This two hour pilot movie for "The Rockford Files" is cut into two separate episodes for syndication. Right from the start, Garner has the right tone and put upon attitude as Jim Rockford, even showing a soft heart when Sara Butler, his beautiful client (Lindsay Wagner) can't afford to pay him his going rate. The mystery is a good one. It involves the death of Wagner's father played by "Rockford" veteran Bill Quinn. His daughter believes it was a homicide. The police have no leads and close the case. Enter Jim Rockford.
While the mystery and the performances are good, probably the most interesting thing about this episode are the differences between this and the regular series.
Instead of the usual opening shot from any of the other episodes in which the camera pans across the desk past the cards and the picture of "Rocky" (they can't steal the usual shot from another show since there's a different Rocky in this episode!!!) the syndicated version of this steals a shot of Jim's trailer. However, it's a shot from a later episode in which the trailer is parked on Cove Road. In this episode, its address is 2334 ocean blvd (although in a blooper, a sign on the trailer says 2354 Ocean blvd.) and its parked in an entirely different Malibu location than the familiar 33 Cove Road address.
There is of course, also a different Rocky. Robert Donley looks like a crusty desert rat and the part is written more for a grifter like Angel than the Rocky we all came to know and love. His pick up truck is blue as opposed to Noah Berry Jr's familiar red one.
Speaking of Angel, Stuart Margolin makes his first appearance here as Jim's ex-con buddy and newspaper/information contact. Margolin is great. For what I think is the only time other than the wedding episode, he wears a suit and a tie.
We also get to see Rockford's yellow pages ad, which is also used in the opening titles of this show. The ad features a drawing of Rockford and confirms his address as 2334 Ocean Blvd. Oddly enough, it does not contain any phone number to call. No wonder Jim didn't get any business!
Jim Garner's brother Jack also makes his first appearance in the series, as a guy who walks in on Rockford as he questions familiar Rockford bad guy William Smith in a restroom. Smith by the way is just an excellent menace and a worthy foe to Jim Rockford.
In another interesting moment, the Firebird is completely and utterly destroyed at one point, only to make a fresh appearance in the next episode.
While the mystery and the performances are good, probably the most interesting thing about this episode are the differences between this and the regular series.
Instead of the usual opening shot from any of the other episodes in which the camera pans across the desk past the cards and the picture of "Rocky" (they can't steal the usual shot from another show since there's a different Rocky in this episode!!!) the syndicated version of this steals a shot of Jim's trailer. However, it's a shot from a later episode in which the trailer is parked on Cove Road. In this episode, its address is 2334 ocean blvd (although in a blooper, a sign on the trailer says 2354 Ocean blvd.) and its parked in an entirely different Malibu location than the familiar 33 Cove Road address.
There is of course, also a different Rocky. Robert Donley looks like a crusty desert rat and the part is written more for a grifter like Angel than the Rocky we all came to know and love. His pick up truck is blue as opposed to Noah Berry Jr's familiar red one.
Speaking of Angel, Stuart Margolin makes his first appearance here as Jim's ex-con buddy and newspaper/information contact. Margolin is great. For what I think is the only time other than the wedding episode, he wears a suit and a tie.
We also get to see Rockford's yellow pages ad, which is also used in the opening titles of this show. The ad features a drawing of Rockford and confirms his address as 2334 Ocean Blvd. Oddly enough, it does not contain any phone number to call. No wonder Jim didn't get any business!
Jim Garner's brother Jack also makes his first appearance in the series, as a guy who walks in on Rockford as he questions familiar Rockford bad guy William Smith in a restroom. Smith by the way is just an excellent menace and a worthy foe to Jim Rockford.
In another interesting moment, the Firebird is completely and utterly destroyed at one point, only to make a fresh appearance in the next episode.
