Review of Rockford Files - Season Two

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The Rockford Files: Season Two (1975) Starring: James Garner, Noah Beery, Jr., Joe Santos, Gretchen Corbett, Stuart Margolin, Tom Atkins Director: Various Category: Drama

As strong as the first season of “The Rockford Files” may have been, it’s interesting to note that, within just a few episodes of season two, the viewer becomes quickly aware that not only has the show truly found its footing, it’s in possession of some of the strongest scripts to hit television during the 1970s.

Just to offer a quick, one-paragraph summary, James Garner is Jim Rockford, an ex-con turned private investigator. He’s not afraid to use his fists, but, then, he’s not really that tough a guy, so he’s just as likely to end up on his ass as kick yours; he’s also not afraid to use chicanery, trickery, or subterfuge to follow a lead or solve a case…which means that his buddy in the police department, Detective Dennis Becker, is always chastising him for his methods, even though he begrudgingly looks the other way on occasion. Jim’s dad, known as Rocky (and played by Noah Beery, Jr.), lives in the area and has been known to get into some of his son’s cases, as does Angel (Stuart Margolin), a former prison buddy of Jim’s…although he’s usually pretty reluctant to get involved. Oh, yes, and Beth Davenport (Gretchen Corbett) is Jim’s attorney…but is she more?

Actually, before the second season is over, she is. We learn that she and Jim came close to having a relationship before, but it didn’t take; before this season is over, however, they successfully start one. Angel also ends up being the focus of more episodes this time around, and he’s always good for a laugh; it’s amazing that Jim keeps him in his circle of friends, given that Angel proves on a regular basis that, history or no history, he’s always willing to sell Jim down the river if it’ll save his own skin.

There are some particularly funny episodes in season two, one of which stars Rob Reiner as a professional football player with an ego that’s a good size larger than most of the fields on which he plays; Louis Gossett, Jr. also has a slightly comedic turn as Rockford’s former parole officer. Surprisingly, though, the most effective dramatic episode is one starring the man who wrote the theme from “Shaft” but won greater fame as the voice of Chef.

Isaac Hayes plays Gandolph “Gandy” Fitch, one of Rockford’s many former prison buddies. Gandy’s just gotten out of the joint after a 20-year stint, and he’s on the lookout for the person who was really responsible for the crime that got him locked away. (Although Hayes was decidedly younger than the character he was playing at the time, his always-shaven head lent him an older look, so all they really had to do was sprinkle some grey in his beard and voila!) Was he really innocent? Well, you’ll have to watch the episode, won’t you? And trust me, you want to. It’s an impressively emotional performance from Hayes, one that will remind you that, although he’s best known for his comedic appearances these days, he’s actually a pretty good dramatic actor, too.

The special features this time around are marginally more impressive than on the first season set. Instead of an interview with Garner, this time we get a conversation with co-creator Stephen J. Cannell, although it’s inaccurately described as Cannell reflecting on the second season; what he really does is reflect on the show as a whole. If he discusses the second season specifically, it’s only briefly and is in no way the main topic of conversation. Also included is the original series pilot, which really should’ve been on the first set, but it also works better here, as it really demonstrates how far the show has come in just one short year. (It’s also interesting to see that the show’s original concept involved Rockford only tackling closed cases from the police files.)

Amazingly, “The Rockford Files” would get even better in its third year, when “Sopranos” creator David Chase took over as executive producer, but there’s still no denying that this was a five-star season for the series.

~Will Harris

wharris@bullz-eye.com

HANGING WITH CARROLL SHELBY, JAMES GARNER AND PARNELLI JONES INTO THE NIGHT

JUST HANGING WITH JAMES GARNER, CARROLL SHELBY AND PARNELLI JONES ONE NIGHT AT LOS ANGELES' PETERSEN AUTOMOTIVE MUSEUM

Written February, 2003, for Gannett Newspapers

Buick. Chevrolet. Oldsmobile. Ford. Rolls-Royce. Toyota. Peugeot. Chrysler. Honda. Mercedes-Benz. Bentley.
And there are more. All great car companies bearing the names of their founders or important figures in their history.

Why doesn’t that happen anymore? A social event we attended in Los Angeles recently got me thinking about it.
We were visiting the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. The gala that evening was a tribute to a short-lived race team which was owned by actor James Garner, organized in the late 1960s after he filmed the feature movie “Grand Prix”, which, along with Steve McQueen’s “LeMans”, are considered the two best racing movies of all time.
In “Grand Prix”, Garner portrayed an American racer driving for a Japanese car company just getting started in Formula 1, or Grand Prix, racing. The story was borrowed from the true-life exploits of American F1 racer Richie Ginther and his association with the (at that time) fledgling Honda F1 race team. Yves Montand played another F1 driver, Toshiro Mifune’s character (Mifune his first big English-speaking movie) was modeled after the founder Honda, and Eva Marie Saint played the always-necessary “love interest” shared between Garner and Montand.

Also in the film were race drivers Richie Ginther, Bob Bondurant, Jim Clark, Bruce McLaren, American F1 World Champion Phil Hill and Brit racer Graham Hill, “Black Jack” Brabham and Dan Gurney. The 1966 movie, directed by John Frankenheimer, contains some of the most fantastic racing scenes ever recorded, featuring all the drivers mentioned above in their F1 race cars of the time.

Garner was at the Petersen Museum event, and there was a showing of a 1969 documentary produced and starring Garner called “The Racing Scene”, which was directed by Andy Sidaris, who headed up ABC-TV’s “Wide World of Sports” racing coverage for many years. Sidaris spoke at the event and introduced the film, which chronicled Garner’s road racing and more successful off-road exploits.
We spoke with Garner and also with Indy 500 winner Parnelli Jones and legendary racer/race car builder/promoter Carroll Shelby.

It’s all fine and well to speak with some of the past stars and heroes of the automotive world, but when it comes to accomplishing some of the feats these men did (and there were, unfortunately, not many women in the auto business at that time), who are the future great stars? Where are the Shelby’s, Jones’s, Iacocca’s and DeLorean’s, even the James Garner’s, of tomorrow?

The sad truth is, they are few and far between.

Today’s worldwide auto industry is one of committees and stockholders, not individuals. Carroll Shelby told me years ago that what he had accomplished would never be done again, simply because no one person or even medium-sized company has the money and equipment to develop a vehicle from scratch. Even if they did, the costs involved with building and then crash-testing test cars or trucks and then meeting the safety, fuel and emissions requirements of countries around the world is prohibitive for any company except the largest.

Think about it….when was the last time anyone started a car company under their own name? There have been a few sporadic attempts over the years, and the DeLorean project got a lot of press because of the overall fiasco it turned out to be (all that interest about a not-very-good car), but today’s automotive all-stars tend to be people like Carlos Ghosn, the head of Renault, which bought Nissan a few years ago and has managed to turn the company into a money-maker.

One of the last of the “old-timers” still working in the business is 72 year old Bob Lutz, now essentially in charge of cars and trucks for General Motors in North America. Lutz, when he was a top executive at Chrysler, before Daimler took them over, gave the go-ahead for wildly successful and sexy projects like the Viper, Prowler and PT Cruiser. A former Marine fighter pilot who collects, restores and flies European fighter jets as a hobby, is just about the final executive at a major car company who has the authority to make far-ranging decisions and is willing to live with their consequences.

(Interesting aside: The “merger of equals” which Daimler claimed their relationship with Chrysler would be when they bought-out the perennially-struggling automaker a few years has turned into anything but that. In fact, on the new-look DaimlerChrysler Board of Directors, there is but a single American left. Daimler, a notoriously conservative company, now loses almost any American-style zest it may have had. One executive once told me that “casual day” at Daimler in Germany meant taking your suit jacket off during lunch.)

The auto world moved more and more towards being run by “the bean counters” in the late 1960s, when government regulations and the prospect of oil shortages hit the industry hard. Suddenly, egos were out the door (one of the prime reasons DeLorean never became president of General Motors), and executives not taking responsibility became an art form. A degree from the Wharton School of Business is now a ticket to the top of the management heap at any car company worldwide, where in the past an engineer, stylist, race car driver or slick promoter could carry a car from concept to production.

Another prime reason for this sad bureaucratic state of affairs is the sheer complexity of modern cars and trucks themselves. No one person, companies believe, can master all the knowledge necessary to bring a project to market, and therefore a committee-upon-committee system is used to create today’s vehicles. And you know the old joke about a camel being a horse designed by a committee. Think about that the next time you see, say, a Pontiac Aztek!

If Bob Lutz achieves a great degree of success at GM, perhaps the pendulum will swing back towards the power of the individual in the automotive world. But the days of John DeLorean meeting casually Saturday mornings with his engineering staff at Pontiac, taking a 389 cubic inch engine from their big Bonneville and putting it into their small LeMans and calling it a GTO, and doing it all on a lark, as sort of a “neat idea at the time”, well, those days are over.

It’s a shame, too, as I am sure we can all agree. What we can do now is learn about our automotive history, appreciate the characters who populated it and turned it into the greatest and most important industrial movement the world has ever seen. And if we’re lucky enough, sometimes sit at the feet of those who had a hand in it, as we did recently at the Petersen Museum, and --- just listen.

-30-

Posted at 12:08 AM in PAST FEATURE STORIES, AUTO SHOWS, HOW-TO'S, ETC. | Permalink

Barbarians At The Gate

Barbarians At The Gates (1993) *** 1/2

11.09, 2007 Author: MMM

Director: Glenn Jordan

Starring: James Garner, Jonathan Pryce, Peter Riegert, Joanna Cassidy, Fred Dalton Thompson, Leilani Sarelle, Matt Clark

This Emmy-winning made-for-TV movie takes a humorous look at actual events in a big 1980s takeover war. It falls somewhere between a light drama and a comedy, but the seasoned professional acting (particularly lead James Garner) and experienced direction is far above usual TV standards. There is a pretty good story about excess and the battle for big bucks.

James Garner is F. Ross Johnson, who has gone from being a hardworking paperboy in Winnipeg, Canada to a jet setting, big spending CEO in NYC. When Johnson is faced with an expensive project that seems headed for failure, he chooses to deflect shareholder backlash by trying to raise the money to buy the company himself. It might have worked, but when a couple other green sharks get the whiff of possible profit, the bidding war is on. What follows is corporate juggling, scrambling, and general skulduggery in a world where all the numbers have nine zeroes.

Imagine a Wall Street where Gordon Gekko is a charming, nice guy (but greed is still good) and with a comedy slant, and you will have some idea of what to expect here. All in all, this is a pretty fun way to learn the difference between a corporate takeover and a hostile takeover. Admit it. You have always wanted to know.

The Rockford Files DVD news: Announcement for The Rockford Files - Season 5 | TVShowsOnDVD.com

The Rockford Files spent six seasons on the air (not counting the eight post-series telefilms which reunited the majority of the cast), and on DVD we're getting close to the end. This morning Universal has announced the January 15th release of The Rockford Files - Season 5. This package will have 20 episodes (two of them double-length: "Black Mirror" and "Never Send a Boy King to Do a Man's Job") running 1045 minutes. Cost is $39.98 SRP for this 5-disc set (all single-sided). Video and audio is as originally shown: full-frame with English mono. There are also English subtitles present, but no word yet on any extras. Stay tuned and we'll update you with cover art and anything else we get from the studio, just as soon as we can! UPDATE: The studio has quickly provided us with box art for this release:Rockford Files - Season 5 box art Link to this page:http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Rockford-Files-Season-5/8284 All news for this show:http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/shownews/Rockford-Files/3585 More info on this show:The Rockford Files

The Rockford Files DVD news: Announcement for The Rockford Files - Season 5 | TVShowsOnDVD.com

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Norman's James Garner To Lead State Centennial Parade

The Norman Transcript - Norman's James Garner will lead state Centennial Parade

Norman native James Garner will serve as the grand marshal of the Oklahoma Centennial Parade, officials with the Oklahoma Centennial Commission announced this week.

The prarade is scheduled for at 2 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 14 in downtown Oklahoma City.

Presented by Noble Corporation, the parade centers around the theme, “Celebrate Oklahoma! A Unique History. An Extraordinary Future.”

The parade will fill downtown Oklahoma City streets with floats, giant helium-filled balloons of state icons and children's favorite characters, performance groups and marching bands.

“Throughout the years, James Garner has been a wonderful ambassador for our state, not only spreading the word about his home state, but also returning frequently to contribute to Oklahoma projects,” said Lee Allan Smith, chairman of Centennial projects and events. “We are proud to feature this Oklahoma treasure in the parade of a century.”

Best known for his roles in television's Maverick and Rockford Files, Garner was born on April 7, 1928 in Norman.

His father, Weldon Bumgarner, was of European ancestry and his mother, Mildred, was one-half Cherokee. After a brief stint in the Merchant Marines at 16-years-old, Garner moved to Los Angeles to join his father.

After serving in the Army during the Korean War, Garner — who won two purple hearts — decided to try his hand at acting. His first on-camera appearance was with Clint Walker on the TV series Cheyenne. His feature film debut came in Toward the Unknown.

He also gave an acclaimed performance as Marlon Brando's friend in the hit film, Sayonara, which led to his first big break - the starring role in the television series Maverick, which brought him true stardom. He shortened his last name to “Garner,” after a studio miscredited him in a film.

Since then, he has starred in roughly 40 films, including The Children's Hour, The Great Escape, The Americanization of Emily (his personal favorite), Grand Prix, Cash McCall, The Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood, The Great Escape, Move Over, The Notebook, Support Your Local Sheriff, The Skin Game, The Thrill of It All, Victor/Victoria. Next up for Garner will be the 2008 release of the animated feature Terra in which he is the voice of the character Doron.

Garner has also received his share of state honors.

In 1986, he was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame and three years later, was named Ambassador of Cultural Arts for the State of Oklahoma. Graner was inducted into the Cowboy Hall of Fame in March 1990 and received the Western Heritage Award for Lifetime Achievement in Film and Television from the Gene Autry Museum.

In 1995 he received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree at the University of Oklahoma. In April 2006 a statue of Garner depicting him as “Maverick” was created by the noted artist, Shan Gray. A Centennial project, the statue is now a destination for visitors from all over the world.

The Centennial Parade is free and open to the public. For information about the parade route, parking and shuttles, please visit www.okcentennialparade.com.