Two Hundred A Day - Episode 131: Murder and Misdemeanors

Episode Date: February 25, 2024

Nathan and Eppy hit the streets of LA for the penultimate 90s TV Movie, Murder and Misdemeanors. A fellow ex-con-turned-PI, Booker Hutch (John Amos), cons Jim into taking his remaining caseload - and before he can even look over the files, Jim's fielding police harassment. There's an investigation into potentially dirty cops, a reporter hungry for a story (Isabel Glasser), some great goons, and Angel hovering to take advantage of Jim's sudden notoriety - a perfect mess for our friend Jim to untangle! Thankfully, he makes a good friend along the way. A very 70s-era feeling movie, this one isn't as ambitious as some previous 90s stories, but it certainly satisfies with Rockfordishness. 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/) * Nathan Black, 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

Welcome to 200 a Day, the podcast where we talk about the 70s television detective show and the 90s TV movies of the Rockford Files. I'm Nathan Palletta. And I'm Epidio Ravishaw. And if you looked at the title of this episode, you will see that we are covering. Yes, one of the remaining movies from the 90s featuring the reunited Rockford Files cast and crew. This one is from 1997, Murders and Misdemeanors. We're getting into the future here. I will say that the overall vibe is much more what I think of as the 90s in the last couple movies but I feel like this one.

The music alone will let you know whatever you're into. But yeah. Yeah. But just like the you know the outfits, the haircuts, the style of lighting and all that stuff like this looks like a movie from the late 90s. I just watched from the same era, a made for TV movie called Stormy Weathers starring Sybil Shepard as a private detective in LA. Nice. Just putting that out there.

That's another night. If you're looking for other nineties made for TV, noirs. Is that an epi recommends? It's an epi recommends. No, it's fun. It's fun. It's not, well, much like this one.

It's not a lot of twists and turns in the plot, but there's really snappy dialogue. And it's really like, you know, you're just like, oh yeah, I didn't expect it to be. It's on 2B. And we just watched it's really like, you know, you're just like, Oh, yeah, I didn't expect it to be. It's on to me. And we just watched it because it like recommended it to us. And I was like, Well, why would you recommend? Oh, I see why you recognize to me like, this is yeah. But we're here. That's our other podcast, our civil shepherd as a private eye where we do moonlighting, stormy weathers, and I think that's it.

Well, this movie is one of the two additional movies that was ordered by CVS. So if you haven't listened to one of our movie episodes before, which is fine because we do them very occasionally, our last one was our episode 112, Punishment and Crime, just about a year ago, back in February of 2023. The 90s movies, the concept got chopped around a little bit, and they ended up getting picked up by CBS, which is significant because it's not NBC, which was, you know, the root of all the legal issues after the original show went off the air. Universal NBC and Cherokee Productions all wrangling over what money was owed to who. So CBS ended up picking up these movies. So they got a package of six

movies with an option for more. And after the fifth movie, which was Friends and Fowl Play, the one with Chapman and Jim going back to school for the class, etc., I guess they exercised their option and ordered two more movies. So this one and then the final one, which is yet to come. This movie was also the first one in a while to air on a Friday night. The first couple were on a Sunday night to capture post-mergercy, wrote audiences, and then they just like got transitioned to kind of death nights for some reason. Like Thursday and yeah, against like the hottest sitcoms. So this one was back on back on Friday night. It's back in a good time slot, which I think is

good because there's a pretty fun movie, I think if you just ran across it on the air. It'd be pretty fun to watch. It is written by Juanita Bartlett and directed by Tony Wormby, who also directed Godfather Knows Best, which is a couple movies previous. There's a quote in the Ed Robertson book that I wasn't really able to find any elaboration on. Just as David Chase energized the original Rockford at the beginning of the third season, the CVS movies got a second wind with the help of a writer and a director who were both established in television, but nonetheless new to the show.

One new such edition who immediately put a stamp on Rockford was producer-director Tony Wormby, who at the time, Jag was probably his big show. He also did work on the X-Files, who directed two of the final four movies produced for CBS. He really changed the look of the show, Garner said in 1996, and it's just marvelous. Jage? Is that old? I was just going to bring up the X-Files because that's, you know, watching these, I'm like, oh yeah, these happened in the 80s and then that's it. Like that's not a, I say these happened in the 90s,

conceptually that's in my head, but I'm not thinking about other television it would be up against in the 90s. But I was like, oh yeah, X- X files would have been like huge at this point because X files looks like 93. And now I'm looking at Jag 95. Well, yeah. All right. For some reason, I thought Jag was like an early odds thing. It was I mean, it ran into the early odds.

But yeah, in fact, the the show is that it was up against on this Friday night in November Were in fact the X files for the first hour and Dateline NBC in the second. Yeah I don't know why that's interesting to me. It's just interesting to me Because I was not at this point not watching these I didn't I don't think I saw any of these when they aired Any of the 90s ones. I well, think I saw any of these when they aired any of the 90s ones. Well, I probably saw none of the original airings of any of the show. But in syndication, I probably watched a lot of the early Rockford files, you know, in my dad hanging out in our basement. Anyways, anyways, yeah.

Well, I think we can go ahead and get right into it. Other than just seeing credits on IMDB, I don't really know much else about Tony Warnby. Just that quote jumped out to me when I was reviewing the Ed Robertson book on this one. And I was like, huh, how about that? Warnby is a fun last name because it's got the H after the W. I don't know why, but I like that it's like harm B, but with a W in front of it. So it's W the H after the W. I don't know why, but I like that it's like harm B but with a W in front of it, so it's warm B. Anyways, it's picking up dubs. Yeah. 200 a Day is a 100% listener-supported show, thanks to our patrons. In addition to our gratitude

and editing access to the 200 files file spreadsheet, patrons receive exclusive episode previews every month and plus expenses, our bonus podcast where we talk about media, work, and our lives. In addition, every episode we say thank you to our gumshoe patrons. Brian Brinson has a Facebook page where he drives his Rockford tribute car to shooting locations from the show, facebook.com slash bryanrockfordfiles. Chuck Sufals' one-shot comic Sherlock Holmes and the Wonderland Conundrum is available at whatureadingpress.com.

Find Dale Norwood's book, Trading Freedom, How Trade with China Defined Early America, wherever good books are sold. It's about fast ships, cheap drugs, and American political economy published by the University of Chicago Press. Join Mitch Hampton to examine all matters aesthetic and what it means to be human at the journey of an ST podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Paul Townand also recommends the podcast Fruit Loops, serial killers of color at fruitloopspod.com. Shane Liebling has all of your online dice rolling needs covered at his website

roll4yore.party and check out Jay Adon's amazing miniature painting skills over at Jayadon.com. Thank you to Andre Apignani, Tom Clancy, Pumpkin Japa Peach Pug, Dave P, Dave Otterson, Kip Hawley, Dale Church, Colleen Kelly, David Nixon, and Jay Thompson. And finally, special appreciation for our detective-little patrons. Joe Greathead, Michael Zalisco, Eric Antenner, Brian Pereira, Jordan Backelman, not Brockleman, Bill Anderson, and of course, Richard Hadham. 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. Unfortunately, as always, there is no preview montage.

No. So we will drop right into immediately placing it in its time. Yes. Soundtrack, which I describe. I was looking at my notes. I was like, why did I say so? I call it a thriller soundtrack, not Michael Jackson thriller, but no thriller movie.

Like this is kind of like a procedure ominous. It's kind of like a procedural. I mean, this whole first section really does seem like you're coming into like CSI or something like that. Yeah, we're seeing helicopter shot drone shot of the skyline of LA. My notes are like, oh, I'm about to watch a diehard television. Yeah. That's what I'm going to say. Something like that, which does transition into some sweet 90s electronic dance music as we get down to the strip. The music is like I...

The music is really good in this one. This is the music in this one is definitely a they should have sent a poet. Like I cannot distract you with the music. You must watch and enjoy yourself. But yeah, so we're kind of like on the strip. People are partying. We're clearly we're seeing sex workers, sex workers doing their thing. Cruisers doing their thing, etc. And then we come come come down and we focus on a again, obviously coded as a sex worker, a blonde woman in, you know, skimpy outfit, etc. Leaning down to talk to a man in the car. We focus literally because very soon we start getting the

shutter sound black and white freeze photo effects to tell us that this whole thing is in fact getting photographed. The ominousness continues. So the scene that's being photographed here is that you guys get out of the car and they seem to be having an argument with this woman as they're moving about. And the photographs are taking place.

So my question for you is, in this moment in time, do you think this is rock for taking these photos? Oh, no. And here's why. I, because I've read the description of the episode, I know there's another PI involved. Ah, you should have read the description. No, you probably had a more pure experience not having read the description, honestly.

My notes say this can't be Rockford. It just doesn't seem like the kind of thing where he wouldn't be getting involved. Intervening. Yeah, like he would be Rockford. It just doesn't seem like the kind of thing where he wouldn't be getting involved. Intervening. Yeah, like he would be intervening. And also it just, there's something because the music's no longer ominous at this point, but there's just something creepy about this. There's something, you know, that...

It's voyeuristic in a way that we don't really see Rockford ever being. Yeah. So yeah, we see this, we see this whole encounter, they seem to grab, they grab her arm, she pulls away, she tries to go into like a storefront or something, they follow her, they come back out. And then we cut on the photo of the three of them, like walking away from the street into the darkness. We cut from that whole the street into the darkness. We cut from that whole introduction to police station, Jim talking to Dennis, no music. Just we're like, oh, now we're now we're over here to Jim. And the star of the show, Dennis's beard.

Would you like to describe Dennis's beard? Well, I would say it's a little scruffy. So Rockford makes a comment about it. Rockford and Dennis are arguing over, so basically, and M watched this with me and she pointed this out. So I got to give credit to her. Rockford is playing the role of Rocky and Dennis is playing the role of Jim. And they're arguing about going fishing. That's that's what's happening here.

Jim wants to go take Dennis to Cabo. Dennis has already started on his beard, which is against regulations, and it will persist throughout this whole episode. So, look, he says that he has a rash, and if he scratches, or no, if he shaves, it gets worse. I believe yes his excuse For the beard. Yeah, no other reason given. I will say that unfortunately since the last time

I have tried to look up something about Joe Santos the existence of George Santos has really Complicated the SEO That's so bad Perhaps the worst crime to to Princess Man's feet. So I was not able to find out. You know, sometimes it's like, oh, they, you know, got a surgery and so they kept the cast on during, like that happened with Joe Santos where he like had a broken arm or something. And they just like, yeah, there was something.

And they like had an explanation on camera for why he, or no, he had the tape on his nose because he had the nose like surgery or something anyway in this case No, he just gets to have a fun real scruffy beard was that the last the previous movie? I might have been the previous I think it was in previous movie. Are they just changing Joe? Like this time I got a beard I'm looking forward to the next one. Mm-hmm. I'll see what happens then It's gonna be in a full body cast or something. I hope that is not the case. No, no, I hope not.

Yeah. Um, yeah. So Jim wants Dennis to come to Cabo and fish. Dennis, uh, you know, he has, he's so busy. There's so much going on. He can't possibly leave now. And he says, I just went with you. And Jim's like, oh yeah. it was just like it was yesterday.

1987. Yeah, I do love the little notes of like stuff that's happened between the end of the show. Like, you know, so that happened in the 80s is always kind of fun little little mentions. Jim asked Dennis, is he waiting for there to be a slack time for crime? Because that's never going to happen.

Which is that's true. to happen, which is true. This whole conversation is ended by overhearing a woman yelling that she wants to make a complaint. And we go and we see that it is, in fact, the woman that we were seeing having her pictures taken of, which is a bit of a relief because some of the tone of that whole intro was like, she's going to get murdered. Right.

That was a very murdery field to it. The death sergeant is very patiently telling her that this is robbery homicide and she wants vice. She's in the wrong place. And she's saying that if she goes to vice, it's going to get buried. No one's ever going to hear it. And she doesn't want to talk to anyone lower than a lieutenant. We see Jim being very amused by some of her terms of phrase To the sergeant she's like okay if you're not gonna let me talk to anyone I'll take what I have in my envelope here to the press and you'll be the one who aired the department's dirty laundry and so this is when Dennis steps in says that he's a lieutenant and You know he'll talk to her if I if I might offer something that should have probably come up in plus expenses,

I just have to tell you, last night we watched a thriller, a movie, like you were just saying, like the ominous tone and all that. And it was getting to like the climax of the movie, there's some killers coming and you know they're coming and this guy is trying to find a way to like stay away from them or whatever. And we're sitting on our couch, which is in our living room. There's a small little wall. And on the other side of this wall

is the hallway with our front door. This is like nine, 10 o'clock at night. And we hear something that sounds like someone at the door and then the door opens and all of these papers come flying through the hallway. I jump up, I'm like, hello? Hello? So here's the thing, if we don't lock our front door, occasionally the wind will blow it open, but we have those draft dodgers, the little like you put at the bottom of the door, Those were at the bottom of the door. So what was happening was the wind had blown it out of its latch and then it was like,

but it hadn't blown all the way open. So it sounded like somebody was rattling the door knob and then it opened and freaked us out. We were like, we're being home invaded. What's happening? Anyways, we have that kind of wind going on right now and like, and snow's coming down right now. So yeah, in the middle of a snow storm.

Now here's just extremely cold. Yeah. We had a slight powdering of snow, which someone was very excited about. Hey. It's already gone. Oh. That all said.

Sorry. So this woman's name is Val. We've eventually heard her now learn. Dennis brings Val into his office to get her story. She says that these two guys, the two guys that we saw, they're detectives from Vice. And as she says, we're all in Vice. I just work it from the other side, which is a good turn of phrase. And it's great.

But these two guys won't leave her alone. Sometimes she has to give away what she's selling for free. That's just the cost of doing business. But they're telling her, do me or do time, threatening her with finding crack in her apartment. And she's like, I've never done crack in my life. You know, they're threatening me. And so she had a friend take these pictures so that she has proof.

So Becker doesn't say anything, but we see shots of his face and my note is dubious, Becker is dubious. Yes. Jim kind of pokes his head in. Oh yeah, yeah. You know, he has a little one liner. I want to, I want to charge him with a, with a. Are you straight or trade? What are you doing here? This is official business. Dennis kicks them out and she settles on.

I want to charge them with sexual harassment. I want to press charges. So we go from that to our standard 90s movie opening credits. Yes. Of our 90s rocking guitar and synth theme, which I think has been standard for the last couple movies, with helicopter shots over Paradise Cove watching Jim drive home in Rocky's truck.

Sorry. I know I keep giving you an update on this storm, but it went from like it's a little windy out and there's like a little bit of snow coming down. The snow is now completely horizontal and I can barely see the tree across the street. So yeah, we're in it now. We'll see if you make it through this whole recording. Yeah, that's exactly.

I think here is where I want to bring up my main concern with this episode. Yes. Which is that for some reason, more so than most movies and most episodes of the show, this one feels like it has some real copaganda going on. Right. So, same thing, right? For maybe the first half of this show, you're wondering if they're going to actually address... Becker is so non-committal there that. You can kind of see it going either way like yeah

Yes, we'll address your complaint or he says yes, we'll address your complaint And then it just he just buries it himself because he's like this isn't gonna go anywhere He has something again, Joe Santos doing great work There's something about his dubious look when she's showing him the photos where he's kind of like these photos don't mean anything. Yeah. If he was talking to Jim, he could be like, this is circumstantial like, right, right. You know, this these pictures don't actually prove anything. You don't have evidence. You don't have evidence. Well, she's saying I have hard evidence, right? So there's this dissonance and you're like, is he just going to bury this? We'll find

out later. But yeah. And then it's like dirty cop like you know this whole so it's introducing this dirty cop I was gonna say storyline which it is but like trope like this dirty cop yeah storytelling piece of like the guys from vice you know getting what they can for free etc. you know we'll get to it when we get to it but But there's this whole thing that's going to come out with Jim versus the cops. And it could have played out one way. And the way it plays out is a little, I agree, like it's a little disappointing. Like it's not like, there's no reason for it to say that this is a horrible episode or anything like that. But like Jim's thing is like to keep telling the cops, I'm not guilty

of this thing. Okay, I'm not going to dance around like, the cops are going to start thinking Jim's investigating them, and they're going to start harassing him over it. And his way of fighting that is not necessarily you shouldn't be harassing someone for this. It's you shouldn't be harassing me because I'm not investigating you. And that I don't care for because it would have been good gym business. Right, to like stand up for the principle. Yes, stand up for the principle. And instead, it's a little like, yeah. Yeah, we'll talk more about it as we get to because there's more of this element in here. But I just want to say this is where I first started having that like, let's see where this goes.

But we are going to take a nice break from the cops for a while because we have Jim coming home from his solo trip to Cabo, I suppose. And he is immediately confronted as who is played by a real that guy. Yeah. Conrad Janis who was apparently Mindy's father on Mork and Mindy. Oh, okay. But in just like a million things. I have a theory about this character, which I'll bring up now because I won't remember it later. And we can think about it as it's happening. Harvey, also the name of the invisible imaginary rabbit from the Jimmy Stewart film of the same name Harvey.

Does Harvey interact with any other human beings but Jim? My question is, is Harvey real? Oh, okay. So as we go through this, let's just think about it. I think so? I mean, like, obviously he's real. This is the kind of thing that the Rockford Files would do. But can you read him as Jim's imaginary friend?

Certainly possible. Let's, all right. There's one moment, I think that lends some credence to that, but we'll get to it when we get to it. So, Harv was left, I guess, kind of to mind Jim's place while he was gone. However, Jim forgot to leave him a key. Jim also left his phone ringer, turned up really loud while he was voting his truck and never turned it down. So Harv has been hearing Jim's phone ringing the entire time that he's been gone.

Yes. So Jim apologizes, says he'll make it up to him with lunch. Anything you want from the left side of the menu. They'll meet at the sand castle at one and you know, begs off with that as he goes inside to answer the phone right as it goes to his answering machine. It is a woman named Letty who Jim obviously knows who that is. She's very upset and she tells Jim he wants to see you. Yes.

We go with Jim to a nice little house where we see him get some stink eye from a neighbor. It's a lot of good side-eye and stink eye in this episode from various characters. Well, he knocks. Letty lets him in, says he's waiting for you. So we are now going to get introduced to one of the the grand universe of PI buddies of Jim. Yes. Played by John Amos, who is one of those guys where I'm like, I should know why I know his name, but I don't actually know like what he imprede- he was in the West Wing, which is where I like kind of recognize him from. But he was, you know, obviously has had a long career before that. I don't know if there's anything in particular I should, I should actually know him from the West Wing.

Good times. Yeah, no, he goes way back. Yeah, there's a ton of things. Like he's definitely, you know, that guy, but also he's that guy whose name I remember so I don't know Yeah, like I'm looking through his his list here. I mean the big one is good times He was in 66 61 episodes of it. So I think he was like the dad in that one, but oh, you know what? He's on the Mary Tyler Moore show that's I I'm almost certain. I think he was I think I noticed that when I was looking at he played the Weather guy I think on the Mary Tyler board show. He's great on that. I mean, everyone was great on that.

But anyways. Yeah, he's really fun. So he's a PI named Booker, Booker Hutch. Yes. And he is in bed. Apparently, he has been stricken with some kind of quick onset debilitating illness. He doesn't know how much longer he has. Letty, his wife, lets Jim in. She's crying. He's saying there's nothing anyone can do one day. He's walking around and the next he's in bed and getting spoon fed like a two-year-old.

Jim is clearly shocked and upset to see his his his friend in this condition and sits at his bedside and he has Jim get him a folder hands in an envelope it's the $400 that Jim lent him back in 95. Jim gets $400 back like this is as his accountant. I'm happy for that. I mean it was two years late. He tries to reject it but Booker says that what he needs is to get clean of his past dues. That's what he needs so he doesn't make some keep it and he says he has four or five cases. He never got a chance to tie up. Hey you know what fries me? I've already done most of the work.

Now somebody else is going to collect. Hey, I could recommend you if your place is not already too full. Well, I cut nothing on my plate. I've been on vacation. And he has this look where he looks at Jim like, you're going to buy this? Yes. So this is a con. This is definitely a con. And he has this look where he like looks at Jim like you're gonna buy this like yes So this is this is a con. This is definitely a con I think it's very well done because you're not entirely sure watching it that Jim's being calm

Like you know, there's going to be fallout from this. Yeah Maybe even you know more if you've read the That episode description, yeah. That episode description. Like it just, it feels very much like, oh, okay, Jim's gonna take these cases and something's gonna happen because of that. But I, as I was watching it in my head,

I was like, it just feels almost legit enough, right? Like, oh, he is trying to clean his slate. He is trying to have no, but like, is he? Like, I don his slate. He is trying to have no but like is he like I don't know. I like is it because he's actually like dying or is there like a different reason? Yeah, right? Like there may be a different reason. I fall for it for the same reason Jim does though. Like it's Letty. Yeah, exactly. That's the thing.

Yeah. His wife is so upset. Yeah. Jim clearly was already primed to see something that was not good because of how let he was acting. He in fact says my condition for keeping this $400 is that you let me wrap up your cases but you take the payouts. And he says if you do that Jim I'll remember until the day I die. Jim does give him a double take on that. So that's good. I'm kind of like, is Jim is Jim buying all this? Like, I think he is. And in a way where I'm like, Jim, come on, you know, you know, you shouldn't you shouldn't be buying this stuff. But again, I have the benefit of the episode description,

which which does in fact say Jim is conned by an old PI buddy into taking a case he shouldn't take. And I'm like, yeah, yeah. Yep. So this character, Booker Hutch played by John Amos, I'm sure you'll be shocked to hear that this was in fact originally written with the idea of bringing Isaac Hayes back to be Gandhi and do this story, but with Gandhi. But unfortunately, he wasn't available for shooting, I believe. At that time, first of all, he was doing South Park, so that was a big commitment. 1997 was a hell of a time. There's There's a quote here from Chas Floyd Johnson, the producer, that once the movie got greenlit, they weren't able to make it work with Isaac's schedule. And it was a quote, we had a three week shooting schedule of our own to meet.

It's wild to me. So rather than recast Gandhi, they rewrote the role into this one Booker Hutch, who does, you know, look a little bit like Isaac Hayes. Like, I mean, his frame is about, is similar. I definitely thought he was a Gandhi stand-in, but I like the character in and of his own. Yeah, yeah, it was differentiable enough. Well, there's a, then there's a line here that he's closer in spirit to Marcus Hayes, to Gabby. Yeah, yeah, it was differentiable enough. Well, there's a then there's a line here that he's closer in spirit to Marcus Hayes to get to Gabby Yeah, yeah, this is kind of a two great tastes that tastes great together Character where it's like yeah, he had some Gandia stuff and but he's also kind of has that fast-talking

Slick attitude that I think works for this story because as it was going I was like Attitude that I think works for this story because as it was going I was like Gandhi would be kind of a weird fit for some of this plot like obviously they rewrote it But yeah, you know probably would have been different with Gandhi, but yeah I was anticipating it being kind of weird and I was like no this is good like this this works anyway So fun character. We're not gonna see him for a while Because we have some other things to do to wit Jim Yeah. Because we have some other things to do. To wit, Jim goes to find Dennis. He wants to talk to Dennis.

He finds him at a bar. There's apparently this one bar that's like a cop hangout. It's called the arsenal, which is a little... Yeah. Not ominous, but a little on the nose. I don't know. Yeah, yeah, on the nose. Jim wants to talk.

Dennis is in a bad mood. They have some banter about that. Jim wants to talk because he wants to process what he's just seen, his friend suddenly being hit out of nowhere with his terminal illness. He doesn't really know how to deal with it. Dennis gets a burger, sits down, does not have a chance to eat it. He does eventually ask, is this anybody I know? This friend of yours, somebody I know? Yeah, sure. Booker Hutch. The book man from Seablock, remember?

The hell's the matter with you hanging out with a bum like that? He's not a bum. He's a bum, Xcon. So am I. Yes. So this is where I was like, oh, this is probably Gandhi, the hammer of C-Block. We don't get all the reasons that Dennis isn't such a bad mood because he doesn't really want to talk to Jim.

But one of them is that he's been dodging this talking to this woman who pops up to talk to him. Her name is Breanne. She interrupts their conversation. She's like, oh, I finally tracked you down. I want to talk to you. And he's like, well, I have to leave. I'm going back to the station now and I have meetings all afternoon.

Call me tomorrow. And he just leaves. Yeah. Leaving his burger uneaten. Jim just quietly slides it over to his side of the table. So good. So good. And talks to this woman, Bree.

Do you work with Dennis? Why do you think that? Well, he doesn't have a lot of friends who aren't cops. And this is kind of a cop hangout. And she says, well, it's also a great burger joint. So Jim offers to buy her burger. She accepts. So to keep track, Jim is now buying exactly one hamburger because he's taken Dennis's. Yes. And she says, if you need someone to talk to, I'm a great listener. And Jim has a warm smile. Once he hears that, I think she says, and I've already started, she'd overheard part of their conversation. Yeah, you know, etc.

So use a moment where I'm like, Okay, there's an age difference here, is she hitting on Jim? And the answer is probably yes, but not for the reasons that I'm, I'm thinking like I'm not savvy enough to know what's really going on in this scene Well, we've had no we have no information to know what's going on here Yeah, Dennis seems more perturbed than Dennis, right? Like there's like Dennis always has something bothering him Right, but in this scene he seems over the top bothered. Right. We don't know yet what that is all about. Yeah. We go from here back to the trailer. Jim is returning in the

firebird. Harv is there. Jim forgot about lunch. He's like, you know, sorry, something came up and Harv's like, it's okay. I got the lobster. Was that on the left side of the bed, you harv? I don't know. And he gives he gives Jim the receipt and Jim gives him cash, which is fantastic. But Jim explains he had a good reason not to be there. And let's make it up tomorrow. And we have a gag where Harv's like, OK, are you are you sure you can make it?

Like, I'm sure I can make it. We know he's not going to make it next day. We know it's the next day because we see it's 9 17 a.m. on Jim's digital clock. Yes. As we hear tires screeching outside. And as I say in my notes, a wild angel appears in essentially a clown car. I was trying to remember if we've seen Angel in this car before. I feel like maybe. It reminds me so much of Columbus cars. But it's smaller. Yeah. It's shorter, like a stubbier.

Is Columbus car convertible? Yes, I don't. It is. OK. It's almost always with the hood up. But yeah, it is convertible. Yeah, this one, this one has the top down or maybe is missing the top. I think it's missing the top. Columbus car is in better condition than this one.

And that's saying something about this car. So this episode is good looks for Angel. I mean, he always has good looks. It's been a long running thing. He just he's just so himself that he always like looks pretty good. But these these ensembles. Hmm, so good. The camel suit with the brown driving gloves and yeah, the little sunglasses with his hair pulled back. Yeah. And like big lapels. Can I? OK, I know I keep I know I keep interrupting this with things that should be in plus expenses.

But another thing we've seen since last we talked was Future World. That's the sequel to Westworld, the movie from the 70s. And I'm just going to recommend it not because of being like a great film or anything like that, but Stuart Margulins in it. He has a good role and he is so very much angel in Future World. That's all I'm going to give you. Good to know. About now is when some contractors came by to do something right outside where I record. So if there are additional noises through the rest of this episode, I'm doing my best to keep those under control.

Hopefully they're construction contractors and not mafia contractors. Well, I mean, as far as I know. Anyway, Angel looks great. So the things that Angel says I cannot believe are scripted because they're so. Yeah, like me quick. So quick. Yeah. The deflying by but you still get just enough to know that it's really funny.

I don't know. He's a true master of his craft. But the the long and short. This is a real watch this scene. This episode is a pretty good, like just watch the episode. Like there's a lot of stuff in it that's like good dialogue, good delivery, you know, kind of stuff that we're not really going to get into the details of. But the broad strokes here are that as we will learn by the end of this scene, Bri turns out to be a reporter and she has a column in a local paper. And

she wrote a story based on her conversation with Jim. Jim Brie, The Movie Jim Brie, The Movie I'm going to tell based on your life. You and Booker. A friendship forged in the grim confines of prison. Spanning more than 20 years. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Story of loyalty and confatitude. Jim Brie, The Movie Oh, let me see that. You know, if I hadn't raxikorsky's paper this morning, I'd have missed the whole story.

Then where'd you be? He's on a tight schedule. He doesn't even have time for a cup of Joe and Jim says, good, because I'm not offering you one. Yeah. But he's been in touch with all the major film studios. By the end of the day, someone's going to option the project. Angel then goes back out to his car and jumps in, talking my own minute.

I know you, man. I've seen you let Opportunity Boogie on by more than once. Well, I'm not catching no L train. You just chill. I'll bring in the grip. Oh, yeah, it's a great line. The only other exchange in this that I just want to highlight is this moment where Angel goes, I trust you, you trust me. And Jim just says, when did that happen? So good. Yeah, it's definitely

a watch it scene. Lots of good angel stuff. Partway through this, I was like, is this business, if they're just giving Angel to do? Or is it like, is it going to kind of collide with the story? And it's a little bit of both really. It's, But yeah, this is good. There's a good scene where like all the things we've been watching do come together. But it's not only because the plot demands it, it's more because it's that it's a nice narrative beat, which is fine, which is all it needs. But yeah. All right. So Jim and Dennis, back at the station, they are both mad. Dennis is mad because Jim didn't tell Dennis that he was taking over Booker's Cases. And Jim is mad because Dennis didn't tell Jim

that Brie was a reporter. We then have a fabulous Jack Garner appearance, Captain McEnroe in his role in these movies, who I think we saw briefly in the last movie right at the end. He has a couple of good bits here, but he wants to talk to Becker. So Jim is getting very pointed, funny looks from everyone in the background, all the cops walking by him.

At first, it's kind of like, I guess just because he and Becker, they're yelling at each other in the middle of the station. So there's that. Yeah. Sally drives at home though. Sally drives at home. So I didn't take notes about Sally because Sally is kind of a gag and has been a running gag through multiple movies. I double check. Oh, really? Her credit is in the last four movies. So like she's I remember her vaguely.

Yeah. Sally is this elderly woman who's always at the station because she's always there to confess to something. Oh, right. Yeah. She has some like mental condition where like, like she always wants to give her turn herself in for stuff or whatever they're looking for at the moment. And so she's kind of like a mascot. She's always there and everyone is nice to her and she's she's always knitting so in this episode or in this movie She keeps on walking up behind Becker and measuring him. Yes Anyway, it's a bit and I was like, I didn't really take any notes about it. There's a button on Sally later Yeah, that I was gonna talk about her then but yes Sally does say something like I'm disappointed in you

I think or like we're all very disappointed in you or something along those lines. Yeah. And we obviously don't know why yet. Yeah. So the captain tells Becker that if if Rockford is there officially, Commander Gage wants to handle it, but if it's social, get him the hell out of here. So Becker goes back to Jim. Why are you so mad at me?

Becker goes off. You think I get a pass because I'm your friend, but every other cop you have contempt for. And starts talking about Hollis and Lopez. There's been no complaints on them. They have nothing but commendations. Jim does not know what he's talking about. Hollis and Lopez were mentioned,

like they're the officers that Val had the complaint for, right? Yeah, the two, the photographs. Yeah, the two, the photographs from the beginning. As a viewer, I'm like, oh, so these are starting to collide here. Yeah. This must be one of Booker's cases. Perhaps he was the one taking those pictures. But Jim has no idea, because he hasn't even

had time to go through the files. He told Booker to take his cases, but he hasn't even looked at them yet. Becker says, find the time. So before internal affairs had a chance to investigate the complaint, the story was in all the papers. And now there's a citizens committee that's been formed that's also investigating these two officers.

And so the citizens committee investigation was one of Booker's cases. So it's a little unclear. So I guess he didn't take those pictures. It's a little unclear until later in the movie, but Booker was working theoretically for the Citizens Committee. So the pictures were taken before that. They were just part of what happened before that. Yeah, yeah. No, it would have to be. Yeah, he couldn't have been involved in the picture taken because then he would know what's up Right, right. Yeah, but yeah, so the point is since Jim's taking his cases now He's taking the citizens committee investigation case

So every cop in the department figures out figures you're out to nail two of LA's finest Dennis says is off the record. I keep a real low profile if I were you Dennis says this off the record. I keep a real low profile if I were you. Jim, of course, needs to get some clarity here. He goes back to Booker's place and the neighbor who gave him the stink eye last time says that they're gone. He's gone. He went this morning and we have a gag here where Jim thinks that she's talking about him dying. Yes.

But what she's actually talking about is they moved. I think he says, is there going to be any service? And she says, what, like an open house? Are you saying they moved? Yes, they moved. What have we been talking about? But she specifically says, Leti was crying all week and Jim's knows how she feels. So we go to Booker and Leti in a car pulling into a motel, bunch of stuff strapped up on top of it. Letty is upset. Booker sent Jim into a mess and didn't even warn him. Booker says, like they, they, whoever they are, damn near killed him, killed Booker. If he stayed in, he'd be hurt or arrested or both and Jim can take care of himself.

He can talk himself out of damn near anything. Joking the cut here to Jim getting pulled over. And first of multiple instances of police harassment. The joke here is very well crafted. Like, the pacing is great. You know exactly what's going to happen right before it happens. So it's very, it's very satisfying to see it happen. It's very funny. But yeah, Jim gets pulled over. Why did you pull me over? Your front wheels were in the crosswalk. It's a moving violation. How was it a moving violation? If it wasn't moving, it's like, can I see your license? Why do you need to see my license? What are you charging me with?

I'm not on the case, sir. I am not working for the Citizens Committee and I'm not investigating Hollis and Lopez. This case that you're not working on? Do you think it has something to do with why you're being cited? It's a very serious charge, Mr. Rockford. You would stop for a violation of the Motor Vehicle Code. I don't know who you are, the nature of your business. You just addressed me as Mr. Rockford. It's on your driver's license.

Which I haven't shown you yet. I can't wait to see how you guys play this one. Cut to Jim at the station getting bailed out by Harve. So I guess Harve, if Harve is imaginary. Yeah, I guess he has to exist. Harve is the life that Jim wants to be leading right now. Which is having lunch by himself at the sand castle. How do you know where to find me? Well, I knew where you'd be because I didn't show up to the lunch. Yes. But this time he had the prime rib and Jim goes for lunch.

We're really missing Beth and Coop right now. I'm just saying you could really use one or the other of these. Yeah. I mean, I like Harv. At first, I thought he was going to be an angel, right? Right. But he turns out to be like a coop. Like more. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like throughout this episode, I keep waiting for Harv to like get dollar signs in his eyes or something like that. But no. Or like sell Jim out for something by accident or because he's bitter about being stood up for lunch or something. But he turns out he's just about being stood up for lunch or something.

But he turns out he's just a buddy. And we actually, it looks like we see their friendship happen over the course of this movie, which might be one of the best parts. He's carrying a fishing pole when we first see him. And I just, my assumption is that he and Harv probably fish off that pier from time to time. And Jim like asked him to watch the thing. Like, yeah, exactly. So it's it's they're becoming close. He's close enough to be like, hey, can you keep an eye on my place? Because I know you'll be here, but not close enough to have a key, right? Yeah. Anyway, yeah, so he gets he gets hard hard, like, that's a good thing. I had enough money on me, which is always good. Um, all right, this becomes a very chaotic scene with a lot of cross talking and everyone

being mad about something and then finally getting to where we find out what's going on. Becker and Bree come storing through. Jim, you know, wants to talk to Becker and wants to talk to Bree, so he glombs on to them. Becker has no comment to Bree. Bree wants to talk to Jim. Jim's been in jail because of her column and wants to them. Becker has no comment to Bree. Bree wants to talk to Jim. Jim's been in jail because of her column and wants to talk to Becker.

We then finally meet this aforementioned Commander Gage, who yells, Rockford, what the hell are you doing here? I actually think this would be a Lieutenant Deal kind of role. So we're missing Tom Atkins a little bit here. I mean, this guy's, this is fine, like Commander Gage is fine. Yeah. But in terms of if we're going to talk about missing characters, not really a great Chapman role, but a good deal for this story. Gage is played by, I'm not going to be able to do his last name, Dan Lorena. Lorea.

Lorea. Let's say Dan Luria. He's the dad from Wonder Years, if you remember the Wonder Years. This is like one of those people that was born looking like. Looking like a dad. Yeah, looking like a dad, looking like disappointed in you. That's all. He looks very, he does a very good. I'm disappointed in you, Rockford, which is different from I love you. Yeah, right. Well, and also as we kind of learned, he doesn't really know rock like he kind of knows

of Rockford, but it seems like they haven't actually really like been in each other's orbit before. So Becker tries to like downplay it and explain and Jim just waves them off with this great like talk to the hand like motion as he walks away I am here to file a complaint Gage is about to blow a stack and then Becker introduces Brie the reporter He like bites his lip like you know swallows what he was going to say And he like puts his hand over her tape recorder to turn it off and then as Jim starts talking She comes in and turns it on again to get his comments, which is pretty funny.

Gage says, he'll look into what happened to Jim. I'm sure we can come to a mutually agreeable resolution of this conflict or something, right? Like very like, yeah, politic. Jim wants Brie to print a retraction of her story. He is not on the case. And he gives a quote. You can quote me on this about Booker being a self-serving scam artist. We go outside Harvey. So Harvey

was kind of on the periphery of this whole thing. He goes outside with Harvey and he's like, how much trouble are you in? And Jim goes down the line of all the things that he is currently in trouble for and ends with, I can't wait to see what lands on me next. It's another good joke in the cut here to a strip club. Or plot thickens. We're cutting to chicken or the egg situation. Like is this a strip club in a Chinese restaurant or a Chinese restaurant in a strip club? I don't know.

But it's some combination of the two. As we learned, this is the Gold Pagoda. So if we were watching a movie that had the original working title of Shoot Out At The Gold Pagoda, then we would be primed for this. But unfortunately... Yeah, we'd be like, oh, this is going to matter. This place is going to matter. There is a hell of a group of goons here, goons in suits, all surrounding a guy with this wild, fully upright gray hair wearing this green and gold robe. And he just has all these plates of

little treats. He's just eating little treats through this whole thing. He has read an article about the citizens committee still investigating the vice cops. And he's like, you keep stirring. He wants the results to be that they're dirty cops. So this we will learn eventually, I don't think it's a huge spoiler. We will learn eventually that this is Buddha. Yes. And Buddha has a main goon, little Ciceroero who again is played by that guy Marco Rodriguez who has been in all the things but I probably recognized him because he was he was like a main goon for one of the one of the gang bosses in the crow so I probably recognized him from that because yes I've probably seen the crow almost as much as I've seen the fifth element. But yeah, he's been in one episode of every show.

Speaking of 90s soundtracks. The 90s soundtrack. Yeah. If you ask me. Anyway, here he is. Little Cicero. Buddha asks him about this shoe. Buddha has lots of weird slang. It's kind of like slang, but it sounds out of place to me.

Like it does sound like it's not even from the 70. Like it sounds like it's from the fifties. Yeah. Anyway, Rockford, the cops are doing nothing but hassling him. So Buddha doesn't want Jim getting close to that Hoochie. If he gets too close, do him like Booker Hutch, but permanent. So, OK, not to get too deep into all this but this character Probably problematic like I'm just gonna put that out. I didn't realize that this character was problematic until the final scene

Yeah, yeah, look there's well There's like six or seven reasons why this might be like there's going to be sure fat phobic stuff going on here Which is near the final scene or something. I think at some point they say that he's an albino. Yeah. When Jim tries to find him, yeah, he's referred to as the albino. And like, I don't think he's an albino. No, I don't think he is. And I think he's supposed to be a non Caucasian albino.

And that they're just having like a caucasian playing I don't know. I like yeah I don't know about that part. I do know I didn't realize that he was supposed to be like there is a fat phobic joke about him. I didn't realize he was supposed to be fat like I just thought he was just in a big robe. Yeah he was just sitting down in a robe like that's it yeah. That feels very of its time of like oh this person who's slightly larger than normal in a role. Yeah. Obviously, he's the fat guy and I'm like, I don't think he's fat.

Yeah. Anyway, he's not great. Like also like his delivery of all the things in this episode that are really fun. The idea of this character is fun, but this particular casting doesn't really work for me. Just he doesn't seem committed to the character. He really feels like he's reading lines, I guess is all. I'm is what I got out of it. We have been privy to many, many great mob leaders in the Rockford files.

And this guy is not in that running. That's all. But we pretty much, I mean, we want to see him a couple of times. Yeah, he's not he's not all over the episode. But this does give us as, you know, watching like, okay, so there's something going on that's more complex than dirty cops. Yeah. There's kind of some kind of plan that is being enacted.

Yeah. And it's putting Jim in danger. Yeah. I think this becomes explicit a little bit later on But this also does part of what we were talking about early where we we got from Booker that He was beaten within an inch of his life or something like that the they there is the cops did not do that It was right right as people. Yeah goons. Yeah Yeah It was right right as people. Yeah, goons. Yeah. Yeah.

We get our ominous note of danger here and then we go back to Harvon gym on the beach. I believe I believe with fishing poles again. Yeah, living their good life. Let's see how the day shapes up before making another lunch date. Yeah. It's good because Angel appears again. He's talking on his cell phone while driving this clearly not very mechanically sound car directly into the no parking sign outside the restaurant and getting us stuck in the sand.

And we have a great, great rock fruit line. When Angel Martin starts your day, there's only one word for it. Ominous. It is good. It is very good. Again, so much good banter here with Angel about how good things are looking for the motion picture project. Jim finally says he has no interest in his life being a movie story. Even if Clint Eastwood plays you, he goes, Clint. But he does finally tell Angel that he's not taking Booker's cases. Angel, that's the whole reason Detra of the movie. Yes, reason Detra.

You're dumping a friendship forge in the Grimcon finds a prison? Consider it dumped. Compassion? Clint Eastwood? Nobody dumped Clint Eastwood. Considering the fact that you invented his interest, I am certain that you can invent an apology for me. A little while later, we get like a list of other celebrities that are theoretically interested. In Angel's head that they're interested in the role. And I find it, I was both hoping for and dreading that James Gardner would be on the list.

I don't know why I really don't want that kind of fourth wall breaking, you know, Rockford files. But then again, if they had done it, I would have laughed and forgiven them right away. So it was just that, you know. It probably would have been like a, maybe James Gardner and they'd be like, ah, James Gardner is too- Too old for that. Or he's still acting, you know, it probably would have been like, maybe James Garner and they'd be like, ah, James Garner is too too old for that. Yeah. Yeah. Or he's still acting, you know,

like it would be something like that. Not with his bad knees. Yeah, exactly. Anyway, Jim tells Angel he was promised a retraction and he's going to make sure he gets it. Part of the bit with Angel is he's always bringing the newspaper because it's like first thing in the morning or by the first thing in the morning. But he's been bringing the newspapers with him because that's where he's getting all this all his ideas. So Jim is taking his newspaper to look for the retraction. We then follow him back to the cop bar still getting lots of stink eye giving us idea that perhaps there has been no retraction. Brie is there for some reason. Her paper said that's where she was going to be, so that's how Jim found her. He read her column

four times and still hasn't found the retraction. She said something about how her writing is subtle. It's like, your subtlety must be too much for me. There's a whole line. Mr. Rockford declines all praise for his selfless and devoted efforts on behalf of his friend. So Jim, of course, does not consider this a retraction. He throws down all these minor traffic tickets he's been receiving and tells her to pay him out of her expense account because he's only getting them because of her. Going 17 in a 15 mile prior zone, I didn't even know radar guns could go that low Are you charging police harassment? He's like no

He's like what do you what do you say? He's looking around. He's like the right here. Yeah Yeah, this lens a whole new dimension to the story. How many tickets and he starts taking them back I'll pay them because he doesn't want the story to continue as she says he has no narrative sense at all All he wants is for it to print a real retraction, say that he's not working for the committee, he's not trying to sing the police. The only thing I'm working on is trying to find Booker Hutch so I can beat him to his knees. She says she'll print a retraction tomorrow, he says fine,

today would be better, but he can lay low for another 24 hours. So Jim to traffic school, where he has been remanded for one of these minor cases His car gets bumped from behind by some kid driving a car like a you know, Donald 17 year old or something The cops are immediately there and this is clearly staged. Yes The kids say he backed into me and the Jim's like I'm clearly not at fault here You hit me from behind and the cops like you'll both have a chance to make your case in court and Jim just looks at him. He's like, for the record, I'm off the case. So yeah, so this is clear police harassment, obviously. And that's kind of

the joke, right? That he's going to harass because they think he's, you know, he's part of this effort to tar two of their finest with a, you know, with this brush. And it's like, it kind of sucks both ways. If the guys are dirty, it sucks because it's thin blue line stuff, right? It's like no one can criticize us even if we are doing horrible things. And if the two cops aren't dirty, then it's just blatant abuse of power.

Right, yeah, it's wrong no matter what. Which is fine if it's like part of the story, but there's something about this episode where it's a joke. Yeah, there's no real consequences for it because Jim in the end teams up with the cops, right? And like all forgiven. It's not what I would prefer because if nothing else, at least the 70s rock for file series did consider things like police corruption as elements of issue episodes and did address them with moral clarity, even if the story does always end up with like the bad guys go to jail, etc. I just don't have that sense in this episode. I mean, and I think the thing that kind of really digs in, rather than just like being like, oh, this is this,

and then let, yeah, whatever, is that, I mean, Jim is older now, but we tune into the Rockford files to some extent to see Jim see an injustice and dig his heels in. That is the- That is one of his core character traits. Yeah, that is a core character trait. And like what he's doing every time in these scenes is trying to appease them.

Every time. Now, I'm not saying that Jim doesn't do that because there's this self preservation thing that Jim has going, like if a mobster has a, you know, a gun or is some threatening some sort of violence, he's like, okay, whatever you want, because it's better to remove myself from the situation than to like sacrifice myself on this altar. So yeah, but we don't get any of that either of those feels here. All we get is Jim, I wouldn't even characterize it as whiny, but it is a little whiny. He's a little petulant about it.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm off the case. Why are you harassing me? Instead of like, why would you harass anyone for doing this? Right. You've picked the wrong person to harass. Yeah. You know.

Yeah, I guess there's not a whole lot we could say on it aside from that. Yeah. But there's a couple notes later on where it gets a little, you know, the cops are the real heroes. Yeah. That kind of thing. But yeah. 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? You can find me at my website, dig1000holes.com. That's 1000th the number. Or you can find me as Epidia on the Mastodon instance, dice.camp or co-host. Where can our listeners find you Nathan?

All of my games, zines, podcast projects, and other work are at NDPdesign.com. You can also find me at NDP on co-host and over on Instagram at NDPdesign.games. And of course, you can always find this show, 200 a Day at 200aday.fireside.fm. And now we return to the continuing adventures of Jimmy Rocco. Our next scene, however, is going back to Angel on the beach. Again, this is fun to watch

because we like watching Angel. Going back through it now, It's a bit of a filler This is a bit of a scene but Angel does have this great combo where he's on the payphone He also has a cell phone. So he's switching between them Also, he's given the number in the restaurant and the guy who runs the restaurant comes out It's like you can't have people use my restaurant phone for your business You've never even paid for a cup of coffee. Like, come on, Angel. I'm going inside and I'm hanging up. Oh, don't hang up.

I don't even know who's calling. What? Jimmy, I'll never forgive you if you hang up. Oh, please. Hold on one second, please. I'll be right with you. Don't hang up. Jimmy, Jimmy, can you get that phone in your trailer?

And if it's anybody by Mel Gibson, hang up because I don't want to tap the line. Ooh, that could be Tom Hanks. Put him on hold, Critch. I should have said Sharon Stone. So my question here, I mean, again, it's a funny scene. He keeps straight, this is where he's dropping all these A-Lister names.

But my question here was like, who is he conning? Yeah. He's already making things up, but I'm like, for whose benefit? I mean, I get that he is trying to run a con on someone. I mean, it could be that he's just trying to get these people to think that other A-List, you know, actors are all competing.

I guess I'm just curious about like, who's actually on the phone, right? Yeah, because yeah, like one of the people he talks to he talks to them like they're a Subordinate of his why aren't you in that meeting right now or you know that kind of thing? Yeah, I don't know I mean, it's funny, but yeah, it's just kind of like yeah, all right angels making deals. I guess What also happens here is Jim comes back, I guess, from traffic school. And there's this couple waiting outside his trailer. A woman wants to get her picture.

She cried when she read in the article about his story. Her husband is like, I can't believe you made me drive an hour and a half to take a picture of this guy's cheesy trailer. She says it's history. I read it in the newspaper. It was published. That makes it history. And she wants a picture with Jim. I kind of thought there'd be a little more of this. Yeah. Another pressure on Jim of people like wanting to get photographs or anything. Yeah, get close to him. It's mostly, I think it's just the scene, but you know, it's it makes the point. It's kind of funny. Angel intercepts Jim as he's going into the trailer.

He's still there because his car stuck. He needs Jim's triple A card and Jim's like Angel and he cuts him off. It's the card, the car or the couch. Yeah. It's a good life. The woman, you know, gets her picture. She asked Jim, can you smile? And he says, not with any sincerity.

We go to evening and Jim is calling Brie. He wants her to can the retraction. Yeah. He's mad as hell. And she says, and you're not going to take it anymore. So I was a little confused. I was like, what happened to change his mind? But as we get

through this, I guess I pick up why he's doing this. Jim Wansbury to enter next story, say that he is taking Booker's cases with special attention to the sexual harassment charges that have been made against the police department. He doesn't see how it's going to make anything worse because nobody hurts a star. He's like, what? He's like, well, Angel Martin is shopping my story all over town. It's going to be in your local multiplex by the fall. And make sure you put that in too. And I was like, okay. Yeah. For some reason, he wants to see this idea of the movie. They're making a movie of him.

I was trying to figure it out too because it's like, okay, so there's three things that could be going on here. And it's probably a combination of the three. Like number one, it's a classic Rockford. I'm not taking the case. I'm not taking the case. I'm not taking the case. Okay, you've upset me enough. I have to take the case. Right. Like that's a trope throughout the Rockford files. Usually doesn't take us the half of a TV movie to get there, but we got there. Yep. There's also a, you know, maybe I'm going to get some protection from the cops because they realize that now... There'll be more of a spotlight on them, kind of?

Yeah. When they found out that she was a reporter, they shut up, now they're going to do the same because there's going to be a movie about what's happening and they don't want the movie to be full of all these cops are asking me. And then the third which maybe it wasn't something I was thinking of at the time but like becomes clear as this the rest of the episode unfolds is I'm saying that there's a movie about this that might bring Booker out of hiding to get a piece of the action. I'm lighting up the bat signal with dollar signs.

Yes, exactly. The booker signal, if you will. The booker signal, yes. So we then go to Jim going to find and talk to Val, the woman who made the complaint. She lets him in after looking at his card. She's clearly packing packing the apartment. So a thing from the her initial complaint, which he says, like, I'm a single

mother, I'm working when these guys are doing this to me, they're really impacting my my family, right? So that was already mentioned. And then Jim comes in kind of wants to ask her some questions. And she says, I don't know if I wanna answer any questions. I think they established that he overheard her make the initial complaint or whatever, cause she remembers the line about restraint of trade. Yeah, you're really funny.

Anyway, her son isn't there. And then she's like, I don't know if I wanna talk to you anymore, and Jim says that, well, you already told me a lot. You already sent your son somewhere for protection. That tells me you're worried. You got him out of town. And he thinks that she was pressured into making those charges. He says, like, women, like, you know what you're getting into with that. You know what kind of result this kind of charge is going to have for them, but also for you, right? You know, there's going to be blowback on you. So

you must have gotten pressured into it. And Jim doesn't know who's behind it. But if they, whoever they are, learn that their leverage with her is gone because her son is not there anymore, that could be bad for her. She has to think about it. She hears a metal sound. She's clearly in a high state of tension. Soettin' agitation. Yeah. Yeah. So, here's something out back. It sounds like the door to their alley that sometimes people come in.

She has them checked. He doesn't see anything. She says she doesn't know what to do. Whatever she decides to do is going to be wrong. And then she says, and Buddha is unforgiving. And you know, I'm like, oh, okay. So, that guy must be Buddha. Yes.

Jim proposes that she should go talk to Becker again, says that he's a good cop. If she's straight with him, he'll be straight with her. And we have a gag here. She might want the heat he's carrying. And she says, why, you don't have a gun? He says, well, I have a gun, but I leave it at home in the cookie jar.

We then go to ominous slash kind of action music as we watch Jim take her bag, take it to his car. Then she kind of runs over to get in his car. And then we cut to seeing the eyes of our goon little Cicero over a steering wheel. Uh-oh. They start to leave and he just zooms out of an alley that's kind of facing onto the street. Rams the front of Jim's car. It knocks both of them unconscious. You know, his crew rolls up in another car.

They pull Val out of the car, take her away and leave Jim bleeding from the head unconscious in the fight. In the dramatic peak of the episode. Yes. Yeah, the things turn pretty dark here. It's dark for the characters, and it's dark for us because I was anticipating a car chase, and we got not that, but that's fine. Just another totaled firebird. Keep racking them up. But yeah, this is punctuated by a scene,

a short scene of cops walking around with flashlights, searching an area, finding a bare foot, and then seeing that indeed, poor Val is dead. And we have a close up of the hand reaching into her jacket pocket and pulling out Jim's card, all bloodstained. Marshall They nailed them. They found the culprit. Marshall They found the culprit. We then go to Jim waking up in the hospital and guess who's waiting for him? Booker. So we kind of have Jim and Booker hashing it out. Jim fills in our supposition.

Jim knows he's there to cut himself into the movie deal. He gave Bree that item to smoke him out and knew he wouldn't be able to resist it. And Booker's like, I don't know what you're talking about. I didn't even see that. I'm just, I saw what happened to you on the news. Sorry. Sorry doesn't even come close to cutting it, Booker.

Jim, I didn't want this to happen. I had no choice. Hot, cold, up, down, paper plastic. We all have choices. You made one. You figured my butt would look better in a sling than yours. I mean, you suckered me into taking a case. I still haven't figured out. And you used Letty to do it. She gave a great performance.

Yes. Agreed. So Booker can make up for it by telling Jim what's going on. So it turns out that Booker himself was subcontracted onto the citizens board in Corey case by another PI who then like went to the hospital for emergency no surgery or something. So he turfed it out. And then Booker, once things got hot, dumped it on Jim. I think he mentions Val. Jim asks if she was on the news. She was in the car with him. And Booker reveals to Jim that they found her dead. They pulled her out of the water in a drainage canal. Jim shouldn't have gone near her. That's what Booker did and he paid for it. Six guys with a guy named Cicero calling the shots beat him up. Jim wants Booker to get out of town. Do you know what that would do for my reputation? Only improve it. By now Jim is up out of bed. He has a big bandage on his head where he's bleeding.

But you know, if that's not going to keep him down, he turns around to start taking off the hospital gown to change. He's telling Booker, okay, let's take everything we both know, go to the cops, get them on my side for once. So he says that we're seeing Booker over Jim's shoulder. And when he says, let's go to the cops, his face his face just goes like, Oh, no, no, no, no. Absolutely not. And he just walks out of the door. And so Jim keeps talking and then turns around and Booker's gone. It's a good bit. It's good bit. Yeah. Jim, of course, goes to talk to Be, tells Becker everything that's happened, and says something like, and that's why the two cops are getting framed. Becker's like, wait, you agree that they're being framed?

Aha, weren't expecting that, were you? He says, you know, it's really sad what happened to Val. She was a Buddhist. Did you know that? There's this whole thing establishing that Jim is like, oh, when she mentioned Buddha, it's because she's a Buddhist. Yeah. It's a little awkward. It feels a little shoehorned in.

Yeah. It wouldn't be awkward if it wasn't a Rockford Files. I think it's what it is. Because usually they're pretty good at that kind of stuff. Like, even if it was like she mentioned Buddha and maybe, and as like, maybe she was Buddhist. I feel like there's even a more like a smoother way to to create that. It's not uncertainty for us, but I guess uncertainty for Jim. Yeah. There's Richard Geer joke. I don't know any Buddhist. There's Richard Geer. He's a Buddhist. I don't know Richard Geer. I mean, what's her name? Must have been Buddhist at some point, right? Well, I mean, I've been the title of the episode is Quicky Nirvana, right?

Oh, Sky. Yes, yes. Yeah, but it's been some years. It's been like 20 years. Commander Gage makes an appearance, yelling about getting a decent cup of coffee around here. Sees Jim. Thought we had you on ice down at County General.

Jim says, I'm a fast healer. Jim wants to talk to Holis and Lopez, the detectives. Gage can't turn him down as the official representative of the city's citizens committee. There's a gag about Jim's movie career. So we finally have a sit-down, Hollis and Lopez, Jim, Dennis, and Gage, I suppose. So he wants to know their story. And it's that they got a verbal tip from another person that Val wanted to talk to them. And now that other person denies that that happened. Val saw them. She started acting scared. She said that she was worrying about her pimp, seeing them talking. And she feeds them a story that gets them to act the way that

whoever took those pictures wanted them to act. It's all one frame up. Her pimp is little Cicero. He's apparently notoriously violent. It makes sense that she would be afraid of him. Jim wants to try and find him and they say, well, we don't think you should look for him. But if you have to, you know, like his street or any strip joint in town or in Detroit fight in the crow or in Detroit on Devil's night Yeah, yes. Yeah, so we have no I mean, I guess there could be like a double reveal like sure They're framed with they're also dirty or something, you know, like but that's not the sense I get This is the thing right at this point

I think we as the audience are supposed to breathe a sigh of relief. Yes. Yeah. That's what it feels like. And I just feel slightly disappointed that's all. Yeah. However, this disappointment is offset by the fact that Jim and Dennis are going to go on the beat together, which is mm hmm. We have some Jim and Dennis buddy cop action, I suppose buddy investigation action. We come to them arriving at the Gold Pagoda. We have some dialogue. They've hit eight strip clubs so far. Everyone knows who Cicero is, but doesn't know when he'll be around.

Dennis invited himself along on this one. He didn't have to come, but Dennis says it's official police business and he wants to come into the place this time. And Jim wants a shot at getting some info. They'll make Dennis the second he comes through the door, but he got to stay out here. Plus, I like knowing that someone is covering my back. So we go inside, you know, we see Jim, my notes are appreciating the scenery in the strip club as he comes through.

It would make sense for him to act like a customer, right? Because that's kind of what he's doing. But it was just, I don't know, it was kind of a funny note. He talks to, I guess the DJ, I eventually figured out, I'm like, who's that guy standing there? Because the frame is the cameras and kind of a weird spot. But I think he's the DJ is holding his headphones in his hand at some point. And so you yeah, the music, by the way, his headphones in his hand at some point. And so you, yeah, the music, by the way. It's my boy.

You got this. All right. It's again, should have said the point. He's trying to find a customer says talk to the boss, Mr. Brown, the albino. And we see over Jim Schruel, he like looks and there's like a little alcove. And that's where the guy is.

And then the DJ is like, you have a problem with that? It's like, okay. It's very weird. But yes, this is Buddha. He's in the same outfit. Like he's in the same green robes and everything. Every time we've come into his space, there's like a couple of women dancing,

like just directly in front of him, and then he motions him away for whatever his business is. Jim wants to talk to little Cicero. There's this long pause, and then Buddha says, he don't hang here. It makes a little motion, and one of his goons is like, Mr. Brown would like me to escort you to your car. Jim, that's a good thing. I've been able to do that on my own for years now. But as he leaves, he just happens to see Cicero coming out of it, like out of a hallway, kind of behind the DJ.

He sees Cicero. Cicero sees him. They both realize who the other one is, and they both start running. Jim yells to Dennis, he's going out the back, block him. But Dennis is just barely too slow and Cicero comes shooting out of the back in his own car, hits the front end of Dennis's car, which pops his tire.

So there's again, no car chase for us. But some smash him ups. Some smash him ups. Becker is mad. Despite Jim saying, you almost got him. You were almost in time. I'm going to put a good word in for you. Something you can crow about. Dennis, do you see me crowing? All this stuff has jarred his memory. And Jim remembers seeing that face in the car that rammed them. Becker will be bringing in not just Val's pimp, but her murderer.

Her murderer. Her murderer. That's easy to say. Her murderer. Back at the station, Becker is going to see Gage. He's intercepted by Captain Mackenrow, who wants to know why he learns about everything going on in the department in the news over his morning croissant and coffee or whatever. He has witnesses that say that Becker is leaky info to that Lambert woman, and he wants to know what he's what he's told her. And Becker says no comment. And then there's a gag about what do you mean? No comment. I told her no comment. Not I told you no kind of.

Yeah. Yeah. Who's on first? Yeah, it's a who's on first gag. So putting a little pressure on on Becker. But Becker does get gage for a few minutes, explains they have a positive ID and witness for little Cicero in the car. Becker is going to need a loaner for a couple of weeks. Yeah. Gage says you trashed department property, but you get an eyewitness.

Guess that's a fair trade. And we end with this kind of weird exchange. All I need is to find a smoking gun for Little Cicero. And Gage says, you will. Is that a vote of confidence or is that a like, we'll manufacture this if we have to? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Or like you will or you lose your job. Kind of. Oh yeah. That could be the other thing. Yeah. Yeah. It doesn't go anywhere, but it was just like the line delivery. I was like, oh, that's awfully intense. It doesn't go anywhere, but it was just like the line delivery. I was like, huh, that's awfully intense.

Okay. Boy, this next scene is a screwball comedy dropped into the middle of our Yes. Rockford Files movie, which is not necessarily unprecedented, but the structure of this particular scene is like, it's, it's fun. It's really fun. I'm not trying to say it shouldn't be here. It's just as I'm kind of like sk scene is like. It's fun. It's really fun. I'm not trying to say it shouldn't be here. It's just as I'm kind of like skimming my notes.

It's like, um, have you seen Faulty Towers? Mm-hmm. It kind of is like Faulty Towers where like it just builds and builds with all these like all these callbacks, like all these like, uh, uh, iterating factors until just Crescendos. It's not it doesn't Cresendo funny like the Crescendos actually a counterpoint. Right. Almost spooky. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's I like the scene. It's fun. It's it starts off feeling like a screwball comedy.

It progresses into this dark comedy thing. It's not directly on the tail of, but we're still kind of like, this woman has been killed. Right. And that's like the last of it that we're really going to care about. Deal with in there. Yeah. So I think before we started recording, I think I was saying that this is maybe the most feels like a 70s episode of the movies we've watched so far.

And specifically, like a 70s episode, that is a romp. Yes. A lot of this stuff happens, there's lots of good jokes, a lot of it is very funny and rye. There's a plot and maybe something serious happens, but that's not why we're here. And that's kind of this whole episode. Epi, tell us what happened in the scene. Okay. Don't have the, the right of the, you have, so, uh, Jim and Brianna, sorry,

Brienne, Brienne are going to, uh, I can't remember the name of the restaurant now. The, the one next to it. The sandcastle. The sandcastle. Yes. Thank you. What's going to happen is everyone that we've ever met in this episode is going to show up at the sandcastle. And Jim is going to go through a lot of trouble trying to make sure that they don't run into each other, right?

So it shows up with her first and then I think Booker shows up next and then Angel shows up, I think is the order that it The angel shows up, I think is the order that it takes place in. And each time someone shows up, Jim excuses himself from the table and tries to intercept. And there's reason for this, right? Like this is the fox, the geese and the grain that you're trying to get across the boat with the boat. Jim, yeah, Jim doesn't want pre-detect to anyone. There's going to be some banging on this, I apologize. Yeah, he doesn't want pre-detect to anyone.

Doesn't want Booker to talk to Angel. Doesn't want Angel to talk to Booker. And Harv isn't involved, but Jim feels bad, so he wants to apologize to Harv. Yes, I forgot about Harv. Yes. Yeah, because Harv is eating alone on the heels of all these broken lunch dates. This is also where Harv is very specifically reading

the brand new publication from bestselling author Stephen Cannell called King Con. This book came out like the summer that they were doing post-production on the movie or that they're wrapping production on the movie. Nice.'re wrapping production on the movie. Nice. I made a note to see if my local library has King Kong to check out and read. I'm going to check mine.

You know, so there's lots of good gags here. Okay. So, Bree and Jim, you know, are the first pair to launch this whole thing. And Bree says, is your life always like this? I mean, I know it must be exhausting, but it makes for great copy. She's really high on the story. She says Pulitzer has been mentioned. And Jim, this is when Jim sees Harv and goes over to apologize to him. So Jim is explaining he's having a business meeting, you know, it's a business dinner or he'd invite Harv, etc. Yeah, that's why he sees Booker

You didn't really expect me to go walk in his summer police station under my own steam. I had to split You can understand that but you're here for me now to the wall oracle What are you doing? I'm watching for your nose to grow He specifically says that Booker is paying for anything he orders like you sit down and wait order something But you're paying for it. Okay, like right This whole whole thing is also punctuated by the owner of the restaurant being like Jim I need my tables. This is the business time and just like just one minute Just don't sit them together. Do you want me to put you all at one big table? No

it. Just don't sit them together. Do you want me to put you all at one big table? No. No. But here's the thing that I thought was kind of the note here where Brie gets increasingly irritated that Jim keeps leaving. So during this time she's ordered a bottle of wine. She's drunk the entire bottle of wine by herself and he hasn't even really been gone that long, honestly. We can talk rain check tomorrow but right right now you're going to have to leave. What does that mean? The dinner date from hell doesn't include dinner? There's a certain urgency here. Yeah, I picked up on that.

Yes. And I'm like, dinner date from hell, you want to interview him for your column. She has this line about like, I don't like eating alone. That she's like, we should order another bottle of wine because I don't mind drinking alone. Yeah, it's definitely a... It's a little wacky. It's wacky, yeah, yeah. So we've seen this in other Rockford Files things

where like somebody's trying, some woman is trying to spend some time with Jim and he's being distracted by a case or something. But this one is definitely like you said, screwball comedy feel to it, because it's just one thing after another and after another. Like trying to record a podcast and then suddenly somebody starts begging on the wall

and then the dog starts barking. Don't know what you're talking about. Call mnates with a phone call from Dennis. Now Dennis calls Jim, this is important, from a cell phone while on the road. I don't know why it never registered to me that Angel was using a cell phone and a pay phone. You know, like they had the whole moment

where Angel was using the cell phone, the pay phone, the sand dollars phone and Jim's phone all at once. And I was like, oh, cell phone, whatever, the angel would have a cell phone, the pay phone, the sand dollars phone and Jim's phone all at once. And I was like, oh, cell phone, whatever. The angel would have a cell phone. And I said, Demis has a cell phone. One hopes is being paid for by the department. Yeah. He's sending Jim protection. It's like, are you sitting by a window? Don't. Because don't. Yeah. While making his report to gauge, they they notice something. Little Cicero knows that Jim is the only witness that ties Cicero to Val's murder. Yes, so Jim's in trouble and he ends it

with this great line where he's like go home and don't forget to hit cookie jar and I think they then they stepped on their own feet here because I think Jim then explains for the sake of the audience what that means by like asking him what does he mean you know get my gun or I can't remember what exactly it was it's something like that yeah we've already established in this episode that it keeps the gun in the cookie jar so we're fine with that although we didn't see it he did say it yeah he told Val that he keeps the gun in his cookie jar yeah it, so I guess it's like, if you just tuned in for this for like the last half hour or something. Yeah, I guess, yeah. But it was good. I do love the go home and don't forget to hit the cookie jars. Just

that's going to be my go to phrase whenever I'm talking to a friend in trouble. We want a painless 2% and we want you to go home and don't forget to get the cookie jar. Don't forget to get the cookie jar. Yeah. So yeah get the cooking jar, yeah. So yeah, so he tries to hustle Bree out of there. This is where the dinner date from hell isn't even going to have dinner. She can go to her car or she can go to jail. He says the Malibu PD. Yes.

And they can hold you for 24 hours without charges. She says that he's being heavy-handed and sexist and she's going to write all about it. And Jim tries to explain to her like, you weren't there last night. I got hit by a car when I woke up, foul was gone and then they were fishing her out of a drainage pipe. These people play very hard and he doesn't want to see Brie get hurt or killed. That's when Booker pops up. He's there to back Jim up. Brie pulls out her recorder at this point And then we see that Angel is listening to them talk because he saw Jim leave. Yes.

Can't believe that he got walked out on because his whole thing is like the movie deal or whatever. Because he's like, Jim, you're trying to cut me out of the movie to do it with Booker, but he's out and I'm in. And Booker picks him up by the lapels. He's like, it's my movie too. Or it's my story too. And this is I love this. You're a composite.

Yeah. So this is all happening. Jim turns back around and Bree is gone. And this is obviously concerning. Jim's like, OK, we all split up, you know, take a third of the parking lot. Booker is there to back him up, you know, because Jim's like, there's no movie. And Booker's like, yeah, I'm here to back you up, you know, because Jim's like, there's no movie and bookers like, yeah, I'm here to back you up even though there's no movie. Sure. And then they turn around and Angel is gone, which honestly seems about right. But it is

framed to be ominous. Yeah. Yeah. Jim doesn't like what's happening. He's talking to Booker. He turns back around and instead of Booker is little Cicero with a gun. Yes. So, that's very serious, and then we cut to Becker driving with Smoke pouring out from under the hood of his loaner car, I guess. Yeah. And then when he parks, his bumper falls off, walka-walka. But the two vice detectives who had been sent down there to be protection for Jim run out of the restaurant

He's not there and the manager tells them how they all walked out together They all walked out of the restaurant together Jimmy the newspaper lady the big guy Jimmy did time with You know the one who's supposed to be dying and then right after them that scuzzy little guy. What's his name? Angel? Yeah, there were no reports of a disturbance. No sign of a struggle. That's right. They just walk out here and they're gone. Like an alien abduction. And then the music hits after the alien abduction line, and that's great too. Now, since we had this discussion at the top of the show, I'm realizing that this is probably X-Files commentary. Some X-Files influence.

Yeah, you could obviously mention alien abduction without the X-Files, but I think that like it's in the air because of that. It feels like a very 90s kind of reference to me. Yeah, exactly. All right. Well, as we might expect, our P Passil of Goons hustle them into the Gold Pagoda, which has a big close for renovation signs. So you know, something underhanded is going on. Angel's doing his angel thing. There's a mistake. You don't want to do this, etc. And he leads up

to I have a poker game at Poitiers house. And I don't know if either of you know how hysterical Sydney gets when someone's late. They are brought before Buddha, who is revealed to be Buddha by someone calling him Buddha. But Buddha's like, why did you grab all of them? That was stupid. Bree's going to get the newspaper on them as well as the cops. And then he says something like, ah, but no one's going to miss this guy, the angel. Angel tries to talk himself out of this by spreading this wild religious...

Right, because this guy's Buddha and Angel is Angel. I know by your blessed name that you're a man of Holy Spirit sent to aid and sustain those who wish to follow in your blessed footsteps on the path to salvation and enlightenment. I myself am called Angel. He told us he was going to play poker with City 48. A game of skill and simple pleasures, the money of which goes to the youth foundation of my church. Which is? Which is what?

Your church. What is your church? First E.M. The First Truth. Southern Buddhist. What is your church? First the first truth southern Buddhist We're also watered on a more plan now So this goon Throws angel to the side and then pulls out his gun like there's gonna shoot him right there I guess yeah, Jim grabs his arm, forces it up, shots fired into the air, pandemonium ensues.

So, you know, this is a very frenetic punch-em-up fight scene. My only note here really is that we get a cut to each of our characters to see their character in the fight. Yeah, I really want to be like, oh, this is a really fun fight to watch. And it's fun, it's fun. But Angel steals the show, I think, in a way that I honestly was not expecting at all.

Yeah, you can't even be mad about it. It's actually pretty funny. Like they're in a strip club and there's like, Angel's hiding under something on, you know, like crawling on the floor, trying to keep out of the way of the fight, as you would expect him to do. He does bite a guy's ankle, which is great. Because he doesn't have to. He just the most selfless act that he's ever done.

But then there's a woman crawling around, a stripper crawling around. By taking cover under the like bar area. Yeah. And the two of them hit it off. It's true love. They find love hiding in the middle of this gunfight. Angel kind of gets in front of her and is like, don't move. Yeah.

Other stuff happens and we cut back to them and he's like, okay, you can move a little. And she's like making bedroom eyes at him. It's like, okay. The cops bust in as Jim and Booker each have a goon up ready to punch. I sent you a screenshot. Becker yells freeze. They each look at each other and then deliver their respective punches. It's a good. It's good. The camaraderie of punching is strong. This is a friendship forged in prison.

Yes. So the other thing here is that as shots are going off, Buddha starts yelling, like, stop shooting. I don't have any cover. And he's just kind of sitting there and like, yeah, wiggling around. So I thought that this meant that he like, I don't know, that he was like disabled or something.

Like I thought that like, that was supposed to communicate. He's wearing a robe that goes over all the way to the floor. It turns out apparently he is too fat to move which doesn't seem right. It doesn't, doesn't appear right. It doesn't play well and I doubt it even played well back then. It's confusing and then it doesn't matter. Yeah, so it's just kind of mean. But yeah, otherwise, kind of a fun brawl. Like, it's just a nice, the kind of brawl you would name the episode after if you... Some kind of shootout, perhaps. Yeah, yeah. So it ends, we got this aftermath with the cops there. There's some business with trying to get Jim to go to the hospital and he doesn't want to go. I didn't actually take great notes on that because I was like,

it didn't occur to me that this was going to grow. It's pretty much it. They're like, you need to go back to the hospital. His head wound opened back up and he's like, I don't want to go. While everything's being kind of swept up and cleaned up, you know, like while the cops are, you know, arresting everyone and whatnot, Jim just falls asleep, which is, I'm gonna say one of the realest moments.

I can 100% believe like some of the other movies, I kind of like lean into the fact that they're old now, right? Like they're aging, obviously, you know, but this episode had a little moment with that with Booker, when he thought Booker was dying There's like this like well, we're getting to be of an age kind of thing But that was it that was it and this one definitely like yeah, he's old. He's tired like it's been through a lot today

Look at him I'm sleeping the sleep of the just Or the very very tired. We also get the resolution of our story. So, Hollison Lopez are there with Jim or with with Becker and they say that once they saw Buddha, everything made sense. They each missed a connection. Jim missed that Val was referring to a person, not her religion, and they missed that Cicero was a frontman for Buddha, not an independent operator. They have Buddha dead-bang on some drug charge. And if he got convicted, he's never coming out. He had multiple priors. So he had nothing

to lose having Cicero construct this frame to get the cops that had him, you know, dead threats on the charge, framed for corruption, throwing everything into confusion with the cops. And then at trial, defense could be that they were trying to frame him the way they framed Val, you know, like planted drugs, etc. Because they're corrupt. Yeah. So I guess that's our story. And yeah, after Jim falls asleep, we then go to our final scene in the Bracklin Hospital, a private facility in Beverly Hills. Very plush. Jim is in a bed with another bandage on his head, but it's a nice bed. It's a big room with flowers and big windows. Bree is serving champagne to Booker and Letty. So Jim in this scene is concerned a little bit about where he's at because he cannot

afford this hospital. He knows that. But the newspaper is going to pay for it because I guess he got them a good story or he's been selling a lot of papers lately. I remember food being brought in and it's going to be served and people start taking. I wasn't sure what the food was. Yeah, it's like a little like breakfast tray or something. Yeah, but like people started picking at it and I was like, is that for public consumption? Is that like, what's going on? Well, you know, it's Beverly Hills. They just have snacks. Yeah, exactly. We get a scene where now the cops are

Apologetic right like so gauge comes in captain gate captain commander gauge and and captain Mackinac. Yeah. Yeah, they come in They tell them maybe you're not the bum. I always thought you were and Dennis is like It was his own idea to come in to apologize. They have a photographer to take pictures. Yes, of people shaking hands with him and basically controlling the media or controlling the narrative, right?

Becker is pumped because he got an official commendation along with Lopez and Hollis. Yes. Good for them. That's what Decker gets instead of a raise every single time. And then we have the gag with Sally. Yeah. The sweater she's been working on, she gives to Jim.

It is, I mean, I want to see Jim in that sweater at some point. Not necessarily his color or his style. It's a very pale pink is what it is. It turns out that Bree's working on a book, I think called in the company of heroes or something like that. Yeah. And the joke is, Jim's like, Oh, I don't know if you would call me a hero. She's like, Oh, no, it's not about you. It's about the cops. Yeah, it's about the cops. We have a little button on Angel and his new girlfriend. Yes.

Because they come in together, tell Jim he's out of the movie because he doesn't want to be in it and then turn to Booker, hey, it's the Bookman. They tell Jim he'll be the composite. And Denzel Washington's interested in it. Denzel. Denzel is interested in it. And then everyone leaves and Harvey comes in. Or Harvey was there all along.

Just yeah, he's in the back just off a frame. He's carrying like a giant bouquet of balloons. I was like, okay, who's Harvey? This lends the most credence to the imaginary friend theory. Yes. It's like everyone else leaves and then Harvey is there. And Harvey has a hat, right? We talked about Marky's hat.

He wearing the hat in the scene, I can't remember, but he has a hat. I don't remember. But the hat is reminiscent of Rocky's hat. So this is part of where my, who brings an adult, a giant bouquet of balloons if they're in the hospital? And the answer I'm assuming is no one and instead you bring that to a child in the hospital.

So now I'm like, okay, he's Harvey like a figment, like something that Jim has, man, there's just no, there's no basis for what I've done here. It's created to just have Rocky around still. I had this thought because, you know, I don't see every second of the show because I'm looking down to do notes or whatever. I don't know if they did the like Jim looks at Rocky's picture in this one. I didn't see it either. Yeah. I don't know if they did.

I don't know. Maybe Harp's the stand in anyways. Harp says he needs to take off. Jim has to, he has anything to do. And he's like, I haven't had if they did. I don't know, maybe Harv says stand in. Anyways. Harv says he needs to take off. Jim has to do anything to do and he's like, I haven't had anything to do since I retired. Yes. Good line. So Jim invites him to share some peace and quiet. Harv says, it seems like everyone got something out of this whole thing except for you.

And Jim says, I don't know. I think I got the best thing of all. A good friend. Yeah. They have a full menu here at this hospital to order off of. So hands Harvey the menu. I'm thinking the white fish in a bright Chardonnay. And they're going to finally have that lunch.

They've been talking about the whole movie. Big shared smile, end of movie. And that's presumably on the newspaper's dime? Yes. Yeah, I think her, she says that the Daily Bolden's covering this day. Do you have any idea what you did for our circulation? That's what it was. Yes. So I guess her, her story about Jim has bumped their numbers. So good for them, I guess. Just so we're, Jim got his 400 back that

he was missing. Uh, paid for a lobster, paid for a prime rib, paid for a bottle of wine, uh, multiple traffic violations. Yeah. A lot of money and fines. Yeah. The car got banged up quite a bit. He went to the hospital once, which I'm assuming he had the copay. And then when he went back again, then it's on the, so from here on out, he's fine. But man, he did not come out ahead. You should have stayed in Cabo is what I'm come out ahead. You should have stayed in Cabo, is what I'm saying.

Jim Rockford should have stayed in Cabo. Yes. There is one final note here in the end credits. This movie was dedicated to Louis Delgado, who unfortunately had passed away earlier that year. And so, you know, our favorite Billings, one of the greats we lost in the year they made this movie. And so there's a dedication to him at the end. Time, time makes fools of us all, as they say.

Time is the great murderer and Mr. Beanmer. Time is the great shooter outer at the Gold Pagoda. Yes. Um, yeah. So that's the movie. I I am tempted to just wrap it up because of the noises, but also they stopped. So I don't know how long I. Jim, it to us. What do you got?

Not that much. I mean, just the same stuff that I think I said earlier, which is that came away from this one with a good feeling. I was like, oh, this was a fun one. This might be one of the more fun movies. I kind of forgotten that the last one we watched was was the one with Megan, Megan Doherty, which kicked off our Megan Doherty watching cycle, which was one of one of my favorite things that we pulled together out of out of our non timeline approach to the show. So, you know, looking back at my notes on that one, I was like, OK, no, that one, the one that's called Punishment and Crime, which is why I can't remember it

because it's not a great title. Unmemorable title. But Punishment and Crime was like a good movie. Yeah, it was good. There's a TV movie. It had its moments, but like especially, I think, especially for Rockford Files viewers. Yeah, it was good. There's a TV movie it had its moments, but especially I think especially for Rockford Files viewers. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. A lot to sink your teeth into. It was darker than this one for sure. And so this one in contrast is much more of a romp, I think as I said. And really, yeah, overall just kind of came away being like, yeah, this is like a solid like 70s era story. And it's not even padded out that much. So I think it's pretty well paced. There's one of them in particular, I can't remember exactly which one, but there's one where it was like, maybe it was the one with Peckers kid, maybe where it was like, this really seems like it was, it would be better as just like an episode. This really seems like it would be better as just like an episode.

We saw a two-part episode. I don't remember the new, the one with the rock and roll star that he was investigating for. Which was, you know, well done and enjoyed it. But I think that's the one where I'm like, these are the parts you would cut and you have just a normal sized episode

and you would have been okay. You would have gotten through. Yeah But yeah, I think that like this feels like in that zone of victory laps, right? Sure. Yeah We're not pushing the boundary here. Yeah. Yeah, we've we've done we've done a great thing This wonderful body of work Now let's we're just gonna have a little fun with the characters. Yeah. And it's a one in a Bartlett script. So, you know, it knows the characters. Yeah. There's just like a sous-saint of the like addressing like female protagonists in like a nuanced manner. I kind of like that breed doesn't end up being a love interest. Yes. Or like maybe she kind of wants to be but like Jim just doesn't like it's not that's not what he's concerned about right

now. Yeah. And really, she's mostly just flirting for the story, I think is where we end up. Yeah. So I kind of like that. It's a bit of a shame that Val dies. It is the first Val of the first time she's not in a lot of it. But it feels like a Juanita Bartlett, like, hey, we're not going to treat sex workers as less than human. We're not stereotyping, but we're and we're also not. Yeah, treating as throwaway paper, paper doll characters. Yeah. So like, you know, Val is she's got a right. She's going to stand up for him. Yeah, there's some good stuff in there. But like, unfortunately, halfway through the show, they murder her. And then that's it.

Yeah. We hear like, there's one thing where Jim is like, that four year old will never know what happened to his mother because she sent him off to somewhere. And it's like, okay. Right, and like that's pretty significant. The gym we know, the gym we know has the skills and the moral center to go find where she sent that boy off.

Yeah, do you fix the something out? Yeah, like that is a problem in his wheelhouse to fix. And he's motive he would be motivated to do it. But that's fine. Like I don't want to like kind of out of the scope of the story that they're telling. Yeah. Yeah. I think there's there is that there is that transition to like, oh, no, the cops. The cops are good. It was all a frame. And Jim's going to work can work with them.

Everyone's going to shake hands at the end, which again does just feel a little like, Jim, you're really gonna you're really gonna be happy about this. And but it's not even that Jim is happy about it. It's more that the way it is framed and the way the story is told is not a story where we're going to interrogate how the police use their power. When they do come around to shake his hand, we and Jim are suspect of it. It is of itself a like, no, guys, you did poorly here. We're not buddy buddy. But also we've returned to to Stasis.

Yeah. And also, like, sure, we're not buddy buddy with like the suits, but like Jim and the two cops, like they're all buddies now. Yeah. You know, they're grateful to him for what he did. He's grateful to them for helping save him, you know, at the shootout. Now they're all friends. But sometimes that's how it goes. It's not a, it does not make this a not enjoyable movie or anything, but I think for me and

for you, it just stands out because it's a little not rock fruity. Yeah. But there is a lot of rock fridishness here. Angel is 100% on point. Dennis, as always, is 100% on point. It was fun to see Booker as like a character that kind of is touching on characters we know, but is a new character and managed to be pretty, pretty well I think by the end of the episode. Harvey? Harvey's great. I hope he's in the next one. We have one movie to go so. And I don't know his name but the guy who

runs the Sand Dollar? Yeah. He's great. He is because he's not mentioned by name I think in the episode I was like so kept referring to him in my notes was like the sand dollar manager yeah but I think that is I think he's mr. Francis I'm seeing if he has other credit like if he's credited under the same character now he's only in this one oh yeah this guy but I think that's him based on the picture. Yeah, yeah, that's him. He's been a lot of things. Yeah, but I guess he's not in other episodes. I was like, I feel like maybe he's been in the other movies. But I guess just Sally. So I don't remember if we talked about this. I looked at her IMDb and went, Oh, I think we talked about this. Anyway, so Sally is played by Shirley Anthony. This is the third of the four movies that she's in.

She was in the first one, I still love LA. She was in the frame fits, she's in this one and then she's in the next one. The final one. The final one. She was also a bit player in the Rockford Files. Oh, okay. So it really is a bit of a like,

one of those like we got the band back together roles. Yeah. Oh yeah, she's in like seven episodes. But like the roles are like uncredited. Yeah, receptionist, juror, receptionist, party guest. Yeah. Oh, that's great though. So good for her. Hey, she has a name in Lines, Tigers, Monkeys and Dogs. Oh, nice. I couldn't tell you what character that was. Anyway, no, she has a name in Lines, Tigers, Monkeys and Dogs. Bren Dagley. Oh, nice. I couldn't tell you what character that was.

Anyway. No. She's fun. It's a fun running bit. It just like, there's so much, you know, it's a movie. There's so much to go through. Yeah, yeah. But there we are, the penultimate movie.

I'm excited for the next one. The next one is the Rita Moreno one. Oh, that's good. Yes. I think maybe after that, we'll, if we feel like we have time, or maybe at another roundup, a good roundup moment, we'll maybe do a little retrospective of our how we how we like the movies.

Yeah, yeah, that sounds like a good spot. But right now, I think I need to go so that all of these fun construction noises don't continue to underline our conversation. But yeah, always always fun to hit the movies, even though there's a little bit of a run up of like, make sure I'm ready. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. But yeah, as always, it's always a pleasure to see just how perfectly all the characters are themselves. I thought Clint did great as the lead.

did great as lead. All right. Well, that's seven for eight on the movies. We will be back next time if this house survives. We will be back next time to go back to the 70s and talk about another episode of The Rockford Files. Jimmy, I'm stuck in the sand. Bumper. Jimmy! I'm stuck in the sand! Bup bup! Doot doot! Hehehehehe!

Yay!