Two Hundred A Day - Episode 142: Speculative Episode Draft Special!

Episode Date: September 15, 2024

It's a special episode! Nathan and Eppy are drafting elements from The Rockford Files to construct two pitches for Rockford Files episodes that never were. It's a great excuse to talk a little bit about our favorite bits of the show, and we have some great Patron suggestions to help us along. Show Notes: * Here's the Archive.org link to the 1981 BBC Radio Lord of the Rings recording (https://archive.org/details/the-lord-of-the-rings-bbc-radio-drama). * Nathan's Episode: from season 3, "The Montreal Connection" * Eppy's Episode: from season 4, "Fool Me Thrice" 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/) * Brian Cummins, 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

Welcome to 200 a day the podcast where we talk about the 70s television detective show the Rockford files I'm Nathan Pauletta and I'm EpidioRapidshaw and we are coming to you today with our with a special episode when fun we're doing some funsies today some Something just just for us. No, hopefully you'll enjoy it too. But we are going to do what we're calling the 200 a day I don't know, special episode draft. Speculative episode. Episode that never was. Episode that never was. Yes. Episodes that never were. Yeah. So Nathan and I are both going to pitch a Rockford Files

episode as if we had any right to. And we're going to have, because we can't do this straight, we're going to have some rules that we're going to follow here. Yeah. If we didn't have rules, how would we have any kind of social interaction? Yeah. Without rules, where's fun? Answer that. So we'll go into that in a second, but first we do have some good messages that have been piling up on the answering machine.

Oh, nice. So I think this is probably a good time to go through those, and then we'll get into our draft. So most of this concerns our last couple of episodes, but before getting into those, we do have, we did get an email from listener Chris about continuing the podcast. Oh, yeah. This is a topic that we've been talking about in Plus Expenses, and we've mentioned a couple times on our main show, but once we are done with our original remit of talking about the

Rockford files, there's a whole constellation of Rockford-related media that we are interested in but we are not going to be doing, we're not going to be continuing a monthly cadence for talking about. Just kind of special treats throughout the year. Yeah, we'll drop some special treats. So anyway, listener Chris suggests that we do Magnum PI, which I think has been mentioned a couple times to us. Specifically, he says that a lot of the same actors spill over into the show.

Rocky Angel, Beth and Dennis all make appearances. I assume they're actors, not their characters, but I don't know. We'll find out. I think you would appreciate the writing as you do the Rockford files. Magnum slacks sometimes, and he has a lot of introspective thoughts and observations that you'll like. He also gets into some wild stuff. And so we may end up taking on like a top episode list or something like that.

Yeah, I wouldn't mind doing some magnums. Good excuse to watch a show that I only vaguely recall. I could hear the theme and I could see a helicopter. And that is my memories of it as a child. Yeah, I don't know if I've ever watched Magnum PI So that would be kind of fun to explore Higgins Higgins is a character from it. I remember the name Higgins He was very proper. I think that would be a good approach though If there is a show that's kind of in the the Rockford Sphere or has some kind of crossover actors or characters, probably other than

Richie Brockleman PI, which is already on the radar, but crossover actors or something like that. Maybe like a like a tight like three or five episode recommendation list would be a good thing to send our way. And then we could put that on our on our docket for you know, one or two episodes, a couple three episodes. I would highly recommend a type three. Type three? Well, just considering how much time over the years we'll have to do these, we're more

likely to get to something off of a top three than pulling off an entire top five. Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah. So I guess feel free to send those our way. We'll put them on the list. This is a long term part of the project where we're talking about, like maybe three or four episodes a year, honestly, going forward. So the key is and we talked about this in Plus Expenses, but the key is we only want to talk about stuff that we're like really excited to talk about.

And as of when we're done, we have done an entire show. It took seven years. We're ready to do something else with our creative time. But if we're really interested in the best three Magnum PI episodes or the the Garner, Rito Moreno Bruce Lee, vehicle, Marlowe. Yes, well we're definitely doing that, but like yeah, yeah exactly that kind of stuff. The con game episodes of Maverick that the con game episodes of The Rock Profiles are modeled on. You know, that kind of stuff we will definitely want to talk about.

It'll just be like every couple of months. Yeah. Some feedback from patrons on our recent episodes. We have patron Dave Otterson has something for us regarding Paradise Cove. This is a great episode and I'm enjoying your take on it. Well, thank you, Dave. Yeah, thank you. You were wondering if Jim had ever moved the trailer before this. He did. The house on Willis Avenue when he and Richie got out of town to save their skins. Garth McGregor shows up at 29 Cove Road with his goons and there's no house. He's told that they found out that Rockford's dad towed away the dwelling earlier. Which, now that he's

saying this, I'm like, oh, yes. Right. Yes. We don't we don't have perfect recall. But yeah, I'd say famously, Dave has we've talked to Dave before he's. Oh, yes. He has audio recordings of the shows. Yes. From the 70s and have listened to them growing up. And so he has these very specific recall based on that, which he's reached out to us about some of these before which is fantastic and so he says having listened to the audio tapes i've made of the show in the 70s zillions of times i can say from memory that garth says just how do you tow away a house with a truck and his flunky says suspects dwelling is a 50-foot house trailer it's on wheels sir

you work for me mister yes sir mr mc. Dan Baker, just in from the Houston office. Didn't anyone ever teach you how to give a report? Yes, sir. Then give it properly! Yes, sir. Suspect's dwelling has been located at 29 Cove Road for the last three and a half years, according to persons in attendance here. An old man known to be suspect Rockford's father picked up the dwelling

and towed it away by semi about two hours ago. Just how do you tow away a house with a truck? Suspect's dwelling is a trailer, sir. It's a 50-foot house trailer. It's on wheels. Oh, it is a great episode. Yes, I absolutely love that. I think every time it comes up, I bring it up, but this is how they saved a bunch of

Lost Doctor Who episodes, because nobody had videotape recordings of them, but they had audio. So they managed to piece them together through the audio and then create animated things. But I remember setting a tape recorder next to the TV and taping theme songs for shows that I liked. That was a pastime of mine, like shows in The Legend of Zelda.

That was the other show. So I had that on the mixtape. I definitely grew up listening to audio tapes and books on tape. Yeah. Like as a kid, like checking out from the library and whatnot. And my grandmother had a she was really big into books on tape and she had there was an audio set of the faulty towers show. Ah, yes. Yeah.

She was big into British shows. So yeah, she just happened to have this like this. It was like an official like BBC, you know, channel, whatever. But they're the audio versions of the faulty towers. And she gave them to me at some point. And I listened to those a ton when I was a kid, which I think probably informed my sense of humor in a very specific way.

Faulty Towers, not all of it has aged well. But that experience of watching the show and then having the immediate recall of a line because I've listened to it so many times like there's something about that audio recall that is really specific and doesn't isn't the same as watching a show over and over to me. Growing up, Emily had audio of The Hobbit. I think of the Rankin-Bass production but the audio that they did wasn't the cut for the film.

It was based out of the audio that they had recorded. So there's bits that she remembers that never made it into the little animated thing, like the Arkenstone, which is a huge thing in the book. Oh, yeah, yeah. And doesn't show up in the animation at all. And I'm like, I'm going to go to the library and I'm going to go to the library and I'm going to go to the library and I'm going to go to the library and I'm going to go to the library and I'm going to go to the library and I'm going to go to the library and I'm going to go to the library and I'm going to go to the library and I'm going to go to the library and I'm going to go to the library and I'm going to go to the library and I'm going to go to the library and I'm going to go to the library and I'm going to go to the

library and I'm going to go to the library and I'm going to go to the library and I'm going to go to the library and I'm going to go to the library and I'm going to go to the library and I'm going to go to the library and I'm going to go to the library and I'm going to go to the library and I'm going to go to the library and I did have to transition my brain a little bit watching the movies like when they first came out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. As previously discussed on Plus Expenses, the the nine hours of whatever, 10 plus hours of Lord of the Rings movies that I've watched recently. Anyway, the song, the way they do the songs and like some of the Foley and stuff is like ground in my head. And I actually, this is neither here nor there, but when I first had a laptop, I

spent some time one Christmas when I was at my parents' house is like I was in college figuring out how to, to attach my dad's tape deck to my laptop. And I recorded all of those tapes and I still have those mp3s that I read. Oh, nice. Yeah. Every time I do like a, like a computer transition, I check and make sure I still have those I haven't listened to in a while, but I could just listen to them as

a podcast now, I guess I could just set them up as RSS feed somewhere and just do a private, I'm sure you can buy them somewhere at this point, but it was like a really specific BBC radio play adaptation, 14 cassette tapes, I think, or 12 cassette tapes that came in a big long box. Anyway. Yeah. I remember as a kid getting audio tapes of children's movies,

like a Mickey's Christmas Carol, I remember being one that I had when I was a kid. But also like, oh, this is a record. I think I had a record of the Davy Crockett movie that Disney had done. I guess it's a lot of Disney. But anyways, yeah, it was a real medium. We're podcasting. Obviously, audio is a real medium. But yeah, I do have very fond memories of specifically audio that was recorded to go

along with visuals and then separate it from that and just offer it as plain audio. I will put this in the show notes. I just looked it up. Archive.org has the Lord of the Rings BBC recordings. It was from 1981 and Ian Holm does The Voice of Frodo and so now he was Bilbo, right, in the movies. Yeah, it's a great cast. Anyway, I'll put it in the show notes, but if you wanted to listen to it's broken up into individual tracks.

Interesting. I mean, it's long. It has all the songs at the end. The Aragorn voice is really good. The Nazgul effect is really good. They do these like, you know, they do processing on the voices and stuff and they're really eerie. Anyway, it's good stuff. We've talked about that enough. We should continue talking about the Rockford Files. Yeah. So thanks, Dave, for that call out and reflection. Speaking of Paradise Cove, friend of the show Sam

lets us know that the orderly slash custodian in the hospital who's prominently framed when Jim is talking to the nurse at the front desk. So this is one of our three dumb goons, not the one who says he'll spit in our hole, but one of the other ones. He's actor slash stuntman Branscombe? Branscombe? I don't know how to say that first name. Yeah, that's a name I've not heard. B-R-A-N-S-C-O-M-B-E. Brandscombe? Brandscombe

Richmond, in one of his earliest roles. He's had a rich and storied career, notably one of the main cast in all five seasons of Cannell's 90s show Renegade, as he wonderfully quaffed Bobby Sixkiller. I remember Renegade. Renegade was likely my first encounter with both Richmond and Cannell and I particularly remember Cannell's on-screen role as series villain Dutch Dixon. Alright so we're gonna need a tight three on Renegade. Yeah well I think Sam will get us set. I do remember Renegade. The main thing is that the main character drives a motorcycle. Like it's not a magical motorcycle, it's not like a kit or something like that, but it's definitely like, uh, like, he comes into town. But I don't remember anything else about the plot.

Sam also has something for us for our most recent episode, No Fault Affair. I noticed that Rita's list of failed salon interviews that was on screen for a moment included some real famed hairdressers that would have been LA slash Beverly Hills staples, like the infamous hairdresser term producer John Peters and Vidal Sassoon, just before he started marketing his now ubiquitous hair care products. Oh, that's a great catch. Yeah. That also reminds me of there's a because there's a isn't there a Vidal Sassoon reference in just a couple of guys like they're selling. Oh, there might be yeah Sassoon

hair dryers or something like that yeah good stuff thanks Sam thank you Sam also speaking of no fault affair patron Rachel says that and this is something that we touched on in our intro never came back to while we were talking but that the title yes so it says maybe noault Affair is a play on No Fault Divorce, which is a divorce based on irreconcilable differences, and legally this was a new thing in the 70s. Yeah, that probably makes sense, right. I remember thinking, is this supposed to be kind of like No Fault Divorce, and then never going into it?

So yeah. The phrase No Fault Divorce would have been in the zeitgeist. Yeah. And it, I mean, to some extent, it's about a bad breakup. Like, like, yeah, not really. But like, there's, it has a parallel, right? Like, yeah, I think the idea of no fault is kind of like, I mean, it's a little ironic, right? It's very faulty in this story. But the idea of like, you can just walk away. You don't need a reason. I see where that title comes from. So to be clear, I think Rachel is right. I think this is a play on no fault divorce. We didn't get into why that might have been or actually talk about it on the show,

knowing that it was new or at least newish in the 70s, which sounds right in terms of divorce law. For a long time, you couldn't just get a divorce, like there had to be a reason. It's very tilted against women and the liberalization of divorce law, I think has been a net good for society. But yeah, there certainly was a before time

and an after time of the idea of no fault divorce. And I was just now, just before, thinking about it in the context of the main detective story of it. But also, it does fit with the, I don't know if this is like the subplot or maybe this is the main plot, but the Jim and Rita's relationship, are they getting together? What's going on here? And then no, they're not. And that is actually a better, like that is, that is literally a no fault thing.

They're like, no, it's just not going to work out. So let's not do that. Speaking of no fault of them. We are not car guys. That's should be the name of our podcast. Multiple listeners on multiple platforms directed us to the Stutz Motor Car Company. Oh, yes, that's right. You had a brief flirtation with maybe it was an abbreviation for something.

I think I said maybe Studebaker. I don't know. Whatever. I did not look into it. Stutz was a high end sports and luxury brand in the 20s. And then it went out of business in 20s and 30s. Went out of business during the Great Depression, was revived in 1968. Per Wikipedia, it was a super high end luxury brand. Production was limited. An estimated, so this is where I'd say you can forgive us for maybe not being familiar. An estimated 617 cars were built during the company's first 25 years of existence

Yeah, so yeah, but it's like movie stars drove Stutts's I guess is that right? Yeah. Yeah, that's it was it was a Glorious looking car. Oh, yeah, look great If they were only a hundred and sixteen or six or 616 other ones of those on the road, I would Between 1971 and 1995. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we regret the error. 71 and 95. Hmm. Hmm. I'm wondering about when the movies end. 99. I'm wondering about when the movies end. 99. But I think it was filmed in 96 or something like that. Oh right, and then released.

Yeah, because there was a big delay between some of them. 97 was when the last one was recorded. So there might be a Stutz in it, I guess, is what we're saying. Yeah, a brand new one, hot off the 617th. So we'll find out. Thank you, everyone, as always for your feedback. It's always super interesting to get these details filled in on the corrections on things that we don't really remember. Always a joy. Yeah.

I feel like I said that a little sarcastically. It is always a joy. Thank you. Yeah. OK. Now, now will this work? Let's find out. Should we flip a coin? Oh, maybe. how about you find a coin while I explain what we're doing here? Okay, so as is tradition, we need to give ourselves some rules to have some fun We are going to be doing our Rockford files episodes that never were element draft

Yes, we have a number of categories element draft. Yes. We have a number of categories. Within those categories we have individual elements and we're going to go back and forth drafting our favorite elements to start putting together into a perspective episode of the Rockford Files. And then at the end we will use what we've collected to give a brief overview or a brief description of what this episode maybe could have been. The whole point here is just to have a way to talk about all the fun stuff we like in the show. There are a number of regular categories of things ranging from guest stars to which season it's in, to what big 70s vibe is present, etc. One of us picks a category, the other one picks an element in the category and drafts it.

And so it is then cannot be taken by the other person who drafts a different element, and then we'll go to the other person to take their turn. And we'll go back and forth like that until we've gone through six, probably. Yeah, I think about six. Categories. And then we have four must-haves. The writer, the director, a regular cast, appearance, and action that is in the episode. So we will then go all through those. I mean, I guess we can go continue going back and forth for picking for the order.

When we do a category, we'll explain everything in the category. Yeah. So there's more categories than we're gonna address. Yes. And then once we have all of our elements drafted, if we need something else for our episode and it has not been drafted by the other person, they're free agents at that point and we can grab them as we talk. Yeah. Those are the rules for us. Hopefully, on your end, you get to just enjoy us talking about the Rockford Files. The rule is a I split you pick mechanic. So whoever goes first will pick the first category for what they're most interested in putting in their show. But then the other person gets to pick the first element. There's

four to six entries in each one that are pre- we've already determined them. Many of them include patrons suggestions, which we'll call out as they come up, and uh yeah and we'll go from there. 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 Files 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 Berenson 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 whatcherereadingpress.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 Asteep 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, Roll4Yor.Party. And check out Jay Adan's amazing miniature painting skills over at JayAdan.com. Thank you to Andrea Apignani, Tom Clancy, Pumpkin Jamba Peach Pug, Dave P., Dave Otterson, Kip Holley, Dale Church, Colleen Kelly, David Nixon, Nathan Black, Robert Lindsay, Jay Thompson, and Brian Cummins. And finally, special appreciation for our detective little patrons. Joe Greathead, Michael Zalisco, Eric Antenner, 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. I've got a coin. Specifically, I have a Prince Valiant coin. Okay. So you have to decide whether Prince Valiant's face or Prince Valiant riding a horse. Okay, so face or horse. I'll call horse.

It is indeed horse. Okay, so face or horse. I'll call horse. It is indeed horse. All right. I guess the first pick, I think. Or do you decide who gets the first pick? I'll start. We'll just we'll keep it simple. So the first category that I would like to draft from is Oh, this is interesting, because this starts to be the first frame for how I'm going to think about this episode. This is interesting because this starts to be the first frame for how I'm gonna think about this episode Yeah, I've been trying so hard not to think about the episode because I don't want to get You know, you don't want to paint yourself into a corner with it All right, so I'm gonna start with ones that I think is is is relatively neutral. Mm-hmm So my first category will be modern 70s technology. Oh Thank you, and this includes some patron suggestions. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Our options here. Well, how about should I go through the options? Yeah, go through the options and then you get to pick first. Yeah. And all of these categories have a wild card of if if one of us thinks of something we will add it as we go. Yes. Yes. All right. Our options here include the hand printing press that Jim uses to make his business cards computers. Exclamation point. Yes. There are many very modern computers in these episodes. Answering machine, whether his or another answering machine, I suppose is up for debate, but the technology of the answering machine and recording equipment which I was thinking of as you

know either people planting bugs or some kind of device that is used to record at a range unbeknownst to the person being recorded as opposed to the answering machine okay well this is I mean I appreciate this you offering this this little this little price, it's a little present to me. I am very tempted to buy computers, obviously. I just want you to be happy. Yeah, well thank you, I appreciate that.

But I might go, I'm gonna go with computers, but I'm gonna, specifically I'm gonna go, I'm gonna find myself a calculator for this. This is a, yeah, let me, I'll put that down under my draft. Oh yes. Wait, all right, gotta look at the Rockford files. Oh, I can't, no, I don't know what season I'm in yet.

Yeah, you don't know what season you're in yet. Season's gonna determine the calculator. Oh, okay. This is fun. What are you picking? I gotta go with the hand printing press. Yeah, that would have been my, I think that would have been my second. It doesn't make a whole lot of

appearances. But when it does, it steals the show, right? It's iconic. It's iconic. Yeah. And I believe that was a specific patron entry. So yeah, I'll say that. Okay, so my my episode is going to have the hand printing press. So that's actually pretty good because that starts implying what kind of action. Oh, I mean, because that starts implying what kind of action. Oh, I mean, Jim's always running some kind of con, so I guess it's not. It's not super restrictive, but it

starts to get my mind going. All right, your turn. My turn. I'm going to pick a category. Actually, this is the fun, interesting choice here. There are some patron suggestion ones that I think I feel not obligated, but like I really want to lean into. One of them is too soon.

We can't go 70s vibe after 70s technology. So let's go with let's go gym maneuvers. This category was combining a couple things into into a master a master category. But my idea with calling it gym maneuvers are just like these are things that Jim does that we always we will always kind of call out as like, oh, that is a yeah, a signature or a classic Jim kind of thing to do. And a couple of these are from the patrons suggestions. Yeah. So we have status play playing as higher or lower status.

Jim gets the drop with a clever physical move. Oh, God. So many good ones there. That's great. Something smart with the Firebird. Yes uses Rocky as part of a cover story. It's great. Yeah, so something smart the Firebird was something in the realm of like driving up onto the car carrier so that the pursuing car goes by underneath like that kind of stuff. Or the one where he like the cops have someone pulled over and he just spins and parks right next to the cops. That was so good.

Yeah. All right. But I get to pick. Ooh. Yeah. Just because I think it's always so good. I am going to go with using Rocky as part of a cover story. Yeah, it's good. That's something that Jim's going to do in my episode. Oh, man. It's so hard to...

So, okay. Here's the thing. I love Jim's status plays. I love when he... Like, that's an epi-original calling out all the status stuff that happens in those episodes. I do. I really love it. But honestly, the thing that got the biggest reaction out of me was the gym gets a drop on clever physical with a clever physical move. So I'm going to go ahead and do

that one. I'm going to go ahead and put these down on our lists below. We're utilizing some modern technology of the shared Google Doc. Yeah. I feel like we need to start getting something that's going to guide the larger. We're very in vibe territory right now and not quite in. So you know what, let's go ahead and go right to episode type. So these are our generated them a while ago. Typologies of Rockford files episodes.

So to the best of my knowledge, these are the different broad categories of a Rockford Files. Jim has a client. Jim's friend is in trouble. And whether that's they bring trouble to Jim's door or they're in trouble and Jim takes initiative to get them out of it, that's those both kind of fall under that con game episode. Yeah. Jim is framed, which is, I think, suitably different from these other ones.

Jim is in trouble. Jim is in trouble as usual. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the social issue episode. Yes. You know, quite often these get a little blurred. Yeah. But OK, I'm I'm I'm just gut instinct. I'm going to I'm going to grab Jim's friend is in trouble. That is sorry about that. Didn't mean to take that from you. That's how the game is played.

I feel like if we did like a count, it's like 40 percent. Jim has a client, 40 percent. Jim's friend is in trouble and the rest are evenly divided. Like those are kind of the main ones. Oh man. So here's the thing. We do love a Kongame episode and we do love a Social Issue episode, but I do think that those... I don't know if I have the brain for putting together a really either of them coherent version of either of them right now. Well, just keep in mind that you don't have to.

You're hiring a writer. That's true. That's true. I'm just giving bullet points here. I do think I'm going to go with Jim is framed. I think it's a little off the it's a little out of the typical patterns. It's not super different, but it gives, but it definitely gives opportunity for Jim to need a cover story and to use his use his printing press

and some effort of giving out of the out of a jam. Yeah, you're already dealing with that. Yeah, I haven't even started thinking about putting a coherent thing together. You're ahead of the game. Am I? Am I? So you chose the episode type. So now it's me to choose one.

We've done three. I'm tempted. But we have one here that's the general foes, which is good. But the thing I want to do, and I think this actually is good for for what we're doing, right? As a fan thing. I guess, I want the guest star. Returning character, specifically. So we're talking not just about the actor or actress, but we're talking about the character that they play.

The list we have here is, of course, the greatest list in the world. Just real quick, because we have a couple lists of actors the differentiation here we have guest star returning character which are ones that we see multiple times which will you'll explain and go through our options a second we have guest star no particular character so those are actors that we've seen on multiple episodes but they are usual they are not coming back as the same character but they're kind of the standout no out no matter what, but yeah. But they're like TV A-listers of the era. And then we have regular character actor, which are people that we see on the show a lot. They're sometimes, they are the main, they are the co-star or the main antagonist, but they also can be on the screen as a minor character, and they're kind of... I think of them as more of a character actor. And then there's that guys and that guys are ones that we always go, hey, that's a that guy, but they don't necessarily have the same name recognition as our character actors and they're usually in a minor role, like a goon or a secretary or something like that. Anyway, those are our levels of guest star. or something like that. Anyway, those are our levels of guest star. Yes. So we're, I'm doing guest star returning character. We have Rita Moreno as Rita Kapkiewicz,

Dennis Dugan as Richie Brockleman, Tom Selick as Lance White, Isaac Hayes as Gandhi, Lewis Gossett Jr. as Gabby, and Bo Hopkins as Coop. That is a good list. Our episodes are going to be adding on to the existing group of episodes that these people are... Yeah, yeah. Yeah. That the various trilogies or sagas or whatever that include... A lot of these are trilogies, aren't they?

Yeah, Rita's three. Lance's... Richie's in two, but one's a two-parter. Lance's in two. Gandhi's in three. Three. Gabby's in two but one's a two-parter Lance isn't to gandhi's and three three Gabby's and two two I think yeah, and then Coop's in two. Yeah only two Coops in two with a vocal appear or he's in three with the vocal and periods in one One of them. Oh, yeah, I see I see you be thinking., you pick the category I get to pick.

Yeah. Right. The rules. I was gonna let you winnow it down for me, but that's okay. Let's see, Jim gets framed. Oh man, I feel like that gives me a good direction. I just need to make my pick. I am going with Lou Gossett Jr. as Marcus Aurelius, Gabby Hayes coming in as my as my guest star in some kind of plot that involves Jim being framed.

I feel like we could end up with him doing the framing or getting in trouble as a result of Gabby's activities as he is the activities, as he is the nominally a P.I. He always has an angle. He's always conning someone, usually to his own material advantage, like like getting the limo to ride around in for free or having the whole front of his P.I. investigation company when it's really like just him and all that stuff. So, yeah, that's good. Unless you were going gonna pick him,

in which case I do have a different direction I could go. I'm cutting edge 70s technology and Jim's got a friend in trouble. I feel like this is, it might be too much to do this, but I feel this feels either Brockleman or White's, Baileywick. It is a little house on Willis Avenue if I just go with Brockleman or White's Bailiwick. It is a little house on Willis Avenue if I just go with Brockleman. But if I had gone with recording equipment, I feel like that's Lance

White. I'm going to go Brockleman. I think I want to... You disagree? No, I don't disagree. I have a pitch if you want to go the other way, but also this is your episode. So don't let me throw you off if your heart is telling you where you should be going. Yeah, I think I'm gonna go Brockleman only because I think that 70s tech is just going to make an appearance. It's not gonna be vital to the story in this one.

So it's not just Howl's Some Willis Avenue all over again, which is honestly The the world we live in is All right, so now my turn for category Let's see. It's tough. Isn't it tough? We can't do them all. I mean, I guess we could but it's better if we don't Let's go to familiar antagonist. Okay. So these are recurring characters that right that Jim does not have that Jim

butts heads with our options here are Lieutenant Chapman, Lieutenant Deal. Yes. Federal agent Dan Shore, who was in like three episodes, actually, but I think they're all pretty early in the series, but he's played by the same character, like same actor. He is a recurring character. Always bring Jim in for on federal beefs. And then Vern St. Cloud, the throwback PI that we see more towards the end of the series. Oh my god.

I, okay, I am clearly. Throwback PI that we see more towards the end of the series. Oh my god. I Okay, I am clearly um, I feel like this could really really push push yours in a certain direction Yeah, I'm tempted by I'm actually tempted by Vern St. Cloud But I feel like again is isn't Bruckleman Bruckleman and Vern are in an episode together already, right? No, because Vern St. Cloud, he shows that there's the episode with the... I think he shows... Well, so he's in an episode with Gandy, or sorry, with Gabby, and with Lance White, I think.

Lance White, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's definitely... I'm tempted to go like oops all all PIs You know what though? Actually, I think I'm gonna go Chapman. I think Chapman's Brooklyn in oh, okay. Oh, that's interesting. That's what I'm gonna do. All right. What are you gonna do? I am going with federal agent Dan Shore because I think Gabby has gotten Jim. Yeah trouble with the fence I think that is what's Jim in trouble with the fence.

I think that is what's happening here. This is good. You've created a Rockford files generating engine. All right, so now I'm picking, what are we at? We're at five. This is the last category of the non-mandatory ones. Yeah. Which leaves all the other categories open as freebies.

That's true. That's true. As free agents, yeah. Yeah. But let's talk about this just for a moment here. OK, so the audience knows we have the guest stars. We've gone through them. We've gone through what those categories are.

We have the season, which I feel like is an important one. But we're also dialing ourselves into season. I think we are with our characters. So I'm OK. I feel like that's kind of a that might have been a fun first pick. Right. But I think at this point, that's going to be determined by other choices. So I don't think we need to waste drafts on that. At the end of this, we might have to say what season it is. But yeah, I think we should have to say what season it is. Yeah

There's 200 a day favorites Classics so that stuff like Interesting stuff in the score good food episode, which doesn't necessarily mean good food It's just around like some good things going around food good money episode again Very specifically doesn't mean good money. And multiple groups with conflicting interests. Those are all things that we all love. There's the big seventies vibe, which is another great list. There's rock for additionists, which I mean, like that feels maybe I'm going to go with that one. We'll see. There's the general foe, which I think we don't necessarily need now. I think we both are foe into it.

Regular minor cast appearance, which again would be lovely. And then OK, so that's what we have left. I think I've talked myself into one of these. What did I talk myself into? When I talk myself out of general foe, we've already got the gym thing. So maybe we don't necessarily need a rock for dishness. I'm not opposed to another character and all this. Yeah, just because we have a couple of lists. I am thinking that we could also use the for when we're when we're describing our episodes. It's like,

and then someone but then we have to like pick like we have. Yeah. Put a name to it. So we'll get a couple of those for free. But if you want someone in particular, or if we just want to talk about them, that's a good this is a good spot. This this this show is called 200 a day for a reason. Let's do 200 a day favorites. OK. I think I just did the list of them.

Yeah. But to reiterate, it's interesting stuff in the score slash musical montage There's good food episode and again doesn't necessarily mean the foods good good money episode Usually means he doesn't end up with any money and multiple groups with conflicting interests Mm-hmm. So again, yeah These are things that often are just in most of the episodes in some portion and we will be like, oh, this is stuff that I'll drop in excerpts to illustrate are often on this list. Okay, let's see. Musical montage was a patron suggestion specifically of like, you know, sometimes when there's

like not musical montage, like, like, like Broadway musical, but like Jim's walking around on the street to try and track down someone. And we just see him talking to a bunch of different people. And then he ends up playing football with a bunch of youths for some reason. And then he shows up at someone's door and we're like, oh, well, I guess he got the information. Yes, that kind of stuff. Oh, man. OK, so I have Jim is framed. We got Gabby involved.

Rocky needs to be part of the cover story. Federal agent Dan Shore. I feel like the real natural pick here is the multiple groups with conflicting interests. Yeah. I think there's something complicated going on that, you know, Jim gets stuck right in the middle of. So I'm gonna call that one.

I'm gonna go good food. This is just a just to please Nathan. So you're going to specify what what you know, what food, what scene, who Jim steals a taco from or whatever. All right. Now we're on to our mandatory categories. So and you can let me know if you want to adjust. I guess there's two of these lists that maybe we could adjust. So our must have categories are the writer, the director. So our director list is our three most prolific directors and then two that

I remember talking about and kind of liking the fact that they were directors. Our regular cast appearance is pretty self-explanatory. And then our action list. And these are kind of the beat that we end the preview montage on. Yeah, the action list. Yeah. So if there was something else you wanted to add to that list,

or if that's a good wild card entry, maybe. Yeah. But yeah, so that's where we're at. So you pick the category first. Oh, this is hmm. Hmm cuz I picked the pack category. That means you get first pick of the yeah of the good stuff. Um You know what? I'm gonna punt on this by picking action So our options here are a car chase. Mm gets beat up, a foot chase, and someone takes a shot.

So those I feel like are usually the elements that we see as the big final beat in our preview montage. Someone, one of our patrons, specified that there's pretty much always at the 20 and 40 minute mark, there's either a car chase or Jim takes a punch to the gutter gets hit over the head sometimes is that the 20 minute sometimes at the 40 minute but there's always those two things in the episode I'm gonna go with the foot chase I feel like that might be a slightly under under appreciated one and I actually have a good I have an idea for it.

Well I'm tempted by someone takes a shot but I think I'm actually going to take car chase very specifically because I'm seeing Jim and Gabby in the car whatever this chase is. Yeah yeah I can see that that's good. Whatever's happening it's the two of them. Okay. All right I'm picking the next category I feel like regular cast experience needs to be our last one. I don't know why it just so let me pick Let's I'll give you first shot at the writer. Okay, or would you rather first shot at the director?

No writers writers good our writers obviously our choices here are Stephen Cannell John Thomas James Aka Roy Huggins Juanita Bartlett and David Chase. Yeah Let's see. Who do I think is writing who who do I want to give my story outline to for my idea for? Mm-hmm for Gabby getting Jim into trouble and with federal federal agents. Oh, man. Honestly, this one this one's feeling like a candle to me. I was going to say candle. This feels real solid, real meaty in the zone.

Candle stuff. Yeah. So I'm going to snag. I'm going to snag the master. I think I'm going to. I don't know why, but I think the fact that I'm using 70s computers rules out Roy. Roy Hunkins. There's no cowboy story that gets adapted to 70s computer. So that leaves me with Bartlett and Chase, both of which I think would be good.

I'm gonna go with Chase, I think. I wanted to give this to Juanita, but I didn't end up with. So here's the thing is like, it's not like she's not solid throughout. I think we just associate her with with her really exceptional stuff, which tend to be the issue episodes and the ones that the female protagonists. But that doesn't mean she hasn't written great. Yeah, I don't know. That aren't in that direction. Let's get one need on here. David Chase has made enough money

He's off working on his he has some more we don't have any mob stuff actually So yeah, he'd be happy to do it. But mm-hmm. He's like nobody's from Jersey in your scripts I will then turn Director over to you. Oh, so our top three by volume are William Wired, our grand pooba of episode direction, Lawrence Doheny, as we were informed, I believe, who's second, second in line with for that title. It's a let me see.

Yeah, William Wired directed 26 episodes. Lawrence Doheny directed 12 episodes. And then Ivan Dixon is the next on our list who directed nine episodes and was just one, we talked about him, I feel like I talked about him a lot, just a super interesting guy as well. And then the other picks I made for the list were Reza Badi, just because, again, he's just a real TV guy.

And I was, yeah, thought he did, you know, his episodes really solid. And Jackie Cooper, who did didn't do a ton of episodes, but was both in front of and behind the camera. And he directed five episodes of the show. And I don't know, I just like him. The man who had his own face since birth. Exactly. Like that's, you see, you watch a child actor,

Jackie Cooper, and you watch Jackie Cooper in the Rockford Files, and you're like, that is the same person. I know that that's the same person. I'll tell you what this comes down to for me. Ivan Dixon, my gut on him is that he does some more artistic cinematography. That's what I, not entirely, but like that's like, I do like, I like them all, but they're all good directors.

Yeah. One thing I remember about Reza Bady is that he did some of my favorite opening credits to shows. So I'm just going to do that. I'm going to make that decision based on that. I think that's a good decision. I'm going to be like, make this look like the opening credits to the $6 million man. Which I think he did. I know he did. I know he

did Mary Tyler more. He did Hawaii Five-O. Hawaii Five-O, yeah. Title visualizations on so many things. So it wasn't six million dollar man. I have that confused with someone else. Oh man. He did direct six episodes of Deep Space Nine. So I So I'm actually I'm looking a little through the credits to see if there is. OK, all right. Mm hmm. I am going to go with Lawrence Doherty. Oh, OK. He was more of an early season guy, which I'm feeling kind of an early, an early season vibe, especially with agent sure. And some of the other I feel like this episode will go in well with some of

what's on his docket including the profit and loss to parter the Farnsworth stratagem chicken little little yeah again Joey blue eyes yeah he's got he's got he's got a pedigree yeah yeah uh oh peace work which we did not too long ago. That's the one with the, oh man, the guy who's like breaking up the gun running ring for the feds and then Jim accidentally, he thinks Jim is bringing on his thing. That feels like the vibe that I'm hitting. So I will go with Lawrence. And so where's a buddy who does does what company are you keeping there?

Let's see seven episodes of the Rockford Files So you're sitting in conversation with the Becker connection second chance Dwarf in a helium hat A fast count which is A dwarf in a helium hat. A fast count, which is the one with the boxer. Which one was a different drummer? I feel like this was the one we always go, which one was that?

Oh, that was the Black Market organ doctor one. Oh, wow. God, I vaguely recall that one. A real smorgasbord of stylistic options there. Yeah, all right. OK. Final option. You picked last, but you picked first.

Yeah, so I picked first on regular cast appearance. Yeah. You got it. You nailed it. Yeah. Well, so here's the thing. Do I get Rocky for free? Because I already.

That's a good question. I think so. Why not? That's a good question. I think so. Why not? That does limit my choices. But it opens up Rocky for me if I want him. So... That's true, yes. Let's see. Who's in this one? Who's in this one? Let's see.

Jim's getting framed. There's Agent Shore. Oh man. I mean, this is on top of, like, I guess this is more than a brief scene appearance, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah, this is does something for the plot. Yeah, right. Yeah It's not just Beth yelling at him for or just showing up to get him out of jail. Like it's yeah You got a lot good. I mean we honestly we both got really good, right? Right. We didn't we haven't enumerated this for the audience

We haven't enumerated this for the audience who probably knows off the bat, but it's in alphabetical order Angel, Beth, Dennis, and Rocky. How do you choose? How do you choose just one? Yeah. All right. So I think I'm going to go Dennis because I feel like I got multiple groups. I got multiple groups. I got federal agents like I feel like Dennis I feel like the cops end up fitting into that in some some somewhere. Yeah relevant

relevant group And that's good that leaves me I'm gonna go back. Mm-hmm. I could go like yeah like yeah honestly I think we both could have gone with any of these but the reason why I want to go Beth is I do have a I think we have kind of similar vibes going on in our thing but like if you had not gone Dennis I would have gone Dennis right like that that was the thing I have a good reason why Dennis is in mine, in mine though. And if you had gone Dennis, I would have gone Beth, because for some, Jim is going to need

someone in his corner on that side of the law. Yeah, I was kind of thinking angel, but I kind of didn't want to take angel from you. No, this is good. This is good. This is why we draft, because then you're like, like, oh, yeah. All right. So we have our we have our draft lists. So we're going to take a couple of minutes. We're going to come back. We will reprise our what the elements that we have to work with in each of our. Yeah. Episodes. And then we're going to spin out a pitch a high level.

Here's what's happening in this episode of the Rockford files. That never was. We don't have to do the whole plot or anything like that. We just have to give like a good juicy situation and like some some highlights and some details. Yeah. All right. So we'll be right back. Right back. 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, podcasts, 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 Rocko. Alright, who's going first? Ummm, you go first. Okay, that's fine. I haven't formulated the best pitch for it yet. Well, I'll run down your elements and then...

Yeah. Alright, so we've got computers. I've decided that specifically this is going to be the HP 41C handheld programmable calculator. It's basically a computer fits in your hand. It was used on space missions like Sally Ride had one up. Wonderful piece of equipment. Highly recommend researching it if you are at all a nerd like myself. Anyways,

Richie has one of these. I think that's important. I think he's going to be constantly turning to it as like going to calculate something. And of course, at some point, Jim's going to smack it out of his hand, which is going to lead Richie to tell him how much it costs. It wouldn't have been cheap back then. Then I have Jim gets the drop with a clever physical move. I don't know where that fits in just yet. Jim's friend is in trouble. His friend is Richie Brockleman, who I am just my next draft was Richie Brockleman. He's in trouble with Lieutenant Chapman. This is what I think is what's happening. And this may come a little, I think Richie Brockleman has found himself stuck

in a personal Rockford Files episode. I think Richie Brockleman is experiencing what you've got where Richie gets framed. He's in his career as a PI. He's in his career as a PI. Okay, this is the deal. Oh, I'll go through the rest of my list. I got Lieutenant Chapman, I have good food episode. Oh yeah.

I got foot chase. All right, I know that. Juanita Bartlett, Riza Baddy, and Beth. Okay, so my idea is this. There's a client that comes to Jim, a woman, definite femme fatale kind of thing. Jim refuses her because that's what he does. He's always refusing it. And she ends up going to Richie Brockleman.

When we bring in a key character to the plot, you do get to bring in a free agent from our list of guest stars, character actors, or that guys. Let me look at our... Oh! I mean, I said she's a femme fatale, but I wanted... You can revise. We're saying, hey, who is available? Who has room in their schedule? And they're saying, here's our list. Because I am torn here. So the list here that we're looking at is Joan Van Ark, Ned Beatty, Linda Evans, Joyce Van Patten, and Hector Elizondo.

I am tempted by Joyce Van Patten. I think I might take her. So you may remember her from... The Battle Axe and the Exploding Cigar. And she's mainly the person that was hugely into The Dennis in I think in that episode I can find out yes because she's in it's she's in the two-parter Yeah, was that battle? Oh, no. No, I'm sorry. So that's like don't serve. This is to protect and serve So this is the yeah that so this is the episodes the two-parter that introduces Anthony boy Yes, where she plays Leanne Sweeney Who's really into cops and but she doesn't need to be that character for this episode No, no, but just to position her. Yeah mentally. Yeah, I think she plays

Like kind of a sad sack. Mm-hmm But she is the fem fake down her whole point is to get a private investigator to investigate her ex-husband so that that private investigator can be set up for the murder of her ex-husband. I was originally thinking that it might be mob related. That might still be on the table. We'll find out. So first she comes to Jim, Jim turns her down because Jim's going to turn everyone down and she just walks away Which is just unusual like normally they have to try and force Jim into it. Mm-hmm. Then she gets Richie Brockleman Oh, I should point out this is kind of important to my story that the answering machine joke is all about Dennis

wondering where Jim is he's about to board the flight to Acapulco And Jim missed it, like for whatever reason. So Dennis is on vacation, no Dennis in this. Jim was supposed to be on vacation too, but he missed it. So he comes in maybe to ask Dennis about something and sees that Chapman's like, you know, Rockford, I don't have time for you. And he's drilling Brockleman.

And that's when Rockford's like, what is going on? So that's what hooks him in. Oh, I like that. So so Richie doesn't come to Jim, but Jim finds out that Richie is getting in trouble specifically, specifically from Chapman. And he's like, yes. Oh, I got to help you out. Like, I know how he is's like yes. Oh, I gotta help you out. Like I know how this guy Yeah, exactly, but he's kind of like what did you do to piss off Chapman? Like yeah. Yeah So he goes oh, that's great. This brings Beth in right?

So Jim calls Beth brings Beth in they get Richie out and then Jim and Richie are trying to solve what's happening And they both have two very different ideas like this is very common for Jim and Richie. But also throughout, we constantly see them ending up at food places. Like for instance, Richie's eating sushi. Like it bites Jim out. Oh, sure, sure. You know, like it's food that Jim isn't down for. Like over and over again.

Like he, you know, Richie's like, I, we gotta try this place out. It's got an amazing Waldorf salad or something like that. There's a new health food bar that just opened. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So Richie's got this pocket computer that he's using, that he's running calculations on. Is he using it to calculate tips?

Yeah, yeah. And constantly taking Jim, oh yeah, these places have to be expensive, shows off two things. Number one, Richie might be doing well in the private eye business and number two, he's constantly splitting the tip evenly, the bill evenly with Jim. Oh, then the other two things I just need to work into this here are the foot chase and Jim gets the physical. Can I just throw out that maybe this leads up to a joke at the end where Richie, we

find out that Richie's he's charging less than Jim per day, but he's counting everything he's doing with Jim as expenses or something. Yes. Yeah, yeah. Like he's like he's doing with Jim as expenses or something? Oh yes, yeah, yeah, like he's- Like he's double dipping on the expenses? Yeah, yeah, paying for both meals or something like that. No, that's good. So the reason why I want to foot chase in there is because I want it to be clear

that Richie can outrun Jim. He's not chasing Jim. It's the, like, you don't have to outrun the bear, you just have to outrun your friend. Like there's maybe some some mob People that are coming after him and Jim just can't keep up with Richie can't throw it. It's a suggestion Oh, yeah, yeah, you said this is revolving around Joyce Van Patten's murdering her husband like covering up for murdering her So does she hire a hitman? Maybe I think so

I think either that or she is unbeknownst to either one of them. She's like the sister of a mob guy. Oh, that's better. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So she seems like just a sad sack that, you know, and Jim's like,

I don't do domestic cases or anything like that. And it turns out that she is dangerous. She is just very, very dangerous. It's one of our that guy or character actors, the this is her brother. Oh, yeah. We got for the I think what's his name? We might have used him too much. The Rockford fighters might have used Ken Swafford. I think he makes a good both Joyce Van Patten brother and like a maybe he's not ma he doesn't really he's not really mob coded to me but maybe no it's just domestic it's just her brother and he's just a violent guy what they should be is that they should be Minnesota mob oh okay yeah Midwest right

right Midwestern mob yeah like the St. Louis family or something. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like so. Yeah. So that's why Jim didn't realize, you know, anything like that. Yeah. Oh, that's great. Yeah. Because then we give them both like these very Midwestern G-hawks, but they're very dangerous people. And we need the the drop of a clever physical thing. I think it's because the Ken

Swafford is chasing them with his goons and they get Richie's just outpacing Jim. I'm trying to think of where they would have this. It's got to be some nice like. It's got to be something like, maybe this combines with your other idea where they're cornered and Jim pulls Richie's calculator out of Richie's pocket and is like, catch or something. Yeah, yeah. Like he sacrifices the calculator. Yes. Yeah, that's good many things. Well, maybe not. I was thinking we could even have some kind of weird business formula on the calculator that they're all trying to get their hands on or something like that.

And then it seems a little that's a little too much. Yeah. So there. So like I just can see in my in my head, Ken Swafford grabbing the calculator out of the air, opening him up so Jim can punch him in the gut and run away. And then Richie grabs the calculator. Oh, okay. So they do this foot chase thing and eventually Jim pulls Richie into a restaurant, like a fancy seafood restaurant, because they're like, they're not going to do anything to

us in public. I'm just having this vision of him doing the catch thing with it being around like the aquarium with the lobster Oh, sure. Yeah like that. You know, it just Sucker punching them and that's very good. And that's that's like the the that's in the preview montage Yeah, yeah and then of course they're going to end having tacos on the beach and and Jim's going to Stick Richie with the bill for the 50 cents for his tacos or whatever it is. But yeah, that's my pitch. What you got?

Okay, so my list here is the hand printing press using Rocky as part of a cover story. Jim is framed. We got Lou Gossett Jr. as Gabby involved, we got federal agent Dan Shore, multiple groups with conflicting interests, car chase, written by Stephen Cannell, directed by Lawrence Doheny, and includes Dennis. Yeah. So, this episode starts off with Jim getting a free agent agent one of our elements from from our rock for this list. Not every episode has it, but this one has Jim gets jumped while bringing home groceries. So we are starting off.

We start off our episode with, yeah, just bringing home groceries. Yeah, he gets jumped. But then when before he can find out like who or why, there's a another car pulls up. Those guys run away and two feds come out and grab Jim and hustle him into the car and take him to the federal building. He doesn't even get it. So he's like at so he's like at the federal building

asking for ice for the lump on his head. Right. Yes. So we start off in one of those situations with a Jim has no idea what's going on. What we eventually learn is that one of Gabby's schemes or one of his clients has broken, you know, has broken bad or something and is coming after. He has like, I don't know, an old client or someone that he crossed while on an investigation or something. There's a laundry list.

There's a laundry list of people that could be coming after him for reasons. And so he threw Jim under the bus as like, oh, I was just a subcontractor, which I think that might actually be the plot of the first play. Now that I think about it. So maybe it's not directly that that's fine. Oh, no, it's not that he throws him under the bus. It's that he has some kind like he has Jim's like he has Jim's business card or his ad torn out of the paper or something

that he's just been using as like a bookmark. Yes. And that is a piece of evidence that is found by whoever is try is coming after him. And so they're like, oh, this guy Rockford, he's also also a PI. So he must also be involved. Involved. Yeah. Obviously, these are some kind of it's some kind of federal thing, right?

So maybe they're I don't know, they're they're I'm just thinking of something that's kind of rock for the I don't know. They're they're they're gun runners from Canada or something like that. Yeah. Maybe gun runners. I like it. Which also feels like a Gabby level of. Right. Of involvement. He's like, they're Canadian. What are they going to do? Right. Yeah.

But so where the frame comes in is that when so I think maybe Jim is jumped before they go after Gabby. And then when they go after Gabby, they're like, well, we know you hired Jim Rockford and he's like, well, the only reason I hired Jim. Right. Like, yeah, yeah. He's been out a whole story since they already think Jim was involved. Yeah. Oh, man. The the feds pick up Gabby and they're like, well, tell us about Jim Rockford. And so Gabby tells the feds this whole story

that implicates Jim in this, you know, investigation that they're doing. So we so our multiple groups here are these Canadian gun runners, the feds, Gabby's trying to make he's trying to find out his angle. And then the cops have been keeping tabs on a local fence and he ends up involved and he ends up working for the gun runners or something. It turns into one of those like complicated like balls where we kind of find out at the end when Dennis explains that this fence that he had under surveillance. The guy who bought from them was actually an undercover fed, but the cops didn't know he was an undercover fed. Right. Like, so it ends up one of those complicated balls of things. Jim has to use this his hand printing press to he ends up impersonating a federal officer in order to figure out what the hell is going on. So he uses his printing press, his hand

printing press to to make to make business cards for for but he's not a he's not like a not as a cop, you know, not as like a FBI agent or whatever, but as federal tax reclamation investigator or something, you know, one of those border investigation tax revenue office was official sounding things and uses Rocky as part of the cover story. I mean, he could just set up the phone number to be Rocky's and has to have Rocky pretend to be his his boss or something. Yeah, there's there's a there's a reveal where one of the groups like the criminals beat him up and then take his wallet and in his wallet is this business card and it has the number on it. So they call the number and we're like, oh my God. But then it turns out that it's Rocky's house. And he's like asleep on the couch and the phone rings and, you know, he answers it and then he has to quickly like he grabs a pad of paper that is underneath a newspaper or something like to get his to get to his lines. That's good. Yeah. Yeah. And then the big climax involves Gabby tries to work an angle. It gets turned on him. The smugglers are running after him. He runs to Jim, which brings them to Jim, jumps in the firebird. They take off. But thankfully, this was all set up with Dennis ahead of time so that they, you know,

that thrilling car chase. The cops are there. The cops are there. Then they arrest everyone. But then one of the smugglers is actually an undercover fed. Right. And then that shore shows up and one of the smugglers should be undercover. Mountie. Yes. Right. That working with Rockford. Yeah. Working with Agent Shore. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So there we go. Obviously, the main like smuggler that made that ends up that turns out to actually be an undercover Mountie is. Oh, yeah, here we go. Got to get ourselves. Is Mills Watson, your friend of mine's. We did that whole that whole run of Mills Watson episodes. Oh, yes. Oh, right. But he was he had an episode about him where he was in the Deuce where he was the recovering

alcoholic. Yeah. And then he was the client in Roundabout that hired Jim. Yeah, so good. Is he like? He has a mustache. He's kind of balding. Oh, he was friar tuck in Voyagers.

Everything comes back to Voyagers. Yeah, four episodes of the Rockford Files. Wow. So yeah, so he's perfect. He's undercover Mountie. Yeah. And I'm also going to call a Bruce Tuttle appearance as probably one of the other goons.

Bruce or possibly a possibly one of the feds that doesn't have any lines. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Solid, solid episode mm-hmm So yeah, it gets it gets to one of those where at the end of our episode we go And then Dennis explains some of the connective tissue that didn't really matter because we were watching Gabby try and play both ends against the middle and fail and you know Jim having to go undercover middle and fail and you know Jim having to go undercover in all that all that business I feel like there should be some moment in all of it where get Gabby

can be like in order for this to work out we have to assume that you hired me blah blah blah and then he can get out of his things by saying well I was just working for Jim you know like that like, like, uh, um, cause I feel like there has to be something at the end where it looks like Gabby's going to get his comeuppance and he just doesn't. He just gets away. He's got for a year, uh, technicality of some sort, but yeah, good stuff. Or something where at the end, like sure gives them a hearty handshake and it's like good

working with you or something. Yeah. Yeah. You'll have to see it. And I feel like that does feel like a cannel sprawling wild kind of situation. I should have put more Beth in mine. And the only thing I could think of to say to put more Beth in mind is to actually have Beth and Joyce Van Patten confront each other at some point in the episode like Like there's a moment before

Brockleman and Rockford figure out that she's Minnesota mobbed up. Yeah Where they drop her off at Beth's or something like that? Or like she gets or she gets like Arrested and Beth actually is her like and she requests Beth. Yeah, there's just like a moment when Beth is like, oh, oh, as she figures it out just before the other. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's one of those scenes where like Chapman has just summoned just rounded up everyone and he in his office, and he's yelling at them, and Beth is there nominally as Jim's representative, but then she starts asking Joyce Van Patten questions. Yes, like, like she's got her on the stand or something like that, and the facade breaks down.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's great. Yeah, that's very good. breaks down. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's great. Yeah. That's very good. I feel like my episode is like a season three, like a solid season three. Mine's definitely a wacky season six. Special guest appearance of. Oh, right. Which is fine. I think we can. That'd be great. Yeah. We brought her back for one last episode.

What? What? Last episode. Yeah. Or or or or it's or it's one of the movies or yeah yeah you know if it were one of the movies that it wouldn't have been the 70s is your like a 90-minute episode well I was thinking like to get Beth in well wait we can do Brockleman in the in season five, right? Yeah. Yeah his episodes are House on wheels Avenue is season four. So seasons four and five are his yeah. Yeah. Oh, oh four and five Okay, good. And yeah, then yeah still it's in that zone. It's in the the the we're comfortable with the show We're gonna do some wacky stuff with it. So yeah, you know. Yeah, it could be season four because because her last that's her last season.

Yeah. Yeah. And we can almost get the HP 41 C in there. It's an early it's a prototype. It's a really prototype. All right. I don't know. Do we have anything? I'm really bad with names. Do we have anything for naming these episodes? Oh, for titles? Yeah.

Let's think this through here. Mine's like, oh, man, I almost want to call my Northern Exposure, even though that's a chase. Yeah. A chase reference, a back reference to Day of the Chains. Maybe. I mean, like, it could be like instead of like the French connection, it could be the... The Montreal connection? Yeah, yeah, something like that. Or the Quebecois connection, something like that.

I think that would work, especially for an early Rockford. Like there's a there's a. Probably the Montreal connection, because I think Quebecois might be too specific of a word to throw in there. But yeah, but they can be Quebecois smugglers. Yeah. And for what would I do for mine? Let's see. I could that one could just be like the Minnesota

Dosey Doe or something like that. That's good. Yeah. Great Lakes something just like so very like. I'm trying to think, is there something playing on Brockle. Like something where it's like, right. Something about his like, I don't know, like printing money or something like something a little. Yeah.

Like like more on what's going on with him and that with like the the mob connection like it could be the dwarf in the helium hat kind of just like like one of those wild. Yeah. Season four, we're looking at stuff like trouble of those wild. Yeah season four. We're looking at stuff like trouble in chapter 17 Yeah pony show Mayor's committee from dear like falls Hotel of fear Queen of Peru

Dwarf in a helium hat South by South East competitive edge. Yeah, it's some maybe something about like competitive edge yeah it's maybe something about like something about being fooled or something yeah like like just fool me thrice oh yeah something like that that actually would probably be really good yeah yeah yeah fool me I like fool me thrice it's kind of like if we pick it apart we can find the three times that someone right yeah yeah I like that yeah all right that works yeah this is fun we should have made a whole podcast about this so at these episode is season four fool me thrice and my episode is season three the Montreal I want called the Montreal screw job but but that is too specific. Yeah the Montreal

Connection perfect. All right, let's Type those up throw them in an envelope. Yes We'll send them up to Cherokee productions and see what they have to say quick honorable mention to a patron Concept that was submitted from patron Rachel, which I think this is in accordance with an idea I had at some point, not saying this is a copy, but just I think this is a great source for an episode. Rockford's Oklahoma relatives show up for a con in California, probably his mother's

brothers. These uncles taught him how to how to be Jimmy Joe Meeker and maybe created the misunderstanding the misunderstanding that put Jim in prison. Rocky loves Jim's mother, but hates his in-laws. Oh, so good. Let's say Jimmy's mother's maiden name was Meeker and her father was a horse thief. Yes. Oh, that's so good. Which I think is a point, he says my grand my granddad was a was a horse thief. So, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I absolutely would go down that rabbit hole as well. But Yeah, so those those are our episodes that never were Thank you everyone for your suggestions. It's super fun for us to talk about. Hopefully it's fun to listen to And yeah, our next set of episodes will be our grand 200 a day finale. Yeah. You can stay tuned for those. Hopefully. I mean, I guess it'd be a shame if you're like, I'm done with your show now. But yeah, you know,

We've made it this far, but you've gone too far. No, we respect your choices. Yeah. But yeah, so at this stage, I can say that we will be back next time to talk about the last TV movie from the 90s and the final appearance of Rita Moreno, the final script for our consideration from Juanita Bartlett. It's going to be a fun time, I am sure. Neither of us have watched this one. No, this is new territory for both of us. Totally new territory. looking forward to it and Until then keep your lapels big and enjoy your bicentennial immerse two things. We did not talk about for our episodes

Yeah, we'll be back next time and talk about the movie Yeah