Not Just For April 1st!

On April 1st - April Fool's Day - The National Enquirer and The Globe came out with death-bed stores about Jim Garner that were indeed worthy of the day on which they were published.


Of course The Enquirer has had several hair raising stories about Jim since his stroke - none of them factual in the slightest degree of course. All of the Enquirer stories were "exclusive" - a dead give away that they made it up themselves - and all contained quotes from an "insider." Unnamed naturally.

In one story the insider talked about how long Jim's rehab would be. No. Actually, he hardly had anything to rehab by the time he got out of the hospital. Too bad. Then there was the one where the insider talked about how Jim didn't go out much because he wasn't able to speak normally any more and it was embarrassing for him. Funny, if he can't speak well why are people hiring him to do voice work? Voice work, fer cryin' out loud! Sigh. Besides, if you saw him on PBS in Pioneers of Television - see featured videos at the top of this page - I think you'll agree that he sounded just like, well, James Garner. Strike Two.

In the story published on the April Fools the insider reported on how Jim had nearly died of some undefined respiratory problem recently. Insider was so concerned because Jim is so frail anyway, according to insider at least, and had been confined to a wheelchair since the stroke and is barely functional.

The Globe was even more ridiculous - if that's even possible - in their story about how pal Dinah Shore is calling her old friend on the phone daily as he lies on his death bed. It also says "some" people - insiders for sure - think Jim and Dinah were onetime lovers! Just when you think you've heard it all....

Okay, so these stories don't amount to a hill of beans, and Jim is all right. But, there is a serious side here - to me at least - and that is that this trash is published at all and people repeat and retweet it all over the Web. Others don't know where it came from and believe it even if they wouldn't if they had known the source. This is how rumors that never seem to die get started about people, and some of them are worse than sad - they're defamatory, scandalous and mainly fiction.

Why do people buy, read and repeat what they see in these rags? Surely they must know these tabloids are hardly reliable sources to go spread all over creation - don't they? If a person gets a kick out of reading this stuff, that's fine. But to go to the social networks and spread it all over without mentioning where they got it seems irresponsible  - to say the least. Besides, why spread terrible rumors about anyone? Maybe I just don't get it, but I can't see the fun, and I can see the harm.

This kinda reminds me of the situation with the drug lords in Mexico and all the misery connected to them. We blame Mexico because the criminals are Mexican. But where is the market they they are committing atrocities in order to serve? The United States of course. So, if there were no market, the drug lords and all that goes with the drug trade would not exist. If there is a market - for anything - someone will see an opportunity to make money serving that market. And, of course, using these "products" is just as illegal as selling them. Seems like a question of who came first - the chicken or the egg? No market, no product.

As far as the tabloids, if no one bought them, they would go out of business. Even if no one spread their disinformation all over it would possibly discourage them from publishing such absolutely flaming lies.Why are people attracted to tragedy and scandal even when it's most likely a tissue of lies?  

Maybe it's just me, but it seems like the world would be a generally better place if these rumor-mongering rags stayed at the bottom of the bird cage where they belong.

Image via Wikipedia

James Garner will publish a memoir, 'The Garner Files,' with Simon & Schuster

 James Garner Will Publish a Memoir, "The Garner Files," with Simon & Schuster

 March 30, 2011 | 8:15 am

Simon & Schuster announced Wednesday that it will publish a memoir by James Garner. "The Garner Files" is due to hit shelves in November 2011.

“I’ve avoided writing a book until now because I feel like I’m really pretty average, and I didn’t think anyone would care about my life. I’m still a little uncomfortable, but I finally agreed, because people I trust persuaded me people might be interested and because I realized it would allow me to acknowledge those who’ve helped me along the way. I talk about my childhood, try to clear up some misconceptions, and even settle a score or two,” Garner said in a press release.

Simon & Schuster's publisher, Jonathan Karp, added, “This book is charming and disarming and always entertaining -- just like James Garner, or Jim Rockford, or Bret Maverick. And it’s the story of a big American life, from growing up in Oklahoma during the Depression to the Korean War and to Hollywood stardom.”

The 82-year-old actor -- just a week shy of 83 -- was born in Norman, Okla. He left home as a teenager and went to serve in the Korean War, where he earned two purple hearts. He had a variety of small television roles before landing on "Maverick" in 1957 -- his on-screen persona in the western was so appealing that he soon became its focus.

Garner carried that persona -- handsome and likable, using wits more than brawn, and just wry enough to let on he wasn't taking things to seriously -- onto the big screen as well in light comedies like "Support Your Local Sheriff!"

In 1974, he returned to series television as the star of "The Rockford Files." James Rockford, a private detective, traverses L.A. in pursuit of bad guys and willing women, always just making barely enough to scrape by. The show is a marvelous time capsule, beginning every episode with someone leaving a message on Rockford's enormous answering machine, which is set up in his run-down trailer -- on what must now be a million-dollar Malibu promontory. (Irrelevant side note: I love this show so much that it was the first thing I streamed when I got my hands on an iPad).

Garner's later roles include an Oscar-nominated performance in "Murphy's Romance" (1985) and a semi-regular role on the ABC sitcom "8 Simple Rules." He's also appeared in literary adaptations: "Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood," "Roughing It" (as Mark Twain) and in "Marlowe" as Raymond Chandler's classic detective.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

More in: books, celebrity, Film, memoir, Television

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One of Jim's Birthday Presents

Gigi Garner sent me this the other day. It was a birthday present for Jim from the artist Pete Emslie. Neat, huh?

Jim Garner from The Great Escape

You Can't Remake The Rockford Files!

Big Hollywood » Blog Archive » You Can’t Remake ‘The Rockford Files’

You Can’t Remake ‘The Rockford Files’
by John Nolte

This is Jim Rockford. At the tone, leave your name and message, I’ll get back to you.

Here’s the message: You can’t remake “The Rockford Files.” You can call a television show “The Rockford Files.” Hell, you can call your parakeet “The Rockford Files,” but that doesn’t mean it’s “The Rockford Files.”

That show was James Garner, and if you’ve recently watched any of the episodes you know that the thirty-years that have passed since the program went off the air in 1980 have only served to cement its timelessness and status as a true classic. Sure, the sports coats might be a little loud and the sideburns too long, but Mike Post’s iconic theme, that awesome gold Pontiac Firebird and some of the best writing ever seen on television have kept the series as entertaining, compelling and fresh as anything produced today.

Nothing against Dermot Mulroney and Beau Bridges, both are fine actors but they aren’t James Garner and Noah Beery Jr. No one is. And no offense to anyone involved in the creation of the remake, but they aren’t Stephen J. Cannell, Roy Huggins, Chas. Floyd Johnson, David Chase, and Juanita Bartlett — the geniuses involved in creating and sustaining the best example of a television show built around an established star as I’ve ever seen.

The original “Rockford Files,” which ran on NBC from 1974 to 1980, was not just another hour-long detective/crime/mystery show. It was lightning in a bottle, the perfect mix of smart producers and talented writers who understood the unique quality of their star, James Garner, a man who could take an off-beat line of dialogue and make magic from it like no other.

Jim Rockford was also a character Garner had been perfecting for over a decade in films like “The Great Escape, “The Americanization of Emily,” and under-appreciated classics such as “Skin Game” and “Support Your Local Sheriff” — not to mention the television show “Maverick,” which was essentially Rockford on the frontier.

And what a delightfully interesting and endlessly fascinating character he was. On the surface, Jim Rockford was cheap (”I have expenses.”), always looking out for number one, ready to quit whenever threatened, rarely carried a gun (”Because I don’t want to shoot anyone!”), demanded his civil rights at the drop of a hat, and had no ambition beyond covering his monthly nut and going fishing with his dad, Rocky (Beery).

If the former con man and jailbird (for a crime he was innocent of) was ever the hero in any of the 122 mostly self-contained episodes, he was a reluctant one due to a complicated code of honor that somehow managed to remain consistent even as it kept surprising. Unlike his 1970s contemporaries such as Mannix, McCloud, Cannon, and Barnaby Jones, Rockford frequently failed to come out on top (his clients had a way of stiffing him), hated hitting people (it hurt the hand) and most of all, despised The Man: anyone in authority from police captains who forever threatened his license to lazy government bureaucrats who gave off attitude.

Rockford was cynical, glib, petty, a dirty fighter, had a temper, a smart mouth, a non-TV star waistline (tacos and Oreo cookies were a weakness), and chose to retain his fierce independence even though it meant barely scraping together a living in a rusty house trailer that uglied up a beachside Malibu parking lot. Rockford could also be intimidated (temporarily) and though he was always the smartest person in the room, it was surprisingly easy to catch him off guard.

But beneath those flaws and quirks was James Garner, a one-of-a-kind talent who gave this character what he gave all his characters, an unmistakable undercurrent of warmth and competence that kept us on his side. Boiled down to essentials, Jim Rockford was – unless he was running a game on some deserving scoundrel – an honest man who couldn’t help but offer the world a running verbal commentary on life as he saw it. Nothing was sacred, either. Government bureaucracy, pious hypocrites, and Hollywood celebrity would all come away with blisters after any confrontation with the working class PI .

We loved Rockford because he hated stupidity, insecurity, laziness and phonies as much as we did. And we loved him because even though he had led a life that had time and again made clear that there was no profit in doing the right thing, by the time the credits rolled – though he bitched and moaned the whole way there — Jim Rockford always did the right thing. He was also loyal to his friends, sometimes to a fault, and would risk his livelihood and even his life to get them out of a jam.

Much credit is also owed to the show’s creators for assembling an outstanding supporting cast of characters who were as key to the show’s chemistry and success as its star. Even though they bickered as much as anything else, the affection between Rockford and his father was one the best elements of every episode. As Rockford’s best friend, Joe Santos was memorably prickly and funny as put upon L.A. Sgt. Dennis Becker, and as the PI’s on-again off-again girlfriend/lawyer, Gretchen Corbett’s Beth Davenport was as tenacious and intelligent as she was beautiful.

And then there was The Mighty Stuart Margolin who won two well-deserved Emmys for his brilliantly funny portrayal of the hapless and disloyal Angel Martin, whose sole reason for being born must have been to exasperate his former cellmate, Rockford. Usually on the run from a hitman after devising some hare-brained get-rich-quick scheme even Ralph Kramden would’ve rejected, it inevitably fell to Rockford to save Angel’s skin.

Guest appearances were frequently just as memorable. My two favorites were Dennis Dugan as boy-faced Richie Brockelman, a PI/con man wannabe who idolized Rockford; and Tom Selleck’s unforgettable portrayal of Lance White, a handsome, wealthy PI who lived the fabulous life of a television detective in a world where clues were found just in time, wild hunches always paid off, and Rockford could only look on shaking his head at the absurdity of it all.

Over six seasons a caustic, complicated, paunchy, middle-aged Los Angeles PI managed to give almost as good as he got as he eked out a living filled with betrayals, disappointments, reversals, beatings and many a trip to jail. Through it all, though, James Rockford persevered, never once giving up an inch of his dignity or sharply observant sense of humor. This premise brought to life by geniuses and a creative alchemy even they had difficult recreating in a series of “Rockford” television films in the 90s, gave us one of the best one-hour dramas ever created.

So to those involved in this coming remake, I wish you nothing but success and a long run and the vast wealth that comes with syndication. May your show meet with critical acclaim and a shower of Emmys.

Whatever that show is.

Because no matter what you call it, it won’t be “The Rockford Files.”

Tags: "The Rockford Files", Beau Bridges, cbs, Dermot Mulroney, James Garner, Noah Beery Jr.
Posted Mar 19th 2010 at 12:40 pm in Television | Comments (142)

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The National Enquirer Strikes (Out) Again!

This is for those who may have seen or heard about the latest fiction about Jim published in the esteemed National Enquirer. Something like "James Garner's Fight for Life" of some similar sleazy headline. Fear not, fellow Garnerphiles - it's the Enquirer's usual clap trap.

Jim is fine. In fact, he just finished doing some voice work as The Wizard in a half hour Captain Marvel show. Here is the real deal from Jim's long time assistant, Mary Ann Rea:

"There's not too much to say about the N.E. article. You can put it out on the web site - that Jim has not suffered any mini-strokes, no convulsions, none of that stuff since the stroke in May of '08. He also does not slur his words; his speech was not affected one iota by the stroke. He does use the wheelchair, if he has to walk far - his arthritis is very painful and using the wheelchair eases some of the pain."

M.A.

I guess that says it all - with many thanks to Mary Ann for providing us with the truth. Again.