Line #28 Series/TheRockfordFiles


1	[[quoteright:280:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rockford2_1180.jpg]]
2
3	->''"This is Jim Rockford. At the tone, leave your name and message. I'll get back to you. [Beep]"''
4	-->-- '''Jim's [[CouchGag answering machine]]'''
5
6	Popular crime/action series, co-created by Roy Huggins (''Series/{{Maverick}}'', ''Series/TheFugitive'') and Creator/StephenJCannell, that aired on Creator/{{NBC}} from 1974 to 1980. Creator/JamesGarner played Jim Rockford, an innocent ex-con working as a private detective in the UsefulNotes/LosAngeles area. Rockford lived in a trailer parked on the Malibu beach, and drove a gold [[CoolCar Pontiac Firebird]].
7
8	In the earlier episodes, Rockford would only take cases that the police were not actively investigating: cases that they had closed in some way that was unsatisfactory to the client, cold cases, or something that the police were not giving any priority to--cases that the police lieutenant antagonist disparagingly referred to as "the Rockford files."
9
10	Rockford preferred to outwit his opponents, rather than resorting to violence (though he was very good at it when violence was required.) While Rockford had been [[ClearMyName cleared]] of the armed robbery that he had been wrongfully accused of, he had also been a ConMan who had never been caught, and on multiple occasions he used [[BatmanGambit his con artist skills to entrap the guilty party]].
11
12	In many ways, the Rockford character was a [[SettingUpdate 20th-century updating]] of Garner's Bret Maverick character.
13
14	----
15	!!This show provides examples of:
16	* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Lance White (Creator/TomSelleck), Rockford's [[FriendlyRivalry friendly rival]] private investigator who appears in the episodes "White on White and Nearly Perfect" (season 5) and "Nice Guys Finish Dead" (season 6).
17	* AmoralAttorney: District Attorney Gilbert Univaso in "Pastoria Prime Pick", who's part of a small-town shakedown scheme which involves falsely arresting strangers in town (like Rockford) and hitting them with a host of trumped-up charges.
18	** Bay City Deputy District Attorney Burton Kimball in "The Girl In the Bay City Boys Club", who, posing as a victim of a crooked card game, hires Rockford to buy his way into said game. The other players in the game turn out to be mobsters that Kimball is in league with, and they eventually kill him to shut him up.
19	* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: "Caledonia--It's Worth a Fortune!" ends with Sheriff Prouty arresting Rockford, his client and her friend for "Illegal entry, trespassing, back-talking an officer of the law and...illegal parking!"
20	* ArtisticLicenseLaw: The TaxmanTakesTheWinnings punchline of "Paradise Cove"'s ShaggyDogStory unfortunately misses the part where owning gold bullion had been re-legalized in 1974, the same year the series premiered (after having been illegal since 1933, hence the mistake).
21	* AuditThreat: People in official positions often threaten to have Jim Rockford's private investigator's license reviewed to get him to cooperate.
22	* BadassDriver: Rockford made a "J-turn" [[note]]a turn where the driver starts out in reverse, then turning the wheel sharply while using a brake to lock the front wheels, ending the turn facing 180 degrees from the beginning of the turn but the momentum being in the same original direction[[/note]] so often in the series (usually to make a quick get-away) that it became better-known as the "Rockford turn."
23	* BaseOnWheels: Rockford's dilapidated mobile home -- which served as both his office and residence -- usually remained parked on a Malibu beach, but on a few occasions, when he needed to skip town in a hurry, he hitched his trailer up (with the help of his retired trucker dad) and took home with him.
24	* BeingWatched
25	* BerserkButton: He's a pretty relaxed guy overall, but ''don't'' threaten someone he cares about, particularly his father or Beth Davenport. A beating ''will'' commence.
26	** Wanna see Dennis Becker lose it? Just accuse any of his fellow officers of being a 'dirty cop'.
27	* BilledAboveTheTitle: 'James Garner in...The Rockford Files'.
28	* BornLucky: Lance White, played in two episodes by Creator/TomSelleck.
29	* BountyHunter
30	* BuryYourGays: Two episodes ("Requiem for a Funny Box" and "The Empty Frame") feature gay couples. Although they are presented sympathetically, three of the four gay characters end up murdered.
31	* BuzzingTheDeck: In the episode "Guilt", hitman Brian Tegg chases Rockford and Eric Genther in his low-flying helicopter. He winds up having a fiery crash while trying to fly through a hangar.
32	* CastingGag: "The Competitive Edge" features [[WesternAnimation/TheManyAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh John Fiedler]] as a mental patient who thinks he is Film/JamesBond. The gag? [[Film/{{Goldfinger}} Harold Sakata]] as fellow patient "John Doe".
33	* ClearMyName: Featured in many episodes such as “Pastoria Prime Pick.”
34	* ClearTheirName: A frequent occurrence, often at the request of Beth Davenport.
35	* ClumsyCopyrightCensorship: The company name in "Profit and Loss" was originally named Financial Dynamics, but after filming, due to discovery of a company in RealLife by that name, all mentions of it were redubbed to Fiscal Dynamics.
36	* CombatPragmatist: Rockford prefers to avoid fighting, but when he fights, he fights dirty.
37	-->'''Rockford:''' You know what's wrong with karate, Jerry? It's based on the ridiculous assumption that the other guy will fight fair.
38	* TheCon: In the two-part episode [[Recap/TheRockfordFilesS5E19NeverSendABoyKingToDoAMansJob "Never Send a Boy King to do a Man's Job"]], there's an entire fake company, a large number of Egyptian-themed movie props, a faked auction of archeological finds, real race cars, the legendary curse of King Tut, and five faked deaths involved.
39
40	* ConMan: Rockford himself, occasionally; Angel Martin, always.
41	* CoolCar: {{Subverted\|trope}} with Rockford's Firebird Esprit. Yeah, a Firebird should be cool, but his is an ugly brown color (the actual color is called Copper Mist, fairly popular back then), is the base model, and is constantly out-cooled by other cars on the show. (Rockford wouldn't have been able to afford a new car every year, but the studio had a deal with Pontiac requiring them to always use the latest model. However, for the last two seasons James Garner didn’t like the way the '79 Esprit looked, so they continued to use the 1978 model.)
42	* CourtroomEpisode: In the episode "So Help Me, God", Rockford is held in contempt of court after tangling with D.A. William Daniels.
43	* CouchGag: The ever-changing [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SijxE8S6wYQ messages on Rockford's answering machine]] in the TitleSequence, which often pertained to Jim's financial problems and other assorted woes.
44	* CreatorCameo: Creator/JackieCooper, who directed several episodes in the first two seasons, guest-starred in the episodes "Claire" and "The House on Willis Avenue".
45	* CrossOver: The title character from the short-lived ''Richie Brockelman, Private Eye'' appeared in several ''Rockford'' episodes.
46	* DeadManHonking: In the episode "In Hazard", Rockford finds Fred Metcalf slumped over dead in his car in the garage, leaning on the horn.
47	* DeadpanSnarker: Rockford.
48	* DefectiveDetective: Rockford was an ex-con, with all the associated bad karma it brought.
49	* DetectiveDrama
50	* DirtyCop: Lt. Hall in "Feeding Frenzy" first comes across like Lt. Diehl or Lt. Chapman, another cop who wants to bust Rockford on any possible charges. It turns out that he's after the money that Charley Baylock stole and, with the aid of another bad cop, kidnaps Charley's daughter, requesting the stolen money as the ransom.
51	* DistaffCounterpart: The title character in the episode "In Pursuit of Carol Thorne" is an ex-con sleuth with an eye out for big scores, much like Rockford himself.
52	* DoesntLikeGuns: While he certainly knows how to handle them, Jim almost rarely uses guns and doesn't carry his revolver on a regular basis.
53	* {{Dramedy}}
54	* DropInCharacter: Seemingly ''everybody'' broke into Rockford's trailer.
55	* {{Foreshadowing}}: In "The Trouble With Warren", Rockford has to chaperone Beth's cousin Warren, who keeps getting him arrested. So he told Beth: "You know, my next attorney is gonna be foundling, someone with no known living relatives." Then subverted in "The Return of the Black Shadow" when he is going on a date with Coop's sister.
56	* FriendOnTheForce: Dennis Becker
57	* FutureFoil: In 1974-1980, Rockford being a struggling P.I. living in a beachside trailer and driving a new Firebird is cool. However, in the TV movies, seeing him about 20 years later still living in the trailer and driving a 15-20-year old Firebird (that was not even the legendary Trans Am as seen in ''Film/SmokeyAndTheBandit'' but rather a lower tier Esprit model) can be a bit sad as if he had made no progress in his life during all those years. To be fair, the trailer is MUCH bigger and better appointed, and the location is pretty unbeatable.
58	* GuileHero: Rockford is one of the purest examples. He often gets by one nothing but his wits, resources and sheer charisma and a bit of good luck.
59	* HelloAttorney: Beth Davenport
60	* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Rita Capkovic.
61	* IWantYouToMeetAnOldFriendOfMine: The series reunites Creator/JamesGarner and Creator/RitaMoreno after having appared together before in the film ''Film/{{Marlowe}}'', where Garner had also played a private detective (the iconic title character Philip Marlowe) and Moreno's character also had a sordid job (albeit as an exotic dancer rathen than a call girl).
62	* ImprobableAge: Dr. Megan Daugherty (played by 28-year-old Kathryn Harrold) was introduced in a 1978 episode as a psychiatrist with a well-established, thriving practice. Normally, a psychiatrist would require about 12 years of post-secondary education, meaning they would graduate around the age of 29 before even being able to ''start'' their practice. Then, in the reunion movies, it was repeatedly mentioned (and shown in flashback) that Megan was 15 during the Easter weekend of 1971, at which point she was a high school student who had not yet lost her sight. This would have made her ''22'' in 1978 -- and meant that between '71 and '78 she managed to finish at least two years of high school, then somehow cram 12 years of university into about four, and then establish a busy practice for a couple of years, ''all while making the adjustment to having unexpectedly gone blind''. This utterly ludicrous timeline isn't even a case of multiple writers muddying up continuity; all of Megan's appearances were written by David Chase.
63	** Megan makes Rockford's lawyer Beth Davenport look like a comparative slacker, although Beth is still ''somewhat'' improbably young for her position. Though Beth's age wasn't explicitly stated, when she first appeared, Beth's portrayer Creator/GretchenCorbett was a youthful-looking 27 years old. 27 is the average age of a freshly-minted law school graduate -- but Beth was already a firmly established lawyer with a fancy office at a big, well-respected firm (though not a full partner).
64	** In the season four episode "Forced Retirement", Beth said she had been with the firm for SIX years.
65	* InSeriesNickname: Rockford is routinely addressed as "Jimbo" (by Dennis), "Jimmy" (by Rocky and Angel), "Sonny" (by Rocky), and "Jim" (by Beth). And, of course, everyone calls Joseph Rockford "Rocky".
66	* InspirationallyDisadvantaged
67	* InstrumentalThemeTune: One of the funkiest ever, composed by Mike Post. An [[ThemeTuneExtended extended version]] was released as a single and hit #10 on the ''Billboard'' chart in 1975.
68	* IrregularSeries: Ran from 1974 to 1980 before returning as a series of TV movies in the 90s.
69	* ItWasHereISwear: A StalkerShrine to Beth makes a mysterious disappearance. Immediately subverted: she says "I saw them," Lt. Becker says "I'm sure you did," usually a lead-in to a patronizing "you're just stressed" until he points to tiny holes in the walls, saying "They were put up with pins."
70	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Rockford himself is one in the early episodes. He seems to only be in it for the money, and will require much persuading to work on a dangerous but just case, but once he's on to something, he will make sure that justice is served. In later seasons there is significantly less jerk and more heart of gold.
71	* MacGuffin: [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] in "A Material Difference". The elusive "Formula D" American and Soviet agents have been fighting over throughout the episode? [[spoiler:The D stands for "denim". It's an extra sturdy new type of fabric. Angel is not amused that he risked his life for ''pants''.]]
72	* MaliciousMisnaming: Gandy always referred to Rockford as "Rockfish". May not be malicious but it did bug Rockford a lot.
73	* NonActionGuy: While he can hold his own in a fight when he has to, Jim prefers non-violence as much as possible.
74	* NoodleIncident: In "The Aaron Ironwood School of Success", Rockford limps badly all the way through the episode. The [[WrittenInInfirmity real cause]] was Garner's severe injuries from doing his own stunts.
75	-->'''Rocky.''' You're limping. What happened?
76	-->'''Jim.''' Oh, I was fishing and fell off the pier.
77
78	-->'''Beth.''' Why are you limping?
79	-->'''Jim.''' I fell off my skateboard.
80
81	-->'''Aaron.''' You're limping.
82	-->'''Jim.''' Aw, I was dancing the other night, I got a little carried away, I started to dip and I slipped.
83	-->'''Aaron.''' Dipped?
84	-->'''Jim.''' Dipped.
85	* OnlySaneMan: In "The Oracle Wore A Cashmere Suit," everyone but Jim[[note]]and Beth Davenport[[/note]] is won over by [[PolicePsychic a famed psychic working with the police]] on the week's case; Jim thinks the man's a fraud. [[spoiler: The man ''is'' a fraud, but Jim can't prove anything.]]
86	* TheParagon: Lance White (played by Tom Selleck), a briefly recurring character whose IdealHero characteristics (he helps people ''for fun'') net him the regard of men [[ChickMagnet and women]] alike while also rubbing TheCynic James Rockford the wrong way.
87	* PilotMovie: "Backlash of the Hunter"
88	* PoolScene: In "In Hazard", Rockford chases Arnold Bailey (Creator/JosephCampanella) around a swimming pool, using an employee's pool cleaner to knock Bailey into the pool. Despite Bailey's protests that he can't swim, Jim 'waterboards' him to get the answers he needs. A few minutes later, after Marty Jordan and his goon grab Rockford and Bailey, he steps on the goon's foot, sending the car (and everyone in it) into that same pool.
89	* PoorlyDisguisedPilot: The episode "Just Another Polish Wedding" was intended to launch a spinoff show starring Creator/LouisGossettJr as private eye Marcus "Gabby" Hayes and Music/IsaacHayes as ex-con Gandolph "Gandy" Fitch. ''Gabby & Gandy'' was never picked up, however.
90	** The show's penultimate episode, "Just a Coupla Guys", was also intended as one of these. Widely held to be the worst ''Rockford Files'' episode by a considerable distance, Jim Rockford's role in the story is fairly peripheral, as it instead revolves around two bumbling doofuses trying to ingratiate their way into the UsefulNotes/NewJersey mob. The proposed spin-off would have chronicled their on-going attempts to strike it rich by impressing the local mafia don ... but somehow, NBC didn't see series potential in a chronicle of New Jersey mafia life as written by ''Rockford Files'' scribe David Chase. (To be fair, ''no-one'' could have -- at least not if all they had to go by was this laughless, suspenseless, glacially-paced episode. It wasn't until 20 years later that Chase came up with ''Series/TheSopranos''.)
91	* PrivateInvestigator: Well, duh.
92	* RecurringCharacter: Angel Martin, Beth Davenport, Lt. Chapman, Officer Billings
93	* ReunionShow: The TV movies "I Still Love L.A." (1994); "A Blessing in Disguise" (1995); "If the Frame Fits...", "Friends and Foul Play", "Punishment and Crime", "Godfather Knows Best" (all 1996); "Shoot-Out at the Golden Pagoda" (1997); "If It Bleeds...It Leads" (1999).
94	* RevealingCoverup: In the pilot episode, the villains' attempts to trail and later attack Rockford are what convinces Rockford to stay on with the case.
95	* RightWingMilitiaFanatic: Rockford encounters them in "The Battle of Canoga Park". The lady leading the group is also a real GovernmentConspiracy [[RedScare John Birch Society type]], heard when she calls the talk radio:
96	-->'''Lee Ronstadt''': "Now you wanna know what I think about the water shortage, right?"
97	-->'''Ray, radio host''': "Right."
98	-->'''Lee''': "There isn't any."
99	-->'''Ray''': "What do you mean there isn't any?"
100	-->'''Lee''': "Look, Ray, I heard all about your so-called drought. The fact is, we got plenty of water."
101	-->'''Ray''': "Is that so? Where?"
102	-->'''Lee''': "Okay, I'll tell you where it is. We're selling it to the Arabs."
103	-->'''Ray''': "The who?"
104	-->'''Lee''': "The Arabs! They got nothing but sand and money."
105	-->'''Ray''': "Look Lee, get to the point."
106	-->'''Lee''': "Listen, if you were sitting in the middle of a desert, what would you be looking to import?"
107	-->'''Ray''': "Lee, you are pretty off-base today."
108	-->'''Lee''': "And who suffers? We do! I can remember a time here in UsefulNotes/{{California}} when we grew tomatoes the size of cantaloupes and cantaloupes the size of..."
109	-->'''Ray''': "That's a pretty flaky theory, who'd sell our water?"
110	-->'''Lee''': "Well, it's them bleeding hearts back in UsefulNotes/{{Washington\|DC}}, that's who! Trying to keep the whole world happy and to hell with the American people! Well, I got my sprinklers going, and I'm gonna keep them going, and to hell with the Arabs!"
111	* SeriesContinuityError: A significant one in "Just Another Polish Wedding." Rocky remembers Jim's rival PI Marcus Aurelius Hayes (Creator/LouisGossettJr) as "Jimmy's parole officer." But since Rockford had his sentence vacated after evidence of his innocence surfaced, he should never have had or needed a parole officer.
112	* ShoutOut: In a couple of episodes, Rockford travels to the fictional Bay City, California (not to be confused with the real Bay City, Michigan), a location that originated in the novels of Creator/RaymondChandler.
113	** “You know, we don’t get very many private investigators here in Bay City. A couple of bucks for a piece of paper. That don’t buy you nothing here.”—Sergeant Larsen, Bay City Police said to Rockford in "Exit Prentiss Carr."
114	** “You’re not the first P.I. who’s tried to play games with this department”—Another Bay City Police sergeant said to Rockford in “The Girl in the Bay City Boys Club.”
115	** In the episode "In Hazard", Rockford drives into Cooper's Scrap Metal to try and shake two thugs who are chasing him and Beth. The episode was directed by Creator/JackieCooper.
116	* SmallTownTyrant: New Pastoria Mayor Karen Sanders in the episode "Pastoria Prime Pick", who, along with the Sheriff, his deputy, the District Attorney and a tow-truck driver, are targeting innocent visitors to town with a shakedown scheme.
117	* SpiritualSuccessor: To ''Maverick''.
118	* StalkerShrine: One is made for Beth. See the trope page for more details.
119	* StatuteOfLimitations: Plays an important role in one episode. A friend of Rockford's stole half a million dollars and the statute of limitations is nearly up. However, many criminals know about it and try to steal the soon-to-be clean money.
120	* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Sgt. Tom Garvey, played by David Spielberg, in "Just By Accident", has a very similar relationship with Jim to what he has with his usual police contact, Sgt. Dennis Becker. The Garvey character was retconned from an earlier episode, "Charlie Harris at Large", where, although he's lenient with Rockford, the two characters had just met in this episode, and Rockford isn't on a first-name basis with Garvey, as he is in the other episode.
121	** Harry [=DeNova=], played by Richard B. Shull in "The Great Blue Lake Land and Development Company", seems to be filling in for Angel as Rockford's partner in the scam to get his money back.
122	* SyndicationTitle: ''Jim Rockford, Private Investigator''
123	* TakeThat: Lance White is a parody of the [[BornLucky impossibly lucky]], [[TheParagon flawless]] protagonists of other detective shows. Each of his two episodes also has a scene that parodies the ExtremeCloseUp framing that many cop shows used at the time.
124	* TapOnTheHead: Rockford, the King of Concussion, got this about OnceAnEpisode.
125	* TaxmanTakesTheWinnings: In a close variant, "[[Recap/TheRockfordFilesS6E1ParadiseCove Paradise Cove]]" revolved around the discovery of buried gold ingots under Jim's trailer. To Angel's dismay, these are promptly confiscated by the feds on the grounds that it was is illegal to privately own gold bullion. Unfortunately for the show, [[ArtisticLicenseLaw private gold ownership had actually been legalized five years before the episode aired]] (the same year the show premiered in fact).
126	* TitleDrop: "Quickie Nirvana" and "Claire".
127	* VehicularSabotage: This is a very common occurrence on ''The Rockford Files'', where someone seems to cut Jim's brake lines every third episode.
128	* WarHero: Jim Rockford served during UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar and was awarded the Silver Star. The combat experience shows, as he's very calm under pressure and isn't intimidated by guns. He ''respects'' them -- he's not an idiot -- but he's not intimidated by them.
129	* YouWouldntHitAGuyWithGlasses: Implied in "The Kirkoff Case": Rockford puts on glasses and pretends to be an insurance agent; when the disguise fails and he starts getting roughed up, he protests, "Didn't you notice I was wearing glasses?"

Context Series / TheRockfordFiles