The 50th Anniversary of The Rockford Files

Tomorrow it will have been fifty years since the debut of The Rockford Files. The Rockford Files debuted on September 13 1974 on NBC, which was a Friday that year. That particular Friday the 13th proved to be a lucky one for NBC. The debut of The Rockford Files was preceded by the debut of Chico and the Man and followed by the debut of Police Woman. All three shows proved to be hits.

The Rockford Files starred James Garner as private detective Jim Rockford, who has served time in San Quentin Prison in the Sixties following a wrongful conviction. He was pardoned after five years. As a private detective, Jim Rockford did not make a lot of money. He lived and worked out of a run-down mobile home. Unlike many television detectives, Rockford avoided physical confrontations, preferring to use his wits to get out of situations. While he owned an unregistered Colt Detective Special, he rarely carried it and most often was stored away in a cookie jar. His father, Joseph "Rocky" Rockford (Noah Beery Jr.) was a semi-retired, semi-truck driver who constantly nagged Jim to find more stable work and settle down.. Sgt. Dennis Becker (Joe Santos) was Jim's contact at the LAPD. While the two were friends, they sometimes came to heads over Rockford's cases. Rockford's attorney Beth Davenport (Gretchen Corbett) was a close friend. Bet Corbett left the show after its fourth season due to a contract dispute. Another friend was Angel Martin (Stuart Margolin), who has been Rockford's cell-male at San Quentin. Angel was a bit shifty, but Rockford still used him as an operative from time time. The Rockford Files owed a good deal to James Garner's previous show Maverick, and Jim Rockford could easily be described as a modern day Bret Maverick.

The Rockford Files was created by Roy Huggins and Stephen J. Cannell. Roy Huggins had earlier created Maverick, as well as such shows as developed the series Cheyenne and created The Fugitive. The creation of The Rockford Files was tied to the creation of two other shows, Toma and Baretta. It was planned for the pilot of Toma to air as a backdoor pilot on ABC as a Movie on the Week. Tom Musante was signed to do the pilot of Toma, but was noncommittal about doing a television series.

Frank Price, as the president of Universal TV, was pivotal in the development of both Toma and Universal's TV movies. At the time he was also working with Roy Huggins in developing an umbrella series (or a "wheel series," if you prefer), like The Bold Ones or The NBC Mystery Movie, in which shows would rotate  each week. Toma would be one of the shows on the umbrella series. The other two would be The Rockford Files and Baretta. The character of Rockford could be introduced on an episode of Toma. The advantage of Toma being one part of an umbrella show was that it would not matter if Tom Manste chose not to do a second season of Toma. They would still have two other shows.

As to The Rockford Files itself,. Roy Huggins had come up with the initial concept and the character of Jim Rockford. As mentioned earlier the character was conceived as a sort of modern day Bret Maverick. While ABC showed little interest in The Rockford Files, it found a home with NBC. In some ways NBC was a little reticent about the show. They were not thrilled about working with James Garner after their experience with him on Nichols. They went forward with the show because of Roy Huggins. They also did not like the idea of Rockford being a "coward," but James Garner threatened to walk if they changed one word of the pilot script.

Any concerns NBC had about The Rockford Files turned out to be unwarranted. The show proved to be a hit, coming in at no. 12 for the year. While The Rockford Files was a hit, Roy Huggins would not remain as a writer on the show for long. During the first season Roy Huggins wrote episodes of the show under the pen name John Thomas James. It was halfway through the first season that Roy Huggins submitted a rewrite of a script to the set just as the it was shooting. Mr. Huggins had neither the approval of the writer of the episode nor the producer. James Garner was puzzled by the reason for the rewrite and thought it was not up to standard. It was after he found out that Stephen J. Cannell nor any other members of the production staff had approved the rewrite that James Garner stated that Stephen J. Cannell, not Roy Huggins, had final approval of all scripts. While Roy Huggins would have a producer credit on The Rockford Files for the rest of its run, he was never again active in writing for the series or in the day-to-day production of the show.

Over time, The Rockford Files would see some changes in its cast. As mentioned earlier, Gretchen Corbett left the show after its fourth season due to a contract dispute. In 1976 James Luisi joined the show as Lt. Doug Chapman, a LAPD officer who acted as a foil to Jim Rockford. The show featured several recurring characters who might appear in anywhere from four to eight episodes.

The beginning each episode of The Rockford Files was well-known for Jim Rockford's answering machine, which featured a different message each week. The messages were never related to the events in that night's episode, although they might deal with events from past episodes. It should come as no surprise given Rockford's finances that many of the messages on his answering machine came form bill collectors. The theme song always followed the answering machine sequence. It was written by Mike Post and Peter Carpenter. The theme song actually accomplished something few TV themes do--it became a hit. Released as a single, it went to no. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The Rockford Files would have one spin-off. The character of Richie Brockelman was meant to debut in a TV movie that would serve as a backdoor pilot for a series. When NBC did not go forward with the pilot, Stephen J. Cannell then introduced the character in the Rockford Files episode "The House on Willis Avenue." Richie Brockelman, Private Eye debuted a week after the episode aired and ran for five episodes. After the show ended, Richie Brockelman appeared in the Rockford Files episode '"Never Send a Boy King To Do a Man's Job."

While ratings for The Rockford Files dropped in its second season, it still came in at a respectable no. 32 for the year. Its ratings would remain the forties for its third and fourth season. For its fifth season it ranked no. 58. Unfortunately, the show's days would be numbered. James Garner had to heal up from a number of knee injuries, as well as problems with his back. In 1978 The Rockford Files then went on hiatus. It was while James Garner was recuperating that NBC cancelled the show.

The reasoning behind NBC's cancellation of The Rockford Files was that the show had become very expensive. Throughout the show's run, The Rockford Files has featured several high profile guest stars, including Ned Beatty, Isaac Hayes, Robert Loggia, Rita Moreno, Joan Van Ark, and others. It also shot on location. NBC and Universal claimed that the show was losing several million dollars. Both James Garner and his company Cherokee Productions disagreed with this, stating that the show made a profit.

James Garner would sue Universal in 1983 with regards to The Rockford Files for $16.5 million, charging Universal with "breach of contract, failure to deal in good faith and fairly, and fraud and deceit." Quite simply, James Garner claimed Universal was guilty of "creative accounting." The lawsuit was settled out of court in 1989. He would sue Universal again in 1998 over syndication royalties.

While The Rockford Files had ended it original network run, it would find success as a syndicated rerun, and can still be seen on various television outlets to this day. All six seasons of the show would be released on DVD. It is currently available on the streaming service the Roku Channel.

As part of its continued popularity, there would be eight TV movies. In 1994 the first Rockford Files TV reunion movie, The Rockford Files: I Still Love LA, aired on CBS. It was followed by seven more TV movies (The Rockford Files: A Blessing in Disguise in 1995, The Rockford Files: If the Frame Fits in 1996, The Rockford Files: Godfather Knows Best in 1996, The Rockford Files: Friends and Foul Play in 1996, The Rockford Files: Punishment and Crime in 1996, The Rockford Files: Shoot Out at the Golden Pagoda in 1997, and The Rockford Files: If It Bleeds...It Leads in 1999).

Throughout the years The Rockford Files has continued to be popular. It has been references in everything form Remington Steele to St. Elsewhere to Freaks and Geeks. In 2023 list of "The 50th greatest TV and movie detectives of all time" in Entertainment Weekly, Jim Rockford came in at no. 9. For their 1988 book The Best of Crime & Detective TV, authors Max Allan Collins and John Javna conducted a poll of mystery fans, mystery writers and TV critics. The Rockford Files came in at no. 1. It is perhaps a mark of the show's popularity that while James Garner appeared in movies from The Great Escape (1963) to Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969), but his two most famous characters are from television: Bret Maverick and Jim Rockford.