever he got busted by the police since the drop-dead gorgeous Beth wasn't around to back Rockford up anymore like she did in the first 4 seasons after Beth made her last appearance in January of 1978 in "The Attractive Nuisance" episode, plus I also noticed that Rockford's reckless con-artist buddy Angel Martin(Stuart Margolin) seemed to have started coming out less and less often 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 this private detective show didn't make the ratings go down, at least not to the point where NBC had cancelled Rockford right away or even right after completing a successful 5th Season of the ROCKFORD FILES on NBC eitherIt'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 Rockford's 6th Season on this 1978-79 Season DVD of the ROCKFORD FILES 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 the eccentric hot shot private investigator Lance White(Tom Selleck) at a private-eyes convention where a murder ends up taking place at leaving Rockford teaming up with the almost perfect Lance White again to solve the homicide leading Rockford to be outclassed by the impeccable Lance White again, since the goody two shoes Lance White ended up stealing the show again at Rockfords expense 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 the stellar 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 death took place there.In addition; Rockford's Fifth Season also had some interesting guest stars in it too such as*Tom Selleck in the "White On White & Nearly Perfect" episode before he was even a star which was also before his co-starring days as the Hawaiian beach-bum private detective(Thomas Magnum)on MAGNUM, P.I.*Jerry Douglas in the "A Good Clean Bust With Sequel Rights" episode during his earlier co-starring days as John Abbott on THE YOUNG & THE RESTLESS*Erin Gray in the "With The French Heel Back, Can The Nehru Jacket Be Far Behind" episode before her co-starring days as the foxy Col. Wilma Deering on BUCK ROGERS and before her co-starring days as the foxy Kate Summers on SILVER SPOONS*Sorrell Booke in "The Jersey Bounce" episode before his co-starring days as the scheming corrupt police Commissioner(J.D. "Boss" Hogg) on the DUKES OF HAZZARD*Mary Frann in the episode " Fast Count " before her co-starring days as Joanna Louden on NEWHART*James Sikking in the "A Good Clean Bust With Sequel Rights" episode before his co-starring days as Lt. Howard Hunter on the police drama HILL STREET BLUES*Carl Franklin in the "Black Mirror" episode before his co-starring days as the disgruntled Col. Deckers sidekick(Capt. Crane)on THE A-TEAM*Richard Moll in the "A 3-Day Affair With A 30-Day Escrow" episode before his co-starring days as the tall bald baliff(Bull Shannon)on NIGHT COURT*Dennis Holahan in "The Battle-Ax & The Exploding Cigar" episode before his co-starring days on GENERAL HOSPITAL*Bo Hopkins in the episodes "The Jersey Bounce", "Man Eaten By Local Newspaper", and "Return Of The Black Shadow" before his co-starring days on DYNASTY*Oscar nominee(Rita Moreno) making a recurring role in the "Rosendahl & Gilda Stern Are Dead" episode*Ken Tigar in the "Local Man Eaten By Newspaper" episode before his co-starring days on DAYS OF OUR LIVES, DYNASTY, & DALLAS*Mills Watson in "The Deuce" episode before his co-starring days as the doofus Deputy Perkins on SHERIFF LOBO*Jonathan Goldsmith in "The Empty Frame" episode before his co-starring days on DALLAS*Ted Schackelford in the "Guilt" episode before his co-starring days on KNOTT'S LANDING and on THE YOUNG & THE RESTLESS*John Considine in the "A Different Drummer" episode after his co-starring days on ANOTHER WORLD*Hector Elizondo in the "A Good Clean Bust With Sequel Rights" episode before his co-starring days as Dr. Philip Waters on CHICAGO HOPE*Rene Auberjonois in the "With The French Heel Is Back, Can The Nehru Jacket Be Far Behind" episode before his co-starring days on BENSON*Sharon Spelman in "The Deuce" episode after her co-starring days on ANGIE*Jennifer Holmes in the episode " Never Send A Boy King To Do A Man's Job " before her co-starring days as Leslie on NEWHARTUnfortunately, the DUKES OF HAZZARD K.O.'d the ROCKFORD FILES in the ratings and you could say the Dukes were killing Rockford since the Dukes had outclassed Rockford big time, because for one thing Jim Rockford was outclassed by the Duke boys since Bo(John Schneider) & Luke(Tom Wopat) were both eye-candy to the ladies, plus Bo and Luke were a lot younger, a lot spunkier, more energetic, and more attractive than Rockford(James Garner)was especially since Garner was already an old-fart while Wopat and Schneider were still only young-farts just getting started in their showbiz career.For another, the General Lee had outclassed Rockford's bronze Firebird.For another the DUKES OF HAZZARD was a lot more hilarious than the ROCKFORD FILES was along with the fact that this show was already passed its honeymoon phase while the Dukes were just starting their honeymoon phase of the show.Therefore you could say that John Schneider(Bo)and Tom Wopat(Luke)were peaking while James Garner(Rockford)was creaking since Rockford was getting tired and Garner had ran out of gas reaching a saturation point with his Rockford character & had gotten burned out with resuming that role which became more & more obvious since you can tell that Rockford started to limp & drag more & more in the last 2 seasons of the ROCKFORD FILES as opposed to the Duke boys since Bo & Luke were full of lots of energy and steam and years ahead of them during Rockford's last 2 seasons and cancellation after NBC showed its final episode "Deadlock In Parma" on Thursday January 10, 1980 when the DUKES OF HAZZARD was in the middle of its 2nd Season on CBS.Therefore you could say that the Dukes were killing Rockford, despite the fact that the ROCKFORD FILES primary reason for cancelling was due to illness, not low ratings but at the same time the DUKES OF HAZZARD easily still added fuel to fire since the Dukes basically beat Rockford to a pulp in the Nielsen ratings.Fortunately, the ROCKFORD FILES had inspired newer private detective shows in the 80's like MAGNUM, PI which debuted on CBS in the late Fall of 1980 and SIMON & SIMON which made its debut on CBS in the mid-Fall of 1981.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.Therefore, Rockford's short-lived 1979-80 Season led us to the conclusion that Rockford had some unfinished business on the show leaving us wondering if Rockford was still making his living as a private investigator or not, but Joe Santos had later on became a part-time co-star on MAGNUM, P.I. as Magnum's cop buddy(Lt. Nolan Page)in that MAGNUM's last 2 seasons.It was also wonderful being able to watch all these episodes of Rockford complete & uncut like they were shown on their original air-dates on NBC as opposed to how they were shown in reruns on A&E, TNN, TV Land, WGN, Me-TV, or Cozi-TV, which all deleted too many scenes & had too many commercial disruptions.Rockford's 5th Season also takes me all the way back to memory lane when NBC's motto was "NBCSee Us", which was NBC's motto from the Fall of 1978 thru the Spring of 1979 when I was still living in the unpopular Imperial Valley.In the meantime, I've got some wonderful news for all you classic private detective drama fans out there that are underway for the Spring of 2010.The detective drama MATT HOUSTON-Season 1 is scheduled to be released on DVD Tuesday March 9th, 2010 and SIMON & SIMON-Season 4 is scheduled to be released on Tuesday April 6th, 2010 and are now both available for pre-order as we speak.

One disc in Season5 wouldn't play. Several other episodes had not been digitally remastered. But, you can screw up the Rockford Files up.

Once again my DVD purchase was well worth the money. I'm a huge Rockford Files' fan and season 5 was packaged like new. The DVD quality was excellent with no known defects. It arrived within five days, which was well within their stated delivery time. Thanks for once again providing me with a great purchase.The Rockford Files remains the best of any and all Private Eye TV Shows (which were huge in the 70's). Jim's everyday problems with paying the bills, living in a shoddy trailer by the beach & fighting with his father all make this a true TV classic. Yes, parts of the show may seem outdated to some but the same can be said of most any TV show. Anyone who is looking for witty, smart writing with believable plots should check this out! Plus numerous Hollywood stars have appeared on the show over the years. Tom Selleck starred (season six) as "Lance White", an upscale, handsome PI who always gets the girl, solves the case & never gets beat up. You can't go wrong with The Rockford Files! Count me as a satisfied customer!

Really enjoying so far. Bought for the trailer for rainy days. Disc one was a walk back in time. Quality is great, etc. Unfortunately Disc 2 won’t even play (black screen) - very disappointing, disc 3 so far all good. Don’t know yet about the remaining two discs, cross fingers they work fine.

This is my kind of nostalgic detective show. Great actors (especially James Garner and Noah Berry) and not too violent or gory. Even some laughs thrown in, which is always good too.Picture quality and sound were fine. At less than 20. this is a lot of entertainment for the price!

Jim's still putting on a pretty good game, and it's a good season to watch. Maybe it's just me, but I don't think it's quite as strong as some of his earlier episodes. The big double-episode con game for example. It started off pretty good and then sort of petered out into something a little silly by the end of it all. So while I definitely enjoyed Season 5, compared to previous Rockford seasons, I just can't quite give it a full 5/5. 4/5 or 4.5/5 seems about right to me.

Another great season of entertainment. Best episode ever is " White on White and nearly perfect" with TomSelleck guest starring as Lance White. Lance is a detective whos' toast never falls butter side down, while Rockfordsuffers along as "everyman".

Great buy for any Rockford Files fan.