Two Hundred A Day - Episode 121: Heartaches of a Fool

Episode Date: July 16, 2023

Nathan and Eppy continue to tour the William Wiard-verse with S5E1 Heartaches of a Fool. After a truck accident lands Rocky in the hospital, Jim is determined to find out who caused it and hold them accountable. His quest leads to a country music star, a sausage-smuggling operation and a brewing war between corrupt union officials and a Chinese gangster. This might be the perfect episode for our show, even without considering the two Willie Nelson songs on the soundtrack. Highly recommended! Show Notes: Nathan mentions this interview with Gigi Garner (https://www.get.tv/gettv-blog/gettv-talks-james-garner-interview-his-daughter-gigi-garner), and this remembrance (https://www.yourclassical.org/story/2014/08/16/i-remember-james-garner-part-2) that mentions James Garner's friendship with Willie Nelson. We have another podcast: Plus Expenses. Covering our non-Rockford media, games and life chatter, Plus Expenses is available via our Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/twohundredaday) at ALL levels of support. Want more Rockford Files trivia, notes and ephemera? Check out the Two Hundred a Day Rockford Files Files (http://tinyurl.com/200files)! We appreciate all of our listeners, but offer a special thanks to our patrons (https://www.patreon.com/twohundredaday). In particular, this episode is supported by the following Gumshoe and Detective-level patrons: * Richard Hatem (https://twitter.com/richardhatem) * Bill Anderson (https://twitter.com/billand88) * Brian Perrera (https://twitter.com/thermoware) * Eric Antener (https://twitter.com/antener) * Jordan Bockelman (https://twitter.com/jordanbockelman) * Michael Zalisco * Joe Greathead * Mitch Hampton's Journey of an Aesthete Podcast (https://www.jouneyofanaesthetepodcast.com) * Dael Norwood wrote a book! Trading Freedom: How Trade with China Defined Early America (https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/T/bo123378154.html) * Chuck from whatchareading.com (http://whatchareading.com) * Paul Townend, who recommends the Fruit Loops podcast (https://fruitloopspod.com) * Shane Liebling's Roll For Your Party dieroller app (https://rollforyour.party/) * Jay Adan's Miniature Painting (http://jayadan.com) * Brian Bernsen's Facebook page of Rockford Files filming locations (https://www.facebook.com/brianrockfordfiles/) * Colleen Kelly, Tom Clancy, Andre Appignani, Pumpkin Jabba Peach Pug, Dave P, Dave Otterson, Kip Holley and Dale Church! Thanks to: * Fireside.fm (https://fireside.fm) for hosting us * Audio Hijack (https://rogueamoeba.com/audiohijack/) for helping us record and capture clips from the show * Freesound.org (https://www.freesound.org/) for other audio clips

Say, I'm the one who hit your car at Ford City. I got no insurance. I'm broke, but I really wanted you to know how sorry I am. If it makes you feel any better, I hurt my arm. Welcome to 200 A Day, the podcast where we talk about the 70s television detective show, The Rockford Files. I'm Nathan Poletta. And I'm Epidaeus Ravishaw's screaming lower back. My understanding is due to an unfortunate compost turning incident.

Epi's sitting capacity for recording may be a little curtailed today, so we'll see. We'll see if we make it through. Yeah. But, yeah, we haven't recorded in a while. As per usual. As per usual, so we need to figure out how we do this all over again, yet again.

But we are continuing our Summer of Wired. William Wired. William Wired, that is. Our published episodes have now, have by now caught up to our recording schedule. Oh, okay. In the sense that we all should know that his name is pronounced wired now. Yes. Okay.

Yeah. We're all on board on that. Right. The, we've, we've passed the point where we were pronouncing it incorrectly on previous episodes. So, uh, cue the meme where, well, I can't even remember how we were pronouncing it, but like ward, where we just, I think we're just saying like ward ward we're kind of averaging out all the vowels yeah so tired ward wired wired right right yeah that's the meme format that's the meme format

yeah so there's another visual meme for our audio medium yes yes, we are continuing our summer of Wired and our exploration into the Wiredverse with season five, episode one, Heartaches of a Fool. Obviously directed by William Wired. And this one is a Stephen Cannell joint like the last one. However, I feel like this one,

I mean, I'm going to go out on a limb and say this may be the greatest 200 a day of all time not necessarily the greatest rockford files episode of all time okay yes but i'm gonna call my shot now and say that the content of this episode is why we do the show yes okay yeah all right am i am i wrong no you're not off you're not that that far off um is why we do the show. Yes. Okay. Yeah. All right. Am I wrong? No, you're not off. You're not that far off. Can I just read the IMDB paragraphs? The summary for this one is perfect.

Whoever wrote it, kudos. Yes. So I did not read this summary before I started watching this. This is an episode I did remember, though, when we started. I mean, I didn't remember all the ins and outs, but I was like, oh, this one. So here's the summary. And I'm going to include all the punctuation marks because I think that's actually an important part of this summary. Jim finds that a country music star, corrupt union boss, and Chinese triad all have one thing in common with why Rocky ended up in the hospital after his rig was forced off the road, colon sausages, period.

Yeah, I mean, even if I didn't even know what this show was, if I had never heard of the Rockford Files. Sometimes all you need is a good premise. So this is kicking us off into season five of the Rockford Files. So, you know, it's September it's it's it's september september 22nd uh 1978 you're tuning in on a friday night for the return of your long-running favorite show starring starring jim and uh i think i think you get what you what you came for yes yeah and more since it is the first episode of the fifth season uh it's probably worth talking

about a little bit of the production stuff this is the season after they've uh won an emmy and they get more emmy nominations for stuff in this season i don't think any more uh wins but supporting actor actor dramatic series and uh it's also when the show started in syndication so like starting with this season the first four seasons also started going out into syndication okay is my understanding from reading the the the history and um 30 years of rock of the rockford files indicating a successful show which is is great. I guess there are kind of two unfortunate speed bumps here. One, of course, is they couldn't bring Gretchen Corbett back for this season. And so we've mentioned, you know, fairly frequently whenever it's, you know, relevant.

But specifically, the deal was that her contract was a universal contract. So her as a as an actor, you know, she was this was the era of the contract player. So, you know, she basically was available to and to do any universal projects because they held her contract. The show, The Rockford Files, is a Cherokee Productions, which is James Garner's production company show in, you know, whatever, in partnership with or whatever with Universal, however that stuff works in TV land. So Universal had the say over Gretchen Corbett's appearances, but everyone else was, you know, had individual contracts and weren't under the same authority.

Corbett was the only cast member of the series who was under contract to Universal Studios. I'm quoting here from Ed Robertson's book. As such, that meant that her salary was paid by the studio. And so in order to have her on the Rockford Files, Cherokee Productions had to pay Universal whatever fee the studio charged for the use of her services. So the studio would then pay Corbett her salary out of the fee, as opposed to Cherokee just paying her her rates. Cherokee pays Universal whatever Universal says, and then Universal pays her whatever their contract with her says. So the studio raised its fee on Corbett after each of the show's first three seasons. What happened with Gretchen was that Universal wanted more money from us in order to

continue using her on the show, James Garner explained in an interview for this book. But at the same time, they wanted us to cut the budget by reducing the sets and the like, yet they still jacked up the price on her. I forget how much it was, but it was outrageously high. We couldn't afford it, and unfortunately, we had to eliminate her character. It was a difficult decision to make

because Gretchen was one of the family, but we couldn't afford to pay what the studio wanted. Studios! Yeah, it goes on to say that, you know, this was, so this had nothing to do with her. She was not aware of these negotiations at the time, but she was also frustrated with the studio. So she asked to get out of her contract. Right. As you would if it kept you on the Rockford Files. Like that I would, in a heartbeat.

Exactly. So this goes on to say, the studio changed its mind on one condition. In order to get out of my contract, I had to agree not to do Rockford. She said, I don't really know what went down between Jim and the studio. But as far as I know, that's why I did not return to the show after the fourth year. Yeah. Which is super unfortunate. You hate to see it. Yeah. And so that kind of points out also the larger meta story with the whole show the financial history where at the end of the day universal said hey your show doesn't

make any money we you know we're not gonna whatever pay your because because james garner started taking proportions of profits instead of salary and stuff like that yeah because he was like our show is really successful we have one of the most uh efficient production staffs in television you know this is going to do great and then after the series ended universal was like your show is in the red we don't owe you anything and that led to the years and years of litigation and um i'm sure this whole thing with gretchen corbett's contract was one of the pieces in that particular chess game it's a shame they didn't have like they couldn't just run a con on universal to get what they needed out of them oh my god i do feel like there's a great opportunity there with the like

triangulation of yeah we charge you a fee and then we pay her a different fee and then she has a contract with us but she wants to get out of her contract, but there's a condition. I do feel like there's room there for a good con. Yeah. At some point, uh, James Gardner and,

and Stuart Margolin are doing something. And then they just, they happened to involve the, the mob by accident. Yeah. Didn't mean to, uh, so, you know, in our previous episodes, we've talked about the characters that

essentially replaced some of Beth's role on the show. If you've been listening for the last year or so, you've heard us talk about those at length. But this is that breakpoint between the fourth and fifth season. She goes from having a still shot in the credits to not

being in the credits anymore which is yeah very sad the other strange aspect of this season apparently is that um it did dip in ratings compared to previous seasons uh that can be explained by the fact that the i guess the the scheduling wise it got moved from friday nights at nine to saturday nights at 9 to Saturday nights at 10. Oh, wow. And it turns out that drops your audience rating for a popular show. Yeah, that makes sense. And then when it went back to Friday nights,

the ratings went up again. Location, location, location, I guess. But yeah, that's what I got to talk about before we get into Heartaches of a Fool. Wired, cannel, gym, sausages. Solid episode. Good episode.

And I think we definitely see that write-off in our preview montage. Yes. So the preview montage, I had some heart palpitations because of Rocky in Danger. It has the great line, but my dad's still where he was three minutes ago and your sausages are still being made in Mexico, which is, again, that just draws me right in. Like you just have that line and I want to know what's going on.

We see a truck crash. We get a lot of good, I'd call them like jokes in the montage cut. Like I had to twist his arm a little and then you cut to the the the tussle on the front lawn um and then uh there's clearly going to be some gun play it's unusual for a rockford file i mean it's not unheard of but like you know we we often go a whole rockford files without a gun being pulled we recently did the first episode of the third season um the fourth man uh and that one i think we speculated that it had

kind of the highly dramatic shootout at the end similarly because it's like starting a new season let's pull out the stops a little bit um also a william wired joint and i feel like this might have had a similar approach where it's like let's start off strong. And this one starts off strong. Yeah, it does. The episode starts off strong even. 200 a day is a 100% listener supported show. Thanks to our patrons. In addition to our gratitude and editing access to our 200 files,

files spreadsheet, patrons receive exclusive episode previews and plus expenses. Our bonus just chatting podcast about media, work, and life. We expend special thanks to our Gumshoe patrons supporting this episode. Brian Bernson has a Facebook page where he drives his Rockford tribute car to shooting locations from the show. Check out facebook.com slash Brian Rockford files. Join Mitch Hampton to examine all matters aesthetic at the Journey of an Aesthetic podcast.

Join Mitch Hampton to examine all matters aesthetic at the Journey of an Esthete podcast. And Paul Townend recommends the podcast Fruit Loops, Serial Killers of Color. You can find these shows wherever you get your podcasts. Dale Norwood wrote a book. It's about fast ships, cheap drugs, and American political economy, published by the University of Chicago Press. Find Trading Freedom, How Trade with China Defined Early America, wherever good books are sold. Chuck from WhatYou'reReading.com. Shane Liebling has all of your online dice rolling needs sorted at his site RollForYour.Party. And check out Jay Adan's amazing miniature painting skills at JayAdan.com. In addition, thanks to Andre Apagnani, Tom Clancy, Pumpkin Jabba Peachbug, Dave P, Dave Otterson, Kip

Hawley, Dale Church, and Colleen Kelly. And finally, special appreciation for our detective-level patrons. Joe Greathead, Michael Zalisco, Eric Antenor, at Antenor on Twitter, Brian Pereira, at Thermalware, Jordan Bockelman, not Brockleman, at Jordan Bockelman, Bill Anderson at BillAnd88, and of course, Richard Haddam at Richard Haddam. If you're interested in keeping us going for as little as $1 an episode, check out patreon.com slash 200 today to see if becoming a patron is right for you. We start off our episode with the credits rolling over footage of a 18 wheeler rolling down the highway and we see rocky put in what that's an eight track right yeah yeah that's an eight track put in and later he says cassette

but i think i realized that when he says cassette he means an eight track cassette not a what we think of as a cassette tape he's putting in an eight track of a charlie stray horn such a good name uh album to listen to while he's driving charlie sounds suspiciously like willie nelson indeed yeah so this so the song that plays over our opening credits is good-hearted woman which is a willie nelson waylon jennings song then later we are going to hear heartaches of a fool which is also the title of the episode and i guess was just a song that they did because it's on a later album it ended up on willie on a willie nelson i forget if it's a greatest hits album or it's just an album that's called like greatest something right yeah anyway it's released

on an album in 81 and it's, you know, a successful single. So I was trying to see, we should probably talk about this now. I was trying to see what's up with Willie Nelson and the Rock for Funs. Because we've had musical guests before on the show to sometimes actually like, obviously Isaac Hayes, but like Dionne Warwick was actually in the show. And then we had the episode with. I got to interrupt our little thing here. I have somehow ended up on a list.

Famous faces on the Rockford Files TV series. Season one. All right. So this is only. But anyways, number one is William Smith. I don't know who that is. I'm not going to go through the whole list. All I'm going to say is that as you go through this list, you get to number 10.

And the number 10 on the list of famous faces on the Rockford Files is a little known actor by the name of James Gardner. I don't know. If you made this list, because I'm assuming this is a fan-made list. Yeah, a user list. You know, call in. I'd love to hear. I mean, I'm not saying it's wrong. Not at all. I'm just curious. a fan made list yeah a user list you know call in i'd love to hear i'd love to hear that i mean i'm not saying it's wrong i'm not at all i'm just curious wait james cromwell was oh yeah yeah no

all right never mind all right i'm off this list we're we're gonna do our episode well what i was saying um dion warwick who was actually in the episode as a character barbara mandrell who's basically a on-screen musical guest as we we talked about in Love is the Word. And now we have Willie Nelson, who does not appear on screen, but we get two songs in this soundtrack. And so we're not sure if this song was made for the second song was made for the Rockford Files or not. Yeah, I was trying to see if there was like

yeah like where did this like is the is the episode named after the song or is the song named after the episode exactly that's what we need to know and at first i was like oh the song is named after the episode because it came out later in 81 yeah but then it's actually in the episode yeah yeah i mean they could have recorded it for it, but yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But the question remains, we have this episode, hey, Willie, you want to write a song or whatever? So I could not find that out because trying to look up the song, you just get references to the recording studio, you know, the album, as far as I could find so far, because Google is no longer very, very good however yeah um i did find a couple mentions uh one is a undated interview with gg garner um where she mentions that her dad was was friends with country and western folks he was friends with waylon jennings and willie nelson oh hung out with those guys all right um i found another article that was written by i'll link these both in the show notes

it's a remembrance of james garner after he passed by a woman who was i guess a studio person and was on maverick and then ended up going into his other career and i think she's a dj now it's on like a radio station website um but she has like reminiscences of james garner and being friends with him and everything and she has kind of a tossed off line of him being close friends with willie nelson so it sounds like they were just friends during this time this episode is uh willie nelson's second actor credit uh on imdb so you know, maybe, maybe nobody heard of William Nelson before this episode. It could be, this is the case.

I don't think that's true. Um, this episode is a wrap on Willie Nelson. It is a wrap on Willie Nelson. Yes. Um, I was like, you know what?

I bet there's something about this in his, uh, autobiography, but I couldn't find my copy before we started recording so i think it's still in a box somewhere in my garage so oh i was unable to uh to look and see if he talked about his relationship with willie nelson is it is the autobiography indexed i think so i think so i assume so i know where i know where my copy is okay if you want to listen to me groan i'm i'm ready all right i'll

brb okay oh god all right it was right there on the shelf in the biography section between Diane Fossey and Leon Terman, the inventor of the theremin. I love the insight into your bookshelf. Is it? Oh, might not might not be indexed. No. Is there a picture of him with Willie Nelson? Oh, well, it was worth the attempt. Epi, we'll speed read the book while I do the rest of the episode and we'll let you know.

Yeah. Anyway, so the long and short of it is, you know, I did not find a this is why Willie Nelson contributed songs to this episode. But, you know, clearly they were buddies. Do you need more of a reason? Yeah. to this episode but um you know clearly they were buddies do you need more of a reason yeah all this is neither here nor there uh as we quickly get into the exciting debut of our episode we see two goons in a red sedan yeah they watch the truck roll by and so it's this is actually important later the truck is not on like a highway it's's on like a two lane road, like a back, you know,

more of a back road. We see. So this is all with the music playing. There's no diagonic sound. There's no road sound. There's no dialogue. We're just seeing this happening while listening to good hearted woman. She's a good hearted woman in love with a good time.

And she loves him in spite of his ways and she don't understand there's even like dialogue yeah we just see their mouth move yeah so there's a walkie-talkie call from this red sedan and clearly it's signaling farther down the road where two cars two two blue sedans shoot out onto the road, block it, kind of nose to nose, and then everyone in them runs away. This is to bar the road to the oncoming truck. You know, it's too late for Rocky to brake, so he spins the wheel and he goes up on the side of the, there's like a hillside that is next to the road, goes up on the hillside and just as we saw in the preview montage, this whole 18 wheeler goes kind of up on its side and then crashes,

crashes down. In my notes, I was like, wow, they, they just did that. Right. Like this is,

this is a practical stunt. Like I'm so jaded and used to CGI these days that, but they, they took an 18 wheeler and they drove it up the side of a hill until it landed on its side. Season debut. Season premiere. Yeah.

We've got to do all the good stuff. I just happened to run across this. I think on the rockfordfilesfilminglocations.blogspot.com, which has a pretty extensive entry for this episode, there's a shot where you can see the stuntman in the cab. I guess you're really looking for it um yeah it's it's good stuff you're telling me that noah barry didn't do his own stuff yeah yes i hard to believe i know uh but he's like wearing a motorcycle helmet like in the car you know like because you should as you should if you're gonna roll the truck on purpose a bunch of boxes fall out of the back of the truck um the guys who are in the

red sedan pull rocky out of the cab and he's clearly unconscious he's there's blood on his on his head and then they go check the boxes and pull out a package they hold it so the camera can see it i took a screenshot so we can see the amazing graphic design is my passion yeah stray horn sausages yeah i'll try to remember to post this in the entry when i do it on on patreon but it says uh charlie stray horn brand cripple creek hickory smoked country sausage yes inspected and packed by department of agriculture uncle willie yes and a po box Box listing in Cripple Creek, Arkansas. It's good. It's good. It's a yellow package with red ink,

and it's an eight-pack of sausages, hot dogs, wieners. Quite a few fonts going on. Every one of them the perfect choice. Yeah. Yeah. I do like that. I mean, we don't get much of it but like there isn't a uncle willie character that is never on air that has something to do with these

sausages and uh yeah it just like it just says uncle willie underneath a line drawing of a man yeah like a man who looks like like he was the Civil War. Yeah, it's very good. Anyway, so they confirm that these are indeed a shipment of sausages and cover the boxes in gasoline and light the whole thing on fire. So, all right. At this point, I had not read anything about this episode, I got to tell you. Now, I knew sausages were coming. Opening preview. Preview montage.

But at this point, I'm like, are these goons just not into sausages? Like, what? Are they vegan? Are they vegans? Are they vegan terrorists? Yes! What's happening? Anti-sausage activists. Is this PETA? That's my question.

I can say that that because i'm vegan somehow even with all this this is a more vegan episode than the uh a deadly maze which i recently finished editing all right well we get uh the the song fades out as we get sirens and uh some footage of rocky being taken to the hospital so we get right into it in our next scene where Rocky is being interviewed by these. He's in the hospital bed. He's been patched up. I want to just comment. I'm sure this is a real building.

I'm sure this is a real hospital. Its name is Pain Memorial. And I just. If you are curious, you too can go to the rock for files, filming locations, blogspot.com, because he definitely mentions which actual hospital this is. Oh, so pain memorial is a gag. Yeah, that's good. It's good that Rocky's taken to pain hospital.

But yeah, the, the, the, the entry for this episode has the actual hospital. That's great. In case you're curious. It's a good gig. So I really like the trooper in this scene. He's a memorable side character or memorable minor character to me. He's just so he has so much swag.

Yeah. Is that weird? No, that makes sense. Yeah. So there's two. There there's two i guess they're like state troopers or whatever yeah you know there's two of them one of them's doing all the talking uh and he's interviewing rocky getting his his statement about the the incident rocky of course you know he's like these two sedans pulled out in front of me of course you couldn't

get any license plate numbers from yeah it all it all happened so fast. So he asked for his trucker license. Rocky's in the bed. Yes. Doing an interview. I assume you're qualified for 18 wheelers, license still current, all that? Well, it sure is. Is that it in your pants pocket, Mr. Rockford? Yeah, right there.

Would you take it out for me, please? 68? A little old for the big rigs, aren't you, sir? It's just like, he has this very proper like okay you hand me your license i'm not going to take it from you because that's not how this works 68 is a little old to be driving a big rig but i am going to take your license meanwhile i think i'll just hang on to this i'll clip it right here to my board so you'll know right where it is sir are you lifting my license well sir in a large accident like this it's customary to have a review i wouldn't worry about it i'm glad you're feeling better um we see that rocky's offended at that dig as jim uh enters the the scene in his log he's pulling 23 000

pounds of hot dogs and they'll check that with the investigation of course uh they do take his license as in an incident like this there's going to be a review. They leave. Rocky's like, they took my license. So Jim goes to get it back. Yeah, well, it's about his license. Let me interrupt you right there, Mr. Rockwood. I was trying to be nice in there, but come on.

68, driving an 18-wheeler, way too fast. He had left enough rubber out there to get a reclamation contract. I'm not the last word on these things, but my guess is the DMV is going to ice your dad's ticket. I don't know why I just thought that was so funny. Yeah, yeah, he's just on top of it. Yeah. You see Jim trying to do, he's a different kind of cop than Jim's used to dealing with, I guess is what it is. He's too old to be pushing a rig.

He's driving too fast. He probably fell asleep at the wheel. And the story of the sedans is just to cover up, you know, that he rolled the truck. Fact is, I think your dad maybe was sleeping up there, drove off the road and had himself one of the biggest weenie roasts in history. I hope he's feeling better. Good night. I hope he's feeling better. Good night.

Rocky is stewing over his license being taken away. He says, 45 years driving. They're going to pull my ticket. He mentions it's not even his truck. It belonged to Roland Eddy. He was doing the guy a favor. And Jim's like, oh, you know, you'll get it back. They just have to do this stuff.

You know, you don't even drive a rig that much anymore anyway. But that's not the point. Just having that license, it gives them a reason for being. Yeah, there's a good parallel here with Jim himself, right? Rocky's license is in peril, but like we often see Jim's, not his driving license, but his PI license, right? Like his ability to do this job. And yeah, there's something about his that's, that's so rocky specific about like, sure. I'm retired. Sure. I go fishing, but like, I'm a trucker, right? Yes. So much of that identity, we associate that with him, but it's kind of like, oh, yeah, he used to be a trucker. But for him, that's who he is.

And the symbol of that is the license. It kind of harkens back to Gear Jammers, right? Where it's kind of like we get to see a little bit of the interiority of Rocky. And that's always fun to see. And you also want to make sure that he's OK. Jim, fix this. Exactly. fun to see and you also want to make sure that he's okay jim fix this exactly so jim goes to talk to roland eddie uh who again is a great character um there's cracking beers talking over what happened um this is the exposition to get us going um this guy's a bit shifty he's a

bit shady he tells jim just to forget about the truck i'm glad he's okay let's forget about the truck um which seems like an odd uh approach but jim um he's looking into it because he if he can prove that rocky was forced off the road then he's not going to suffer the consequences of getting his ticket pulled and whatnot he wants proof that jim's related yes it's like if you're related to him you have to tell me and And he has proof. Yeah, I guess. I mean, his ID says Rockford, I guess. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But he says, what's the matter with old Joe? And again, just love the idea of there's other people who are like, Joseph Rockford?

Oh, old Joe. Old Joe, yeah. Not Rocky, but old Joe, yeah. Didn't even tell Jim about ducking truck scales and not using I-5. It was a smuggle. Them links were made down in Mexico. Jim asks, I think, a good question that we all have. You're telling me you told my dad to smuggle and he agreed?

I don't believe that. And he's like, well, not in so many words, but I told him to stay away from truck scales and not go on four lane highways was he born in church he knows what that means he was indeed born in church though and he doesn't know who these two sedans might have been it is a scam to smuggle sausages right that's rockford like it's just such a rock for files crime to be solving right now. So, uh, yeah, we kind of, you know, there's a lot, this is a good

good banter. I think my notes are so long because I wrote down so many lines. There's so many good lines in this episode. This guy has this one that his delivery on it is amazing. I'm glad they wrecked my truck, though. I'm damn glad of that. Because I'm gonna, I'm gonna collect glad of that because i'm gonna i'm gonna

collect on the insurance i'm gonna move up to washington because la ain't my town no more oh yeah either way he's glad they wrecked his truck for that reason so yeah we learned so this the the smuggle the scam whatever the the deal was driving an empty truck down to san diego slim takes it and returns it full of sausages that came from mexico that say that they're that they're from arkansas right cripple creek um right arkansas i have yeah right here it's that screenshot popped up just now on this on the sky like like it's an ad like an ad for for stray hard sausages um they drive a non-union truck to a grocery store parking lot leave it in the parking lot with the keys on the wheel and then in the morning the the

truck is empty and that's that's the deal so that's how they're getting non-union trucks into grocery stores because that should be a union gig but it's not actually going to the loading bay it's just you know someone else is handling that. Overnight. He's only telling Jim all this so that he can tell Rocky to stay quiet. Because if he opens up to the cops or anyone like that, they're going to pack him up and plant him in the dirt. Jim asks, who's they? He doesn't know who they are.

He just answers the phone and gets paid in the mail. It's green and it's cash. All he knows is the product. And he gives Jim a pack in the mail. It's green and it's cash. All he knows is the product. And he gives Jim a pack of the sausages. Jim looks at them and says, I can't believe it. Cut to a shot of documents with ITTW Local 213 rules and bylines prominently printed on them.

Rocky's receiving a visit from the union. They're suspending him temporarily and his pension and medical benefits are being withheld pending the hearings because he was driving a non-union truck yeah this is under working rule eight jim comes in as they leave and he's like oh rocky i was gonna tell you don't file for medical i don't think that was a union truck um but uh rocky 40 years i've been in that union and they just threw me out he's been driving truck for 45 years and been in a union for 40 of those years poor rocky we just watch him just deteriorate right before our eyes the only remaining blow to his ego is finding out that like, uh, the law of the land is not fairly applied. Yes.

Jim is, uh, he's looking at the packaging. Um, he's trying to get in touch with the manufacturer of said sausages, but the number on the package to call is just a recording with a recipe. So he's talking to a, uh, operator trying to get connected to a different number, but there is no other number. And he's raped by Rocky's bedside doing it. Right. Rocky is depressed. He's trying to cheer Rocky up by turning on the TV to the $100,000 question, which I know as a reference, I didn't realize was an actual show.

There might be a joke here for a contemporaneous joke here about who's answering the question or something like that. But yeah, I didn't realize was an actual show. There might be a joke here for a contemporaneous joke here about who's answering the question or something like that, but yeah, I didn't get it. Well, so he's trying to cheer Rocky up. Rocky's like, just turn that down.

And he, Jim's demeanor turns as he's like, okay, I'll turn it down. If you talk to me, like he's getting frustrated with Rocky. Yeah. He's going to track down the sausage manufacturer and he's going to get

them to pay his medical. He's going to prove that there were cars on the road and he's going to track down the sausage manufacturer and he's going to get them to pay his medical. He's going to prove that there were cars on the road and he's going to get Rocky's license back. And Rocky says, don't do no good to have your ticket unless you can drive for the union. And then he kind of laughs. He's like, you know what them union guys are saying about me? They said I wasn't familiar with working rule eight. Fifty six. You remember fifty six? Yeah said I wasn't familiar with work and rule eight. 56, you remember 56? Yeah, I remember. I was on the strike committee that night. Me and 50 and other guys, we helped write work and rule eight. I still remember. If any member will be participating in or attempting to stage any long or short hauls in any city, state...

Wait, hold it, Dad. Hang on just a minute. And Jim interrupts him because there's a Cripple Creek Sausages ad that comes up on the TV. And we watch our first appearance of Charlie Strayhorn pitching the sausages. With the backstory of Uncle Willie. Yes, the backstory of Uncle Willie. Jim says that so far he's the only guy in this whole deal that

I'm sure exists. Rocky asks how he's going to find him. He says most of these, I think he says like most of these TV cowboys or something like that, they all live in Bel Air. But if he's not there, I'll track him down wherever he is. I happen to be getting mad.

Yeah. He's like, don't worry. I'm going to find some action because I happen to be getting mad. Uh, yeah. Um, good scene.

I like the bit with the thermometer. Oh, the nurse comes in to give Rocky at the robbery. He just keeps taking it out of his mouth to talk. And yeah, it's good. Good stuff. I thought that there was going to be a gag about that, like his temperature or something yeah yeah she just like comes in rolls her eyes and

like puts it back in his mouth yeah we've gone from sausages to financial records yes yeah we're doing we're doing good we're hitting all of our all of our favorite things um we are in the charlie strayhorn home so charlie strayhorn he's a country and western star he's breaking out he's getting huge which means he has money problems apparently yeah so there's like three guys who are there they're talking about uh his tax situation and there's a good phrase for it where they like he's cash poor and tax rich. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. The bottom line is you can't record any more income and they have to inventory the house because in addition to all this, he and his wife. Who's there? Who's there? Carrie are getting divorced. Yeah. So this is also a financial pressure because she is for whatever reason basically coming out ahead in the divorce i just want to address our listeners right now if you are if you're thinking

to yourself i would like to see more gold necklaces on hairy chests this is the scene for you this is wall-to-wall wall-to-wall carpeting when it comes to gold necklaces on hairy chests. But different kinds. Yeah, different kinds, yeah. Strayhorn has the Western shirt that has all the open buttons down to just over his navel and the one long pendant gold chain with something on it. But then one of his finance guys has the like italian gold chains over the like high neck under his suit jacket yeah he's dressed as the halloween costume of uh scumbag record executive yeah there's so much product in his hair you can smell it through through

four decades of television yeah it's great one of these guys i forget which one i recognize the name from the credits i was like oh he's been in these before uh joe e tata oh yeah the actor's name he's the guy who usually plays is who who plays jim's bail bondsman right in the episode in a lot of episodes sully i think who we have not seen for many many episodes but i recognized the name and then i you know i saw a reference to it um he's he's just one of these executives but i was like oh we haven't seen sully in a while this is okay i don't there's a guy in the credits fred j gordon who plays mel ulus do you remember who mel uis is in this? He's got to be one of the goons. Yeah.

I just want to point him out because he has six credits on IMDb. Wait, no. He's not one of the goons. That's the other guy. Wait, who are you talking about? This is the very last person on the list before the rest of the cast listed alphabetically. So I guess not the last person.

Fred Jaegor. Couldn't tell you. rest of the cast listed alphabetically. So I guess not the last person. Fred Jacob. Couldn't tell you. Because this guy has been an actor in six things. Six million dollar band. Columbo. The Rockford Files. A made for TV movie. Mary Tyler Morauer and Mrs. Columbo.

Like, he's living a good life. I might be able to triangulate by the Columbo episode that he's in. Well, he's a technician. I know, but it's in How to Dial a Murder. I won't remember that one. Yeah, no, couldn't tell you. It's a great IMDb page is what I'm saying. It probably is

a great IMDb page. I mean, I guess he's one of the other executives. Yeah, there are a lot of characters here i'm like i don't think we ever hear that person's name yeah that's what i was trying to figure it out i just happened to click on his name yeah and and i saw those credits and i thought oh those are amazing set of credits those are amazing set of credits per capita yeah well so he has money trouble. He has an impending divorce and they are adding construction onto his house because I guess they started that before the divorce. And now his his his people are telling him, well, we might as well finish because it'll raise the value of the house because we should sell the house because we need the cash flow yeah um he can't think he can't write music uh he asked about his the album that i guess he finished and the record label is holding it

back till the next quarter because his current album is still selling so well and also to get the income in the next quarter which will help him out too and he's like yeah a lot of this so this is all great stuff it jams him up and it presents this great thing for him as a character. Right. Because of what's about to happen. It gives us a reason for why he cares about anything that's about to happen. Right. And that reason is it doesn't have to do with any of this.

Right. Exactly. He's being told he makes too much money and he can't pay his taxes uh and he has to listen to workmen all day he hasn't written a song in two weeks which for some reason struck me as like a humorously short amount of time to be bad maybe maybe he's used to doing it every every day or something yeah yeah who knows i'm like uh two weeks that sounds sounds about right i haven't been able to do anything productive for the last two weeks. Some of us some of us tweaked our backs and couldn't do anything for two weeks. So, yeah. And he ends with the only thing that's worked out right in the last six months is the damn sausages.

Cut to Jim getting out of the Firebird. Yes. Yeah, I think we get a line about being tax rich and cash poor. um yeah i think we we get our line about being tax rich and cash poor and like we just haven't set up the right tax shelter yet all your favorite financial stuff um shorty comes in who's clearly one of charlie's buddies and my note is he looks like a bizarro universe rocky he does he has a little bit of a um uh ernest borkdine to him a little bit of that but yeah yeah i mean he's a real character face character actor um don red berry who was probably on every western that was ever made yeah i'm guessing that's how he got here was may even have been friends with noah berry okay he was in the adam Adam West Batman. Oh, so was, so was, um, Sully. Oh,

he was in the original Ocean's Eleven. He was in Maverick, of course. Yeah. So many Westerns. Like there's a section on this. It's worth scrolling down his IMDb until you get to the spot where every thumbnail looks like the same. Cause they're, they're all these like pulp magazine cover western posters oh god it's kind of gorgeous so he was tarantula and the grand vizier in the bat in batman so if you've seen yeah episodes with those villains 33 he goes back he was in something in in 1933 yeah his only rockford files appearance we'll see him again at the end of the episode yes we will anyway shorty comes in to tell charlie that there's someone at the door who wants to talk about sausages and he's like okay i can talk about

that just as you said this has nothing to do with any of this i'm gonna go deal with that just to get out of this room there's a i guess an important line here he so he leaves we stay in that room and his wife carrie like sighs and it's like i guess we're not leaving him much huh and one of the suits says that it's the lawyer that she hired to quote run a poll through him if she backs off there'll be no argument from them so yeah kind of like like we don't really get a clear picture of what the deal is like with the divorce and everything there's some indication that okay so i think over the course of the episode we kind of learned that this is he's a a little bit of an

overnight success he doesn't know how how to deal with it he has a family and uh it's just tough on the family like he's there's a whole bit about him going to germany and a whole bit about him going to japan to tour and uh them not they have a kid that never shows up um who's staying with someone else i think yeah it's like with her parents there's like a scene yeah where we talk about that um you know and we don't really need to know like what is the actual reason that if there is one yeah the divorce has emotional weight that comes out later but we don't really get like the story behind it which is fine i kind of like the implication that like things are just messy like everything is just messy because she seems really reluctant about the whole thing and so there's this implication here that's like, well, you hired the lawyer that is forcing this.

Yeah. So there are a lot of layers there. The thing, because of the song that we opened with. Right. Which is supposed to be him. I was under the impression at the beginning that this divorce was the result of infidelity or something like that on his part. But that doesn't seem to be the case at all.

Like, it just seems to be that it's tough that he's this big star. All right. So we get outside to Charlie and Jim. Yes. So Charlie Strayhorn is played by Taylor Lacker or Laker? Lacher. uh by uh taylor lacquer or lake laker lacher and i expected him to have more big roles because i think he's great in this particular role in this episode he's kind of just like a guy who was on tv like in tv shows which i guess yeah there's nothing wrong with that but he was

on lottery he's been on like one episode of every show in the 70s yeah um and like every show in the 80s but i kind of expected him to have like some show i'd never heard of where he was the main character right like that kind of thing because he has a very leading man feel look to him yeah yeah i haven't seen him in anything else uh he didn't really have anything else that jumped out to me from his credits. He doesn't have a headshot on IMDb. Yeah. So, you know, I guess just big ups to Taylor for doing a good job in this episode.

Yeah. I mean, like, he did all the greats. He was on Six Million Dollar Man for an episode, Bionic Woman for an episode, The Incredible Hulk for an episode. What was the other one I saw? Knight Rider for an episode, Manimal for an episode. what was the other one i saw night rider for an episode manimal for an episode so yeah good good on him but yeah no i think he was great for this role he had that quality here we have this this situation where we need him and jim to get along right and uh we're going to start off by the opposite happening right in a wonderful way

yeah yeah in a wonderful way. Yeah. Yeah. In a classic way. This goes back to Gilgamesh, right? This is how you make friends. So they start off with a handshake and Jim starts off with, I have a complaint about your sausages. How come your sausages are being made in Sonoma, Mexico? And why are your non-union trucks getting wrecked?

So he lays out the story, right? And Charlie's like, what are you talking about those sausages are made in cripple creek arkansas uh sure okay i have them in there personally but they're fda approved they don't have import stamps they go to supermarkets so they have to be on union trucks and i like how he knows like enough about that and he's very much like non-union trucks like no not my sausages right right yeah he there's a sense of like just from him saying like the only thing that's gone right is the damn sausages is like yeah look this is the only thing that i'm like yeah that's working out okay don't come in here and tell me that it's bad yeah exactly ah so jim doesn't know how but he's he's done some legwork in the meantime.

He says he's talked to the driver who's made six trips from the Mexico plant. Carrie comes out, says that they need to start the inventory. Charlie takes the opportunity to be like, I can't deal with that now. I'm going to deal with the sausage company myself. I just got to get out of here. These people eat me up. I thought we had some sausage business we were going to take care of. I don't know what your game is, mister, but I got some sharpshooter coming to me about every 10 seconds. And I got troubles of my own.

Yeah, well, the biggest trouble you got standing right here on this sidewalk. Now, either you listen to what I'm telling you, you're going to go home across your saddle. Boy, that does it. I don't. And that's when Charlie takes a swing. And I'm pretty sure, I mean, this part is filmed just a little weird. I think what we're supposed to see is that he hits Jim and Jim just takes it. Yeah.

I blinked and it kind of looked like he just missed Jim, which I don't think is. No, no, no. I think he took it on the chin. Yeah. And then Jim belts him and he falls down. So we get the initial back and forth. Oh, it's a good scrap on the ground. So we get the initial back and forth.

It's a good scrap on the ground. And then Charlie tackles him down and they just have a good, yeah, scrap is the best word for it. They're rolling around on the ground. They're kind of throwing punches, kind of trying to like get each other in headlocks. There's a good moment where Charlie gets up and then Jim, I don't even know how to describe it. The way Jim gets up, it was a scramble. Like he scrambled to get up but it's just Jim in his suit trying to get off the ground. It's good, it's good, it's worth watching.

I just sent you the other screenshot that I took from this episode. Oh, okay, here we go. Yeah, yeah, that's right after he gets up. They square up, like put up your dukes. Carrie's come back out. She starts kicking him, like kicking Charlie. Like, hey, stop it. And he's like specifically kicking Charlie which I think is very funny. Carrie's come back out. She starts kicking him, like kicking Charlie, like, hey, stop it.

And it's like specifically kicking Charlie, which I think is very funny. They finally break it up. The money guy comes out and Charlie just can't stand it. He basically runs to his truck. Jim's not going to let him go without dealing with this. Carrie doesn't want him to run off, you know, run off. So they both follow him and they somehow just all end up in the truck as he drives away i love it it's so great like he's getting ready to go and everyone just

starts piling in and then we just have we have a little voiceover outside the truck so he drives this like real old beaten up pickup it is not a rocky shiny you know right yeah i care about my car pickup it is probably a i have been driving this ever since i got a car and i refuse to give it up even though i have money now car um we have a little voiceover of those tax guys are driving me nuts um and then we go back into the cab where jim's like how do i lock you into one beam right yeah focus like how do we do one thing he says tell me where to go and I'll go there. So Jim gives him the address of

Roland Eddy's. We are going to take a little break in the middle of our episode here so that we can stretch, maybe get a beverage or a snack and talk about the other places that you can find us on the internet. Epi, if our listeners want more

Epi, where can they go to get Maximum Epi? You can find me at my website, dig1000holes.com. That's dig1000holes.com. Or you can get my sword and sorcery fiction and games at worldswithoutmaster.com. That's worlds, plural, master, singular. If you want to engage with me on the social medias,

the best place to go right now is mastodon at epidia at dice.camp. Nathan, if they want to get Maximum Nathan, where do they have to go for that? I should have gone Maximum Nathan. Maximum Nathan can be found at my website, ndpdesign.com. That's the hub for all my stuff on the internet, including all my, uh,

role playing games, zines, and other podcasts. Uh, so if you're interested in pro wrestling detectives or zines about pro wrestling, among other things, um,

those are all at my website. It also has links to contact me in other ways. Currently, I'm still posting on Instagram at ndpayoletta. That's where I'm posting pictures of my dog. You can also find me at cohost, cohost.org slash ndp. That is a fun, small-scale social media site that I'm enjoying quite a lot. And now we return to the continuing adventures of jimbo rockfish uh they roll up to eddie's place as we see him being hustled out of his place into a green sedan by two goons and they take off jim's like he doesn't say don't let him

get away but jim's like let's follow them but unfortunately the truck won't start maybe he's flooded i don't know yeah uh but for whatever reason charlie can't get the the truck won't start maybe it's flooded i don't know yeah uh but for whatever reason charlie can't get the the truck started again and roland eddie is uh is is kidnapped before their very eyes charlie ends the that scene on a son of a gun right so the situation here is rocky's livelihood well not livelihood not livelihood. He's retired. But Rocky's life or self-identity is falling apart. His ego is slowly being crushed. Yeah.

And Jim is in the right position with the right skills to solve this problem. But he's trying, right? Like he's to him, this is a like, I need to I need to help my father out. Right. On the other side of this coin, there's Charlie,lie who is like he's got all of these troubles and this this is an adventure right yeah i'm gonna go i'm gonna catch some bad guys well he doesn't even know if there's bad guys yet he's he doesn't even really know why they were going to roland's place yet like he's just he's a real vibes guy he's really just going on on vibes, I feel like this is what we should do.

Yeah. There's something that's a little of the, maybe at the time, or maybe it's just TV. Like, you know, this is a very TV thing, but there's something that struck me as like, not how things are anymore of just walking up to a celebrity's house. Right. And being like, Hey, I want to talk to you about something yeah i don't know if it's again just made convenient for the sake of tv or if it's really a change in how people kind of expect these things to go but that was kind of funny to me how jim's just like i gotta

talk to you about your sausages your sausages it's legitimate in in um like jim established like what he said earlier like this guy is the only guy in this whole mess that i'm sure exists right like there's we've seen him on tv he's a real person so i'm gonna go find him and talk to him but i think like part of it is also jim if he walks up to this guy's house and says something about the sausages he may not get charlie but he might get someone sure yeah he's up to this guy's house and says something about the sausages, he may not get Charlie, but he might get someone. Sure, yeah. He's got to start somewhere. We do see the evidence of his celebrity here as we come back from commercial.

Oh, so good. There's a bunch of fans, groupies, I suppose, who have surrounded them while they've been talking to the police, telling them what happened. There's all these teens yelling that they love him. And he's like very good with that. Like he's, you know, he's like, I can't, you know, I can't stay here now, but like, I love you. Like he's, he's not acting like someone who is like, oh my God, I can't believe I have to deal with this attention. He kind of like, that's part of his deal.

He seems to be okay with that. He has a great line with one of the women that comes up to the car where he's like, just this once, be a pal. Or, you know, like, just help me out here. I think he, like, kisses her finger. Like, does, like, the, like, I don't know. Like, you would.

Right, like, just kiss her hand or something like that. Yeah, like, gives her, like, a kiss, like, on the back of her hand or something. It's, and, like, has a very charming smile. It makes a nice, it kind of rounds out the picture. Right. He's not someone who's jaded by his success he's still figuring out what it means i think to be a success it's kind of an interesting take anyway um we go to the red car the red sedan and our two goons uh on the car phone um that we originally saw from uh their radioing their

walkie-talkieing uh in the first scene they're talking to someone on the phone saying looks like they got him rolling the rig should have done it but they didn't know that eddie wasn't in it we'll find the factory and get them there there's more than one faction going on there's more than one faction going on here as we see um and these guys are calling clark uh who is kind of clearly the boss and clark is saying okay well we'll find the factory we'll hit him there instead clark is played by leo gordon yes aka charlie martell jim's bodyguard friend hapless bodyguard friend yes he's getting beaten up uh and this is the last

of his rockford appearances we have now finished the the leo gordon trilogy yeah trilogy i like to think that maybe after his last trip to the hospital, I guess this actually happens. This is his first appearance. I like to think, I guess, so setting up that timeline. Spoiler alert, this guy gets disgraced. So maybe following his fall from grace, he moves into the bodyguard business. Yes. But yeah, the important thing here is that there's clearly, there's multiple factions going on. Whoever rolled the truck, which is these guys,

were trying to take out... Yeah, Roland. Roland. And it just so happened that Roland had subcontracted to Rocky. Yeah. Whoever's kidnapped Roland is not the same. So there's the two groups, at least. We then go to Jim, Charlie, and Carrie visiting Rocky in the hospital to tell him the story so far.

And Rocky is starstruck. Yes. Being in the same room as Charlie Strayhorn. Always fun to see Rocky just with stars in his eyes. I'm telling you, I feel a lot better just with you in the room. Don't take the pressure off, Rocky. I buy all your cassettes. You know that?

I play them on the long hauls. I buy all your cassettes. You know that? I play them on the long hauls when the radio won't come in. I'm telling you, Sonny, Mr. Strayhorn here, he'd never do nothing illegal. I can tell. Charlie says that he's going to take care of it.

He's going to figure out what's going on. He's going to talk to Clement. Clement is the one who got him in the sausage deal in the first place. And either way, he's going to cover Rocky's medical bills. He's a to figure out what's going on. He's going to talk to Clement. Clement is the one who got him in the sausage deal in the first place. And either way, he's going to cover Rocky's medical bills. He's a good guy. So he and Carrie leave. So there's a great moment in the room just with Jim and Rocky where Jim's like, the problem is I kind of like him.

And Rocky literally says, he's a real one. Yes. Rocky says he's a real one. He's a real one. He's a real one yes rocky says he's a real one he's a real he's a real one and there's some great just like you see the one like this great little banter the physical interaction uh you know again fifth season these guys are in these you know they're in the characters yeah you know how they are and we get to just see their warmth and love for each other in this moment where they're bonding over like both liking this guy. Outside in the hall, Jim catches back up to Charlie and Carrie and we get the good emotional beat here, giving a little depth to our kind of over the top cowboy character where he says that he likes Rocky. He did a good job with Jim. He took care of you when you were sick and now you're doing the same for him.

And he really appreciates that because his dad split when he was a kid, left him and his brother sleeping on porches. They never went to school. And it comes up that he and Carrie, they have a a boy now chet who lives with carrie's parents charlie says one of my hopes was he'd never have to sleep on an oak porch um that continues into guess the way we have it fixed he'll be sleeping on airplanes yeah um and then he walks away so there's this moment where like he he takes a dig at carrie this is what this is gonna like do to like our son like it's a you get a sense of the messiness yeah yeah yeah carrie tells jim well that's charlie strayhorn things just got going

too fast and now there's no way to stop him we go to another scene with just the two of them where they are trying to finish the inventory of their possessions for the for the divorce oh man a situation i have not been in and hope not to be in. The framing is kind of nice because we start off with a shot of candles and it's almost like a romantic candlelit dinner kind of shot. And then you see that they're just tired and trying to get through this.

Carrie's saying, can't we call the rest of this stuff miscellaneous and guess at a figure? Charlie returns with all this stuff as you call it some of it can't be given a number and he's looking down a list and he starts reminiscing about the saddle mhm

what do you think of that old saddle's worth broken arm winning it you was judging pies thought I was crude call me a rough rider. Had to give you the saddle to get a date with you. What do you figure that old saddle's worth?

$20? She asks why he wants to open up old wounds. And he goes, so how did all these fellows around here with scarves and loafers get hitched up on our wagon anyway? She points out that unless you want to figure out taxes and make record deals someone has to do it so he changes topic again to i like that old man today i like that guy jim too yeah uh we used to have friends like that where do they all go and she replies uh you want to prove who you are and grow all your roots in 18 months. That just doesn't leave any time.

It's nice that he worried about Jack, but it won't make him being in Tokyo any easier for a little kid to understand. And we end with him making a face and then just going, OK, let's make that settle worth $20. And he walks out. He's not helping his situation in the slightest here. No. He's not helping his situation in the slightest here. No. You definitely get the sense that he has so many different impulses that he can't. He has so many things that he wants that he can't get anything right.

He can't get into one beam. He can't get into one beam. Anything he's doing at the moment is working against all the other things he wants to happen. It's a pretty well-drawn character. You'd wants to happen it's uh it's pretty i don't know it's a pretty pretty well-drawn you'd love to see character but he doesn't seem he doesn't seem like a jerk really right no it's this is like a this is this is a sad moment yeah it's a bit tragic yeah it's tragic he is taking swings at her but not like real like it's just he's hurt and it's clear that he's hurt but like it's also very clear that she's if he's going to

continue this route she's making the very very right decision right right to you know divorce him and it's also clear that they're not out of love right like I like it feels like a relationship on the brink not a relationship in free fall I think that is that's an important tone to strike I think

for the end of the episode as we will see we'll get into it when we get into it yeah we'll get into it when we get into it we go to jim at the sand dollar he's having a drink uh as he's leaving the scene is so weird it is it's very out of place until later in the episode. So he's ambushed. So he's he he turns to leave and this guy steps in front of him. It's out of place in a couple of ways. First, the guy is Chinese, which is out of place for their area. Or as we knew from reading the summary, at some point, the Chinese triad is involved. Yes, it's out of place for that. And also he just goes what did you call me uh and jim's like what yeah i don't take that from anybody so he's making up a fight yeah uh and

then he just starts kicking jim with karate kicks yes i like this scene and also i'm kind of like i i was i was nervous about this scene uh it's not that it was unjustified, but I think they did. They did. Okay. Like, I'm not the one to say it or anything like that, but I was like, okay, I don't know what's that. I had not read the preview. All I know is in the opening montage.

There is a Chinese, like he's Chinese. Yeah. Talking about a dead body. And so I was like, I guess that's this connection now i guess we're gonna find out what this is about um i guess the thing is is that it's it's a it's a martial art whatever he's he's doing and jim responds with what can only be described as like a good old fashion american you know good old boy kind of thing well he grabs the bar telephone and smashes him in the head and that's what ends the fight yeah it's more of a gym type of thing i guess i was worried about

it being the like you know somebody doing all these fancy moves and then it's like no the good old country boy can handle it but no you're right it's more of a desperation maneuver where he like reaches out he grabs the phone he hits the guy he goes down the bartender goes that's the weirdest thing i ever saw and i was like we don't need any cops do we i'll wave them away so i love that they have that relationship yeah so yeah so jim has been i guess someone was sent to to beat up jim and it kind of worked because he has a bad headache and we know that because he's falling asleep in his chair oh my god in his office this is this might be epi screaming back talking and not epi but that more than any of the other violence in this whole episode this image of him in the chair with a

leg up on the desk asleep hurt me in my soul like I feel that pain in my spine. Yes, exactly. Well, a drunken Charlie Strayhorn rolls in and wakes Jim up. He has quite a headache as his head was almost kicked off his shoulders. He says, can you quiet down? The inside of my head revolves when you shout at me. But Charlie continues shouting and he's like, I talked to Clement. He explained everything. They ran out of rail cars for the direct route

so the sausages came through Dallas to San Diego instead. And that the driver must not be registered with the union. What can you say? One bad apple. Right. Yep. That's exactly it. Jim tells him to pipe down well you're knocking off charlie now i'm not gonna ask you again okay what are you gonna do throw me out huh come on when i drink i'm covering a boll weevil in a sugar jar come on yeah well i eat boll weevils for breakfast that is is when I'm not eating Mexican sausages. In any other context, like Mexican sausages.

What's there to complain about? But here it's quite the insult. Oh, Jim, they ain't Mexican sausages. Come on, man. Clement has more lines than a telephone company, which I think is a great Rockfordism. It is. Charlie, still drunk, says drunk says fine i have a plane and since you're so fired up about this let's go to cripple creek and we'll see the factory

and jim's like oh it's like come on jim give it a hoot not with this head and then we get a good charlie stray horn hooting and hollering yeah as jim winces in pain and we have it's kind of a joke in the cut as we we cut to the plane taking off as the the you who finishes being shouted it extends over the yes take off um to connect the two. It's pretty good. I guess this is wired, right? We can talk about that at the end. Let's talk a little bit about the direction. Sure. Well, sure enough, they're on the plane.

Charlie says they originally belonged to Elvis. And he asks Jim, what do you think? Come on now. Tell me what you really think. I think someone needs to wave you off before you hit a wall. So he kind of takes that to heart. We see he's probably sobered up a little bit by now. Yeah.

He talks himself into something that sounds kind of like a song lyric. So he gets his guitar. You know, I hope you don't mind. I'm going to do a little songwriting. He says he can write up on the plane. There's no one pulling him into things or making him talk to people. Just this bird chasing the sun or running from it. Don't make much difference.

Just the thrum of the engine. And he picks out a guitar as our title song, Heartaches of a Fool, comes up over the footage of the plane. Started out with the dreams And the plans of a wise man Ended up with the heartaches of a fool And similar to the beginning, we just hear the song over a montage of them driving out to this Cripple Creek, you know, address.

Heartaches of a Fool fades out as they arrive at the factory, which is clearly just a trailer and a shed on some land. Charlie says, this can't be the place. They must have been wrong back in town. And Jim kind of keeps digging at him with various comments let's find the plant manager they go into the trailer and there's advertising copy and envelopes for the sausage company this is the mail drop yes for the address uh clement slipped you a rusty musket partner well should we go look in the smoking shed? And they look in the shed.

I just have to say, I don't know if this happened to you, but when Jim was heading out the door of that trailer, I was so afraid for him. You just had a sense of memory? I think it's just anytime he goes through a trailer's door, there's a chance that someone's going to jump him. But it's not even his trailer. So I had this like, yeah yeah yeah but it nothing happened well nothing happens till they look in the shed and as we saw in the preview montage there is a body on the ground he's dead and he's

chinese jim reminds us uh and reminds charlie that the guy who tried to kick his head in was chinese how does this all add up? And Charlie says, Clement. His last name is Chin. He's Chinese. It's a hell of a first name, Clement. Selected for this very purpose. Yeah, yeah. So we go back to LA.

We have an establishing shot of Chinatown as we are meeting with Clement in a restaurant. Oh, I love this meeting. I gotta say, this is good stuff. Clement Chin is played by James Shigeta, who was this character in everything in this

period. I think he's actually Hawaiian. I mean, he's born in Hawaii. He's, I think, of Pacific Island descent. But he's, you know, the Chinese guy or the Japanese guy or whatever in many,

many of these, uh, of these shows, you know, I was like, I've seen this face before. Yeah. I don't think he's in any other Rockford's.

I think he was, um, in, in diehard. He was the, the, the, I can't think of McLean's wife's boss in Die Hard.

Takaji. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, so they have a sit down with Clement. He apologizes for trying to get a fastball past Charlie, but look at it from his perspective. If he makes the sausages with union labor in the US, 85 cents a unit. In Mexico, everything's exactly the same, only 13 cents. What's wrong with that?

And Jim says, it's illegal. So what? Who's getting hurt? Let's start with the guy in the shed. Yeah. And what about Rolandetti? What, did he have one drink too many and fall into the fourth dimension? Clement says that everything's going to turn out

fine he's under a lot of pressure right now but if charlie just sticks it out a little bit longer on the sausage business then clement will buy him out at a profit uh and eddie isn't dead uh clement is a businessman not a murderer charlie puts his hands on him and just three guys just appear out of nowhere, just from out of the frame. My note here is, well, someone is definitely a businessman. Right, right. Clement waves them down. Charlie backs off. What are you, Clement?

Chinese mafia? Isn't that what they call it? Mafia? I'm a member of the Triad. It's a very old Chinese business affiliation. Yeah, would you want to talk to the police gang squad you know they call it an underworld crime syndicate well i suppose that brings our business discussion to a close there's a good line in here that clement says about jim i don't know exactly where he's like, what's your story? Did you float down on a white balloon? Yeah, yeah.

Did you just drift down in a white balloon? Like, it's great. So, yeah, I guess we established that he is a triad member. Yeah, member of the triad. Sure. His, I guess, code switching is great. Like, I just love that he goes from like, I mean, I bought it in the beginning. I like that he was not like just a businessman, mean, I bought it in the beginning. I like that.

He was not like just a businessman, but like a kind of a sleazy businessman, right? Like, like he's, oh, he's, and he's out of his depth or something like that.

And then the moment they put their hands on him, it changes and he's in control. And it's, it's great. I love it. I just absolutely love it. It's very good. And then like some,

someone comes up and whisper something in his ear and he nod nods and then over the next couple lines oh oh he excuses himself he's like yeah i have to go like i have to go handle something um he leaves and then jim and charlie see everyone else in the restaurant just leave yeah it's it's eerie it's wonderful it's a great scene one of the waiters comes up with a phone because there's a phone call for charlie he answers it and it's clement calling from his limo you might want to get out of there somebody's about to hit the place it's definitely a fun scene it's you know it's a little exotic orient yeah kind of stuff which is a little like okay but it's not egregious i don't know it's fine yeah the character is very fun yeah the character is great uh and we've been doing

the mafia so often it's fun to have some other crime you know uh it's similar i we've talked about this long i feel like long long ago but something that you, that you've pointed out that has stuck with me, which is that this is the period of time where if you want to say that someone eats weird food, they eat sushi. Yeah. Ooh, an exotic crime boss.

They must be from a triad. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Um, they go out the back. Jim has an idea. He's something Clevin said about,

he has a food distribution company. Cause he said something like bringing the sausages in through my food distribution company, blah, blah, blah. So he sees these boxes with the distro info on them and he takes a sticker off of one of them for future reference. Yeah. I guess they get out of there before the places hit. We just go to the next scene where we stick with Clement as his limo stops. And then his driver turns around and there's a gun on him. What? I'm sorry.

They have my sister and my mother. I have to do what they say. He tells Clement to call a number from his phone and then they're going to something's going on. Whoever these other guys are, Clark and those other goons they apparently have gained upper hand in some in some fashion i think this is the point my notes where i'm like something something big's happening here and we're like in the last 10 minutes of the show right yeah like okay where is this going yeah jim and charlie check out this distributor sunuko celestial noodle company i'm sure your customers would like to

know that that your cripple creek sausages are being distributed by a noodle by a chinese noodle company there's there's definitely an implied racism yeah right like we uh at least on the on the uh behalf of the customers um but he says someone in there has to know where the factory is like where the actual factory in mexico is but then they see the limo so it's speeding up to come into the parking lot so they so they're in charlie's truck still so they duck down so no one sees them the limo comes in in the limo in the back clark um leo gordon who is much more leo gordon in this shot than he was in the earlier one. I think he was wearing a hat or something.

He just kind of looked like a guy. Here he has the real rumply kind of Charlie Martel looking face. Sitting next to Clement. Clement is, again, you were saying about his code switching. He's kind of gone to this kind of obsequious like, hey boss, kind of characterization. So, you know, I kind of messed up. I'm sorry. I couldn't use Union trucks. It's smuggling. There'd be trouble up and down the line. But Clark explained how it was going to be on the phone two months ago. Then a couple of rice balls try to throw a bomb through my window. And it's like,

they were just hotheads, just kids. They didn't do it like they didn't ask permission. But here's the situation. He's going to have to kill Clement because he knows if he lets clement go clement's gonna kill him there's this moment i just love this like where he's like what are you gonna do clement asked what are you gonna do now and uh clark is almost surprised that he was asked like that's his reaction he's like i'm gonna kill you right that's what i'm gonna do like yeah through this we this becomes clear that um um uh clark and his goons are from the union yeah the correct they are from the truckers union the corrupt yeah they're the corrupt union boss and his and his flunkies so now we we kind of start to see the whole picture where you know this is a a

so now we we kind of start to see the whole picture where you know this is a a underhanded business deal that has gone south um outside we see jim and charlie see the union goons hustling roland eddie out of the factory yeah he's still into the limo and charlie charlie can't let this stand he has to do something so over jim's objection he he hops out of the out of the truck and underneath his seat he has not one but two rifles yes that are apparently loaded yeah because he jumps in the back jim jim's i think jim says i'm against this but i have an idea so as the limo turns around to take all all of our poor guys out to their eventual fate, Jim guns it, blocks the limo from leaving. Charlie pops up with a rifle, shoots out the front tire. And then one of the union goons jumps out with a shotgun.

And we then have a good old fashioned shootout. Shootout at the noodle factory. Yeah. You know, it's pretty well it's it's fast-paced there's it's very exciting you get the sense that like it is just chaos um charlie and jim are are sheltering behind the door of the truck and it kind of resolves with the goon who has the shotgun takes one of charlie's uh bullets right in the i mean i guess in the stomach yeah falls over he's clutching his stomach,

but he's still like, appears to be alive. Appears to be alive. He's still like looking and stuff. So, you know, I'm sure he'll come through fine. And the other guys throw up their hands and we end on a good, loud,

Charlie stray horn. Oh, at this point, I'm like, Jim, get as far away from this guy. It's like if angel loved guns. Yes. Oh, at this point, I'm like, Jim, get as far away from this guy as you can. It's like if Angel loved guns.

Yes. All right. So we go to Jim and Rocky in Rocky's truck. Clearly, this is some time later. Rocky's out of the hospital. He's so excited to come see Charlie Strayhorn and thank him personally for everything he did. He does wonder if they should have called first. And Jim says, well,

he's an informal guy. And this is when I remember that they were going to sell this house. Yes. This is great. Yes. As you know, Bob exposition here where he's like, wait until I tell him I got my license back.

And the president of the union was the one who was the crook, not me. So I got stated the crook not me so i got reinstated uh the door is not locked and as they go in uh trying to find charlie shorty meets them rocky is holding a cake that he presumably cooked himself it looks a little lopsided yeah nailed it nailed it yes yes it is a nailed it cake. Charlie isn't there. He closed out the sausage business.

The line, I think the line is, then he lost interest and went fishing. So I'm like, lost interest in what? In everything? Yeah. Like, I guess. It's kind of the implication. Like, and then he's just like, I'm going to go fishing. I don't know when he'll be back, if ever.

But he did leave something to give to Rocky if he came by. So first, he gives Rocky a saddle. Yeah. The aforementioned memory-filled saddle that he used to rodeo on. It's a callback for us. Not necessarily for Rocky, but whatever. None of these people know what this saddle means, but that's fine. But there is also a record for Rocky.

these people know what this saddle needs, but that's fine. But there is also a record for Rocky. It's Charlie stray horns recording of heartaches for a fool with printed on the label for Rocky who helped set me free. Oh, and then there's a note for Jim. Most of what I have ain't worth giving, but there was this $20 saddle.

Thanks. Love Charlie. Rocky is over the moon to have a personalized Charlie Strayhorn record. And Jim is so happy that Rocky is happy. Yes. We see that in their faces and their body language. It's so good. And then the last three and a half minutes of the episode is... An amazing drone shot for the 1970s, I gotta say.

Listening to Heartaches of a fool over this i mean must be a helicopter shot right yeah it's aerial pan over la and again this is like the full song it is yeah you know i looked at the timeline i was like oh there's like almost four minutes left of this episode that moment when i said what's going? There's 10 minutes left of this episode. There were six minutes left of this episode. Yeah, so we listen to this song as we go over LA and then our shot leaves the highway

and kind of scans over the mountain. I don't really know the topography to be really specific, but I think what you're supposed to get from it is going off into the country, right? Leaving the like coming going off into the country right leaving the city going off into the country but we do end the shot just as we see the hollywood sign come into the france which i think is nice and then that crossfades to a aerial shot from behind of charlie's truck driving down the highway And then we get to a perspective where we can see that Carrie is sitting next to him and he puts his arm around her.

Yeah. And then we crossfade into the setting sun from there. And then the song ends to get our our Rockford theme over our end credits. And yeah, that's the end of the episode. There's just something about that arm over her gesture, which is because we're at such a distance, you would have been able to forgive the show for just having just a, just having a union driver driving that truck down the road. And that's it.

Like, like we don't get any closeup. We don't know for sure it's them, but that, that body language, which is very identifiable. It's Charlie's, it's Charlie's pickup.

Yeah. Well, that's what i mean like like it's we know it's him but we like what i'm saying is that we don't know that it's the act we never get close enough to know it's the oh sure right right but that body language is just so identifiable from that distance it's just a great idea like yeah i'm not saying this is genius or anything like that but i thought it was like just a very great touch because it delivered the note that they wanted to deliver. Just just praising Wired for for for making that happen there.

Like it was I was trying to pay some attention to like some things that I would attribute to the director. I don't know if they were, but like that was one of the things where I was I thought yeah that was actually that was a good idea that was a good shot that well done and the beginning with the the whole thing with rocky yeah with just the music playing and nothing else was good so good yeah it's like the inverse of that sequence we really liked from uh we did this way wait maybe it's uh tall woman in i don't know i know which one you're talking about the one where jim's being pursued by a truck in like the desert and it's like yeah seven minute sequence of like no music of no music it's like the inverse of that where and it wasn't that long but like we're just having the song juxtaposed with the imagery and stuff was

just like it was fun it was just like a fun a really fun way to open into the season um and i do have that kind of just sense of like we really decided to go for it with this episode like yeah on a per episode basis i'm sure they spent a lot more money on this one than some of the others they were rolling trucks they were doing aerial photography there's um a lot of good stuff um yeah it's just such a fun episode yeah part of me is kind of like does the story hang together i haven't even thought about it yeah i don't i uh i guess what we kind of get right at the end is that there's this smuggling deal like clement found a face to sell this smuggling deal,

but it was supposed to be done with union guys so that the union got a cut of the deal. And then he double-crossed them to use non-union guys. And so they rolled the truck to send a message. Or Roland was the guy where they're like, oh, if we take out Roland, then Clement has to use union or something. Or we send a message to anyone who wouldn't go union on this,

you know, like, like, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So it was just like, I guess one,

one of the partners undercut the other or tried to play them against someone else. And it just like went south um and then you know rocky ended up in it just because he's too naive to be like oh a freelance gig where i don't go on the truck scales that's got to be legit yeah why not yeah um roll has never steered me wrong before why would he steer me wrong now right uh and and thus we get our story yeah i like i had a uh a thing just this past week that i put out out on mastodon about um i was actually talking about doctor who and not not the rockford files but uh just saying that

like good entertainment doesn't have to be good in in every way it just needs to be good enough for you to ignore the gaps. And that's it. Right. Like, and I think that this show much like, sorry, all right,

this is a thesis here, much like how Charlie Strayhorn needed the sausage mystery to distract from all his problems. Charlie, Charlie Strayhorn and the sausage mystery. Yes. Sounds like, sounds like a porn parody. Yeah, it does.

But, you know, he was looking for a distraction. Yeah. This was tremendous fun. I was watching it, I was taking notes, I was like, this episode rules. Like, it whips. It's just firing on all cylinders. The story is

good enough. Yeah. All the stuff is great. Yeah. The character stuff is all great. The lines are amazing. The music's great. Willie Nelson, you know, whips.

So that's, you know, that works. Yeah, there's some good moments like Jim. Charlie is, there's a style of character that people like to pit Jim against which are uh likable or pitiable or whatever generally good characters that Jim has to like keep on the right track just long enough right right yeah right yeah he's like a real archetype of that kind of yeah Rockford Files lead like co yeah co-lead. So good. Yeah.

I mean, I don't know where they would have been, but like the only problems with this episode are like Angel wasn't also trying to like flip the sausages at a profit. And like, you know, Dennis wasn't on call for the cop, you know, like. Yeah. Or like a subplot of angel deciding to become a country music star because he saw angel impersonating charlie strayhorn to try and sell sausages that he literally got off the back of the overturned truck yes to like someone else what could have been but yeah but like where would that have fit you know yeah we needed a good six to seven minutes for music so the story did end up a little a little compressed but again what an episode we're back we're back baby we had kind of a bummer last time and then i'm back i'm back on

it i think rocky said it best it's real one. I have nothing else to add. Except to say that we will be back next time to talk about another episode of the Rockford Files. He's a real one.