Two Hundred A Day - Episode 133: Piece Work

Episode Date: March 24, 2024

Nathan and Eppy hit the gym in S3E10 Piece Work. Jim's insurance investigation gig happens to intersect with flashy dresser Murray Rosner (Michael Lerner), a freelancer for the feds who's getting a gun buy together. After a series of paranoid assumptions, Jim takes a beating from the gun-running goons, uncovers the scheme and brings in Dennis for a bust that doesn't happen. Between Chapman threatening to pull his license and Murray's conviction that Jim is trying to take over the operation, Jim has a lot to handle! This fun romp of an episode gives us a memorable character and a lot of great Rockfordishness, a great watch! Show Notes: Here's the Wikipedia entry on Cop Rock (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cop_Rock). You can check out the Collections feature on Patreon here (https://www.patreon.com/twohundredaday/collections) (even if you're not a member). 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 * Bill Anderson * Brian Perrera * Eric Antener * Jordan Bockelman * 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/) * Robert Lindsey, 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

This is Dr. Soder's office again regarding that root canal. The doctor's in his office, waiting. He's beginning to dislike you. Welcome to 200 a Day, the podcast where we talk about the 70s television detective show, The Rockford Files. I'm Nathan Poletta. And I'm Epidier Ravishaw. While Epi desperately tries to pull up his notes. I got him. I got him. At some point, we we can stop. We'll stop stumbling over the how did we pick this episode? Right. As we continue saying that we've already picked them. But yes, we're on to our next episode of our final

appreciation cycle here of of the Rockford files, where we are talking about season three, episode 10 piecework. This one is in the order because it is not the final, but it is the next to final, the penultimate episode directed by Lawrence Dillany. Oh, great. Who is one of the more prolific directors, I think, clocking in right under, I think, did Ivan, Ivan Dixon did 13, is that right, or 12? I don't know off the top of my head, but quite a bit. Yeah, it's around there. He directed 12 episodes. We've done most of them already, except for

this one and the next one. So we will talk about him a little bit more, I think, in our next recording. Tune in, Lawrence Do-ni? Donnie? Donnie? I think so our next recording to win in Lawrence do do any don't don't don't don't You know don't learn stony fans. Stay tuned stay tuned Yeah, season three episode. He did all of his stuff is in the first three seasons Oh, okay, so if we're gonna talk about Rockford vibes Mm-hmm, certainly a early series vibe. Yeah. Although this one gets a little on the

I don't want to say wacky. It's not wacky. It's got good humor. And it's got really I mean, they all do. So this one is a Juanita Bartlett script. At this point, David Chase is on the staff, has been writing and is and is producing. And I feel like this has a Chasian edge to it. CB. Chasian edge. I don't really have anything in particular that I found or to say about any other background stuff

We got our core cast We got Bartlett writing we got a experienced director at the helm and we have a really fun Guest star I will say that yes, so Yeah, I know. Do you have anything before we get into it? No, I can go into the opening montage. We're so good at this. It's just smooth. Like gravel under a firebird's tire that's spinning out.

Opening montage, three things that stood out to me. Number one, just the great Rocky moment. We're not going to get a lot of Rocky in this episode, but just the gyms. Like I'm looking for Lee. No, you ain't. You're looking for what you're always looking for trouble. Right. Like this good, good rocky gym dynamic. Good gym. Dennis dynamic with the next. Yeah.

There's some good gym, Dennis, in this one. Yeah, this is a entry in the light continuity of Dennis's progression through the ranks at the police department. But just that you told me a lot of things. And then, yeah, car chase. And this is not not just a tease. We're going to get a car chase and get like a legit, legit showdown. A particular showdown.

Looking at IMDB, since I am, we are neither one of us car guys. It sounds like there's a lot of car shenanigans that happen in this episode, where like one car is swapped for another car from one scene to the next. And I'm embarrassed to say I didn't catch any of them. So I'm looking at other things, right?

I'm just paying attention to other things. Right. Yeah. Oh, I'm paying attention to the soundtrack. The soundtrack on this soundtrack is real good. Right home about this one. This this is this is fun. It is a good. Yeah. A lot of good, good stuff in the soundtrack.

I noticed that as well. Yep. I think there's the element of danger from the preview montage. Put the deal off or put him off. Yeah. You know, you know there's something going down there. But yeah, very pretty brief. And I was like, oh, okay. I guess we'll get into it.

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we say thank you to our gumshoe patrons. Brian Bernsen has a Facebook page where he drives his Rockford tribute car to shooting locations from the show. Facebook.com slash Brian Rockford files. Chuck Suphel's one-shot comic Sherlock Holmes and the Wonderland Conundrum is available at WhatchaReadingPress.com. Find Dale Norwood's book, Trading Freedom!

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Nathan Black, Robert Lindsay, and Jay Thompson. And finally, special appreciation for our Detective Little patrons. Joe Greathead, Michael Zalisco, Eric Antenor, Brian Pereira, Jordan Bockelman, Not Brockleman, Bill Anderson, and of course, Richard Haddam. If you're interested in keeping us going for as little as $1 an episode, check out patreon.com slash 200 a day to see if becoming a patron is right for you. We start this episode off seeing our guest star. This character's name is Murray and he is played by Michael Lerner. As I note here, star of small and large screen. It's just a really recognized like as soon as I saw him I was like oh this episode because I've seen this before and I'm like oh it's the one with this guy in it.

He's very he's good he's distinctive. Yeah. But I mean he's you know he's he's in a bunch of TV around this time but he. I mean, he's you know, he's he's in a bunch of TV around this time, but he Yeah, I'm looking I'm thinking through this trying to find like the iconic role that I can see him in in my head He's been in a little little over 10,000 things. Yeah. Yes a lot of credits, but he Has a career that goes from TV to movies. But I guess some of his known roles are he was in Barton Fink.

He was in Newsies. This is one that I that jumped out to me. He was in Maniac Cop 2. Mm hmm. Imagine you've probably seen that. He was in Profit and Loss. Yes. And this is his fourth appearance. His five. Yeah. His fourth and final appearance in the Rockford Files. He was also in the pilot. So we are not going to be finishing his series off either.

But yeah, he was an elf like he's, you know, he's a face that isn't just a that guy is also a like, oh, he's not just a that guy. He's a oh, that guy. And you will. He's a fun that isn't just a that guy is also a like, oh, he's not just a that guy. He's a oh that guy. You will. He's a fun character in this one with some twists and turns actually. Yeah. But yeah, he was in profit and loss. And yeah, I don't quite remember exactly what character he was in that. So maybe not super distinctive, but it's been a while. It's been a while. Anyhow, we start off seeing him in a while it's been a while anyhow we start off seeing

him in a green sweatsuit at a gym this 70s gym I think it's very important there's a lot of wooden elements of workout machines mm-hmm yeah like chunky yeah this whole first sequence has a lot of does a lot of ominous foreshadowing Without having a lot of dialogue. Yeah, we see this character will eventually here learn that his name is Murray I say that he looks like a Murray but he's working out and then as he leaves the the main gym room

he leaves the the main gym room we see a couple guys couple of you know two other guys kind of detached from the activities that they're doing and follow him so there's a little bit of a that seems that seems suspect suspect yes that is specifically so that we see it happening and then we transition from that to the camera finding Jim who is a Speaking of 70s Jim Blue 70s sweatsuit Oh so good It is extremely good and I will reinforce that with one of my screenshots He kind of wanders around ends up at the pool has a moment where he trips over a rip in the canvas on the, like, diving board or whatever.

Yeah. You got the picture? Yeah, it's a good picture. Can I just say I can smell this pool? Mm-hmm. The chlorine is strong. Yeah. But there's a swimmer who comes over to talk to him after that, pointing out the irony of coming here for your health and then the place almost kills you. And you know he's the second guy who almost ate it. A few weeks back, a guy named Tom Varney took a header over the balcony into the drain pool.

It's a little unclear here. We learned that he, in a minute we'll learn that he was paralyzed from this yeah he points out a guy at the other side of the pool tony with the palm spring tan he's the one who actually saw it happen and then we see a guy come out of a door and summon tony to come inside and then jim kind of fades his way over so jim's doing his like oh hey you hear about this like he's clearly looking for information about something. He's not just, you know, working out for fun. We cut from there to the locker room where our buddy Murray is getting dressed

and we get his first character trait, which is that he is a flashy dresser. Yes, this is this is fun character business. We've already been told via the camera work and whatnot that he's an important character, but this bit is just, I don't know, I just really, where he goes on and on about how he can spot cops. And it's gonna influence the plot,

but I think it's also, like it's doing that double duty of like doing that and also showing out he's a well, he's a fancy dresser. But he's got this very superficial understanding of the world. Yeah. Yeah. He has a worldview that is very like specific. And the specificity is what people wear. He's talking to these two guys. They will also be important. They're goons.

They're they're vaguely goon coded. And then I think very soon we're like, oh, no, they're goons. But Angie and Frank, the conversation is around Angie is like, hey, I tried to see her. I wanted to see the guy who does your tailoring, but he doesn't take new clients. And where he's like, I'll talk to him. When do you want to see him? Tuesday? You got it. Like, he's a very, you know, kind of like operator kind of guy.

But yeah, then they're talking about threads, threads, talk, take cops for instance. You know that old gag about the flat feet? That ain't what gives him away. It's the clothes. No, they got no accessories to go with it. From the watch class ring. That's it. Ten will get you 20.

They're wearing brown shoes. Color coordination never hurt for me. Shirts plain, drip dry, white, maybe blue if they're feeling really jazzy. Pants two for one off the rack. I never seen one of them wasn't wearing a jacket cost twenty seven fifty tops. Well, we hear the whole conversation as we go from seeing them to seeing Jim putting on his clothes kind of in the background. I think it's a little unclear whether Jim can hear them.

I don't know if that's the case either, but they're definitely describing him. Right. Yeah. So Murray is saying each thing that he's doing, basically. Yeah. Jim is just getting dressed, comes over to the guys and I think I think he did not hear them. I don't think there's any indication that he was like listening to that conversation because he comes over with his kind of like, oh, hey, did you hear about what happened at the pool the other day? Isn't that a crazy thing? Like, yeah. Seeing if anyone is going to either talk to him or give him or react to his fishing and they just give them like they just look at him like none of them say anything

It's got a very hello fellow kids vibe. It really does It's not jim's best work. No, it isn't no, but I do have a contrasting picture here. Oh, yeah Yeah Uh, the way murray is dressed is great And it's good that he's got these goons that are not as well dressed as him. He tells and this comes up later, he tells the guy Frank not to put all of his bottles in his pockets. It breaks the line.

So he has all these pill bottles and this will become important later. But yeah, but it breaks the line. You don't want your pockets bulging. This is the big tie era. So Murray's flashy clothes, flashy dressing always has a big tie. And we do end the scene on Jim telling Murray, that's a nice looking suit. Yeah. We stick with Murray as we go to what turns out to be like a water amphitheater, like a sea world kind of thing.

Got water show kind of thing. Murray is talking to two guys in some bleachers where they're alone, saying that he saw he saw a cop at the club. He could tell right from the clothes and they should check it out. These two guys are clearly fed coded, right? Like we are watching this. I'm like, OK, these guys are feds. I don't know how they do it, but they managed to cast goons that look like goons and feds that look like feds

Yeah, um, it's to the point where I had mixed up So one of them is played by Jack Bannon who if you've spent any time watching the Lou Grant show Which you probably should is the other guy on the news desk like Lou Grant show, which you probably should, is the other guy on the news desk, like Lou Grant's second in command, I guess, or whatever. Let's say that. Fun character, the opposite of Lou Grant, often very, very well dressed. And so I thought, oh, this must be one of the goons

that like, because I associate this actor with being well dressed. Oh. And then got a little confused, but I got cleared up later on. That like because I associate this actor with being well-dressed And then got a little confused, but I got cleared up later on I don't need to confuse our audience with that Jack Bannon's a great actor Not he has kind of a fun role here is this hapless fed one of the two hapless feds that we have the change the change of scenery was the thing that like Confused me at first when I was watching because it didn't sink in that they're meeting somewhere that they won't be...

They won't be overheard. They won't be overheard and it's in public so they could just be sitting next to each other. It's a very clandestine meeting, I guess. Clandestine feels like it happens in the dark though I don't know anyways the point is Because I first I was like why this water park like what's happening here and then like oh He just has to be somewhere. He can't walk into the federal building right like yeah

Murray is getting a bad feeling but they say they'll take care of it. He always gets nervous before a bye But they say they'll take care of it. He always gets nervous before a bye. The joke here then is that we see it's a dolphin show and a dolphin is leaping through a flaming hoop. And we have a Murray character line. I got no respect for anything goes through that kind of schtick for a lousy macro. This is the beginning of the Murray double standards. Yes. Right.

And after he leaves, one of the feds says he double standards. Yes. Right. And after he leaves, one of the feds says he'll deliver. He always does. From here, we get our credits over some footage of Jim driving the Firebird. As we quickly learn to his current employer at the Talmage Insurance Company. Now, this is probably the first that maybe two or three times I'm going to just point out that the variation on the theme over these credits is amazing. Here he is submitting. It's not a report. It's an expense account.

Here he is submitting. It's not a report. It's an expense account. We have a classic Jim versus the guy who doesn't want to pay Jim for the thing he's paying Jim for. Yeah. Situation here where Jim is making progress. He's found an eyewitness to Tom Varney's accident. This is so this insurance, this insurance guy. They are on the hook for covering Tom Varney's,

I guess, medical expenses from this accident. So they've hired Jim to look into it basically to see if they can get out of doing that. He gives Jim some some some pushback about stringing out the job to bleed the company. It's always the same with day workers. And he mentions a couple of times how much he spent on the health club membership to get Jim in there to do his job. He says that this this case could cost the company a fortune. And Jim, in which case you'll raise your premiums.

Do you want a cheap shot, the insurance business or do you want the job? And Jim with a great I think I'll cheap shot the insurance business. It's so good. It's the greatest power play. We all love to see it when Jim's just like, I don't need this job. I mean, he does need the job. But it's not worth it to deal with you. So he's willing to walk And the insurance guy of course is incensed that he would dare walk out on him But Jim does it his way or doesn't do it at all

And so he has him sit back down and he picks up the expense record. That's how you negotiate Well, that's the thing if you have to be willing to walk that's what gives you the power, right? Um, I do like how at this point we're like, oh, this is like an expensive, nice health club. Yes. And I guess just the the image of the fancy private health club has really changed since 1976. I mean, the last rowing machine I saw didn't have, you know, teak oars. Yeah. But you don't think all the all the machines all jammed together and the men in sweatsuits going between them is not a great image. Mm hmm. But yes, we get an establishing shot of the Brent Air Health Club.

And our two goons are coordinating something with Murray. Like, so they're in the club. Again, he's in a sweatsuit. They're clearly planning. They want something to happen. Murray is going to delay Jim in some regard and goes over to talk to Jim, who's working out on the like a leg press or something and starts making small talk. Just like also trying to find out, you know, what what his deal is.

We have a nice cut where it's like, you know, he introduces himself and says, and you are and we cut to one of the goons looking at one of Jim's fake business cards with his cover name on it. He also has a driver's license with the same name. So we see on his like deep cover version where he's lined up all his ideas and stuff for just such an occasion. But even though they agree that doesn't mean anything, you can get all the idea you need in the street in 10 minutes. Yeah, I was thinking about this in particular, because there's a trope in this genre of show where somebody is like one step ahead of the criminals in all cases or whatever.

of show where somebody is like one step ahead of the criminals in all cases or whatever and I was like why would Jim expect Them to dig through his locker But then I remembered oh, he's got to get a he has to get a membership at the gym But he is investigating the gym So he needs that deep of a cover just to get in the door that deep of a cover just to get in the door. And we actually get that reinforced in the next scene where they mentioned that it's the same name as what he registered as or what? Yeah, yeah. So but it did take me a moment.

I was like, this seems a little contrived, but it actually fits very naturally. Jim's cover is that he's in the telecom business, but it's more of a more sophisticated equipment than your general consumer stuff. It's mostly recording and monitoring equipment that he sells to the government. A lot of government contracts. He says he's looking to talk to this guy Tony asks if Murray has seen him around. So we go to the desk of Ciro Lucas, who is the owner of the club. So he's talking to

his goon. They reiterate that his ID matches his card and it matches the register, but that doesn't mean anything. Have we checked his car through the DMV? Very thorough. Murray comes in and says that Jameson is the cover name. Jameson doesn't smell right to him. He doesn't dress like someone who works with the government. And he asked for Tony by name. And this is, I think, from the preview montage. Should we put the deal off? And Ciro Lucas says, easier to put him off. Yeah. The our other guy, I think it's Frank comes in, he ran the car and the car registration does not match. It is not a Mr. Jamison.

It is someone named Rockford and his address, 29 Cove Road, Malibu and Murray Malibu. Well, at least the guy's got some class. Yes, I wrote that line down, too. I love the characterization of Murray throughout this whole thing. Like Murray is in deep with something dangerous, playing maybe even playing two sides against each other. And his primary concern is just how people measure up to his aesthetic standard of owning rich things and living in rich, you know, like he's, he's

some facet of angel that doesn't show up an angel, right? Like, like, I don't know, there's just something about it that I really, really like. Yeah, he has his aura is like the guy who, who once he achieved a certain standard, made it his whole personality. Yes, exactly. And we're gonna get such good insight into that later on too. This is yeah No, this episode delivers on Murray and so I think that's what I was saying like the the chase Ian shadow I feel like Murray is a very chase Ian character. Yes again kind of neurotic personality

Facet it's not necessarily a flaw, but it is like something that shapes his worldview in a way that distorts reality so to psychoanalyze him for just a moment as we should as we should I mean what are we doing here he's we're gonna find out a little bit later that there's probably some self-loathing going on. This is his way of elevating himself, so he doesn't examine that, so he doesn't experience it. Yeah, I'll bring it up when it comes up.

We'll get to it when we get to it. So we go to seeing Murray. So Murray has a very flashy red car that is not in our files file, so I'm not sure what kind of car it is. Apparently it changes in the episode, but it's flashy and red. That is the important thing. So he's in his car overlooking

the beach, watching with binoculars as we see. We see the goons sedan in the foreground foreground and then we cut into Jim's trailer and they're they're searching the trailer. We do have a come on Jim moment. Yeah. We're always we always know him coming back to the trailer in the middle of the episode or the beginning of the episode is dangerous. But there was something about how the camera showed us the car where I was like, the car is right there. Like Jim drives up and it's like you didn't notice this car. That's clearly a goon car, like in front of your trailer.

But he's thinking about something else. Who knows? He does not have a bag of groceries, so it's not the full iconic moment. But we do have a very specific shot of the setup of our two goons hiding on the side of the door with one of them holding something heavy, waiting for the door to open so that he can indeed bring it down on the back of Jim's head. On the way down, he grabs Fred's pocket and it tears. So at first I'm like, oh, they mentioned the pills so we can have this scene where he tears the pocket

and all those pill bottles fall out and the goons Scramble around to pick them up before they make their escape Yeah, but I'm just realizing now that if he had followed Murray's advice and not put his pills in his jacket pocket Yes, it's never what happened. That's why you need good clean lines Especially when you're waylaying a private eye Jim recovers Evidently as our next scene is, he's on the phone talking to his client. He knows he was hit by guys from the health club because his locker

was searched thoroughly and professionally. Doesn't know who else would be searching his trailer. He does have one lead. We see that he's holding one pill bottle and it has the name Fred Mullen on it. That lets Jim know that he's on to something. But obviously he's been made. He can't go back to the club. And we get another thing like, you know how much money I spent on that membership?

But Jim is going to try and end run and let him know what happens. Then we see that outside. Murray is still watching. So I think this is obviously we already had the like. Murray's talking to two different groups. Right. This sequence definitely shows that he has some interest that's not exactly aligned with the goons. Yes. Because he's watching the whole thing play out. He's not just like he's not spotting for them.

He's you know, he's still there on his own. there on his own. And that is, I think, important to this story just because it's unclear in the beginning Murray's relationship with the goons and it would be very easy given the fact that they listen rapidly to him and he's better dressed than them, that you have this, like his first scene with him

makes it feel a little bit like he's the boss. Yeah. Yeah. But he's not. This scene helps reinforce that. Obviously, zero is the boss. Jim has called in his good friend, Dennis Becker, to run. Well, he has a complaint as he was assaulted. So he gave Becker the name Fred Mullen to run. It didn't come back with anything. No, no warrants, no arrests.

Jim is of slightly incredulous. I think he says like he didn't hit like a guy with no warrants or something like that. Yeah. And Becker says it's a computer, not a crystal ball. So they're at the station. The business here includes Jim asking for some aspirin and then he asked for some water and Becker like points at the water. Yeah. Dispenser the water dispenser water cooler the cooler yes the water cooler and it has the I think we've been every so often these come up I don't know why there's the it's so charming to me but like phones yeah But the little flat cone that like you pop into the triangle to

pour the water in. So good. Jim decides not to file the report and Dennis is not happy about it. So this conversation moves outside. Dennis doesn't like being used for information. Jim says that we're friends. Off duty we're friends. On duty I'm a cop.

Dennis, if I had a computer of my own, I'd run Fred Mullen through it in the peace and quiet of my own home. Hey, come on pal, I'll buy you a cup of coffee. I don't think I could afford it. Outside, we see that Murray is watching them from across the street. He's on a payphone and he's talking to one of the Feds who is reassuring him that there are no cops involved. You're sure there's no cops involved? I guarantee it. And so as we see him watch Jim talk to Becker on the doorstep of the police station. Yes.

Oh, that makes me feel real good. I do like how inconspicuous Murskahr is. Yeah, it is in an alley, so I guess it's not right there, but yeah, as soon as he pulls out, it's like you're never following anybody circumspectly. There are shades of red, and this is definitely like the most alarming shade of red. This is, this is a midlife crisis red yeah yeah. We go to a park where becker is taking a break to play i'm guessing handball yeah it's i'm guessing probably pickleball right i don't know sports. I don't I don't know sports. It's a game where he wears some special white gloves and bounces a ball off of a concrete wall back to himself. So it's kind of like squash, but it's with he doesn't have a paddle and obviously something he's not.

There's not another person. Yeah. For some reason, I think this is handball. I don't actually know. I can remember at my elementary school that we had a wall like this where it's just like a concrete wall with like a line in the middle yeah yeah I would see them in New York I'd never see anyone using them but I'd see them yeah I imagine there's a couple different games you can play or sports or whatever but uh yeah it was just funny that I had that I was like oh

I remember that wall. Anyway, what's important here is that Murray has followed him there. Murray makes a costume change because, you know, as he knows, it's the it's all about how you look. Yeah. So he takes off his coat or changes his coat into a different coat. He changes his glasses and he takes off all of his rings and stuff. He made a whole deal about cops in their accessories.

Right. I think he's he's like, I'm going to. He has to deaccessorize because he's going to he's going to run. He's going to try to run a little con on our on our friend Becker here. He takes a seat on the bench. So he has dressed down. Yes. Here. So he's a little more of a working Joe kind of kind of look to him. Becker's like, hey, I have the court till five. He's like, oh, I'm just watching. I pulled I pulled a muscle I can't play anyway.

And he has some banter about I've already gained seven pounds not being on the court, something like that. He introduces himself and gets Becker's name. So he gets the good, good cold read. Can I just say I've never I've never played handball I don't you know or whatever this is But if I were playing some sport like this, there's just me by myself outdoors And someone came and sat on a bench and said oh, I just want to watch Your alarm bells would be ringing

Mm-hmm. Your alarm bells would be ringing like this Would be like, oh, it's actually that's my time. I got to get going like that's but anyways, Dennis is a little little bit Dennis a little more confident than I am. That's all I'm saying. Well Once he gets Dennis's name, he's like, oh Fire department, right? He's like no LAPD He is portraying himself as someone who has trouble remembering things but gets there in the end so so that he can he even mentions like you pay 600 bucks for a memory course and this is what I think yes he says that he ran into a friend of Becker's in Malibu was

fishing with them off the pier which is a good good call. Yes. He's another cop. He's a cop that works with you. Oh, he says, he says, I'm sorry, police officer. Yes. I've been called worst thing. I had completely forgot that that was because when I was brought up, I was told that that you don't call police officers cops. And that's weird.

I imagine that the very very popular show cops probably did a lot to well before that even probably cop rock did did a lot of you don't remember cop rock you don't remember the police procedural that's also a musical that they tried to do okay well that's something to look up because that existed for a couple episodes at least. Oh boy, oh boy. Was that something where it was like a pretty well, like it was a pretty big name, like creator?

Like, Yeah, I think it was meant to be a big thing. Now I'm looking it up because I'm sorry I brought it up. 1990. I feel like it came up in some other podcasts I listened to at some point. Cop Rock the the complete series. Let's see here. Creators, yeah, Steven, well, how do you pronounce his last name?

B-O-C-H-C-O. Oh, Pachco? Pachco, yeah. So yeah, NYPD Blue and Hill Street Blues and LA Law. And he was like, let's do a police procedural. That's a musical. He was like, I want to do this thing. And the studio is like, sure, whatever you want. You're one of the, you know, one of the most popular.

You make the most popular shows on TV. And then he made just an atrocious. Apparently, what he really wanted to make was really bad. Episode four is called A Three Corpse Meal. A Three Corpse Meal. Episode seven is called Cop three corpse meal. A three corpse meal. Episode 7 is called Copapheliac. Is this, did it never air? Did they make it and then like the pilot was so bad it didn't air or something like that?

That might be the case. There's only 11 episodes. Oh no, it was canceled after 11 episodes. Okay. Yeah, okay. Welcome to 11 a day. The 90s musical, police musical, Cop Rock. 11 a season, 11 a run, 11 a whole show.

All right, so it's worth looking up Cop Rock on Wikipedia. Yeah, it's a deep dive. Why did I bring up Cop Rock? Oh, because we were talking about how cop used to be considered a slang term. Back to our to our favorite cop. Becker asked, oh, do you what was his name? And he goes through this fumbling and goes, oh, no, I do remember Rockford. I remember because it's a good, strong name for a cop. I think it's funny just because we recently had

Angel saying that Rockford is a good strong name. Yes. Said he was working on a big case. Said, you know, I'm a big fan of what you guys do down there. Mm-hmm. And Becker clearly is, you know, his alarm bells ringing and he excuses himself to make a phone call. And we see GoToJim's trailer where his phone is ringing and we see he is not home. Mm-hmm.

So, again, I have seen this episode, so I was pretty sure I knew which way this would break. But the question here is, is Becker's reaction, huh, this guy is trying to hustle me, I should find out why. Or is it, huh, Jim's impersonating a cop, I should find out why. That is literally my notes. I was like, wait, is Dennis on to this or is he angry at Jim right? I Happen to remember which one it was but I do think this is a good moment where you get to like

Kind of wait in suspense to see which way he's gonna land One of my favorite bits about this seed is how the conversation reaches a point where Dennis just says, I have to go make a phone call. Everyone in that conversation knows that he's going to like find out. Yeah. Yeah, like it's not like Dennis is hiding from Murray that the phone call is about something Murray just asked or is trying to like he's just like, no, I'm done. I'm done with this. Whatever this is. We go to Jim staking out Fred Mullen's address.

He takes a final bite of some kind of sandwich or donut or something, as he finally sees the man come out of his building. The soundtrack here is... Oh man, how do I describe it? The conductor just points to a different instrument. We just get like that instrument noodling for a little bit and then he points to another one. It's great building to the theme. building to the theme. And then we have a little sequence where we watch Jim follow Fred to the Beverly Sherwin Hotel where we get some voiceover of Mr. Lucas wanted friend to pick up Murray. Murray has been staying at this hotel.

There's something like, oh, he doesn't think I know LA. He's like, oh, he just wants to make sure that I that you're safe and that I'm driving you. Jim watches this pickup happen and then we go to a night scene where Jim is still watching them as they get out of this car and go into a barn out somewhere, obviously off the beaten path. It's not like this is a complicated scheme or anything. This episode does use voiceover liberally to make sure that we are tracking what's going on. And we just somewhat need it in this. The episode is a nice delightful romp. But there are, especially through the character of Murray, several twists happening that you like you just want to you don't want to be confused about things that aren't that. You just want to, you don't want to be confused about things that aren't that. The backbeat of the episode is this plot, which is, this health club is a very good

front for your gun running operation. Yes. Okay, cool. Now we know what's going on. But then all the fun stuff is on top of that. We go into the barn where Ciro, Angie, the other goon, and another miscellaneous goon, has a rack of guns waiting to display to our buyer Murray. So now we're getting that relationship. If Murray likes what he sees, he can get him as much as he wants.

Jim sneaks in through like a back door to eavesdrop and of course, ends up in a little alcove where they are going to start testing these automatic rifles. So we have kind of a gag where Murray wants a demonstration, Angie takes a gun and starts setting, you know, loading it and everything. Jim realizes that the only place for him to shoot this gun is where he is. It takes cover. And then there's a couple rounds no pun intended

Where there's a demonstration and Murray wants to try it and so we just have a lot of Jim with his hands over his ears Crouching underneath shelving hoping nobody shoots him by accident. There's like shrapnel raining down on it's good. It's good comedy Yeah, it is it is filled filmed comedically. It is not I at no time Do I think Jim's in danger? Yeah He has this like little like receipt sized accordion folder full of cash that He hands over that Murray hands over for these guns Jim slips out and then follows Murray to a big house with this empty garage where he and Fred, I might have been saying Frank earlier by accident, doesn't really matter just in case I changed this

goon's name midstream. Well, it's Fred Mullen played by Ben Frank. So you did alright. Okay, I knew that. But we see Jim see them pull four big crates of guns out of this, the cavernous trunk of this car and deposit them in this garage. And Jim clearly is noting, writes down the address. Lots of skulking in this episode. I'm loving that. There's a moment, I didn't screenshot it, but there's a moment where Jim,

Jim's watching this from like crouched underneath a hedge. And the way it's lit is it's very green, like maybe it's a fake plant or something, but it's super, super green. And it just looked like the first frame of the Homer fight fades into the bushes. Right to me, like Jim's kind of crouching there like he's about to fade back into it. It's very funny where they pull like he's about to fade back into it. It was very funny. Where they pull up to the house to unload, it's obviously a suburb, but it's like a suburb at night lit by the street lamps that just has that nostalgic feel for me of like, this is like a Twilight Zone episode wouldn't start here or you know, like there's just something

about this particular scene. But the thing I wanted to say about the, when we started the, uh, before we started recording, I think I'd mentioned that this episode is a transcriber's dream and it just is like, there's just lots of good stuff happening that doesn't require dialogue. And so there isn't, and there's nothing you have to write down, but as a transcriber, you still get paid for being there and listening to it. It's a you know, it's a good like showcase for like

the directing is important in this one. Yes. Because there's a lot of like what the camera sees and how the camera moves. Gives us information about like the relative importance of things, the sequence of events, all that stuff. Oh, and then the wonderful dramatic irony because we've seen the opening montage. So we see them put it in this garage and you're just like, yeah, I know what happens next. I just want to see it play out. It's time for us to take our traditional intermission as we all need a little break to

head out to the lobby, take a little stretch, get a snack, a drink, reflect on what's come before, and anticipate what's to come in this episode of The Rockford Files. We also like to take this time to remind you of where else you can find us on the internet. Epi, where can our listeners find you? Well, you can find me at my website dig1000holes.com that's 1000 the number or you can find me as Epidya on the Macedon instance dice.camp or on co-host. Where can our listeners find you Nathan? All of my games, zines, podcast

projects and other work are at 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. That playing out begins with Jim dragging Becker down to the station early. He has big news for him. Dennis is already simmering. And now, oh, okay, he's mad.

He thinks Jim was impersonating a cop. Like that comes together very obviously just in his face. I tried to call you yesterday afternoon. I wasn't home. I was up all night. And it must be rough being one of LA's finest. What's that supposed to mean? It means there's a line pal and you cross it. Now you work your mouth pretty good, but you're not going to talk your way out of this. I do love that this whole thread of Jim being mistaken for a cop flies over Jim's head. Yeah. Every single time. Like even way back in the beginning

when we're in the health club and this guy's just you know, we're talking about like, do you think Jim can hear him describing him? And it's clear that he doesn't because not in that moment, but like, but that's the joke, right? Yeah, this whole confusion about him pretending or being a cop doesn't land home till till even later than this. Like, it's just he's like, what's going on? Jim wants Dennis to shut up and listen to him and Dennis. No, you shut up and listen to me for a change. And Jim is like, fine, I should have gone to ATF in the first place.

Alcohol, tobacco and firearms. Jim had a had something for Dennis that could help him make lieutenant But he'll go make someone else a hero gun running if there was an operation like that I would have heard about it. You're hearing about it now. I was in on a sales demonstration I saw the bike go down. I know where they stashed the guns I can even name a few names for you and tell you where to find them You want to stand around talking you want to move on? Pull up a chair Jimball buddy. Now we talk about it.

Yeah, it's good stuff. So, yeah, conveniently passed over is the mention of Jim being one of the finest, as you say. We cut from here to a full swat sting. Dennis, it's like the full thing. There is a bit where it's like or Jim's like, you know, is this all necessary? Yes, is a bit much. They will. We're dealing with automatic weapons.

They were in crates. They weren't wearing them. But yeah, there's a lot of logistics involved to sweep this place. So we have a long sequence again with very little dialogue of just watching the SWAT team, which again in two modern eyes just looks like, like these are just what cops look like now. Like, yeah, yeah. Like the level of armament is just what the guys on segways downtown in downtown Chicago have like all of these weapons now.

Like it's not, it's wild just how much like militarization has happened. But anyway, they sweep the house, it's not it's wild just how much like militarization Yeah But anyway, they sweep the house. It's empty quick shout out to whoever is the Foley artist for running sounds because this scene is just full of wonderful like boots on sidewalk sounds throughout it as these SWAT team members attempt to breach. They open the garage and it is empty. I think Des is at first like if this is the wrong house, he's like, no, I saw them on this bench. Yes.

From the preview montage. It must have been a way station. We should have gotten here earlier. Dennis loses his loses his cool, yells at Jim, including for impersonating a police officer. And Jim has a confused look. There are two good Billings moments in this episode. Our first Billings moment is he just kind of like fades into the background while Dennis is yelling and goes, where are the guns, Sarge? What do we do now? Then how do I explain this?

How the hell do I explain this? And we cut, joke in the cut to Chapman. There is no explanation, no possible rational explanation. So good. I feel like this is the kind of scene we usually get at the beginning of a Chapman episode and... Yeah, I was just thinking... It's not really a Chapman episode. So we just did it here.

But, you know, Chapman is incensed. He's going to have a citizens committee on his head in a minute. He doesn't even know what the manpower allocations are yet, and he's going to make Rockford pay for the property damages. Jim tries to cover for Becker, not cover, but like explain. Like, I made a complaint and Becker followed up on it. This is pure procedure. I think he literally says this is on me.

Yeah, like trying to take the heat off of Becker and Becker. I don't think it's even really out of loyalty for Rockford. It's just he's like, no, I take full responsibility. Right. Because he's just trying to calm Chapman down. Right. Like it's yeah. Yeah. He's also like, you know, kind of appeal to to to I don't know, appeal to his department structure is like I received a very detailed report from from right. Yes, it had names.

It had specific descriptions. So I made the call and was like, who are you to make the call? Well, the the duty captain or the watch watch commander or something agreed with me. He's like, well, the watch commander doesn't know Rockford. Chapman just keeps finding these little like ways to to make it personal and thus improper. What Becker did, though, when you hear Becker spell it out, it's like, yeah, I mean, the whole SWAT thing does seem like a lot, but yeah, he couldn't have not done anything, right?

Based on this kind of report. Well, Chapman is going to bust Jim for this as hard as he can, starts listing charges. I don't even know where to start with the charges against you. There's filing a phony police report and then there's impersonating an officer. Sergeant Beckerman frantically waves him off from behind. Hey, Lieutenant, wait a minute. Yes, so good. Chapman kind of doesn't really respond to that, which is probably for the best. Yeah, I mean, Chapman's all worked up about everything anyways.

He's not catching too much blood in his ears. Yeah, right. Rockford has facts. He names the buyer and the sellers. He names Ciro Lucas and Chapman. Ciro Lucas is a known racketeer. That's a nice, safe name for you to drop. Yes, so good.

As opposed to is a known racketeer. Thus, it makes sense that he could be involved with a gun running situation. But he tells Billings to book him. Chapman and Becker haven't seen any guns because there aren't any guns. And then we have the classic Becker kind of size and hands puts his hand out and Jim on Clips's visitor badge puts his Becker's hand. One thing I like about Chapman, he often thinks he's got Rockford figured out like entirely. Like, I love just those moments where he's like, oh,

because you're doing like some read on Rockford that makes everything he's done makes sense. But in a way that's nefarious, you know, like it's it's good. But like, there's never any like, why would Jim be going to all this effort and stuff like, oh, well, just to just to annoy me personally, obviously. Yeah. Well, we haven't seen any guns because there aren't any guns. And we go for it's not really joking the kite, but we go from that line to Murray and the feds examining the guns that they bought. They want all the guns Murray can get. He says no problem. So it is now clear that these are federal officers.

They Murray is doing a sting. He's buying the guns. They have a line where it's like once we have all of the guns, then we can bust the ring. Murray's in a full plaid suit with the big tie in this particular scene, which is pretty amazing. There's a good bit here where Murray has another piece of info for them just on the side.

But he knows that Ciro Lucas is bribing a federal judge. He doesn't yet doesn't have the name yet, but he can find out. And when the Fed says, oh, we already know about that. Murray says, how do you know it was Rockford, right? We see that he has now constructed this whole elaborate situation in his head where he doesn't like being double booked on these things. He's worked for feds in like New York, Chicago, like, you know, all these cities. And I've never been double booked. They say we don't know anyone named Rockford.

Murray doesn't like getting stiffed. And he leaves on you tell Rockford to stay out of my way. He leaves. Who's Rockford? I don't know. He's paranoid. And then the other Fed. We didn't know anything about it about zero bribing a judge. Well, we do now. And it didn't cost us a cent.

That's good. We don't have the name, but we do know how to get it. Yeah, I like, I don't know, I just really like the alternate universe that Murray is living in. Because basically, this story is just Murray misunderstanding Rockford's presence in his life. And everything Murray does about that is just propelling, propelling it forwards towards the end, right?

And it's his willful disregard for believing what people say. Right. Like, everyone is very clear to him and he's like, no, you're lying to me. Yeah, exactly. There's an element. I think we talked about this in the movie we recently did, but there's an element. I think we talked about this in the movie recently did. But there's an element of like screwball comedy to his story where he just like takes all these misunderstandings and spins them into a situation that itself will create more misunderstandings.

Yes. But we do know how to get it. We cut to Jim's trailer where we learned that Rocky bailed him out. Good old Rocky. But he'll get the money back to him somehow. Rocky wants to know what's going on. He thought it was just this insurance gig. Jim has a theory. What if Tom Varney's fall wasn't an accident?

What if he ran across the gun running operation? I'm going to go check out the club. And on that, he takes his gun out of the cookie jar. Rocky doesn't like it. There won't be any guns at the club, Rocky. There's going to be the gun you just put in your pocket. Rocky's so good at this episode. Mm hmm. And this is it.

This is his only scene, right? Like this is he's in the last scene. But yeah. Oh, yeah. And I love after Jim leaves, he just mutters to himself. Smart alley kid. Yeah. My note here is shot for shot some of the best rocky material it's not a lot of rocky but like it's just good it's just good I do like that he's like right he's like well you

ought to quit and Jim's like I can't Jeff is trying to stick me with the bill for the house like I gotta keep going I need to make this money to pay off the damages that I've already done or I need to make this money to pay off the damages that I've already done. Or I need to make it so that I'm not on the hook for them. Yeah, yeah. At the club, Jim picks the lock, pokes around, and then it comes upon a slow reveal of a desk phone that's disassembled with a little microphone, a bug sitting right next to it. And that's when the slightly, I'm not going to say sleazier, but maybe the more underhanded.

Yeah, the more worldly fed. Well, we know it now and it didn't cost us a cent. That guy, that's when he stands up out of the shadow covered armchair, holding the gun on Jim. And Jim just goes, hi. I like that Jim is kind of clocked. What's happening in this almost right away? Like, yeah, he's he at least knows he's up with a fed and not a thug.

Right, right. Now we have the formal establishing shot of the federal building sign where our two guys want some answers. Jim doesn't have anything to say. They apparently locked him up overnight. They thought maybe the chilling out would change his mind or whatever. Well, they caught him red handed, breaking and entering. First of all, good gaggers like like I didn't break anything. I use lock picks.

And then when I entered, it was to to catch your guy red handed planning a bug. And he says, I was there in an official capacity. Well, I didn't know the feds spend money on black bag operations or something. Unless you had a court order and there's just a significant pause. Well, in that case, I'll be going. They try to shake him down and he goes, look, pal, we're both caught dirty. That means this is a standoff.

You can't charge me without implicating your your, you know, your friend here. They're like, all right, well, let's enter like they introduce them. So they're like, OK, fine. But like, you know, I'm this officer, whoever. And you are he's like Jim Rockford Rockford the cop The cop where did you get that? So prior to this there is a I think it was in the yelling in the in the empty garage where Becker says You're impersonating a cop your buddy or your friend hair. I think Harry Pate was like that. Yeah, Murray gave

Your friend Harry Pate told me. So that was earlier. So here the cop, cop, where do you get that? Harry Pate, who's that? Damn Defy now. Yeah. I love the confusion going on here. This is, yeah.

And then outside we see that Murray is lurking in the hall, sees Jim leave their office. And so that is going to pour fuel on his paranoid fire. Yeah. Inside, they have a great conversation with Chapman. They're calling him to ask if Rockford is a cop. Right. And he just keys in on all the vestigial things.

Like, you've been talking to Rockford? He must have a pretty low opinion of this department and he isn't a member of LAPD is that what he claimed did he try to pass himself off no no not exactly look lieutenant you seem to know Rockford if he has no connection with the department none none whatsoever except some frequent visits to the booking desk. Yes, so good. It's really funny. But they do finally establish that he is not he is not one of his finest. And then they hang up. If he's not a cop, well, then who is he?

There's just a big shrug. We now get the Murray character scene where we meet Murray at home talking to his, I I guess his wife. I love the scene. Lillian eight months on the job then find out they're running a game on me and she's like you don't know that so he there's great banter here he's laying out his paranoid theory and she I think. What the air of I know how you think right you know is like bringing him down like you don't know that. Why would they do that to you? They have no ethics none whatsoever.

It's not like I'm making a fortune. I'm doing peace work. There's a title of our episode. Yes. Well why don't you just talk to him? No that's not not going to work. Like, that's not going to do anything. No more talking. The government spends 10 million dollars a year on his kind of work. All he wants is his share. This is when their son comes home. The character's name is just Junior Junior Rosner, which is kind of funny.

This whole household is a very almost leave it to beaver kind of of like it's great that this is just like a normal family. It's not like nothing is. What's the word I'm looking for? It is just suburbia. There's no no over wealth or opulence or anything like this. He's a guy who likes to dress well. That's part of his whole deal. And the family is just so normal.

Well, and I think we get that that is one reason we get that feeling where it's like he he's is not like he's always come from money or whatever. Like this is the this is the guy who climbing. Yeah, who hit a certain level and is ambitious to reach the next level. Yeah. But why is there sun home from school? Lily is just like, don't worry about it. He's fine. Everything's fine. Don't worry about it. Like, what do you mean, don't worry about it?

So we get a little sense of that dynamic there. No one tells me anything. But apparently he caught another kid smoking behind the school and he would have made a citizen's arrest, but he didn't know how. You think? Murray, do you know what that makes you? You're an informer. Other oblivion, like obliviousness, like just no self-awareness, none whatsoever. Look, I'm doing work that I'm getting paid for.

That's different from being an informer. Yeah. Yeah. He can't handle this. He's leaving to take care of the competition. Yeah. Uh huh. Uh, he can't handle this. He's leaving to take care of the competition. Nobody's getting hurt. I'm just taking Rockford out for the final quarter until I collect what's due. Yeah. So we get to our car chase. As our car, our chief car chase correspondent.

How does this one go down? I want to start by again. The soundtrack is great. This one so that the whole point of this car chase, he's following Jim and we get this great like moment where Jim knows he's being followed because why wouldn't you with a car that read in your. Yeah, we don't even have to see like shot return shot. Like we just kind of looking in his rear view.

We're like, oh, yeah, he saw the car. And then we see that Jim puts on the brakes and this guy comes to a full stop in the middle of the street behind him. And Jim pulls a U.E. and he follows. So like all the subtleties gone now, nobody's pretending to be anything that they're not. And at this point, then, with the subtlety gone now. Nobody's pretending to be anything that they're not. And at this point, then, with the subtlety gone, like what is what's Murray going to do? He's going to have to run Jim off the road, right?

Like that's the so we get a lot of good muscle car like what Murray tried to overtake Jim on this. Just kind of like an access road or. Yeah, like we see these roads all the time. A two lane highway or something. Yeah, but there's music in the soundtrack through the up until Jim makes the hard turn and then it drops and we get just all the diegetic car noises. This is dangerous now, right?

Like we're having fun, but now we're we're in danger. And yeah, he tries to overtake him and then Jim gets him on the other side and runs them into a like a closed road or something like that I'm trying to remember how he does that like the whole story here is basically just that Jim is just faster like he's just able to stay ahead of Murray just by a nose kind of no matter what so there's a moment I think where Murray drops behind to try and like go on his other side and he takes that opportunity to swerve.

And that pushes Murray off to onto the through the there's like a wooden gate that he crashes through. Yeah, it's like a exit that might be a private access or something like that. It's in the preview montage. Yeah, it's yeah. And then then we learn an important lesson about seatbelts because he's slumped over his steering wheel, the horn honking, and that's it for him. He's out like a light. Seatbelts and you know the addition of airbags into cars clearly happened after this because that would have saved him from a nasty concussion

Mm-hmm. We do end on a line of Murray asking what happened? He's all woozy. You tried to take me out Murray Now let's talk about why and then he just slaps forward This is also this is unfortunate for Murray, but it's also as it turns out unfortunate for Jim, which I love Because we go straight to the hospital, right? That's where we're at. And now Chapman's there and the feds are there. And Dennis is there, I believe. Yes. And everyone is angry at Rockford

for having not been run off the road, I guess. Rockford says, I don't like he tried to run me off the road. Why? Yeah. You know, and it's like, well, the state patrol can confirm that they looked at the skid marks. Yes. But yes, Murray has severe concussion. He's only responding to his name, to Rockford's name

and occasionally muttering that his son is a fink. The three big, big things on his mind. The feds know that the big gun buy is supposed to be today, but they don't know where. And they go out in the hall to talk and there's the business about, you know, Jim being in trouble and what was he supposed to do? He's getting run off the road, et cetera. One of the feds stayed in with him and comes out and says, he just said three o'clock. What does that mean?

I don't know. Three o'clock. Eight does that mean? I don't know. Three o'clock. Eight months of work down the drain. The feds go back in. He shouldn't be alone in case he says something else. Chapman says that Jim and Rockford have a lot to answer for before he storms off. And then Becker informs Jim that part of that is that Chapman's even talking about pulling his license.

Oh, yeah. But Jim thinks they can still they can bust this by. They know today they know it's at three o'clock. They just don't know where. But they have Fred Mullen. So Jim and Becker in presumably a department car, not the Firebird are staking out Fred's place again. His car is there.

He's at home and there's a moving truck on the street. Maybe that's for transporting the guns. How do we know it's at three o'clock? We're just going to assume that because that's what Murray muttered in his sleep. Yeah, and it's a TV show. So, you know, when he doesn't show, they'll get nervous and they'll move the guns to another location just in case. And then, sure enough, Fred comes out, gets into the truck, and we follow him to whatever

is happening. We have a brief scene where he goes to the motel or the hotel where he's supposed to pick up Murray. He's calling Lucas to say that Murray isn't there. So we're establishing, yes, this is indeed what Jim thought would happen is what's happening. Dennis and Jim continue to follow the truck and then we cut to a perspective shot where we see guys loading a bunch of crates out of this like, you know, the trunk of the this giant trunk of the Oldsmobile or whatever into the moving truck. And then

we zoom back and see that is from the perspective of Jim and Dennis, they're at like a lumber yard and they're looking through this gap in like a stack of lumber. Chapman has had plenty of time to get there, but Dennis says he wasn't happy when I radioed in and he had to say that he saw the guns. And then he looks at Jim. Right. There better be guns.

We hear the sirens as they finish loading the truck. Argoon scatter, but it is to no avail. They are already surrounded. The only wrinkle here is that Fred guns the truck directly towards the lumber pile that Jim and Dennis are hiding behind. So they have to dive for cover. But it is a big enough pile that it stops the truck. I love that they just drove a truck into a pile of lumber like that's satisfying.

And so Jim and Dennis are able to put the handcuffs on Fred and with a bit of a dig here. Well, Fred, now you really have something to be depressed about, right, because he's on all the medication. Now we can assume it's walk a walk. Anti depressants or something. Yeah. Our last scene here, Jim Becker and Rocky having a celebratory drink at the sand castle. I love this. This is one of the best outcome episodes that I can remember.

Yes, there's several things I love about this. One, the episode ends with these three being really chummy, which is great because the whole episode is nothing but tension between all three of them. And like that is, we've talked about this from time to time, but like if you have an ongoing show and you have a couple of friends like Jim and Angel or Jim and Dennis and you're like we're going to make a lot of hay out of the tension between them in their relationship, then you may end up with viewers who at some point, it's usually more obvious if you binge them rather than have to come back each week, but

nonetheless are gonna be like why are they even friends? So you have to come back each week, but nonetheless are going to be like, why are they even friends? So you have to show them being friends here. This is one of those scenes where, I mean, also Rocky's involved in, Rocky's proud of Jim and thinks Jim should be like getting more credit than he's getting. And Dennis is like, yeah. And Jim's like, ah, but Dennis, you know, like it's, it's good. It's very good stuff. Even before Murray shows up, we learned during this that Jim gets paid by the feds five grand at the end.

So that's, you know, by our metric, that's like twenty five thousand dollars. Right. Roughly modern money. You know, one imagines that that will pay pay Rocky back for bail. Yes. Yeah. Well, and Becker not only gets a commendation Mm-hmm. He also got a promotion to investigator 3. Yes, and the pay bump that comes with it Yeah, very good outcome for both of them. Mm-hmm Murray shows up with a band-aid on his head I think indicate that he had the concussion. Well, I will say the other benefit for Jim is that Chapman dropped the charges. Oh, right. Yes. Yes.

Because Rocky wants him to get a certificate of merit or something. And Jim's like, well, that's all I wanted. And he made it OK himself with the government paid for his help. And then we learn through talking to Murray. Well, before Murray shows up, we get the little conclusion to, you know, the mystery that really was that we were really concerned with, which is what happened to the guy who got paralyzed? Right. Yes. Because it turns out the insurance company is in the clear.

That guy was fooling around with another guy's girlfriend and the other guy who's Tony or whoever with the with the tan with the tan. But they actually the credit I just saw that the oh yeah he's uncredited he's uncredited but it's the Palm Springs tan and so the credit on IMDB is Palm Springs tan Tony which is great. Anyway so that guy threw him in the pool. Yeah completely unrelated unrelated, completely unrelated. The insurance company is off the hook. One imagines that Jim maybe got paid by them because he finished that case.

And then Murray comes up. He wants his money. He worked eight months on that deal. He already ordered the sprinklers when he was talking to his wife. He was like, you tell me you're tired of calling the hose around. I'm going to get you sprinklers. I need to work. I need to make money.

And then to Jim, you're not even a cop. Why do you think I was a cop? Cops dress lousy. So Dennis is going like, Not now, Murray. This isn't the place. But Jim's more like affable. He's like, Yeah, I don't know what you want from me. I didn't. I was not involved.

He invites him. He says, Murray, sit down, have a drink on me. Pours him champagne. Free booze on me. Hey, how much you get from a five thousand five grand. They're worth more than that. That ain't a fraction of what they're worth. You get paid per gun dummy.

How many would it? You even count them. What never occurred to me. Five grand. You know something, Rockford? You got stiff. Yeah. And Jim smiles and raises his glass in a toast. I think he just says, yeah. Yeah, that's the end of the episode. It's good. I love it.

I love that he just can't straight up win. But also, you know, tell something about Murray there where he also gives Murray like a little bit of a status thing there. Like, I would there like I would have got I would have made more money than you if I if I had been properly paid or whatever it's a fun one and and it does kind of give a little bit of credence to Murray's paranoia because it's kind of like at the end of the day he did a bunch of work he was going to pay for gun per gun and then he ended up not

concluding the deal and not getting paid and like that sucks. That should have been paranoid about something like that happening, which is why you always get at least a part of it up front Murray. That one fed the worldly wordly fed was definitely angling to get get. I mean, he's clearly the one who paid Rockford and said up now I paid him. My case to my superiors is we save a lot of money by paying Rockford and ditching Murray. And they're like, yeah, sure. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, definitely a fun one.

Yeah, pretty breezy to talk about, but not some episodes are. Yeah, are very kind of like you hop along and you do the thing. And you're like, oh, that was fun. This one has the memorable character. Yeah, for sure. As Michael Michael Lerner doing some good, some good work. And like the parallel realities of Kim mistaking Jim for a cop. So there's the reality where Jim's impersonating a cop.

And like, I love that. And he has kind of that mirror, like, I mean, I guess we put together that basically like this is his job. Like he like, yeah, does piecework like for fence. So that's not necessarily a private investigator, but like, it's a similar set of skills. And so we kind of get the fun parallel of him like, you know, trying to get info out of Dennis using the techniques that we would see Jim use in a similar situation. So that's definitely fun. You kind of get that sense that like in different either in different circumstances, this could be like one of the P.I. buddies in Jim's orbit or rival P.I.s in Jim's orbit or potentially a returning there could be another episode with this character, Murray, and that would. Yeah, there's enough there to have some fun with that. But yeah, memorable in that way. And love to see the evolution of Dennis's career.

Yes. I think maybe one of the so we can do the Patreon collections. I've been slowly, slowly putting them together, mostly the seasons so that all the seasons are, you know, in one one place if you wanted to go through them. But I have a couple other ones and one a fun one might be like might be Becker's career and like. Right. You can follow where he gets promoted. Yeah. Where he gets promoted and stuff, because, you know, it would be six or seven episodes, I think.

Yeah. He's that lieutenant until the movies. Right. He gets promoted to lieutenant in the next season. I think oh, it does okay lieutenant by the end of the show Yeah, the Rockford files wiki doesn't tell us oh No, wait, although in the fifth season kill the message. Okay, so this says specifically at the time of his promotion It was revealed that Becker's association with Rockford who was considered by OAPB brass to be a shifty ex-con has hampered Becker's chances for promotion and that was in kill that's that's kill the messenger yeah so

yeah he must have got promoted then or like between the episodes or so right because that's the episode where he actually has to investigate his one of the police like chiefs who murdered their wife. Yeah, we'll figure it out. The one before that is white on white and nearly perfect. And I don't remember that being a case there. I'm just looking at it. Yeah. Hardick's a fool.

Rosendahl and Gilda's stern are dead. The Jersey bounce. White and white nearly perfectly and kill the messenger. It must be kill the messenger then. I think, yeah. Yeah. That sounds about right. I'll do a dive.

I'll figure it out and I'll put that collection together because that's kind of a fun. Yeah. A fun bit. Oh, OK. Yeah, no, it's in kill the messenger. Or he's promoted to lieutenant. Promoted to lieutenant. Because,

so yeah, the write-up that was triggering my memory was for profit and loss, which I was looking at because Michael Earner is in it. In that Robertson book, there's a paragraph that says, "'Rockford calls for the police and asks for Lieutenant Becker. Either this was an oversight or Becker must have gotten into big trouble with the department, because by the time we see Dennis again in sleight of hand, he's a sergeant. Becker, of course, was promoted to lieutenant for good in the fifth season episode, Kill the Messenger. Ah, there we go.

Um, yeah. Well, now that we've gone down that digression anyway, so this gets to be a nice little speed. We get to see this is Investigator 3. So maybe we'll see if there's another level before he makes sergeant because he has to like do the application and all that stuff is like part of the story. There are plenty more natural numbers. Yes. Yeah. Fun episode. A very I think a good like just throw on because you want to watch a Rockford. Yeah. So it's a fun time.

Great soundtrack. I just really enjoyed what was going on in the soundtrack and it's fun. Yeah, just a nice little romp. Nice little romp. So thumbs up for piecework. A good piece of work if you ask. Ah, well done. Remember to always get at least a chunk of your money up first, just in case some random PI stumbles in

and busts up your gig. But a lesson we can all we can we can all take something from. But yeah, unless you have anything else, I think that's about it for this one. But never fear, we will be back next time to talk about another episode of the Rockford Files.