MoneyMagnet Although I was sentient between 1974-1980, I never watched this show because I was a kid and it seemed like a "boring grown up show." Now that James Garner has sadly passed on, I decided to check it out and am highly enjoying it. Very little about this show seems dated (except for the clothes and the 1970s lack of TV sex and gore). The dialogue often sparkles and even when the plots are repetitive, you just want to spend an hour hanging out with Jim and his friends every episode.Also, you can tell a high quality show by the caliber of guest actors it attracts. The Rockford Files attracted the cream of the crop of '70s TV, including many actors who would go on to have their own shows and be pretty famous. And of course, Garner is so perfect in this role that you don't even notice the character he's playing is a bit of a loser! (not personality-wise -- but he's got no money, lives in a trailer, has lowlifes for friends and is constantly getting beaten up and arrested... that he managed to attract any women at all is a minor miracle.) I'm sorry it took me so long to check it out. It's awesome.

drystyx This should have been a much better TV series about a private investigator.On one hand, we have a very charismatic James Garner, along with a very charismatic supporting regular cast. Garner plays Rockford, who lives with his likable dad in a trailer.These human attributes then are subordinate to a mythological world devised by the mob itself, to keep themselves in power.That's where the series really fails miserably.Rockford behaves as if he has "horse sense", yet he must take the prize for the TV series character who has most often let himself be kidnapped. A big sign that mobsters were involved in making this. Rockford would jump into a car with anyone who had a gun, so he could try to escape on the terms of the kidnapper in a secluded spot with no witnesses, instead of on the busy street with witnesses.Also, the "mob" as portrayed, is invincible, and knows where every single person is every second. That's the mythology. Also, the mythology that you are better off letting hoodlums kidnap you than any other action. People from the lower rungs of the social strata know better than that. At least the ones who live to be forty or older.There was just too much mob love in this series, and mob mythology, all obviously designed to help mobsters. It's amazing that as obvious as it is, that one doesn't see more exposes about it. Again, another sign that mobsters try to cover it under the rug.The best one can do with Rockford episodes is to see "what not to do", or "don't try this at home". In effect, Rockford turns out to be what would be the worst private investigator ever, and it's doubtful any investigator who copied the methods of Rockford would live two years as a private eye, even in just routine dull work. Rockford was that retarded.

highhatsize Other reviewers have detailed the many ways in which "The Rockford Files" was a stand-out but the most important one was the writing. The screenwriters under Juanita Bartlett wrote against stereotype and made all the characters individuals with recognizable foibles that resonate with the viewer. (One of the bad guys had asthma; one put a hit on Jim's client because the client embarrassed him; the girl who disguised her egoism with spiritual consciousness is unforgettable.)What happened to this team after Rockford ended? Why did the p.i. genre regress? Granted, series weren't as formulaic after Rockford as they were before but they were never as good either.

winstonfg Probably the 2nd best detective show of the 70s - I'd put it just marginally behind Starsky and Hutch. He was like a down-market Philip Marlowe; a crabby cynic with a heart of gold.Perhaps not surprising, when he was surrounded by the likes of Angel, Rocky and Dennis who were either stiffing him out of his hard-earned cash, telling him what a mess he'd made of his life or just telling him to get lost. It certainly broke the mould of detectives-with-all-the answers shows; and Gretchen Corbett, who played Beth Davenport, his long-suffering friend and attorney, was one of my dream women back then (Funny, but I don't remember seeing her in anything else).I think it maybe went on a season or two too long, but nothing's perfect.