Two Hundred A Day - Episode 130: With the French Heel Back, Can the Nehru Jacket Be Far Behind?

Episode Date: January 28, 2024

Nathan and Eppy hit the runway in S5E12 With the French Heel Back, Can the Nehru Jacket Be Far Behind? After a discussion of the very interesting life of director Ivan Dixon, we join Jim as he investigates the death of a model friend who called him for help. This quickly brings him to fellow-(former)-model Alta (Erin Gray) and then avant-garde designer Masters (Rene Auberjonois). Jim seems to be the only one who sees a connection between the deaths both of his friend and a high-profile socialite who ran in similar circles, and things escalate as he continues to push for the truth. Though we found the villains motivation to be a little vaguer than usual, it's a tight episode that was fun to watch! 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 Suffel's comic Sherlock Holmes & the Wonderland Conundrum (http://whatchareadingpress.com) * Paul Townend 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/) * Jay Thompson, David Nixon, 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

Jim, Coop, I'm at the address you wrote down for the poker game tonight. This is a gas station, it's closed, there's no one around, and now my car is stalled. Now you gotta call me at 4663... 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 Epidaeus Ravishaw. As I was speaking, I saw Epi start to give like a nod like yeah that's right you said

it right as i was doing the title and then he took a a sip of his carbonated beverage uh just in time i was this close to taking like i brought it up to my lips to take a sip of that i was like no i'm gonna have to say something in a moment 120 odd episodes in and we're yeah we're doing great is what i'm saying we're professionals we're professional but yes indeed we are here to talk about the rockford files as per usual and uh as we are now on the smooth incline smooth decline decline the home stretch the home stretch something like that we uh as noted in previous episodes, have more of a schedule, so our picks are basically what we've already picked. And so this time we were talking about Season 5, Episode 12, with the French heel back. Can the Nehru jacket be far behind?

I know people have been waiting for this one. As people go through the titles of all the episodes they're like i need to i need to learn what that's about but i will not i will not watch that episode of the rocker files until i know that nathan and epi have watched it and are ready to talk about it but now is the time as is the best way to watch a show from the 70s yes i think we were also looking forward to it, at least on my part, because I remember it as being the one with Reneau-Vaujeanais in it. However, you're supposed to say is I've seen some conflicting accounts on the Internet of how you're supposed to pronounce his name. But that's the most fun way to me. So apologies if you're supposed to.

Odo, I think, is how you pronounce it. Isn't that how you pronounce it? It's supposed to be Odo. For similar reasons, but because of a different guest star. We'll get to that when we get to that. Yeah. But yeah, and it's a fashion. It is in the fashion world, hence the fun title.

We do see French heels and the Nehru jacket, so at least we have that to look forward to. Yeah. And the Nehru jacket. So at least we have that to look forward to. Yeah. This is our final episode directed by Ivan Dixon. As we have been finishing out the Dixon cycle, if you will. So we'll talk about him for a second. This one is written by Rudolf Borchert, who we have talked about semi-recently.

He wrote or he did the teleplay for Say Goodbye to Jennifer. And he wrote A Good and Clean Bust with sequel rights and A Different Drummer. A Different Drummer is the black market organ doctor guy. Oh, wow. Yeah. Which has the title that does does not make me remember it at all. Yeah. Anyway, he also wrote Deadlock in Parma, which is the final episode. So we will not be finishing out his cycle uh until we get there very closely and so we have that to look forward

to but we're here to to celebrate ivan dixon the last of his ninth episode ninth episodes the last of his nine episodes that he directed of the rockford files i've mentioned a couple times as he's come up uh as kind of a pretty figure. So I figured I'd recap and talk about him a little bit. Has anything we've already talked about him stuck with you as we've gone through these? No, I was actually trying to think about that. Hmm. The answer is no, no, no, the answer is no uh but partly because i just don't have a very a tremendously discerning directorial eye like i i notice things but like i often notice the obvious things and and whatnot but i i don't i haven't thought of these episodes as having a particular style yeah no i i think that's probably probably fair if you're looking for it, I think there's been some fun camera work in

them in various places. This one has some really good transitions and jokes in the cut and stuff like that. The very beginning of this one, I have a question about it, which we'll get to in a brief moment, but we will get to it when we get to it. But yeah, Ivan Dixon, he's an actor and director. to in in a brief moment but like we will get to it when we get to it but uh yeah ivan dixon um he's a actor and director he was born in harlem uh started acting on broadway and he was in the uh original a raisin in the sun production on broadway ivan dixon sounds like a person who's probably really interesting but you have to do a little bit of work to get to the like i don't know interviews or a biography or something like that um which i was not prepared to do for

this particular recording there's a there's a transition here just from his bio where it's like working on broadway does a show with sydney poitier he's a a stunt double for poitier in a movie called the defiant ones and then after that it starts getting cast in tv shows so you kind of like see like i don't know if that's actually the trajectory but yeah yeah like read that into there at least and he uh is probably best known and in his role on hogan's heroes uh which I've never seen, but is a very, is a well-known show. Yeah.

Where he is a kinch, the like kind of communications radio guy. But he was cast into some prominent Twilight Zone episodes as a black lead, which is fairly significant. So as an actor, he was in lots of things that were kind of like you know good

like strong lead or supporting leads as a black actor and his life seems to have been one where he was a civil rights activist he was pushing for a better representation for black actors he was in a movie called uh nothing but a man in 1964 which is like an independent film that apparently was his like his favorite role like his he considers the peak of his acting career and that's uh about the black experience uh in the south made by two white filmmakers who spent time in the south and did like worked with like sharecroppers and stuff oh i haven't seen the movie i don't really know exactly what the deal is but its significance seems to center around you know some white directors who went to the south actually saw how things were and then made this movie reflecting that experience with black actors i feel like i have seen this film but like

uh nowhere near recent enough for me to make any comment on it. Like I just checking out the IMDb page that it auto plays some stuff from it. And I'm like, oh, yeah, it seems familiar. Yeah. Yeah. It seems like he kind of transitions into directing from that time. So he's on Hogan's Heroes until 1970. He's apparently the only member of the of the core cast that left the show before it ended so he left the show a year before it ended others

have said it's because he felt like he wasn't getting um like being challenged enough essentially as an actor like it wasn't like a role that was really bringing a lot out of him it's hogan's heroes it's okay and yeah then he starts working as a director after that mostly in tv he did some blaxploitation movies uh including a movie in from 1973 called the spook who sat by the door uh which is based on a novel about the first black cia agent um who apparently led some kind of guerrilla operation in chicago this sounds like a movie I'd be interested in seeing. I have not heard of it. Like I'm just not familiar with it.

Apparently it was incendiary enough that it got pulled out of theaters. So it was like a bomb at the box office, but then had like a cult has like a cult. There's like a library of Congress, like registry of like culturally, I forget what it's called. It's's in that like it was put into wow yeah yeah yeah he's active in black arts development he is president of uh something called the negro actors for action which is a activist organization um in cinema uh he has you know tons of awards he was posthumously inducted into the black

filmmakers hall of fame etc etc there's something where kind of looking at his bio and at the write-ups about him and a couple things from obituaries seems like there's probably some pretty uncompromising stuff like yes like his attitudes seemed pretty uh uncompromising and and therefore interesting to me uh especially as he you know was a successful person in the field he kind of retires from directing in the early 90s and built a radio station in hawaii and then did that until he retired apparently like his actual like childhood dream was like running a radio station so he got to do that it's weird how my because my brain went to because you said built a radio station and it makes sense like that could be several different things like uh like buying

the building and put you know whatever and i just my brain went to making the antenna and building the you know like oh that's a that's a neat project to build a radio station from scratch that's probably not what it was i think he caused to be but my i i didn't really look into it i think but it sounds like it was like he built a new radio station in this area and it's in like hawaii or something yeah like i doubt he built it with his own bare hands but yeah as opposed to bought it or something yeah yeah yeah but yeah so just sounds like an interesting guy so there were two things i wanted to call out one is that again just looking at his credits either his first directing credits or the first tv ones a little unclear from

the timeline were directing nickels uh he directed four episodes of Nichols, which is the pre Rockford, right? Host Maverick Western show that, uh, uh, Huggins and Garner did. And Juanita Bartlett came in as a producer from being,

uh, Garner's agent. And, uh, Stuart Margolin was brought into it from having seen him earlier and wanting to work with them etc it's a foundational text that you know maybe we will look at at some point that i think it only ran for one season maybe ran for two seasons but like in all the kind of talking about the rockford files a lot of it is like a lot of the roots of all the people that work

together were in nickels yeah yeah i'd forgotten about this i was just looking at it again because of this connection because i was like i don't even remember what that show was supposed to be it was another western and one of the things that happened was because it wasn't doing well the way they tried to shake it up was they killed off nickels james garner's character, because he was too easygoing and brought in Nichols' brother, who is James Garner in a mustache to be the more high-action

sheriff. That is exquisite. We might need to watch this show at some point. Just to see James Garner in a mustache. yeah i've been i am in but yeah he you know he directs lots of stuff but he you know he did four episodes of nickels nine episodes of rockford files 13 episodes of magnum pi some scattered stuff around that around there but those are like the main one and he also directed some hogan's heroes so that's probably his first actual credits when you think

about it i'm not sure two episodes of richie brockleman just saying he wants to start seeing the connections yeah so again like with lots of the directors it's kind of like it's tv they're doing their job the way that they need to do it to yeah put everything together like uh it's it's often hard to see any particular or likeishes or anything in these from that side. But, you know, sometimes you have an interesting person behind the camera. So I wanted to call that out as one of the many interesting people involved with the Rockford Files. I felt like I had to go into the theme song at that moment when you said that. That all said,

we should get into our, well, okay, we do need to get into the preview montage, but do we want to talk about the answering message before or after? Well, there's not much to say except, uh, and you've obviously heard it or we'll hear it.

I don't remember where we, where we put it. We heard it. Sorry. If you ever listened to the show, you would know where it was. Yeah. Yeah.

I'm waiting until they're all done. You can listen in order. Yeah. Yeah. Coop. It's Coop. Coop's uncredited vocal, vocal appearance.

He's not gone at this point yet. No, he just shows up in this season and then. Yeah. No, he's in this season. And Bo Hopkins was in Nichols too. So,

you know, it's a whole whole a whole thing. So this is his second to last credit with the his final appearance being the return of the Black Shadow, which is later in this season. Right. OK, so he's in three episodes and then this is his fourth credit just for being on the answering machine. And this is our rap. just for being on the answering machine and this is our rap so it's our rap on coop a surprise rap surprise there it is a little on corporate coop in our show he's apparently getting stood up for this poker game if it feels like there's a story there because it's awfully

convoluted yeah considering that uh jim and rocky are just hanging out at jim's playing cards but we'll get to that after our preview montage all right preview montage okay so uh i i really only have two things to say about this preview montage and the first one is jimmy joe meeker jimmy joe meeker like you gotta love a jimmy joe meeker appearance a surprise jimmy joe meeker i forgot that he was gonna be in this one uh and then the second one Jimmy Joe Meeker. Jimmy Joe Meeker. Like, you gotta love a Jimmy Joe Meeker appearance. I surprised Jimmy Joe Meeker. I forgot that he was gonna be in this one. And then the second one is Aaron Gray. And, okay, so this is the same year

that Buck Rogers is on the air. I'm just gonna say that as a child, I had a massive crush on Aaron Gray. I am not alone. there are many people of my age uh where that is the case uh but that like floored me when i saw that she was on this because i was like oh it's a great her her only rockford files appearance yes i uh never would have noted noticed let's say this is a uh total generational divide situation the commander wilma deering uh yeah that's all i that's that's just all i have to say about that

she she was like for for a particular brand of nerd of a particular age of a particular persuasion she was i i think almost universal i remember a gen con probably when when we were doing um uh uh design matters um where she was the guest at the gen con yeah and there was just this moment where i didn't know that she was the guest one of the guests at gen con and she was literally out on the floor and i was looking over and i was like why is this woman so familiar to me and then she smiled at something and that was like i was like i just flipped like it was just this moment of like oh my god that's aaron gray that's aaron gray she's still working yeah she's she's out there yeah uh she was great in the first season of Buck Rogers, and then she was in the second season, but they just did her dirty.

The second season of Buck Rogers was like a 180. There's a whole thing about it. If you're not familiar with it, you can just Google second season of Buck Rogers. I'm trying not to swear. What's happening here? Her mini bio here on IMdb first of all she apparently was a model before she started acting so or she did both for a while this episode is going to concern models and she plays a personal model well a former model who walked out of being a model so

i guess that's you know fun um yes but this mini bio ends with a great, many women admired her commanding role as Colonel Wilma Deering, while many men admired her beautiful looks and shapely figure. IMDb mini biography by a dot anonymous. Someone who shares your appreciation, I feel, uh, may have written that that ending line see we all get to learn something in these little these little conversations well yeah i guess the only other uh thing from the preview montage that i appreciated was the was a great line you should

design exclusively for the dead yes that is a good line. And I think I later on, every line that was in the preview montage that I didn't write down, I wrote down when they occurred in the episode because I was like, oh yeah, that was a good line. I should have gotten over my shock. You were just so overwhelmed. I was so overwhelmed. 200 a Day

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Joe Greathead, Michael Zalisco, Eric Antenor, Brian Pereira, Jordan Bockelman, not Brockleman, Bill Anderson, and of course, Richard Haddam. If you're interested in keeping us going for as little as $1 an episode, check out patreon.com slash 200 a day to see if becoming a patron is right for you. All right. Well, we start our episode watching not Erin Gray, but another woman running through the night. She's clearly panicked. We have a good kind of in i guess in media res uh beginning here we're we're yeah watching her as she's trying to avoid something significantly she's wearing so

i didn't really realize what it was during the scene but later later jim says that she's wearing a hospital gown and in retrospect oh i guess that, Oh, I guess that was a hospital. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I think this is slightly significant. She also, but she also has her purse, like her night. I don't know. I was going to say like a real person's purse.

There's a dissonance between she's in a hospital gown, but she has like, yes, her accessories are all like normal every day or for a model as we'll learn everyday stuff. The content of this shot, like her running through empty streets uh at night lit by the street lights uh with the action music yeah with the

action music i like my first note was yeah we're opening on halloween and then i was like when did halloween come out and it was the year before this came out. So I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't a little Halloween going on here. Oh, she gets to a phone booth and makes a panicked phone call. And that's when we go to Jim and Rocky at Jim's with some banter about their cards. I like how much, uh,

I guess Rockford lore is packed into these two sentences. And then we don't really, the rest of the episode isn't really about the, uh, the Rockford averse in that way. I thought you were going to buy a new deck of cards. Well, I did buy a new deck of cards.

Angel's been playing with these, you know, he's always sitting there bending the cards and flipping them in the wastebasket. I had to borrow some from LGA. And that's when the phone rings. Um, um, but this, uh but this uh is this is in fact this woman her name is carol uh she's calling jim she's in trouble she thinks someone's trying to kill her jim clearly knows who this is he's you know asking

her what's happening where are you she sees a car outside the phone booth, drops the phone and runs. So Jim gives Rocky his phone, says, don't hang up. He's going to the restaurant to trace the call. We have this like seamless transition from Jim going out the door and Rocky on the phone saying, is anybody there? Yeah. To the payphone phone hanging down. And I was hearing Rocky say, is anybody there? Don't hang up. And then this cop answers it.

And Rocky goes, I've been on this phone for 35 minutes. Very economical. Yes, I liked it. That's when Jim arrives. He called the cops. You know, he's concerned about his friend, et cetera. He finally, you know, answers it, says, tells Rocky that he's there. He can hang he finally you know answers it says tells rocky that he's there he can hang up now rocky has an amazing line here he's angry at jim and he's like

i don't mind sitting here listening to my joints get stiff well these two officers who responded looked around they didn't see anything they tell jim that uh you got you got prank called friend there's no evidence of anything uh in the area we hear over the radio a call come in uh 187 and so they say they have a priority call that they have to respond to jim of course is not pleased um but there's nothing he can really do uh he's going to go to the hotel he knows that she stays out when she's in town we go to jim picking a walk going into an ominously dark room the sliding door is open and there's a curtain billowing in the wind jim goes checks it out looks down and we see the body on the ground underneath the balcony he is too late this is an episode where everything matters like everything that we see and hear ends up being important right right later um except for

the playing cards and yeah yeah angel and lj uh so i and i don't know maybe i just remembered that or maybe it's just how it's framed but like like when that one eight seven call came over, like it's very audible and clear. So like, oh, that's going to matter that like, you know, we heard them respond to that, like that kind of thing. Even the fact that she has a purse with it while in a hospital is is important. That's a clue as to what I don't know about clue but it makes sense in the in the context of the greater story right yeah there's a bit of a mystery about it but then when it's resolved you're like oh yeah okay that that explains that yeah so we go to we have cops on the scene i note it as a vaguely familiar seeming blonde guy talking to j saying, uh, I don't understand Jim, how a package like that goes out a window.

This is Frank Duesenberg. Deuce. Or a deuce or deucey. Deucey. Deucey. Yeah. Who I, if we were watching these in order,

we probably would remember because he appeared in a slightly earlier episode. Kill the messenger. Kill the messenger. Seven episodes earlier yeah so he's a new he's like a new cop basically like yeah new on the fort or is new out of i don't know cop school we did that one quite a while ago i think yeah no wonder we don't remember because uh kill the messenger was our episode 44 from January of 2019. So that doesn't seem like a real year.

So, yeah. So almost exactly, uh, five years ago, five years ago, five years ago, as,

as of when this one comes out. Um, that's the one where, uh, Dennis Becker has his lieutenant's exam coming up and the deputy chief police commissioner murders his wife and becker has to deal with it so like that's also when he like becomes a lieutenant and so that also is we have a line in here later where becker's like i should have not never let them turn me into lieutenant or whatever yeah yeah so there's a little continuity uh there

but anyway so we met this this this character earlier in the season if we had been watching, you know, watching our favorite show every Friday night. Anyway, Jim doesn't have a great opinion of him, especially because he keeps saying that this is clearly a suicide. I mean, what other explanation could there be for a body to be on the ground outside of a window? Yes. And Jim's like, well, what about how her phone call to me said there's someone trying to kill her? He's like, well, that could be explained lots of ways. What about her being in a hospital gown?

Like, well, I just got here. I haven't started checking out the hospitals yet. Frank tells Jim that he's a civilian and has no status. And Jim responds with, I'm also the complainant who called your department three hours ago and got treated like a Duncan Yo-Yo by two cops who dashed off to a murder scene. That must have been the Consuelo Hooper murder. That's a good, clean murder, Rockford.

Yeah. But yeah, he has lots of experience. And in his experience, this is a suicide. And Jim, what, six weeks at last count? That's a long time when you work 10-hour days. Ask my wife. That's his character trait, I think, when he was from the earlier episode was that, like, he's also newly married. So he's, like, trying to find that work-life balance.

There's a couple jokes about him later that are, you know, relating to his splitting his attention between work and things around the house so this is a wrap on this actor wk stratton um he was also in the hawaiian headache as dwight whipple who i think was the guy who got murdered in the hawaiian headache yeah i can't remember i don't quite remember the plot but i remember the name heck of. Anywho, yeah, so we're right off the races. I think we obviously are on Jim's side here. There's no... He is clearly right. Yeah, yeah. There's no

evidence to complicate Jim's interpretation. So there's a joke in the cut here. That's a long time when you work 10-hour days. That's a long time. And then we cut to Becker, a long time. I've been on this phone for 20 minutes. Excited to see Becker.

Excited to see Becker. Excited to see Billings. Mm-hmm, Billings. Jim comes in, everything's a bustle downtown. And he asks Billings, what's going on? We've hit a string of, like, episodes where Billing gets a line. And here's another one. Billings, what's going on? We've hit a string of like episodes where Billing gets a line. And here's another one. Billings, what's going on?

Are you kidding? That Argentine playgirl? The one that married that rock star? Got popped tonight. The press room is jammed with reporters. As we will put together slash, you know, what is being given to us. That particular 187 call was for this murder, Consuelo Hooper, who is a Argentine playgirl married to a rock star named Stevie Hooper. So Becker is very concerned with trying to talk to Stevie. That's his arc in this episode. Is he

going to talk to Stevie? There's a good joke jim comes into becker's office and starts talking to him about his concern while becker's on the phone trying to talk to someone in london about his concern so he doesn't hear what jim is saying and they have a humorous miscommunication about what they're talking about before they get on the same page but he tells jim that doocy is on the case uh let him handle it because becker's on the hooper case and it's a real popcorn machine um but jim needs his help carol meant a lot to him once and he knows she was murdered becker reiterates give his ideas to dusenberg he's a real good kid and then he gets a phone call jim sighs walks out to see who i noted as a woman but yeah clearly just a woman just some random woman commander wilma deering put some respect on that yelling at ducie carol would never kill herself in a million years

jim thinks that she's someone he should talk to for more reasons than one well but in the beginning, it's one reason. We go to the Owl and Turtle Lounge. Ah, it's a great name. Where we see Jim talking to who we start off referring to as Miss Hatch. We do eventually get her name Alta, which is a moniker. Her real name is Margaret. which is a moniker. Uh, her real name is Margaret.

There's a thing here where I think she uses Alta to sound taller than she is. I think is what they were implying. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Um, so we, the picture we get here, so Carol was a model Alta,

as I think we will call her for, for, for our purposes, uh, was also a model and that's why they were friends. Carol was special to her jim she was special to him too there's banter about uh her her personality she's a counter puncher jim's just trying to connect so that he can find out more right and she's being pretty uh passive aggressive

with him and so he calls that out but that ends up being a point on which they can relate. Jim says that he has a bit of that in his personality, too. But Alta's conviction, not just that she knew Carol personally, but that like she was a high fashion model. This is in the preview montage. You know, she would never cut her wrists or basically do something gruesome. Right. The way that models do it is pills and a full face of makeup. I don't know. I've never been a model in that

situation so uh i mean i've never been a model in that specific situation right right i just want to be clear i may have been a model we're not saying one way or the other but uh it does feel a little bit sometimes we get this on the rockford files which is like a little bit of let's assume that's true. Yeah, it's a bit of I don't know. It's a bit of profiling, right? Like, yeah, this kind of person would never do that. And like, yeah, that is true in this episode. She did not commit suicide.

Yes. It's kind of irrelevant whether it's because she was, you know, a model. Right. I think it mainly stands out to me largely because, as audience, as you noted before, none of us are thinking she committed suicide. We don't have to be convinced, so it's fine.

I think in context of the rest of the episode, it's more like establishing that the world of fashion is one of appearances, right? Right, yeah. That's the theme that we're that we're starting off with here we're going to quote learn unquote a lot about the world of fashion in this episode yeah but yeah jim says he's going to check the hospitals because she's wearing the hospital gown

she asks if he has a client or if he's working for himself here and this is when he says he's a counter puncher too he yeah you know he's gonna react he's reacting to to something that's happened this is when she says to call her alta did you make that up yourself yeah we get the implication that it makes her sound taller but that she was a model but she kind of she she ended up i term it washed out of modeling that's not how she puts it, but she's an inch too short and doesn't have the editorial quality that Carol had. She wants to get out of there. She's exhausted, was on a plane. She needs to be at Masters in the morning.

Masters, the fashion designer? Well, she's not a model anymore. Now she's a lighting engineer, which I appreciate. Yeah, that's a good career switch. She's gone into the trade outside the lounge we get some conversation to inform us about this person masters he's a high end designer who owns a string of boutiques rents a 20s silent era uh silent film era mansion originally from the east coast is working in la but there's all this banter about the

fashion world looks down on california i don't know if that's supposed to be a joke or if that's just right a difference in time like i don't know if that's just like a reputation that just has changed over time so it just seems kind of weird to me yeah it seems it seemed weird to me too so maybe that's the case i mean i if you ask me what the fashion capital of the u.s was i i would be green bay wisconsin right right but then like second place new york city probably right like right but but if you're going to say two you'd say new york and la right i would say if i were to say three, I would say Green Bay, Wisconsin, New York City, and LA. Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Now that I'm looking at this, you know,

going through it again, I wonder if this is supposed to be kind of a like, if this whole thing is a gag, like this whole idea of like, the fashion world doesn't know what to make of Southern California and no one wants to be here. Like, is that a gag? Because that's not actually how it is?

Or is that how it actually was at the time and things have just changed? I just don't know. Yeah, it's hard to tell. She does have a thing about how, like, it's possible that Southern California is the future. Right, right. And that's why Masters is here, because he's not a traditionalist. He's kind of anti-old couture. Yeah.

You know, he's avant a traditionalist he's kind of anti old couture yeah you know he's a vanguard italian designers divide italy at naples everything south of that is africa couturiers divide california at hearst castle south of that is oz so the big problem here is trying to figure out what the munchkins will go for it's like it is a long walk to a hell of a punchline yeah so why does master stay it's because his modern approach sells well seems to sell here uh and he's not in competition with the old houses yeah that's what she wants to look to her hotel she doesn't know if she she's staying at the same hotel that's like a fashion hangout where um carol had been living but she thinks it would be you know too sad to be there tonight jim offers her his couch and we have uh some non-flirting flirting or some flirting

non-flirting uh an anti-flirt i don't know what you would call it no invitation to the master suite and jim says i'm not looking for action just to be a friend and this is where she gives him her first her actual name which is margaret and says that she's was it her family's from oregon and they're dairy farmers or something like that yeah yeah just so you know just i've got that same background you've got there jim his line where he's like i'm not looking for action i just want to be a friend like that's very straightforward no seriously like you're welcome to sleep on my couch yeah no no expectations no one you know like it's fine just if it'll help you out you're welcome to it and uh i haven't mentioned yet but i live in a trailer okay true that hadn't come up yet you're a former fashion model you're used to a little like, you know, silent silent movie era mansions.

We'll be on the beach, though. We'll be on the beach. It's a bit of a joke. Starting off our next scene with some voiceover driving the Firebird on the way to two masters. Just point them out and I'll take it from here. And so we go to the camera discovering our, our friend here masters. We only get the,

he's, he's a one name, a one name guy. Right. He's Madonna. So our friend Renee, uh, in a full khaki number,

um, with the French heel shoes, um, amazing glasses. Uh, it's just the cast. Like I just i mean i'm a big i'm a big uh big fan uh of the of odo um as we know him but like i don't know anytime he pops up in something that i'm watching i'm like oh great like he was in like a fraser and i was like oh yeah yeah he's

so much fun uh he can chew a scene. And yeah, they give it. I think about this often because they're just there's certain actors out there that just can. I think a way to say this is that you can imagine him playing opposite of a Muppet. Yeah, right. Like he could do that. Like, it's not a skill every actor has, but he certainly probably does. He has that quality. It's actually kind of interesting in contrast to james garner right because like garner has this quality where

the role any role that he's in he's completely committed to bringing how to say this okay so james garner and renee aborjernay i think are equally committed to their craft right but the way that garner acts is so him is distilling his personality into like some real focused you know direction um while renee over here is like so completely committed to the bit yes that he becomes the bit yeah yeah and i just appreciate that i don't know they're it's it's a good it's a good pair uh i mean spoilers he's rockford's foil in this and it's a good like he's a he's not up to the task of being rockford's foil like as a character yeah his character isn't but the the actor certainly is like i like the chemistry between them and by chemistry i mean some simmering anger something uh it's it's so good this is this is one of those episodes where i'm like i mean this is the just watch the episode episode

for sure uh there's so many things where i'm like i should just cut this in i should just cut this in and then all of a sudden i'm just trans i'm just putting all of the audio from the episode into our show and that's right yeah yeah now what we're here to do in this scene we're about to talk about not to to get into it before we get into it there's a thing that happens in mysteries a lot where somebody they don't necessarily have to be the guilty party but they um are putting on something that's akin to a lie like they're yeah they're they're behaving in a way they have something to hide they have something to hide right and then they get caught and they have to to switch so that you know they have to like step back and it's not that they go honest they go to a different lie and like he does this in this scene very capably so that it's very

plausible that he is not covering up for a lie but we as the audience it's as if he's looking directly at us and saying i am just so you know i am but for everyone else here this is a very plausible thing that i'm doing unless they're rockford seeing through it and a lot of that is just all um well all of that's just acting it's just how they're both of them are acting and it's just acting it's just acting how hard can it be so you know he sees he sees alta come in jim kind of hangs back she says something about carol and it's like we're all working through the anguish it's the only way it's giving directions to people setting up. He's setting up a,

a new collection fashion show. Yeah. So he's getting all the staging set up and stuff. And he tells all his lighting plan where he wants stuff. There's this great moment where he's midstream. He sees Jim pauses. Yes. And then turns back,

finishes what he's saying. And then he goes over to jim and leads off with who let you in some great banter to uh kick off their relationship private detective now there's a really creepy occupation well we can't all be fortunate enough to sell old french paratrooper pass to fashion conscious middle america don't knock what sells buddy jim says that he thinks carol was murdered that sends masters off saying we can't think about that right now and he starts referring to himself in the third person we have this logistical headache and he walks away and then he starts talking to himself in the third person my my my aren't we obsessed with our little problems

we despise what we just said and turns back to jim and says he can have all the time he needs ah so good and jim we just want to ask some questions and then he immediately spins around again i'm sorry about that little affectation we picked it up in milano last season uh referring to milan as milano also an affectation yeah so great introduction 10 out of 10 would continue watching episode oh it's good it's yeah he's a great character i was just as excited to see him as i was aaron gray we go to master's office he's back to the first person he's had a bad week. So Jim and Masters are, you know, getting into it finally. Carol and Consuelo both died and he's taken on,

he's volunteered to take on designing Consuelo's burial gown, which Jim is like, Masters asked Jim if he's working for someone.ol was a friend and masters doesn't think she she's the sort to commit suicide there's nothing suicidal about her but she did run with a rough crowd and the latest was a leather model from barucci's he has his own theory about what happened but with barucci so eager to sue he doesn't want to discuss it so then then that's when he asked jim about confidentiality he specifically says like my clients are confidential of course unless it goes to court in which case i could be yeah put on the stand and then i would have to i think he says and then i would have to talk about it or i would

have to answer questions or something and uh master says if it goes to court we're all answering questions this is foreshadowing yes he does ask jim to work for him to explore his theory i'll pay your price yes oh it's 250 a day plus expenses jolly good masters shows jim he has this like bespoke fabric for his like new original design explains that boutiques uh buy the design or buy the pattern and reproduce them stitch for stitch under a licensing agreement so it's all you know uh he keeps the ip right like it's right yeah that's his that's like his product right is like the pattern that's the thing that he needs to keep like secret so that other people don't steal it but two patterns are missing from a dressing room that carol had access to so he thinks that her

her boyfriend may have coerced her into stealing them to give to berucci or something like that his models are grown-up street urchins from naples while he's talking to jim he's sketching the uh burial gown like so he's like sketching on a like a woman lying in a coffin yeah jim also has some good facial expressions as he sees this happening but jim will start with the leather models cut to a twee little italian man yes wearing all leather including a hat showing off his jacket. Bella. Jim is in full Jimmy Joe Meeker. Yeah. Oh, with the tall hat and the turquoise bolo tie.

This scene, um, watch the episode. It's a good scene. This, this scene is full of pure rock Britishness. Yes. And rock Britishness.

Jimmy Joe Meeker has a lot of great lines. We are dealing with three individual Italians. One is Pietro, who is the, uh, the, the model who does not speak English. One is Luigi,

who is the, actually, we don't know if this is actually even true, I guess, by the end of the episode but theoretically the boyfriend who right may have led um carol astray who does speak english uh and then there's a unnamed woman who is kind of in charge of the so jim's at barucci's which is like the leather goods italian fancy place store anyway yeah so sophia i guess is the character's name anyway she's she's the one actually like running the store and so she's the one that jimmy joe meeker ends up talking to he lays on really thick uh we get some jimmy joe meeker backstory. We do a little bit. Yeah.

We learned that Sue Ellen is his saddle mate. Uh-huh. And he's looking to outfit her in a get up that's going to impress even his poker buddy who, quote, spends money like it's West Virginia ditch water. And so he's always outfitting his wife in all the latest and greatest and it's making Jimmy Joe look bad. So he needs to get just the best outfit for, for his saddle mate. He wants some real prime goods to spend a lot of money on.

And he's been told to up and up and down rodeo drive, which I believe this is my lack of LA knowledge. Uh, show day. Oh, right. Yeah right yeah so so that's a meager ism right rodeo drive um he's been told that they have a back room for the special buyer who doesn't care what the price tag says and i was told to talk to luigi about it he can help me out so this kind of is overwhelming uh this woman so Sophia, she has a pretty heavy accent. I think the idea is that we're supposed to get the idea that she's a little like not quite sure what to make of him.

Maybe doesn't quite understand what he's getting at. She does bring him into the back room to talk to Luigi and she's distracted to talk to someone else. So he has a moment to talk to Luigi alone. There's a bit from the preview montage of, oh, you mean black market goods? It's like it's not the first time i bought something off the back of a truck so luigi says well you berucci himself will have to sell it to you and then he leaves and then we cut to jim turning down a couple of dresses for mrs meeker then there's a phone call. Jim kind of, we see him overhear her mention Consuelo Hooper while he's fading to the back to unlock the back door while nobody notices. And then he comes back, which is very slick. Jim asks her about it.

Mr. Berucci is in town. He has a funeral gown for Consuelo, but they just found out that her will specifies that her funeral gown be done by this French couturier. So everyone's up in an uproar. We go back to the showroom where Jimmy Joe says that, well, I want to talk to Mr. Berucci. I want to see the special goods that only he can sell. We finish his presence there with a line.

So you tell Mr. Berucci that Jimmy Joe Meeker from Houston is willing to come to his party. You see, one of the only joys on this earth that money can buy is knowing that you got the best. So you sit tall, honey, and don't you rope no one-eyed Angus. Really good,

Jimmy Joe Meeker. Yeah, not Meeker Joe Meeker. Meeker Joe Meeme. Yeah, Meeker Joe Meeme. And we're not done uh really good me jimmy joe meeker yeah not me jimmy joe me me joe me me yeah me joe me me and we're not done with jimmy joe yet he still has like one last gasp in this episode this is not our last jimmy joe appearance we have one episode uh one of our one of our lost episodes that we'll have to revisit that has jimmy joe in it will be his final appearance. So we're not closing the book on him yet. So we still have Jimmy Joe to look forward to. Well, Jimmy Joe, he'll be the first fictional person we're rapping on. And he's fictional within the universe.

Right? So he's doubly fictional. Yes. Like he's two layers. This is getting meta. It's all borés all the way down. Yes. It's time for, this is getting meta. It's all borés all the way down. Yes. It's time for us to take our traditional intermission,

as we all need a little break to head out to the lobby, take a little stretch, get a snack, a drink, reflect on what's come before, and anticipate what's to come in this episode of The Rockford Files. We also like to take this time to remind you of where else you can find us on the internet. Epi, where can our listeners find you? Well, you can find me at my website, dig1000holes.com. That's 1000 the number. Or you can find me as Epidiah on the Mastodon instance, dice.camp or on co-host.

Where can our listeners find you nathan all of my games zines podcast projects and other work are at ndp design.com you can also find me at ndp on co-host and over on instagram at ndp design.games and of course you can always find this show a Day, at 200aday.fireside.fm. And now we return to the continuing adventures of Jimmy Rocco. Well, we see, I was a little unclear whether this is supposed to be later that day or if he literally walks out and then just turns and goes around the building and goes right back in. I mean, I took it as that second option but maybe it was supposed to be later that day but whatever it could have gotten locked at some point i think he was just rushing back in because he's only got a certain window of opportunity here right so he comes back

into that storeroom that he had unlocked earlier then we see a light flashing on like a security console somewhere so he clearly has gotten picked up by a security system uh he pokes around in the storage room we notice the storage room because the light the blinking light says storage room and then he is surprised by our goon squad of uh sophia and the pair of pietro and luigi suddenly appear behind him She says, you think you can steal from us? Advanced security system, motion detectors and cameras. Like, you think we're stupid? And she basically tells them to throw him out.

She leaves. We have a joke from the preview montage where Jim says, let's talk about this. And Pietro reiterates, no ingles. Then there's some meaty punches. Jim does not have the drop on these guys. They overwhelm him fairly quickly, literally throw him out the back door

and toss his hat after him. I'm surprised they gave him the hat, but that was great. And then they go back in and we leave. We end the scene on jim's chow i was expecting a more severe consequence right so i was thinking the same thing we know murder is on the line right right there's one good clean murder right and then there's uh carol's murder and they probably are related i think that's what we're thinking right now yeah this this also comes up in the um in the text in a in a minute but like

everything that jim is doing he ends up stumbling over consuelo's murder yeah so like i think as audience we're like clearly they're related yeah um yeah so we're just trying to find out we're just waiting to find out why and we've had all this build-up about baruchi and trade secrets and all this stuff my vague recollection of the plot did hinge more on like some kind of trade secret situation but i think that might be getting conflated with a different episode that is not this episode yeah i am at this point confused as to uh who who did the murdering why yeah what's the motive if it's over this trade secret thing you would think that that his life would be in as much trouble yeah they kind of like give him a couple gut punches but they don't even really like

work him over. Right. They just literally toss him out. And it's like, oh, OK, I guess they're not up to anything. There's something about the quality of the assault. Yeah. It's more like you snuck back in. You shouldn't have. Let's get rid of you.

Yeah. We are back in Jim's trailer. Alta is telling him that she could have told him that Bruges had tight security. Yeah. Masters could have, too, but he didn't. Maybe he thought you'd know. She's giving him a little neck rub to alleviate his soreness from getting beaten up. We should call out what she's wearing, the peach pop collar.

And it's good. It's good. She has consistently fashionable clothes. Yeah. I think a lot about masters is is a bit right a lot about like his clothes and stuff are kind of exaggerated kind of jokey kind of thing and even with the leather like outfit yeah with the italian guys like that stuff is a little jokey and i feel like i didn't even really remark on her clothes in particular because they look right like yeah

yeah like i i kind of feel like as someone who actually was a model she probably was like oh no i would wear this yeah this actually looks good on me masters and uh what's what's the other guy's name the leather guy uh pietro i mean luigi also is wearing like a little tiny vest but um their vision of fashion as we'll learn is is like the warriors the movie the warriors fashion is made up of highly themed gangs big statements yeah well she's just wearing like good looking clothes that are probably expensive. Yeah. But yeah, she explains that Masters has even tighter security for his stuff. He depends on surprise and impact. So his models don't even have fittings until the day of the show.

That's how secret it is. Jim asks what the attraction of such a high strung industry is. It's a power trip. You're dealing with customers who have everything and now they want the best of everything. For a woman, that means how she looks and what she's wearing. She starts gathering her stuff and Jim's like, hey, where are you going? She can stay on the couch if she doesn't care

about the man, but she likes Jim. She sees why Carol called him. She would call him, him too if she were in trouble she's staying at the sand and surf down the beach and gives him her room number there we go just in case this is a slow a slow burn of romantic development here we go to uh the police station where billings is bringing in uh the last of the Consuelo Hooper inventory for Becker to review. Jim is there.

Becker's like, take a look at this. And like hands him like the list, 274 pairs of shoes. Jim asks about what's all this drug paraphernalia. Apparently it's all over the house. Um, Jim pokes around in the box. Uh, so we see him notice and pick up this pair of like bent scissors that are yes some kind of surgical instrument yeah so i'm like oh that's important because jim picked it up and looked at it it's important because it's because of that

because it it looks out of place and we haven't had a clue yet as to why she's wearing a medical gown oh no like at this point i didn't piece those two together so i just found it important because i was like all right this doesn't match anything we've seen so far sure and so i guess yeah i was like it's important because it has something to do with medical something yeah yeah but you know if you didn't recognize it as a medical instrument then it it's just like Jim picked it up. He clearly is interested in this thing. Yes. There's also like a leather whip in there or a couple of them.

And he asks, how do you list this, Dennis? Novelties. Jim has a complaint. Duesenberg is closing Carol's case as a suicide, but it's clearly not, etc. But Becker doesn't have time to help i think this is where he says like i should never let them make me a lieutenant or something like that um and he kicks jim out he's like i need to work get out of here we go to jim uh asleep on his couch with the clearly having fallen asleep with the tv on is this's just showing static. TVs used to show static because

things would stop being on TV at a certain point. There's a panicked knock on his door and we hear a woman's voice yelling, is there anyone in there? I need help, I need help. Jim goes to open the door. This woman stands to the side and two goons swoop in. My notes

are like, Jim, it's a trick. I don't know what to tell you.'s don't answer the door why would you answer your door i did have this moment where i was like is it alta like just because yeah i know we haven't had any other women in the episode uh but it is not we asked two goons there's a craggy face goon and a bald goon who grabbed jim at shotgun point and he has a good facial like eye roll like of course yes this bit is awfully dramatic yes we cut right to a remote cabin of some kind it's night our goons push him out of the car there's a little bit of dialogue hey there's some mistake they they herd him into this cabin we have a shot of all these rats crawling on the rafters why are you doing this

and one of them says just protecting our investment and it's like oh they're gonna shoot him like like i yeah usually you're like oh someone wants to talk to him or whatever but like the dude with the shotgun is just like about to shoot jim the face. And thankfully that's when a rat jumps off the rafters, lands on one goon who like flails in surprise, knocking the other goon off balance. Jim makes a dive for it. He gets the shotgun down, takes a shot.

We see Jim kind of disappear out of the, like a door or something at the back. And one of them says, you got him. And then we see Jim rolling into the underbrush. Wait, I think Jim jumped through the window. Did we see that? I wasn't quite sure exactly what the exit was.

I think he jumped through a window because I remember thinking, what? That's pretty dramatic. Maybe I'm wrong, though. Maybe I misread what happened. It was probably a window. It would make more sense than there being another door. It doesn't matter. I was not rewinding to double check because the

important thing, if someone says you got him, then we see Jim rolling into the underbrush and holding his back. The goons look for him. It's all dialogue. We don't see this on the screen. Oh, a light just came on. They must have heard the shot. Let's go. But what about have heard the heard the shot let's go but what

about no you got him it's time to go he he's down and so they they scram and we cut to jim at the hospital having shot taken out of his back by a doctor very dramatic um but he was lucky nothing nothing important was hit he said it was he was very lucky and jim is like just like very lucky would have been none of this ever happening he leaves jim the the bullets as a souvenir little buckshot yeah jim had called becker so becker arrives what happened sees that he's not in any critical danger. And this is what you got me off the Hooper case for? I'm sorry, it's just a flesh wound, Dennis, but it is my flesh.

They fired these into my body. Just a couple of inches over, I'd be into decomposition. I'm sorry, Jim, this Hooper case got me all fouled up. You know, sometimes I wish I didn't even get promoted. And then, great Rockfordism. You know, sometimes I wish I didn't even get promoted. And then great Rockfordism. You know what really clogs my engine? Consuelo and Carol die on the same night. And Jim keeps running across Consuelo wherever he goes.

Maybe there's just something going on. He has a theory. Maybe the model fashion rock star circle, right? Like they're in the same, same, same circles. Maybe Consuelo rejected or didn't like master's design and he killed her and Carol was a witness or something like that. That's like, well, what's the, but why? What's the motive?

It's like, well, the, it's not so much the why is the what, um, that might be later too. But, um, yeah, this can't be a coincidence. I just keep running into the same stuff. Right. Yeah. Jim's the only one working the murder angle for Carol's death, right? The cops say it's a suicide. Jim says it's a murder.

He's investigating and he's the one who gets shot for it. So clearly something is going on there. There's a great becker line add some dice and boardwalk to that theory and we'll sell it to parker brothers well done becker's overseas phone call that he's been waiting for days finally has come in and he lights up like a school child that's for me and he dashes to get it and then we have this final shot of jim looking at the little tray with the the the buckshot and i didn't realize it's like eight pieces of shot yeah like it's a lot it is uh for some reason i don't think the the soundtrack was

doing this but i just heard when i saw it, I, I just heard like the sad Charlie Brown music. Like it was just like Jim's left alone with this buckshot. Yeah. We go to Jim wearing a black armband as he attends Consuelo's wake. He gets in by pretending to be from the mortuary. We prepared Consuelo. His head cosmetologist kind of went off the deep end i think we fixed it all it's not quite raggedy ann or something like that yeah but we just want to like check and i think the

the guy is just like a guy you know checking invitations or whatever he's like well we haven't had any complaints it's just like well what would what would someone say? Yeah. He wants to make sure they caught everything. So Jim goes in so that we have a reason to be there to watch this confrontation where Monty, the French couturier who did the gown because he was the one in the will, is confronted by Masters. Monty, are you coming to my collection? Your designs are an accumulation. Sick burn. Yeah. Got him.

And then your gown is appropriate. You should design exclusively for the dead. Very good. Sick burn. I believe Sophia intervenes. We don't want a repeat of what happened in Milan last year or whatever seems like things are taking a step back but then our French guy Monty

throws his drink at Masters face Amon Couturier you are considered a Schneider a Schneider excuse me a moment would you Masters returns the favor thank you so much they exchange slaps.

Before we get to the slaps, I do want to point out that Masters, the business here is that he stops a waiter who's going around with the champagne to get a new glass of champagne, the new full glass to throw in his face. And it's just, it's exquisite. And then I want to just talk about the meaty sound effect for these slaps i think they're meatier than the punches yes yes and i think it's meant to be yeah i think there's even a line like, in my father's day, we would have pistols in the lawn by now or something like that. Yeah.

So it's very serious. Masters leaves. We then have rock music in the soundtrack, so we know that a rock star has arrived. Yeah. Well. Well. So Jim happens to come out as his car pulls up and this dude he's in a short sleeve pirate shirt yeah black and white horizontal sleeves short sleeves but then the black armband on his arm underneath like below the sleeve it's such a funny look and he gets out and he jim's the closest person he has this like i don't know liver pudley and accent right

and he's like yeah you know oi mate are we okay to go in and jim you know i'm like oh this is the rock star and there's like a girl with him i'm like oh that's tasteless but then we learned that it's not stevie hooper the rock star it's this guy that stevie sent to attend on his behalf and he says the things i've done for that bloke fill a bloody book so i at this point i'm like how is stevie hooper wrapped up in all of this and he's not he's just not yeah he's just not this is just a a dig at the rock star lifestyle that we occasionally get throughout the rockford files true this is when masters comes out he sees jim what are you doing here i thought you were staking out baruchis jim has this theory dirt so the business here while they're talking is uh uh master's getting

in his car and they end up talking through the window he asks if jim asks if bruchi could be into a loan shark and masters be serious we're talking about old couture not some sleazy ready-to-wear manufacturer and jim there's an expression no matter how you cut it it's still the rag business and then he says what about your cash situation so i think in like the first scene there was a phone call that jim overheard where where uh masters was on the phone with Bancroft to talk like, Hey, I need to talk to Mr.

Bancroft about something or whatever. I didn't, I didn't note it at the time, but you know, everything in this episode matters. So yeah, notice it. So he's like,

what about your banker Bancroft? Uh, have you heard from him recently? I've noticed you've had to close some of your boutiques and masters glares at him and drives away. And then we cut to alter holding a piece of paper that says notice of cancellation the master's line one thing i do want to note about that that exchange is just the line where he's like you i'm sorry or like you you witnessed or i just, I can't remember how he starts this, but a shabby little street brawl. A shabby little street brawl.

It's so good. And it is a great line well delivered. All right, we get to our meal of the episode. Alta is serving Jim dinner that she's made. It's a bowl of broth and some crackers. A fashion model's feast. Go easy on the wheat thins and jim says i think it'd be gastronomically impossible not to so this cancellation was delivered by messenger it went out at 5 30 which is after the wake after

jim talked to masters jim thinks he really got to him i asked him about a loan shark an hour later he cancels the show and gets out of town and she she says, how do you know he got out of town? He's like, well, I just assume. Maybe he hasn't done it yet. He wants to know more about this financier Bancroft. He calls Dennis, who has in fact checked it out in the meantime. This guy is as much a banker as you are a jet pilot. He's a real state-of-the-art loan shark, complete with thumbscrews and blackjack. So Jim thinks Masters is into Bancroft for the money for this show. Bancroft wants his money back. Masters closes the show.

It's starting to stink. Dennis, do you think you could take a moment and just glance it over? That is, if Doozy hasn't filed it along with a black Dahlia case. I'll take a look at it, Jim. You're a pal. I will admit, at this point, okay, I'm sure we'll find out, but I'm unclear how Masters being into a loan shark leads to him closing his show. Yeah, at this point, okay.

The suspicion has focused on two Masters. Jim is suspecting Masters has done something, has been involved. He's poked him to see which way he jumped, and he really jumped hard. Yeah, yeah. So, like, clearly masters has done at least one of these murders, right, is where I'm at right now. Yeah, this is the Jim shakes the hornet's nest to see which one comes out. Yeah. Jim shakes the hornet's nest to see which one comes out.

Yeah. Uh, same with me. Like I'm, um, all throughout this episode, I'm running low on motivation, right? Like I,

I can't figure out why these women were killed. Right. Uh, and honestly, when we get to the end, it's not, it's not totally clear. Yeah.

Yeah. It's maybe like a, a narcissistic crime of passion, if you will, or something like that. Yeah. I mean, we'll talk about it when we get there. I guess. Yeah. There's some. Yeah.

There is something here where it's a little like I either need something more straightforward or a little more insight into the character. Yeah. One or the other. And I feel like we don't quite get there. So in this next scene, we, we,

we find out the truth to a degree. We now accuse masters. We now believe masters is guilty of it. So now we can just watch the private conversation of which it's revealed. Exactly. Now that's television, baby. Yeah.

So Bancroft has made an appearance. He is indeed this loan shark. The goons are his goons. television, baby. Yeah. So Bancroft has made an appearance. He is indeed this loan shark. The goons are his goons. So, okay. Starting to fall into place. And he's brought Masters over. He's asked, and he's asking Masters the question I have, how are you going to pay me back without running a show? Yes.

He apparently owes Bancroft half a million dollars. So Masters says if he opens the show, it's going to give the cops, or whoever, a connection he doesn't want to give them. Right. Bancroft doesn't care. He wants his money. He says, don't you understand? I killed two people. I'll go to prison.

It'll ruin the line. Which is good. So good. Bancroft wants him to contact everyone and uncancel the show his goons are going to escort him on stage to make sure he stays safe and his line is we live in a crazy society this guy kills all these people in New York he gets a book deal out of it who knows what's going to happen all I know is I'm getting my money back yeah i i feel like there's this clear implication of um and maybe i'm reading too much into it but that if he does this fashion show and is found and the cops figure out that he's guilty of the murder

that's only going to make his line more interesting to people and it's it's going to sell more and so so the the this loan shark this uh mobster is is like and then you can pay me back right like you you're gonna make a ton of money and uh but but i'm not entirely sure uh yeah and he's like but i'll be in prison yeah i guess well maybe we'll talk about it at the end but yeah this is a part where i was waiting for an explanation and i find this to be a weak one because it seems like it's pure downside for the loan shark yeah either he doesn't get his money because he's canceled the show so he's just gonna have to do something else to get the money or he puts on the show gets arrested goes to prison and he doesn't get the money and the guy can't do anything else to get him the money i think your read of like you being a criminal celebrity will sell your line i like that read

maybe if there was something where it's like okay you sign over your company to me and you do the show and you go to prison and i make the money right like maybe that would connect it for me just as like the little piece of like explaining why the loan shark wants him to do it because otherwise it just doesn't seem like it makes sense for someone who wants to get their money at the end of the day unless unless and i mean honestly this would be a wonderful twist in a rockford villain the loan shark is just really into his fashion right right you know like he's like no the world needs to know about this but yeah that also is not the case he literally says in my world all that matters is the

money right yeah anyway um we go to masters and silhouette introducing his new collection it's antiseptically pure his concept is this like medical chic there's a setup for this early in the episode when he's talking to uh aaron gray um margaret um alta alta hatch um alta darling uh and is explaining to her the lighting situation he wants i was thinking to myself what's happening here because he wants powerful fluorescent lights in the background that they're going to come out of and like there's just like a it sounds very bright yeah and and like uh clinical or whatever and then we get it we We get what happens. And I'm like, oh, that's good. That's good. I will cut in some of this because part of the joy of this scene is listening to the description, his overblown descriptions of these these outfits.

The staging is like nurses in like the surgical green, like upstage with like a medical bed. And then the models come out kind of in front of them i mean there isn't surgery happening but they're they're mock surgery happening in the background which is just oh it's so good for high disco dash charlene features the sexy silhouette of a dusty rose silk jersey bando halter and pants with matching gloves over this a forest green surgeon's gown becomes a low calf length disco coat with knit cuffs to tie it all together for the height of ortho chic a jade green surgeon's cap worn pinched at the front veiled and flowered with matching operating mask which doubles as a disco bag this is awesome the fashion however we a voiceover of people hating the looks. Oh, man.

One says this is insulting, and he starts arguing with people who are watching the show. Please be patient. This is a new direction. It's the business of haute couture to be daring. They are getting rowdy. It is amped up to be like everyone has this visceral hatred. Negative reaction. Of what he's showing. The best he gets is one woman who's like taking notes, like maybe a reporter or something, who's like, oh, I like that.

I don't like it that much. Like, that's like the best he gets. There's a detail on one of the coats of those curved scissors as like the closure. We see Jim see that. And that's when he goes to the phone and makes a call lieutenant becker please i felt like this was a good moment for if there was a mystery science theater if there was a riff tracks of this episode and there shouldn't be this is a good episode but that would be the moment when somebody would be like you know lieutenant becker please and then somebody just says i'd like to report the murder of a career.

Because it feels like they're going to kill him. They're going to kill him. This crowd is going to tear him apart. We see a goon keeping an eye on Masters. We see Masters see Jim make the phone call, I think. Yeah. And so that's when he hands the mic to his like assistant and he runs upstairs. Jim pursues. I got to say, I can't imagine anyone's happy with the writer with this seat. Let's have a chase, but let's have it up a bunch of marble stairs. It's pretty high octane. It's pretty exciting. The high energy fashion runway music is also soundtracking the whole thing and it's got to be murder on james gardner oh my god i know i was like i was watching

i was like oh oh i hope you yeah forget his name but i hope you got your stunt guy in for this some of the stairs because oof um masters grabs a plane ticket and a tiny little gun out of a drawer takes a shot at jim when jim comes into to find him uh misses jim chases him down these stairs these circular stairs out onto the drive down the driveway and then the goons pop out they start firing we see one of them hits masters who falls into the bushes jim gets to him we see him he's holding his like leg or his side or something takes his tiny little gun and there's a gag here where he comes up and he tells the goons to freeze and they look at him and

look at the tiny gun and just like chuckle and start moving in towards both of them but that's when there's sirens the cops arrive they are surrounded master's groans I'm ruined Jim ends our scene here with They are surrounded. Masters groans. I'm ruined.

Jim ends our scene here with Carol and Consuelo are dead. I say you're ahead on points. Two people dead over your insanity over a fashion line. We go to our final scene. Jim and Alta, they're looking at a headshot of Carol in a magazine. She was so beautiful. Alta recaps for us yes to to clarify what i don't say thank you for explaining this masters took carol with him to see consuelo to model the new fashion line for consuelo yes she she She said no. This is the language, but

also I think what it's trying to get to is like, when she said no, Masters knew that if Consuelo wasn't interested, his line was not going to be successful. Yeah. Right? So when she said no, he knew he'd be destroyed. And so I guess that is why he killed her, and Carol

was a witness, and so that's why he killed her, I guess. So this is why he killed her. And Carol was a witness. And so that's why he killed her, I guess. So this is why we get Carol running with her purse in the gown because this is like she's coming fresh from this moment. Right, where she was modeling the line. So there's this very like cold-blooded thing that Masters has done here. Yeah, I can almost buy it. I'm okay with saying, okay, if he doesn't get her, he knows the line is dead. And also he is personally offended and enraged.

Yeah. I mean, they do spend some time explaining to us that like he's experimental and he's in southern california and and she's the biggest name in southern california right like yeah this might be his last chance for anything and she's killing it and he owes half a million dollars to a loan shark yeah he needs this to be successful. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, it's still just a little too off screen, I guess. Yeah. I would agree with that. Anyway, to end our episode on a high note, they're going out to dinner. Jim gets a jacket. Alta says, can you wear something else? That shade of Brown doesn't go with anything. In fact, I've never even seen it outside of Southern

California. So good. He tells her to pick him out something from his closet. There's a joke about like, as long as there's not a polyester leisure suit, he's like, no, no. But that's when she finds the green Nehru jacket. Nehru jacket? Oh, wow. I've had that quite a while.

It still fits. Maybe it'll come back. It still fits. Maybe it'll come back. Let's go with the brown jacket. Right. Yeah, that's right. Stick with the brown jacket.

And they presumably are off arm and arm to go enjoy a nice, quiet dinner together. Yeah. End of episode. This one, lots of good performances in this episode. really like we've gone over it um there's a lot of quotable moments and whatnot i would say the the only flaw is that i just couldn't even if i buy the motivation that that we get at the end um i feel like we need it earlier you know what i mean like there's there's like there's a thing there where you're like two people have been killed why nothing that has come up maybe you know the the whole um pattern theft black market thing

even though that was a red herring. Like I would buy that more. Obviously it wouldn't be for this, for this murder. That would be for the murder of someone to like Berucci was found dead. Yeah. Because they had a confrontation over him stealing master's designs. Like for some reason that feels like it would map a little better. Even the red herrings don't have a motivation that points at these two particular murders that well.

Right. So you just spend the whole time going, why, why, why are these, again, this is coloring the episode poorly because it was a lot of fun. It is a fun episode. It is, it is a, uh, it's a great, just put it on and watch episode, I guess, in contrast to an episode that is a little more like, oh, wow, I really see the like the layers of the narrative, you know, like it doesn't really have that aspect. Yeah. It's a little bit like it's a plot in search of a motivation. Yes, I think that's a good way to

describe it. I just had this thought, not to always talk about Columbo on our Rockford Files podcast, but like if this was exactly the same, except that we saw the murder at the beginning, a la Columbo, I feel like it probably would hang together more because we would see what that interaction was for Masters, right? Yeah, and you could see Masters trying to push Rockford away and lead Rockford away. Honestly, we did see that when i watched it i was like yeah okay this guy probably did it i think there was a bit of a question of like maybe one person did one murder and a different person did the other murder like i thought there might be that kind of yeah complication which would be fun but then he's

like i killed two people and i'm like oh okay yeah even in the beginning rockford says something to him like i have a theory it's a nasty little theory i can't remember who he says it to but it's like revealing that rockford hinting that rockford thinks masters did it right right away so we're why not just do it why not just give us that and let us watch rockford solve it? Yeah. Yeah, I would agree with you. I think this, in particular, this episode would have been a little stronger on that regard,

especially because it's fun to watch Masters in Rockford. Yeah, exactly. It wouldn't take anything away. Because it is left a little unbaked. Not that we need to hear the gruesome details but like was it an accident and then he had to double down because he saw his career dissolving before his eyes was it more intentional so there's like this cold-blooded killer underneath the twitchy exterior of the fashion designer like yeah there are different ways that it would kind of pull together and it's kind of like if we saw him do it we'd actually see why he did it if that makes

sense yeah yeah yeah exactly and like i don't really have that too big of a problem with the motivation because he is clearly self-obsessed right like yeah yeah i guess we would need to see that just a teeny bit more right like aside from the affectations like you know witness him ruining someone's career or something like that like um he is a little pathetic throughout uh and so seeing him desperate would be great. Yeah. I mean, I guess we see him desperate at the end, but that desperation is one where he is fleeing. Like he doesn't seem dangerous.

Right. Yeah. There's almost something where it's like if he I don't know. I'm not you know, now we're just like rewriting. Yeah. Yeah. But like, what if at the end he shoots the goon? Like he kills the goon who's trying to like keep him there or something.

Right. Like, so we see that there's that viciousness that seems implied by, cause it's not just the murder of Consuelo. Then it's the cold blooded execution of Carol. Yeah. Yeah. Like really feels a little out of place. I don't know.

I agree that these are, this is not really a huge negative for the episode as a whole because the episode of the whole is really fun um but as story nerds there is that element where it's like i kind of wish it was just for such a tight episode all the plot like all the stuff you see on screen all matters later everything is foreshadowed so like all that stuff is so tight that then the underpinning the foundation having a little like don't worry about it we've kind of said this before but like oftentimes the rock profile rock profiles is great that's why we're here

and it brings it to a point that where the things that the rough patches or whatever you then start thinking, start to obsess over. Yeah. Yeah. Because you're like, Oh, it's so close.

It's so close. I think that's how I feel about the loan shark. Like it's so close to something that I would, if I was doing it, but it's kind of like, it's like one script revision away, one punch up away from like making a really fun, really Rockfordy connection between why this loan shark wants him

to do the show. Yeah. I threw out my idea, which was like, you know, sell me your company so that I will have your patterns after you go to jail. I'm like, that is, that is a Rockford move right there. All right. Not to indulge this too much but let us indulge imagine uh that the murder goes down this way that uh the loan shark is putting pressure on masters to pay him back and masters is telling him uh i am going to uh get this uh modeled the most famous model in southern california consuelo hooper will model my line yes it's all but guaranteed i just have to show her and then so the loan shark is like well i want to be there when you show her and they go and he's all nervous and like we don't necessarily have to

see this but like they show her and she rejects them. And the loan shark is like, no, you're doing it. And she says no. And she gets killed by the loan shark or one of his goons, like in an attempt to try and threaten her to do it. Right. And then Carol runs and the loan shark's like, well, you got to stop her to to Masters. Yeah. Then the loan shark is more entwined in the all this stuff then then he's more of the real villain and masters is more of the again pathetic in the dramatic sense like

yeah masters is like due to his own weaknesses is being forced into this role where now he he commits a murder as well and now he's desperate to thread the needle yes like staying out of jail and still making good on his commitment because he knows this guy's just gonna kill him and you know he can even want to get out of doing the thing and the loan sharks know we've killed people now like it's got to get done and then maybe he hires jim to try and like break the case like well if jim figures it out yeah i'm not the one who's to be on the hook because the loan shark will go to jail. Yeah. There's like a whole maybe level of like, and then I'm off the hook as

long as Jim doesn't know that I was there. They have that conversation at the beginning about confidentiality, which seems like he's like, if I hire Jim, then Jim can't testify against me. And Jim's like, no, I can, I will. Yeah. That would also be pretty good. But yeah, one, one script revision away,

a fun episode. They're, they're making, you know, whatever, 26 of these is season or whatever. Like it's, it's,

it's going to happen. Um, but not always going to be a hundred percent as tight as we, you know, might imagine. We have the luxury of only having to think about it for an hour and then moving on with our lives. Exactly.

You think Jim gets his $250? No, absolutely not. It was a good play, though. It was a great effort. Yeah, for sure. Okay, I think we have spun this one out on the runway for long enough. Long enough for the Nehru jacket to come back, honestly. My last thing.

Okay, two last things. One thing is, like, obviously the fashion designs themselves were meant to be a send-up of this kind of couture. Right. And I was kind of like, I i don't know i think they look fine i mean i guess there's like the surgical green is kind of like the thing color is the main problem yeah but um it's very like i don't know i watched a lot of project runway in my time like this would be a design challenge on project Runway. Yeah. That context may have shifted. There's that.

And then what was the other thing? Oh, other than this kind of context as a punchline, I don't actually know what a Nehru jacket is. No, I don't either. I think, is it just that style where it's the collar, the stiff collar and the buttons? Or is it the material? Or is it both? Let's find out. Quick, to the internet.

I can get one for $300. Is it green? It's a hip-length tailored coat for men or women with a Mandarin collar. I think you're right. So it's the style. It's not like the material. Named after a prime minister of India who wore it. Okay.

Okay. So it's like, I don't know, skinny jeans. Yeah. A style that identifies a particular time. Exactly. The 60s, I'm guessing. Yeah, that seems right. Again, from context of like songs that have jokes about Nehru jackets in them or something like that.

I don't know. I feel like there's a Weird Al song that has a Nehru jacket joke. I feel like. I feel like it's a joke in 80s sitcoms. It would be impossible that there isn't a song by Weird Al that mentions it. All right. Well, I guess if there's any Nehru appreciators out there, feel free to let us know. And we, yeah.

And we also do have a good amount of listener feedback that's been stacking up. So hopefully we'll get around to some of that next time in our next couple episodes. But speaking of next time, it brings us to the part of the show where we say thank you for listening. And we will be back next time to talk about another episode of The Rockford Fuzz. back next time to talk about another episode of the rockford fuzz i think you would look great in a surgical green uh yeah