Two Hundred A Day - Episode 122: Claire

Episode Date: July 30, 2023

Nathan and Eppy head back to the first season to meet another of Jim's old flames in S1E17 Claire. After a rough breakup and years of separation, Claire calls Jim for help. Of course he agrees to do what he can, but she isn't being straight with him and he needs to figure out who's life is in danger and why before it's too late. Co-starring Linda Evans and Jackie Cooper, this episode hits a lot of our "classic" themes, though maybe lacking a little something to make it stand out from similar plots. Show Notes: Here's Linda Evan's bio on IMDb (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002067/bio/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm). 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

This is the Thomas Krauss School of Dance and Contemporary Etiquette. We aren't going to call again. Now, you want these free lessons or what? Welcome to 200 a Day, the podcast where we talk about the 70s television detective show, The Rockford Files. I'm Nathan Paletta. And I'm Epidiah Ravishaw. And we are continuing our summer of Wired.

Yes. We're nearing the end, but not quite there yet. But this time we are coming to you with Season 1, Episode 17, Claire. Is this Wired's first Rockford Files? I do not know.

Quick, to IMDb. Yeah, that's where I'm at right now. I have an ongoing bet that we finish this before IMDb becomes completely useless on my computer. And by finish this, I mean our entire run of the Rockford Files. Right. Before you are driven to make your own TV consulting website because this one just doesn't work anymore. So bad.

Oh, no. Oh, wait, no. There's the Rockford Files. How do I click on the actual oh there we go he directed more episodes of daniel boone than he did direct of the of the rock i was just looking at that hey he did slight of hand he did slight of hand so that was two episodes before this one yeah i feel like slight of hand has come up a couple times recently but again a an unusual tonal shift in the first season. So it's kind of interesting that that was his first directorial effort.

Also, to my memory, very dark. Like a lot of it takes place at night. And so does this episode. A lot of this episode takes place at night. More so than I think I'm used to seeing. I wonder, I'm sure there's production concerns for that kind of stuff. Like, well, we only have four days days to or i think they did six day shoots or whatever so like we only have six days to shoot and we're on day five and we're gonna

shoot tonight um i have no idea how that work that stuff works just a interesting bit of trivia i mean i think it's relevant like there's we'll get to it when we get to it but i think there's some some things about this episode are a little repetitious. And the fact that some of them occur at night breaks breaks it up. So it doesn't feel too repetitious. Sure. Yeah, I can see that. So we'll see.

Yeah. So as we've established his second director credit on the Rockford Files, this one is written by Stephen Cannell and Edward J. Lasko. Lasko, I believe wrote solo the Italian bird fiasco. Oh, right. Which was our episode 61 in November of 2019.

I, I misheard, misinterpreted what you said. And I thought you said he wrote solo and I was thinking of the star Wars. Oh, interesting. Oh, interesting. Like, oh, well, he's still at it. OK.

I think he did write some something for Star Trek at some point. But here he he did the teleplay for Roundabout, which was our episode 96 back in December 2021, which is wild because I still think of that as a recent episode. Yeah. And Aurali, or Aurali? We haven't done it yet. Aurali Farewell, which we haven't done yet, which is awesome this season. You know, he has a lot of kind of credits here and there. He ended up a writer for and producer of Charlie's Angels. So that's the majority of his the bulk of his work

as a writer. And I noticed this time around looking at his stuff that he also has music credits for writing and performance. So there's most extensively on Charlie's Angels, but also for other TV shows, one-offs and whatnot.

Not on this episode, though. No, not on this episode. Because there is a wonderful spooky banjo chase music near the Not on this episode, though. No, not on this episode. No, there is a wonderful spooky banjo chase music near the end of this episode that I would like to just shake the hand of whoever did it. But if it's not him, it's not him. Yeah, I don't know. I think I don't know if it's vocal performance, if he was singing some of these things that he wrote lyrics for or if it's performance, musical performance. I don't know. I don't know how these credits work, but multi-talented creator, I guess, is what I would say.

But yeah, just looking at the other things that he did on the Rockford Files, I detect no through line. It seems like all of these things are fairly different. The Italian bird fiasco is kind of a fun con game episode. Yeah. This one is not. This one's also co-written with Cannell.

So I don't know. I don't have any insight to share. Those are the details that I gleaned from looking at his resume. Well. For our listeners who also listen to Plus Expenses, Well, for our listeners who also listen to Plus Expenses, which is our Patreon backer only pre-show show that comes out a week before each of our regular episodes available to all subscribers of our Patreon at patreon.com slash 200 a day. But on our conversation for that, I think we started talking about this episode a little bit, which we don't do. don't talk about the rock crew files on that show we try not to we try not to it's hard it's hard but um i don't know if we want to talk about it a little bit now or save it for

for when we for when we get into it yeah yeah go for it but the sense of going from looking at a lot of like season four season five episodes and then coming back to season one. Yeah. It's always an interesting, not negative, but notable shift. They're finding their feet, as you would expect. You know, the show hasn't calcified, ossified in some way, right? Like hasn't become... Maybe gelled. It hasn't gelled.

Yeah, gelled. Maybe that's better. It started off strong. It's not like it had to like... Yeah. maybe that's better it started off strong it's not like it had to like yeah experiment with a bunch of stuff to find out what worked but it was more like as just as production stuff smoothed out they found the characters they started bringing on particular talent the parameters of the of the tone of the show definitely shift over the seasons it's it's kind of hard to talk about uh this without putting like a value judgment on it which doesn't exist right like i i like both early and late rockford files and it's it's it is just very interesting to see uh you you could imagine this going from this point and becoming

a very different show uh but there's also like, like you had mentioned earlier, uh, again in, in our 200 or, uh, plus expenses that like they're doing things like really letting you know who the characters are so that you're grounded in the series because this is the first season.

Like we don't know who's watching. We don't know. Right. You're, you're 17 weeks in, right? Like, yeah. Right. You're 17 weeks in, right? Yeah.

Yeah. Each episode kind of has a little bit of responsibility to let you know some of the context for Jim. Yeah. In a way that, like, in the fourth season, that stuff just isn't there anymore. Like, reminding you that he has a criminal record. Yeah. Like, that one is just very prominent in this episode. And it doesn't, it's not dreadfully important to the episode, but it just keeps coming up. It's important to a really good bit.

Yeah. Which we'll get to it when we get to it. Yeah, a bit that a later episode could have done without it, without having to influence it. Yeah, I would agree with that. Yeah, I mean, I think that's all the context I kind of had in mind. with that yeah i mean i think that's yeah all the all the context i kind of had in mind i guess i i did want to make clear that i find it kind of refreshing to be in the first season after doing the later seasons because the tone is so much more like i don't know it's just it's more i don't know i don't know how to say it's more og this is how it started this is how we were like no it's fun and i think it's one

benefit of how we accidentally structured the show our show is that because we jump around we actually can see these shifts a little bit where if we're doing it sequentially in in airing order or whatever because they happen gradually maybe they wouldn't stand out as much but i think it's interesting and valuable to to do a you know, five paragraph essay style comparing contrast season one and season five of the Rockford Files. Like stuff jumps out. That's all. Yeah, it definitely does.

Including some of the fashion. Yes. All right. Well, I guess there's no reason not to get into our preview montage. We've got stakes right away. Clearly, we don't know anything about Jim and Claire, but it feels like there's history. There's some trust issues. And then we get Jimmy. They're trying to kill me, please, in one hour. So we're like, OK, all right. There's a whole murder thing here. And then in case you were wondering if this will be be just a lot of interpersonal stuff, don't worry.

We have a J-turn right off the bat. We're going to have some good Firebird action going. Lots of good threats. The other standout bit was just him grabbing a mannequin, which just screams, like, there's a fun scheme ahead that's all that's all i know and then there's a captain that he's uh um has to deal with played by jackie cooper that's right in his first on-screen appearance uh he also was in the house on willis avenue but he directed multiple episodes as well this is again we're in the early days of uh rock profiles so we have not actually settled on uh deal or uh chapman and uh we get this captain

highland um yeah and jackie cooper directed five episodes of which we've only done three. Oh, he also directed the Italian Bird Fiasco. Oh, and Oralee Farewell, which we've not done yet. I think we also haven't done Say Goodbye to Jennifer. Yeah. We apparently have just skipped all the women's names episodes of the first season. That's unintentional. But that's a good for us to close out when we're done with Wired.

So we're finishing the Jackie Cooper acting cycle, but we still have Jackie Cooper directing to finish. And as always, I can't see him in this era without thinking of his character in the Columbo episode where he's the senator that makes it look like an attempt on his life got the wrong man in order to kill his aide who's you know, keeping him from having the affair he wants to have or whatever. Anyway, one of the great episodes. 200 Today 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. 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.

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congresspeople or fake murders. Itpeople or fake murders. It's about real murders in at least one way, as we'll find out as we get into it. Oh, I did notice, and obviously we will see it in the show, but I noted the fun. As opposed to a car chase or gunshots, we end the preview with jim telling the police captain that he has style and him just ending on a sardonic i know yes we know where the heart of the action is gonna be yeah well speaking of action we start our episode uh at night at jack's on the beach uh a beachside lounge of some kind.

And we have good action-y music. As we watch a woman wearing an incredible hat run out of the place into a car, peels out of the parking lot. Two goons follow, jump into their own car peel out to follow and we have um a non-scored all diegetic sound car chase yeah uh through the night so many good squeals with lots of squeals and one of our good tropes that we haven't seen in a long time i remember it's happening in another episode and talking about it but that was like could have been five years ago i don't remember but the flying hug cap where the car comes around a curve and the

hubcap just pops off you gotta love a flying hubcap i don't know i don't know why we don't see that more often in television i mean obviously in the 70s like all these cars look heavy i mean i know cars are heavy right like but when they take these corners and the whole body of the car swallows the tires off. Oh, yeah. Good, good, good stuff. Per the 200-a-day Rockford Files files, this primary goon car is a 1974 Imperial LeBaron. Ah. And her car, is that on the Rockford Files?

That one was not noted in the uh in the spreadsheet i think i think it's a mercedes i'm not willing to make any claim on on model or make of these cars if i'm not looking at it on my screen i've been burned too many times i i have to but i think i think it's a mercedes i think there's a mercedes symbols on the front uh that's all i'm gonna do i'm gonna i'm gonna you could yeah please correct me uh director corrections to epi i i don't need to hear just as i was going to make a note of it's awfully convenient how little traffic there is for this chase uh we have the bit where a car comes out of a driveway and the goon car has to swerve to avoid hitting it. So good job on anticipating my

critique there. We get a cut to show us that there's a hotel that the this woman is Claire. I think we know that from the preview montage from her face. But we can also kind of assume. Right. So the shot

switches to show us the hotel that Claire is going to arrive at. She swings up in front of the doorman, jumps out of her car. He clearly knows her, addresses her as Miss Prescott. And she says, if anybody asks for me, you don't know me, please. And runs into the hotel. This is good business with the doorman. I like how all this plays out. It's good stuff. stuff yeah the goons

follow of course they start peeking into her car because she just left it there yeah uh then they um accost this doorman ask asking him where claire prescott uh which apartment number is hers we've been introduced to our goons can i tell you now about the, I'm trying to think, where I thought IMDB was broken because of these goons, right? The first goon to speak is Stone, is his name. I don't know that. I look at IMDB, the pictures are really small. This doesn't even seem like enough characters for this show, right? Like this is a very small cast list or whatever.

So I don't, I't i'm like oh there's something wrong they haven't done anything right because i heard this guy's voice and i was convinced that this was robert stack of uh unsolved mysteries fame he has the smoothest unsolved mysteries voice and he has a very young robert stack to him. But this is Lance Legault. I mean, I would just say he's like a he's like a kind of another Robert Stack. But he's been in a lot of things that I've probably just assumed he was Robert Stack in. So that's the thing that I've that I've learned about myself watching this episode. Yes. Is that the one who ends up? The one with the shotgun?

The one with the shotgun at the end? OK. Yeah. Yeah. I was going to say, up? The one with the shotgun. The one with the shotgun at the end? Okay. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I was going to say, because the other one is the news guys. Yeah. I would say it does not sound like Robert's day. No. Claire Prescott, what's her apartment number?

I don't know. We don't have a Claire Prescott here. Now, come on, Pop. I want to spread your teeth all over the sidewalk. I'm very sorry, Sobert. Come on, let's check the boxes. But it is the Rockford Files, so we like to, you know, like, I get the feel that Stone is the calm one. Right, right. Or the, yeah, the intellectual one, I guess.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I guess that's probably it. Like, Willett, which is the other one, you get the idea that he's the, he's going to beat you up. They're great though they're really good really good goons together we see claire getting stuff out of her closet in her room the doorman calls to tell her that two men are looking for her yeah see this this is the stuff i like yeah the doorman could have just disappeared at this point they could have beat him up they could have uh but instead he's in play and there's this complex cat and mouse thing going on that he's involved in. Right.

It's great. Yeah. And you get the sense that like he's trying to do right by someone who's probably been nice to him and is also like a guest at the hotel and he has like a professional responsibility. But he's not going to put his life on the line. Yeah, yeah. So I think there's a sense of relief when they just ignore him to go look at the mailboxes. But then he calls her to say the two men are looking for her. I'm going to call the police. And she says, no, no police. I'll take care of it. And then before she leaves, she stops. She goes back to the phone.

We see her thinking for a second. She picks it up and then she places a phone call cut to jim wearing an outfit i swear my grandfather has worn during my lifetime which is a bright red sweater over a big lapelled button-down shirt that's white with red and blue plaid stripes but it's not plaid it's a plaid pattern of stripes, but they're very thin, and it's a white shirt with the stripes. It's great. It's a great look. Should we talk about Claire for a second, who is played by Linda Evans? Yeah.

Linda Evans is one of those people where I feel like if I was older, I would be like, oh,ans but right but i had to look her up um she was in the farnsworth stratagem as well i believe she was the the woman that was trying to con him joined his con right right and she was part of the gangster con yeah yeah yeah it's funny that you should say that if you were a little bit older you would be like oh that's linda evans because m walked into the room while I was watching it. And she's like, Oh,

it's that woman from dynasty. Yeah. Yeah. She's from dynasty. Uh, 206 credits of that show. She was one of the main, one of the main characters on dynasty,

uh, among lots of one offs of seventies and eighties TV and a previous soap opera before dynasty. Um, sounds like she's had a very interesting life. And I know this primarily because if you click through to her bio on IMDb, if you read someone's bio on IMDb, at the bottom, it says who was submitted by. Was it submitted by Linda Evans?

It does indeed. Now, was it submitted by Linda Evans, the actress, or was it submitted by Linda Evans, the actress, or was it submitted by Linda Evans, the character from the 1981 Fall Guy, played by Linda Evans? I think she played herself. Fall Guy was a stuntman, I think. Couldn't tell you. So, yeah, probably a guest star thing. I mean, so I don't know if it's literally her

or someone who thought it would be a good bit to make a right account by the name of Linda Evans. However, the bio, which is fairly, you know, it's not it's not terribly. It's a good bio. It's a good summary. But it ends with Linda's often lavish and luxurious life has rivaled Crystal Carrington's, which is her character from Dynasty. She has dined with queens and presidents, been romanced by the rich and famous, and today, what Linda treasures most is the wisdom she has gained along the way.

Ha ha! Yes! Good on you, Linda. So it sounds like she's doing great. She apparently won a season of Hell's Kitchen, the 2009 season. I've never watched Hell's Kitchen. Yes, I saw that she was on the credits for that. Yeah. But yeah, she was like considered, you know, she was on lists and stuff of like the most

beautiful woman in America. She has a Hollywood star. She's won daytime Emmys. Like she's, you know, a laudable character in television. I believe these roles, her Rockford Files appearances, I believe are a little pre-pre-dynasty. Yeah. It's between the two, between the Big Valley and Dynasty, which were her two big roles.

She's still alive, which is something I had to check independent of IMDb, because if she wrote her bio in IMDb... Sure, sure. But, yeah. Yeah. She seems like she's just living her best life.

Apparently she lives in the Pacific Northwest somewhere. I don't know. Anyway, I was just tickled by the fact that i read the biography and got to the bottom by linda evans good for you good for you linda um she's fine in this uh i think i probably like her character in farnsworth stratagem a little more yeah there's more for the character there like so um one of the other things we brought up in our discussion pre-show, which we shouldn't do. If you want to listen to Plus Expenses.

Yeah, you know how to get to it. Was this feeling that I had seen that we had done this episode before, right? We had this feeling that like both Nathan and I discovered independently that we double checked to make sure we had not done this episode before. And if we have, and you can prove that we have.

Then I don't know what time-space continuum slipping we ventured, but that's fine. But there are definitely things in this episode which I'll point out, which either I don't even know if they are from, remind me of something from an episode that we did or what. But like I just had this very strong deja vu with it. And some of that might be because Linda Evans was, was on it before, but yeah, this character as we'll soon find out is there's some history between her and Jim,

right? She's an old flame. It's an old flame. I mean, the summary of the episode tells us that. So like, it's pretty straight. It's pretty clear flame. I mean, the summary of the episode tells us that. It's pretty clear from that and it's pretty clear from the preview montage as well. And usually they do some

really good stuff with that, but in the Farnsworth stratagem, having her be trying to run a con on him and then joining his It's more interesting. It's hard to beat that dynamic, right? You just can't. This one, I, it's hard to beat that dynamic, right? Like you just can't this. Yeah.

This one, I think I, when I did our patron preview, uh, which I wrote before we've done this recording because of how our timing has worked out this month. Um, I think I said like,

Oh, well we haven't seen a Jim's old flame episode in a while. Like, cause that's definitely a typology. There are a number of Jim's old flame episodes, uh, perhaps enough that we could end up doing some kind of ranking

but do some kind of draft or something to talk about them. I guess, spoiler alert for my overall feelings of the episode, this is not a bad episode, but there's not a lot that stands out to me to keep it fresh in my memory as we do other episodes. I would love

to get an account of women that Jim almost married. Well, and also specifically. OK, so we we need to talk about the episode, but specifically the proportion of those that Rocky approves of disapproves because that does. I think that is the unique qualifier here. Yeah, this might be the only one i can remember where rocky disapproved of her yes yes that's another bit that stuck in my head so maybe this episode for some weird reason stuck in my head and i just thought we had done it but uh anyways what we're

missing here is that jim is doing rocky's taxes right i think that that's the beat of the episode yep he's going over rocky's taxes um this first couple this first 30 seconds is a rich text um he's got his great outfit he's going over rocky's taxes rocky is trying to claim a check that he wrote to jim as an expense but the check bounced so jim never got it and he had to get the money from lj in the end for whatever it was and and also it it was a loan right it yeah none of this is i mean rocky just doesn't know what he's doing when it comes to his tax i mean you know the tax code has changed a number of times since yeah 1974 1975 but uh as our resident tax expert if if I wrote you a check for a business expense of yours, do I get to claim that as a business expense? No.

Let's see here. Well, I mean, I guess that depends on our working relationship. That's true. But, like, okay, if you wrote me a check as a loan, right? Right. right right uh then what that loan for you is uh you just moved money from your cash to your uh uh to another asset that is this loan right that is that money i owe you right so you've not lost money you don't have cash on hand i haven't spent spent money. Yeah, you haven't spent money. So it's not an expense. Please don't take my advice as –

This is not tax advice. This is me thinking back several years to when I took tax class in accounting school. Right. And, I mean, like this – that's how I think it would go down. I think it's the same – they're both assets, cash and accounts. Like accounts receivable. Yeah. Yeah.

And, uh, I'm not sure if they would like technically be in accounts receivable or just, just like having a loan out to someone. Um, but yeah, it technically should be able to call that in at some point.

And you may even be making Rocky wouldn't be, but you might even be making interest off of it. So you, you might owe taxes on the interest yeah yeah yeah anyway again neither here nor there it is nice to hear that lj uh ended up helping cover the spread um and then uh jim answers the phone james rockford private Investigation and tax specialist. It is indeed Claire. And he says, what do you want? Yes.

A very, very icy reception. She needs to meet where we used to go in one hour. They're trying to kill me. Please. One hour. So as you say, the stakes immediately high. After Jim hangs up, Rocky immediately knows who that was and we get some of the exposition to fill in our background how long has it been now three years maybe

rocky says that she dropped him like he was on fire and it took him six months to get over it there's more banter here uh we we end with jim saying he's he's intellectually more mature now and he can handle it. Yeah. What we could establish is that Rocky didn't like her. Yeah. Rare. Rare.

Jim, it was a really bad breakup. It took Jim a long time to get over it. And, like, things might have been weird with her. Like, their relationship itself sounds like it had tension. Yeah. So this is the thing. Later in the episode, I tried to puzzle out, and I cannot remember if this is a thing later in the episode i tried to puzzle out and i cannot remember if this is solved earlier does rocky not like her because she dumped him and just like disappeared or did rocky not like her before she dumped him and i think later on it's implied that

rocky always had a bad feeling i think so i I think there might be a line to that effect. Like you never liked me or something like that. Yeah. So it's interesting because, well, first of all, I can always, you can see Rocky changing his feelings about someone and then him believing

that his feelings were always that way. Right. Like, like you can see that. I think he's even done that with like, uh, uh, what's his name dick van patten uh or no it wasn't dick van who was it that was the the oh god where they had like the big fight in the cardboard boxes oh oh the aaron ironwood the episode is the aaron ironwood

yeah school of success it's um uh james hampton is the actor yeah why did i think it was dick van patten i don't know i mean uh dick van patten's sister was on the rockford files in uh joyce fan in um she was the really into dennis uh in the first uh anthony boy the first anthony boy story she was the cop chaser uh they have similar kind of faces they definitely have different builds though all right never mind you can ignore me this has been uh the messed up imdb that is in effie's head where were we so yeah similar to like uh the character of aaron iron, which is the adopted brother of Jim. Yeah, I was just bringing that up because I thought maybe Rocky changed his opinion of him and just assumed that he always had that opinion of him. But anyways, it's clearly been a rocky, there's a troubled relationship between Claire and Jim.

Again, this is early times. This is first season. So, like, all of history happens just before first season. I don't know. I feel like history in television shows is a little bit shorter in the first season just because you don't have by the end six seasons right like we will be with jim for longer than these two have been broken up uh but uh yeah that's the setup i guess is what what we'll get bad here i don't i don't know how to bring this back around. We do come and do some good, solid credits and score as we watch Jim driving with a nice, like, from the hood of the Firebird full facial shot.

And, Jim, the place they used to meet, is the zoo i don't know why i didn't think to mention this before but i saw a copper firebird for sale uh last weekend what i know and i i wanted to buy it so bad uh but i think it's later years i don't i don't think jim would have approved of it anyway sorry go on next time you see one, we can see if it's a goal for our Patreon. Oh, right. They don't do goals anymore, but maybe we can do a fundraiser to

communally pick up a bronze firebird at some point. Anyhow, we go to Jim waiting at the zoo to meet Claire. He's waiting. He her uh before she sees him and we have some good facial acting from both of them yeah you know seeing the other person being glad that they're there but also then feeling like the old you know like the old

feelings are coming back already you see tension kind of from the get-go she's glad he came she's really wanted to call him since they broke up. Had the phone in her hand 20 times, but never did it. Guess I really messed us up. Roughly once every two months since they've been broken up. Thanks for doing the math. Thank you. You're welcome.

You're welcome. Claire says it feels good to be together again, and Jim is a little dubious. He's like, yeah, feels really good. Yeah. Yeah, this is where she asked how's rocky doing he never liked me and jim said yeah well he probably had his reason um she didn't want to end them but she had to and jim wants to get to the point you've changed you used to be a hopeless romantic well i'm willing to let you off the hook for old times.

Something went wrong, didn't work out for us. Both bled a little, now it's over. So you get the sense that maybe this particular relationship led to him changing his, how emotionally vulnerable he was, you know, willing to be with people. I mean, I'm reading a little into it, but. No, I think you're right. You got, you're onto something there. But he does say, want my help? Tell me what's going on.

She expected him to be mad and he's like, I got over it. Right. Yeah. I mean, he's clearly mad, but like not, not, he's not going to admit it. He's, he's, he's trying to be mature about it, I guess. Yeah. Well, Claire wants Jim to find a Charlie Manning. Jim says, well, wait a second. Who's trying to be mature about it, I guess. Yeah, yeah. Well, Claire wants Jim to find a Charlie Manning. Jim says, well, wait a second, who's trying to kill you?

She only said that to get him to come. She was worried he wouldn't agree to come if she didn't tell him that things were that dire. So he tells her to go to the cops. And she doesn't want to go to the cops. Can't go to the cops. She's not asking for much. She has an address and a description. You know, there's a bar and if he's not there, tell the bartender and give him your number. But he can't know that I'm the one who's asking. But then when he calls you, you have him

call me. So there's this whole set of layered obfuscations here. Jim is a little hesitant. She wants him to promise he won't go to the cops. And Jim says that he promises and he'll think about it. He gives Claire a ride back to her hotel, drops her off, and we end their interaction with no police. You promise. And he nods and says, I'll call you. Then he goes to a phone booth and immediately calls Dennis. Yes. So this is I don't know if we would call these jokes in the cut, but this parallels the earlier one where she says, no police, I'll handle it, and then calls Jim.

There's a fun bit there, I think, going on. I will say this whole zoo scene, this is when I stopped to look to see if we've done this one before. But I think I am thinking of the very recent one we did where the two hit men meet uh is it was like the fourth man the fourth man yeah yeah and they may have even met at the same zoo you know probably you know how many zoos can there be in the world but uh uh and had like a little tit-a-tit um but yeah yeah uh so yeah this is like it was a it was a good scene there was clearly icy feelings between them uh there's this weird thing where she lies and says that nobody's trying to kill her she just lied about that right and jim's reaction to it uh I think, indicates something about their relationship where over the years he's realized that she was very not trustworthy.

Because if somebody did that to me, if they're like, they're trying to kill me, I need your help. And then I get there and they're like, oh, I just made that up to get you there. I would be already in my car driving back home. Well, you are no Jim Rockford. I'm no Jim Rock rockford i will say that i we've just stated i don't even have a firebird so i don't even know uh yeah right yeah i i think what we get out of this scene the these are all jim traits right right he uh if someone's in trouble that he thinks he can help he's's naturally gravitates towards wanting to help.

He doesn't even do the two step where he's like, no, I can't help you. And then gets drawn back in. Like he's kind of like, there's a bit of a fatalism, I think, to his body language and his acting where it's like, well, I can't not get involved. It's a little bit of I owe you that much. It's a little bit of if you're really in trouble, I want to help. Yeah. I'd never forgive myself if, uh,

it's a little bit of, I want to find out what's actually going on. Cause you're clearly not being straight with me. Um, there's kind of a distance here that he's trying to keep. Let me see if I can figure out what's going on before committing to helping you. Cause I don't even know what you really want from me.

Um, so of course his own dishonesty he promises he won't call the police then he immediately calls dennis well dennis is just a friend he's not right there's a great again good off the bat banter here where jim calls dennis answers becca hey becker this is jim rockford can't help you jim how do you know i want anything well it's not the cocktail hour jim won't you call to buy me a drink not exactly then you want something yes yes and this is a really great uh efficient screenwriting bit here yeah yeah where he asked dennis if they have

anything on claire prescott or charles manning and we see denn Dennis's face kind of set. And he says, I'll need to run it through the computer in his I'm trying to buy time voice. Right. We're probably early enough in the Rockford files that we as the audience don't think that Jim would be suspicious of Dennis just offering to run it by the computer. Right. Like because if this were fifth season and he's like, I go run this by the let me run this by the computer jim would be like wait why is dennis lying to me jim would hang up the phone yeah but there's a great beat where he just like puts his hand over the mouthpiece you know pretends like he's going off to do something we clearly we see he clearly knows at least one of those

names if not both yeah and then he comes back and says no wants no arrests on claire prescott and what's the other name yeah not him either what's this about and jim says he doesn't know yet so he hangs up dennis makes another call calls to captain highland a very high energy jackie cooper yes so it's not the Claire Prescott name that Dennis twigged onto. It is Charles Manning. Highland's like, who's this? He's a PI. Yeah, he's like a PI, but of his... I thought

it was kind of interesting that... He sneaks in, not sneaks in, but the way that he introduces Jim to Highland, this is one of those kind of first season things, is to give us the detail in case we haven't watched before that Jim has a rap sheet. Yeah. What's his name? Rockford.

Rockford. Yeah, we got a rap sheet on him. He did some time. Well, get out to where he's at, pick him up and get his butt in here. It doesn't like stick out like a sore thumb, but it is. No, it doesn't. It's well done. But it's like, oh, this is a first season episode because we need to know this context.

He also just tells the captain that Jim called him to look somebody up in the computer or something like like a very much like the kind of thing that deal or Chapman would have chewed Dennis out. Right. Right. Like, why? Why are you letting this P.I. do this? Right. Like this isn't... But that is beneath the captain's concerns right now.

Hyland says to pick Jim up. He says, well, I don't know if he's going to be home. You know, he might have been at a payphone. We'll find out where he is and then pick him up. He says he doesn't want any excuses. Lots of mystery. Not really anything to go on for us yet. Yeah, no, this is very much a just sit back and watch it on spool kind of episode.

Yeah. We now have Jim going to Jack's at the beach to follow up on this, you know, what he's been asked to do by Claire. Order of scotch and water, tall glass. It's a 90 cent order. This guy's got the captain's jacket going with the applet or whatever and the shoulders this is a very classy joint that's what i'm trying to say this is yeah so jim asks about charlie manning we have a a focus shift in the camera to see the two goons who are sitting at the bar kind of at the far end of the bar past jim so we see that they're

listening and then we you know come back to jim so we see that they're listening and then we you know come back to jim and the bartender he gives there's a it's a it's a nice smooth line where he's like that's 90 cents and he gives the bartender here's 20 you know anything about charlie manning yeah yes he was in there earlier he came in alone and then he he stops answering questions and jim gives him his card and says if he comes in again, have him call me. $20 doesn't buy much these days, does it? The bartender glances at the goons as Jim leaves, and then the goons leave to follow Jim. Just a note about Jack's at the Beach. Thanks to rockfordfilesfilminglocations.blogspot.com for being on the ball with this episode, both for this and the other location that we'll

get to. But this one, because as you say, this is a classy joint, has a little detail about this place from the time it was in Santa Monica on the pier. It's been, you know, it's been torn down. So there's an anonymous comment on the rockford files filming locations entry for jacks on the beach from 2018 that says i was the last person to work outside on the old i don't know if pop pier i'm not sure what that means uh i was the last person to work outside on the old pier as a parking attendant for jacks at the beach they were tearing it all down during 74 which would have been like right after this was yeah uh shot each day i come to work to find more missing yet still the stars came for dinner cagney new heart and rickles gregory peck etc that parking attendant sign left near the

door was locked up the night before by me 70s la fraying at the seams but still classy and full of character that's great what what a eulogy. That's wonderful. So again, it's an anonymous comment on the internet, but sounds good to me. Yeah. 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, digathousandholes.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 media is the best place to go right now is Mastodon at Epidaia 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, NDP design.com. That's the hub for all my stuff on the internet, including all my role playing games, zines and other podcasts.

So if you're interested in pro wrestling detectives or zines about pro wrestling, among other things, those are all at my website. It also has links to contact me in other ways currently i'm still um posting on instagram at nd payoletta that's where i'm posting pictures of my dog uh you can also find me at co-host co-host.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. This is the point in my personal journey when I look at IMDb again and then realize that this is not Robert Stack.

They follow Jim. We watch them pursue. We see Jim notice he's being followed and hit the gas. The chase is on. So we had the earlier chase i was during the day this chase is at night it's essentially the same um you know including the same goon car and everything but i found it to be a welcome shift to the night context because like it just looks different yeah lights really pop like all the neon lights and car lights and street lights. Everything's very dynamic.

So it's kind of a fun visual journey to watch essentially the same chase. However, this one does end with Jim rolling into a dead end. And the goons cut him off with their, what did I say, 74 LeBaron and jump out with guns. for LeBaron and jump out with guns. One of my favorite moments of acting before this gets going is when Jim is in there, they're following him and Jim realizes that they're following him. And he gives three glances to the rear view mirror. And I mean, obviously, part of acting is the audience putting something on what they're seeing on the screen. But it really does feel like Jim is figuring out that he's being followed.

He's like, hmm, hmm. You know, like it's the thinking it through kind of thing. And I really appreciate that. And of course, I appreciate the J-turn that comes out of this. Does he do a J-turn during the chase? Yeah. So he's heading down. He does a J-turn and he's a j turn during the chase yeah he's so he's heading down he does a j turn and he's going to come back the other way and that's what gives them the opportunity to get

in front of him i must have been looking at my typing when i was doing that because i think i blinked and missed it which is the danger of typing while we're watching a rockford files i i i that often happens to me too, but yeah, that, I think that's what sets it in the position where they're able to cut them off. Yeah. Cause he's ahead of them the rest of the way. Um,

so we have some good classic Jim dissembling at the beginning here to get out. He says, I beg your pardon. He claims that he's out on a collection and, uh, our other guy. So it's what on a collection and our other guy. So it's what Stone and what's the other guy?

Will it? Will it? Will it has a good line here. I don't know you 10 seconds already. I got a stomach full of you. And number one, he asked you who you were and why he was asking about Charlie Manning. You can't answer that or you want to get stuffed in a canvas bag and plant it right here. I think I'd rather answer.

this bag and plant it right here i think i'd rather answer so when he was talking to claire i think she says or implies and then he says that she's into a loan shark and that charlie's the one who can get her out of it i think that's like the story she's telling him like why she's in trouble i'm trying to remember where that i feel like that was before this because i remember when i'm taking these notes when he says he's a pi on a collection yeah and and the response is i don't know you 10 seconds i was kind of like oh like if these guys are loan sharks they would yeah they would know him or something like i just had that thought it's not part of the plot or anything but so i think i just skipped over saying he had implied that as yeah what's going on but yeah he says he's a pi he does collections when things are

are slow he's trying to say charlie manning is into a loan shark and they give him a stomach punch take his wallet see that he's a pi at least so i guess that part of the cover is good and they say we know that's a lie charlie's a vice cop he wouldn't be into a loan shark jim doesn't know that uh so they say let's try again and he's like you're not gonna like this i don't know why i'm looking for him so they say, let's try again. And he's like, you're not going to like this. I don't know why I'm looking for him. So they say, well, let's take him to Tony. So they're hustling him into the car and we have a good, so I say classic. I think as the series goes on, this is the template for the Jim gets the drop on an assailant

maneuver. Sure. There's two guys. Sure. They have have guns but they put themselves in a physical position trying to push him into the backseat of their car to where he can mule kick the guy behind him sends him staggering so he can grab the guy next to him slam his head into the car and take control of the situation it's it's great part of it is yeah jim jim's pretty handy in a fight but also part of it is jim

running a con on them right like he's like okay i'll cooperate right and their defenses drop a bit because they think they've got they've yeah they think they're in it out of them yeah yeah oh yeah there's this good bit where he i think he picks his own wallet off the ground i think so so he gets the gun right like he gets a gun and he picks his own wallet off the ground. I think so. So he gets the gun, right? Like he gets a gun and he picks his own wallet off the ground and tosses it to Willett. Willett catches it with his right hand. So then Jim's like, okay, now with your left hand. Right.

He's like, oh, you're right-handed. So with your left hand, take your gun out. Yeah. It's very good. It's a great tradecraft bit. It's very good. It's a great tradecraft bit. And then he orders them through the whole sequence of getting the keys out of the car, throwing them over the fence.

And they better make it over the fence. And they'll crawl under the car. And there's a great, so Willett, they crawl under the car. And Willett is like, oh, come on. And he like plucks his lapels like, my suit. He's like, you've got to be kidding. gotta be kidding oh yeah oh it's so good but he makes him get under the car and he tells him to close her eyes and count to 100 um i did have a a moment where i was like oh these guys are kind of pushovers and i think it's because again in later seasons that we've been watching, a lot of the time the context is that Jim is outmatched

or Jim tries to get the drop, but the other, you know, he can't quite get it or something. Like he's on more equal footing with a lot of the goons. It could be that this early stuff establishes the pattern that the later stuff breaks. That's what I think it is. Yeah. Yeah.

I do love it though. This, yeah, it's a very, it's not that they don't do this later on, but like early Rockford fist fights are tactical. Yeah. Cause he's a big guy. Yeah. If Jim Rockford,

or sorry, Jim Gardner wasn't playing the lead in the Rockford files, he certainly could have easily played any of the goons. He could have been the goon that was, that, that, that would not go down when you would expect him to. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah. Well, in this case, he does indeed take, take down the goons. And then we cut to Jim throwing their wallets on Dennis's desk. Why didn't Becker tell him about Manning? He knew Manning was a cop.

So Dennis just like schismals look, this is a good episode for Dennis looks. Dennis looks, there's good Jim looks too. So I think maybe just the name, maybe there's a first name and a last name. I don't know. I wrote down a couple of different names in my notes and I'm not sure if

they're all supposed to, I think they're supposed to be the same guy, but he calls Highland says a couple of, a couple of start tellers goons or something like that. Yeah. Leaned on Jim, tipped him about Manning and we cut to to captain highland yelling at jim and we have a whole go-round of um so good of high of highland threatening jim jim not being threatened it's a no-sell tell me what you're doing you tell me

what's going on yeah and i think jim offers i'll come clean if you do and that's when alan says lock him up dennis uh it's on what charge we don't need a charge for 24 hours uh he says that manning is supposed to check in every hour and he's two hours overdue and if he turns up dead jim will be an accessory after the fact and then j then Jim comes with just the ice cold... No, I'm not. I'm not even going to be a material witness unless the DA can establish me on preliminary, which he can't. There's no

foundation. And he can't get me in cross-examination for the same reason, so thanks for the invitation. I think I'll go fishing. It's been around, Captain. It's good. It is good. It is good. It is. It's the setup of Rocky mentioning the gym was, uh,

yeah. Cause early on Rocky mentions that Jim went away and then, you know, Dennis brings it up like his rap sheet and like, it's yeah, it's definitely, uh, it's good stuff.

Yeah. And again, it's good. Like if you haven't seen the show yet, not only is he an ex-con, he knows the law. Yeah. He can make it work for him. Captain Hyland says that it's not that Manning's just a cop. He's special to him.

He took notice of him as a rookie and he broke him in. I think he's trying to make the point that he's only being so aggressive because he cares so much yeah yeah this is a this is a personal thing for him yeah um he asks if claire prescott is his client and jim says he can't say so he threatens to lock him up again um and you know which he can do for 24 hours i guess uh and so jim does meet him halfway he says that he'll ask claire if she'll come meet with him. So Highland wants to talk to Claire. She might be the last person who saw Manning before he disappeared. The dots being connected here are like,

she's asked Jim to find Manning. Manning hasn't reported to Highland. She may have something to do with Manning's disappearance, right? Yeah. I mean, we're still in the dark. Right. It's becoming slightly clearer. So Jim will ask Claire to meet with Highland, but he can't promise that she'll do it.

Jim leaves. Highland yells at Becker to follow Jim. And Becker tries to beg off. He's a maniac in a car. I'll never stay with him. How will you know until you try? I have tried two or three times. We'll try again. So good. Yeah, I think it's the preview montage and it's just as good on the page as that. I was thinking about that when I was watching it, that we don't get Dennis versus Rockford in this way, right?

Rockford in this way, right? Like, often there's tension between them. And, you know, he's got a, like, Rockford wants a favor out of Dennis, and Dennis doesn't want to give it. And so that's the back and forth. And occasionally, you know, a higher up is like, you bring Rockford in or something like that. But it usually involves Dennis just talking to Rockford on a phone saying, you got to come in come in right this is like the first time that they're like you need to follow him tennis is like are you insane it's like i know my limits yeah yeah again we'd have to go to the tape to see if he's done this before or if we're just getting this from you know yeah their history but we do get to see on the screen here a shortcut of the firebird really speed around some corners and then cutting

across a median. And, and then we see Dennis trying to follow and just fish tailing on a big curve and popping his tire on a curb. So I think what happened, I, cause I rewound it. We'll watch what happened.

I may be wrong here, but I think this is another one of those classic rockford just knows the streets i think what happened is rockford took a turn and cut into a parking lot right uh short so he went up over the curb and he goes over a little grass median so there's like a kind of like a ramp up grass and then and then like a short curb because the the the parking lot is closed and they have the spikes for the tires up or the he's coming in where you would normally come out. Oh, I didn't notice that part. So Dennis turns and goes right over the spikes because you can't make that type of return and so i i i'm fairly certain that this is like again rockford just just knowing saw this spot once and thought at some point i'm gonna lose someone because you got to imagine that's what he's doing every time he's out driving sure is

it's just like like that drive through that car wash yeah exactly like this is oh i could use this i can use that it was good it was really good um we have some good uh again just good early season harmonica filled transition music stings as jim arrives at the hotel to see to find claire uh, there's no answer to his knock. Either the door's open or he picks it extremely easily. It looked like he had a key. He might have had a key. Who knows? Doesn't matter. There's a note on the bed and it says, Jim, I'm sorry. I'm scared. And it's signed Claire.

So he calls Highland from her room says that she's skipped and highland goes stay where you are you're under arrest so uh highland and becker are on the scene uh they are so highland is accusing jim of tipping claire off and like interfering with the investigation uh tells him to go home stay there if he gets a call from claire to call highland there's some more yelling and we get the exchange from the preview montage i'm gonna give you a tip buster now you go home and if she calls you you call me you understand because if you don't i'll find something for you anything i got city and county statutes you never heard of i'll end up sending you to the showers. Now you got it. You got style, Captain.

I know. There's lots of good digs back and forth. This is the one where he's like, because I wrote this down, he's like, that can't make sense even to you. Yeah. Like to the captain, just like, yeah. And then this description of the captain. So the captain walks away and it's Jim and Dennis. And Jim is like, he reminds me of a high school gym coach.

Yeah. Okay. You got them. You nailed them. After Jim leaves, Becker tells Highland that they don't know who this Claire Prescott is and what her connection to Manning is. They need Jim's help on this one. He's the only connection they have.

Yeah. So yeah. So Becker says, I actually don't remember from my notes if he's telling Highland or telling Jim, but the thrust is they need Jim's help on this one. And he does tell Jim a couple of patrol guys are going to be trailing him, you know, as opposed to him. Yeah. I think the implication is that these are guys who drive cars. They're not dentists, right? And Jim says, well, tell them I'm on my way home. I'll try not to lose them. Yeah, it's good stuff.

Tell them I'm on my way home. I'll try not to lose him. Yeah, it's good stuff. He sees the tail pull up behind him at his trailer, gives kind of a wry smile, goes inside. Rocky is there. Can I just say... The passive aggressiveness of Rocky in this moment. No, no, no. Before that, that's all good stuff.

But there's this moment where he pulls up and Rocky's truck is there. And then he goes up and pauses at the front door. And I have never been more afraid for Rocky because, you know, we've been trained. Jim gets jumped at his front door more often than not. And I'm like, oh, no, Rocky's there. But that's not it at all. Rocky's inside and he is angry. Did Claireire call i don't know i was taking a nap maybe the phone rang i don't remember jim asked again he's like okay fine she called about an hour ago and he does give him the number that she called from but he clearly is having none of it um jim calls claire is waiting by the payphone and he leads off telling her that he knows that charlie's an undercover cop why didn't you tell me and she didn't tell him for a lot of reasons some of

them sentimental well it's time to clue me in forget the sentiment the kind of preamble in this conversation is kind of similar to the first one where there's a lot of where it's like she's kind of apologizing slash being wistful and And Jim's like, yeah, we're over. Like, it's done. I've moved on. Tell me what's happening now. Yeah. And he has a good line.

Somehow with us, it always ends up with me sucking air into my pump, which I don't know what that means, but I get it. I'm guessing it's a car thing out of fuel or something. Yeah. But I mean, I get it, even if I don't know exactly what it means. Yeah. Um, she tells Jim where she is. Don't bring any cops.

You can come see me here. I'll tell you what's going on. So he says he thinks he can lose him. He'll be there as soon as he can. Uh, he hangs up. Rocky's been hearing his side of the conversation and discuss, I guess,

you know how dumb that was, Jim. Yeah, I know, but he needs Rocky's help. And I know how dumb that was. Jim, yeah, I know. But he needs Rocky's help. And I love how Rocky's like, okay, fine, I'll help. Yeah. To put Jim's blazer on and drive his car, take the cops on a tour of Santa Monica.

This is where we have Rocky have a couple of lines. He doesn't want Jim to go back to jail in those little rooms and like in the wire screen where we had to be on the phone to talk. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's great. And he needs to help him get his paperwork in order for Wednesday. Oh, that's stressful. Poor Rocky. Jim assures him, you know, he'll be fine. During the conversation with Claire, he describes Highland, Captain Highland, as a police captain right out of the 40s films. Yeah. And I just I had to go to IMDb to see if I could maybe he played a famous police captain in the 40s, but I can't find it. So he definitely was in films in the 40s, but he was 30 years younger then.

So, yeah, I don't think he would have been the right age. Um, well, the plan works. The cops follow the firebird, uh, before Jim leaves, the phone rings and it's Becker. Charles Manning was found shot to death in a hotel room. Yeah. Asks if he heard from Claire. He kind of grimaces and says no. And Dennis is very clear that Highland thinks Claire killed Charles Mann.

So we have Jim and Rocky's truck to the White Owl Lounge, which also has an entry at rockfordfiles.blogspot.com. It is now a liquor store. Well, the building that was the White Owl Lounge has now been split into two and has two different uh businesses in it but it has a good shot of the excellent neon sign over the doorway big thanks again to rockfordfileswimminglocations.blogspot.com so claire is indeed waiting for jim he starts off the conversation telling her that Manning is dead.

Do the cops think I killed him? And he says, I don't know what the cops think, but I know you're playing me off against the cops. Yeah. Uh, she apologizes again, um,

has aligned to the effect of like, you must not trust me very much. And right now, and she says, I don't trust you. I don't even know you. Yeah. Maybe I didn't know you three years ago. she says, I don't trust you. I don't even know you. Yeah. Maybe I didn't know you three years ago.

You know, I don't know what to believe. I just want you to tell me what's happening. Yeah. She says that three years ago, Manning was the one who made her break up with Jim. He was in the room when she did it. Oh,

right. It's all coming out now. At the time, she started a new hostess job at, I mean, I guess, presumably at a Jack's on the, on the Jack's. Yeah. On the beach, on started a new hostess job at, I guess, presumably at Jack's on the. Jack's.

Yeah. On the beach. On the beach. But she started this new hostess job. And then her boss had her moving shoeboxes around and she never asked what was in them. And so I think Jim says, like, was it like cash or drugs? Like, yeah. And it was it was narcotics.

He was passing narcotics for her boss manning was undercover at the restaurant i guess you know investigating this narcotic situation so manning saw what she was doing and pulled her in told her she could go to jail for five years unless she did what he wanted to you know uh bust this ring or whatever Jim sighs the world we're you sigh yes what's the matter you should have called me clearer I could have saved you a lot of grief

nothing nothing it's an old police trick he didn't have a good case against you maybe he didn't have probable cause before he arrested you or he violated your rights but you can bet one thing if he had a prosecutable case he would have ended up booking you and fingerprinting you manning didn't want her interacting with anyone outside of his like

influence and so he made her cut it off with jim it just now occurs to me that because dennis told jim she doesn't have a record right he knows that she well doesn't know he thinks that she hasn't been arrested for this i don't it's just it just now occurred to me that that tight little bit of storytelling happened there right even though dennis made that up but like well no dennis well dennis did make that up yeah because he didn't actually look but yeah i think the the sense we have from him and highland is that they literally do not know who this woman is yeah yeah exactly so like i think yeah that all that all makes sense um ask if the cops know she was a snitch she says she doesn't know she doesn't think so which is in accordance with what we know. She helped him arrest at least 30 people over those three years.

And if she testified at a trial, she wouldn't live through it. Yeah. Jim asked Claire what she wants and she says she doesn't know. She just wants Jim to believe in her. This is just a great tangle, right? Like this is a good mess that she's in. Poor Claire. Like I don't want to, you know, uh and also to think that like jim's

whole situation with her is based on this thing this moment when she's conned into believing that she has to work undercover otherwise she's going to jail right like uh and uh now she's in this situation where you've got the the gangsters or whatever, whoever Stone and Willett are, Willett are. Yeah, the gangsters are coming for the cops are coming for. And the only person here that she can trust is Jim. Like Jim's the only one who can untangle this. I don't know how Jim is going to untangle it, but it's just it's a good setup it's a good juicy uh setup here yeah and i guess yeah we do kind of get the sense that like hmm i mean i guess both you know for there's only so much of the episode left and also character wise she's like you know i'm not lying anymore right i'm trying to save face or save you because

that's the thing is like why did she lie to him in the first place? Like, why didn't you just tell him this straight out that she think he wouldn't want to help her? Or does she think that he would make it worse somehow by accident? Like there's some element of like, she doesn't really have faith in him enough to tell him what actually is going on. And so that also made things even worse. It's pretty emotionally complex which

is nice i guess the overall the characterization is still pretty i mean she's she kind of acts the same in each of these conversations i guess is what i get at like yeah she her character doesn't really change it's but at least we learn a little bit more about the situation the situation yeah yes if she has any money she says no and jim says he can get 500 together for her to leave town um and we get to kind of the nut of it how how come you believe me i don't know claire but i do like he's like okay you finally come in straight with me this is how i can solve the situation get you out of town like there is no solution trying to get reconcile what you've done with who wants you like you just got to get out of here and i feel like if jim is saying you got to get out of

here that means you you got to get out there's nothing that jim's better at than reconciling a difficult situation so rocky can get the money so he calls his trailer to talk to rocky but rocky is being held by our two goons oh no oh no you have my wallet i have your old man and so they want to trade rocky for claire uh we get the girl now or you don't see your old man breathing ever again so they set it up set up an exchange in a parking lot by the santa monica pier in half an hour and if we see one blue suit're going to put a bullet in this old jerk. That's unnecessary. I do like that.

Whatever happened, Rocky had time to change out of the blazer and into his windbreaker. Just enough time before they barged in. All right. So Jim has this conversation away from the table, comes back. Claire can see he's upset. What's going on? He, he tells her,

um, I have about 40 bucks. He gives it to her. Get on a bus, go south, get to Mexico. Yeah. She says she wishes she could do something.

She's so sorry. He says like, what, what could you do? Trade yourself for my father. Would you do that? And there's just the pregnant pause where she can't answer. And Jim just says, take the next bus. Like, would you ask her to do that? Like, just the pregnant pause or she can't answer and jim just says take the next bus and like would you ask her to do that like that's the right like yeah it goes both ways jim is not

asking her to do that jim get out of here yeah he's being practical about the situation yeah this is like the grounded realistic jim rockford who like knows the score he's not being romantic about this he's like she's never gonna say no trade me for him like no she's not capable of doing that and I'm not gonna ask her to so the only way to cut this this Gordian knot if you will is to get her just out of the picture so he needs to figure out a way to get you know to save Rocky now I will admit that this i was 100 prepared for this to be a standard something goes down and then but jim set it up beforehand with dennis and the cops come in at the nick of time yes yes kind of situation expecting that too but then when he stops outside the mannequin store the the prophesied time has come i'd completely forgotten about this from the preview montage

i was like oh right there's a mannequin so he smashes the window with a tire iron pulls out a fully i guess it's a dress store or whatever yeah well that a fully dressed mannequin with a wig um into the passenger seat and uh heads off to the rendezvous he's there early enough that he can set her up in the passenger seat, put the seatbelt on the mannequin. And then he pulls the bulb out of the dome light so that, you know, that won't turn on when he opens the door. It's just a nice touch. We see the headlights across the parking lot and our goons have arrived with Rocky. They get out of the car.

One has a, I think it's a rifle. It's a long gun. Yeah. And Jim heads over to them they're like where's the girl she's in the truck uh they can go to the truck to to get her i want to make sure rocky's okay yeah so the guy uh stone with the rifle goes to the truck the other one will it keeps his you know keeps his gun on jim as jim gets a little closer and asks rocky if he's okay and rocky's like i'm you know i'm doing okay sonny when stone leans into the truck and sees that

it's a mannequin and shouts hey that distracts will it enough for jim to give him the good old jaw punch take him down and grab his oh they don't grab his they don't have a chance to grab his gun but does take him down before he can grab his gun uh stone they don't have a chance to grab his gun. But it does take him down. Before he can grab his gun, Stone starts taking potshots with the rifle. So that's when they duck behind the goon's car. But before they can get in the goon's car, he shoots out the tire.

So now they go running under the pier. This is when the good spooky chase music starts. It's got this very quiet banjo track going in it. That's very haunting. I really enjoy it. I enjoy that the goon, this is one of our smarter goons. He runs and gets into rocky's truck and then chases them onto the beach in rocky's truck which i don't think i've seen in any other episodes no this is good i think this is the first i've seen it yeah yeah and uh i also like that it like you can see jim and rocky get tired on the sand yeah you're not gonna outrun the truck no matter what but like again there's kind of an element of strategy it's like the sand is bad for the truck the truck no matter what but like again there's kind of an element of strategy it's like the sand is bad for the truck the truck is not going to be able to go that fast

but it is a big ass truck so like can it go faster than you are you going to get tired before the truck bogs down yeah like that's actually a pretty good you know strategic kind of race also it's not like they have anywhere else to go so no they just take it off yeah yeah uh so they end up running under the pier and the truck can't really follow them like it either gets bogged down or it's too too tall something like that so now our goon is taking pot shots with the rifle as they're running between the wooden uh supports jim finds a spot to climb up and get under the decking sends rocky down further this is is the most dangerous part. Like, I'm like, I mean, there's nothing you really can do with Rocky in this situation.

So you might as well tell him to get as far away as possible. But he is in some way bait. Right. Yeah. But thankfully, the goon does what he's supposed to do and passes underneath where Jim is lurking. And Jim, I think I've said he gets the drop. In my notes, I probably use the phrase gets the drop like 12 times by now. And here's where he gets the literal drop.

Yeah. Spider monkeys out of the decking onto the goon and saves the day. So my expectations totally swerve. No cops. Yeah. I was in the same boat. I was like, okay. At any moment dennis and the cops are

going to show up and uh then these goons are going to have to surrender but nope uh we do end our episode with cops yes is the morning and highland arrives as the goons are getting arrested and let off into uh into cop cars uh justice will presumably be served as he says, they've arrested Cassell. So again, we can check off Cassell from our list of Italian mobster names, uh, for future episodes.

Um, I'll turn it all over to the DA, but they need the girl. She's a material witness in Manning's murder. And Jim says, no, she's not. She didn't see it.

Like, how do you know that? Well, I'm telling you. They have more banter here. And then Hyland runs down all the charges he's going to throw at Jim. I'm going to bust you, hotshot. Everything from breaking into a clothing store, stealing a dummy, aiding and abetting a fugitive, withholding it. Do that.

I'll just let the papers in this town know about Claire Prescott. Now Manning turned her out. Look in his log, see if he actually had anything on her or not. Or if Manning conned her into, you know, doing his dirty work. While Highland is saying, you know, I want to talk to her, Rockford. Where is she? Where is she? We see a bus pull up at the pier bus stop. Jim looks. Claire is on the bus. She looks out the pier bus stop. Jim looks.

Claire is on the bus. She looks out the window. They make eye contact. Jim smiles. And on Highland's final, where is she? Jim turns. I don't know. And we get a big Garner smile.

Yeah. End of episode. Yeah. That was a fun one. That one is definitely a, I don't know if it was a romp i don't know how higher standards are for romp but it definitely breezed on by like the pacing is very snappy it was romp-esque romp-esque yeah yeah yeah it was well paced uh it got some good car chases in good it had a lot of good action uh poured into it and i i did enjoy the the uh troubled relationship tied into the the plot i did like that the the the trouble in the relationship was actually a prelude to what

got her stuck in this situation in the first place rather than you know because there's a few times where jim you know has exes that are in trouble, but it's, it's not, they're just arriving out of nowhere to be like, Hey, I need your help. Yeah. Um, but this is good. Uh, good first season one. I could like, if I'm tuning in for the first time and I watched it, I'd be like, I'd watch this again. I'd like to see more of the adventures of... Jimbo Rockfish. Jimbo Rockfish, yeah. Yeah, definitely has that good snappy pacing, kind of keeps it moving.

I think my criticisms of the episode are mostly just in context of other episodes. Like, this episode is a good, meaty middle episode, but other ones do the things that are in this episode better. So I probably like them a little more, right? Which, you know, something's got to be in the middle. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's nothing wrong with that. But like, even for Linda Evans, I like her other performance more than I like this performance.

Yeah. I think some of Jim's other old flames are more interesting than Claire. Yeah. I do like how Rocky is so involved in this one and like, yeah, just is like, okay, I'll help.

Yeah. It's actually particularly interesting. Like, you know, we were talking about the advantage of us uh watching these out of order we get kind of a feel for how the early episodes are different from the later ones but one of the disadvantages is that i have no clear conception of rocky's evolution with respect to jim's job right i know rocky in the beginning disapproves of it. And then towards the end is

accepting and even kind of proud of Jim and the things he's done, you know, that kind of thing. That is my general impression. Yeah, here's a spot in the first season where he disapproves of things that Jim's doing, but not of Jim's job and is actually helping Jim out. I think there's a I mean you know i'm sure we could construct a bigger theory of rocky yeah and and one of the strains of this might be this actually isn't about jim's job right yeah like he's not on the job he hasn't been hired this is there's a trivia point on the imdb that's like this is the first episode where he doesn't say his rate of $200 a day so this is the first time

it hasn't even come up and Rocky's relationship to what Jim is doing is entirely filtered through you had this bad breakup with this woman I disapprove of and in that way being like but I'll

help you out kind of like makes a little more like it's more consistent yeah as opposed to some of the later season episodes where he makes a phone call in order to set up a con that jim is then playing on you know that kind of thing where he's more an active participant in the the the, the business in the business. Yeah. Yeah. Um, again, don't know if that stands up to scrutiny.

If we actually look point by point at each time, this conflict comes up between Jim and Rocky. Uh, but I'm willing to bet that there's a dimension of, well, if it's not about work, Rocky is willing to help more or is willing to help with less passive aggressiveness i mean you

know at the end of the day it's it's what the plot needs to like it's what each individual plot what each individual script needs is what rocky's gonna do it wasn't out of character no no no it was good um jim's out 60 bucks yeah uh plus some gas and like'm sure he bought dinner at one point I don't know, other than that drink there's no food no dinners no cooking

we do get the LJ mention which is nice I think that's part of why I always thought LJ was a bigger part of the show is that early times they mention him a lot but he's not, he's off screen. Yeah. He's,

he's not, he's only in a few episodes. Yeah. I don't have too much else to say this one. I, a lot of what makes it kind of breeze by is the, the, the car chases and stuff do take up a good amount of screen time.

Yeah. There's not a whole lot of plot stuff going on in between all the fights and car chases had good um they could meet other bones yeah yeah they're tactical right like somebody was thinking through okay what would happen here rather than like um not to be critical of this but like they're not you could you could do a fight sequence to make it look beautiful and you could be like you know this is this is a this is a ballet. Let's do that. But I think oftentimes the way they're written and,

and fought in the Rockford files is to convey what the, the various actors are, are attempting to do. Right. Like what their plan is and trying to convey that, like, how do I use this situation? Like Jim tricking them into letting their guard down just in time for him to

to like you said mule kick one and and uh slam the other and then uh that that shootout near the end that was great like the whole like jim didn't have a master plan he was just like i gotta just do this like rocky's in trouble i'm gonna be there and we'll we'll see what how it goes down i think it's an aspect that hasn't come up so much recently but i think like we've talked about a lot which is that his situational awareness is so yeah high and like one of his skills is taking advantage of opportunities so one of his gambits is to put himself in a position where there will be opportunities and so this is definitely that where he's like so like i got the

mannequin that is going to give me some kind of opening it's going to give me some kind of something where i can make something happen i just have to keep my eyes open and be ready to take take the moment when it comes and uh yeah it's good stuff it's good good jimbo rockfish action Yeah, it's good stuff. It's good, good Jimbo Rockfish action. Yes. I would say. All right.

Well, unless I am way off, and I will double check before we record again, I think we just have the two-parter from season six, Only Rock and Roll Will Never Die is our final adventure into the Wirediverse. The Wirediverse, the Wired Cinematic Universe. The Wired Cinematic Universe wired cinematic universe yeah we're gonna do that in in a single sitting most probably yeah that's how we've been doing it so uh strap in strap in those tend to be a little longer episodes we we we rarely give out homework but here you go there's your homework you got two episodes to watch before we talk again. Looking forward to that. I think I do feel like just, just based on the logistics, it feels like we're going from one end to the other end,

like season one to season six, one episode to two episodes. One of his first episodes, he's directed for the show. One of the last episode or the last episode for the show. Yeah. Jim is new and fresh. Jim is,

is old and broken. Yeah. We get, we're going to do it all. We're going to do it all. So, uh, you know,

we do, I mean, our expectations are always high, uh, because the show is good, but you know, we'll try not to never been higher, never been higher.

No, I'll try to keep it, you know, try to keep it low key, appreciate it for what it is. And, uh, but I'm looking forward to it.

Yeah. All right. Well, uh, so now that you have your homework, uh, Try to keep it low-key, appreciate it for what it is, but I'm looking forward to it. Yeah. All right. Well, so now that you have your homework, we will see you next time for the next William Wired-directed episode of The Rockford Files.