The Rockford Files - Season Two
by James Garner, Ivan Dixon, Jackie Cooper, Jeannot Szwarc, Jerry London
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DVD details
Actor: Gretchen Corbett, James Garner, Joe Santos, Michael Ansara, Noah Beery Jr.Director: Ivan Dixon, Jackie Cooper, James Garner, Jeannot Szwarc, Jerry London
Brand: NBC Universal
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Box set, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 1106 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-06-13
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Universal Studios
DVD Reviews of The Rockford Files - Season Two
DVD Review: Rockford Rocks!
Summary: 5 Stars
Rockford's 1975-76 Season is awesome and is a definite upgrade to this detective dramas 1st Season even though critics indicated that The Rockford Files took a big dip in the ratings in Rockford's 2nd Season, which I really find hard to believe and the one thing I really cant understand about this show, since Rockford's manipulative ex-con buddy Angel Martin(Stuart Margolin), Rockford's sexy attorney girlfriend Beth Davenport(Gretchen Corbett), Rockford's often agitated cop buddy Sgt. Dennis Becker(Joe Santos), and Becker's overzealous superior officer Lt. Diehl all seemed to really start hitting their stride on this private detective drama in this season.
In fact, Rockford's 2nd Season is also the season when Joe Santos becomes a permanent and full-time co-star on THE ROCKFORD FILES and when Beth, Angel, and Lt. Diehl started appearing on this show more often as well which made this season more enjoyable to watch than the First Season was along with the fact that the often festidious Jim Rockford(James Garner)had Becker from the LAPD whom he had a love/hate relationship with just like Rick & A.J. Simon(Gerald McRaney, Jameson Parker)who had a love/hate brotherly relationship with each other and had their street-savy cop buddies Lt. Marcel "Downtown" Brown(Timothy Reid)and Lt. Marsh(Joan McMurtry)from San Diego P.D. on the private detective drama SIMON & SIMON.
In addition to why I like The Rockford Files Second Season so much, Rockford's 1975-76 Season was what got me to like and start watching this show a lot more often, especially since Rockford's 2nd Season was a definite upgrade to Rockford's 1st Season, since The Rockford Files was pretty much starting to walk in it's Second Season, but was just starting to crawl the First Season throughout The Rockford Files whole 6-year run on NBC even though critics say differently.
In addition to that, Rockford's 1975-76 Season was more sophisticated with more action in it than Rockford's 1974-75 Season was especially since Becker and Beth started getting more involved with Rockford and his investigations which often got Rockford in a lot of hot water and often got Becker under fire with his pessimistic superior officer(Lt. Diehl)despised Rockford very much and always looked for excuses to bust Rockford and have his PI license removed, but at the same time it was always kind of funny how Angel would always get Rockford into mischief and how exasperated Lt. Diehl(Tom Atkins), Lt. Chapman(James Luisi),and Rockford's hard-nosed nemesis FBI Agent Dan Shore(Wayne Tippet)would always get with Rockford and Becker, especially when Beth defended Rockford and bailed him out of a jam, but Joe Santos later became a co-star on the detective drama MAGNUM, PI as Thomas Magnum's new cop buddy(Lt. Nolan Page) during Magnum's 7th and 8th Seasons, which by the way was quite interesting watching Joe Santos go from playing Rockford's cop buddy to Magnum's cop buddy.
Rockford also lived somewhat of a bizarre lifestyle, since he was a private investigator who was somewhat low-classed, but still had his bronze Pontiac Firebird who often dressed spiffy in 3-piece snazzy suits who lived in a small ragged looking old trailer in a parking lot by the beach in beautiful Malibu, but it kinda makes you wonder how was Rockford able to afford living in a trailer in a parking lot right next to a nice seafood restaurant near a nice L.A. County beach and if anyone even charged him rent to have his trailer space there, especially since Rockford was never rolling in bucks and was a private detective who was always broke and obviously didn't make much money who was often snookered by his clients and was just barely getting by on a shoe-string budget making ends meet trying to make an honest living just like Mannix(Michael Connors), Magnum(Tom Selleck), and Rick & AJ Simon(Gerald McRaney, Jameson Parker)all did, despite that Rockford charged his clients $200 a day plus expenses along with the fact that Rockford would often get his ass kicked, get burglarized, get robbed, frequently got shot at, and often had his Firebird racked up too, just like the General Lee often did on THE DUKES OF HAZZARD.
Therefore, you could say that THE ROCKFORD FILES was like a poor-mans MAGNUM, especially since Rockford(James Garner) had a tendency to get himself into a lot of hot water just like Magnum(Tom Selleck) did on MAGNUM, P.I. for very similar reasons, especially since Rockford, Magnum, and the Simon brothers all had cop buddies in the police department who'd help them out in their investigations, but had a lot of police detectives who resented the hell out of Magnum & Rockford for meddling into a lot of police investigations, since cops typically don't like private investigators interferring with police matters.
It was also kind of funny how Rockford kept his gun in the cookie-jar, since most people wouldn't expect to find a gun a place like that and it was neat how Rockford would sometimes end up beating the goons up whenever he'd outsmart them too.
Therefore, THE ROCKFORD FILES was almost like a carbon copy of the private detective show MANNIX, since Joe Mannix was also a private investigator who lived in the L.A. Area near the beach and also got beat up quite a bit too.
I think this was also the season when THE ROCKFORD FILES theme song became a big hit on the radio back in the mid 1970's and I also liked the music scoring that was done by Mike Post & Pete Carpenter on this show, especially since they used a lot of harmonica in their music composing on THE ROCKFORD FILES, which I thought was pretty cool, which made the music scoring sound kind of Country Westernish, kind of like THE DUKES OF HAZZARD's music scoring was.
Additionally, it's nice to be able to have this private detective drama out on DVD complete & uncut like they were originally shown on their original air dates on NBC with the exception of no commercials, especially since they had deleted too many scenes when The Rockford Files was on cable TV like when it was on A&E, TNN, TV Land, and WGN; in order for cable TV networks to allow more time for more commercials in between, which is what cable TV and local TV stations do with every show that gets converted into reruns.
It was also interesting seeing guest stars like
-James Luisi guest starring in the "Joey Blue Eyes" episode before his co-starring days as Becker's hard-nosed superior officer(Lt. Chapman) and before James Luisi's co-starring days on the soap opera ANOTHER WORLD
-Linda Evans in "The Farnsworth Stratagem" episode before she was even famous and before her co-starring days as Alexis's nemesis(Crystal) on DYNASTY
-Football celebrity(Dick Butkus) doing a cameo in "The No-Cut Contract"
-Dana Elcar in "The Great Blue Lake Land & Development Company" episode before his co-starring days on MACGYVER
-Gerald McRaney in "The Farnsworth Strategem" episode before he was even a star and before his co-starring days as the gonzo private investigator(Rick Simon) on SIMON & SIMON and before his co-starring days on MAJOR DAD and TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL
-Tom Atkins co-starring as Becker's superior officer(Lt. Diehl) before co-starring in John Carpenter's THE FOG and ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK.
-Richard Herd in the "Pastorias Prime Pick" episode before his co-starring days as Capt. Sheridan on TJ HOOKER
-Singer/actor Isaac Hayes in "The Hammer Of C Block" episode
-Joan Van-Ark in the "Resurrection In Black & White" episode before her co-starring days on KNOTTS LANDING
-Stefanie Powers in "The Real Easy Red Dog" episode before her co-starring days on the detective drama HART TO HART
-William Daniels in the "Italian Bird Fiasco" episode before his days as Dr. Mark Craig on ST. ELSEWHERE and doing KITT's voice on KNIGHT RIDER
-Rob Reiner in "The No Cut Contract" episode during his co-starring days as Meathead on ALL IN THE FAMILY
-Bill Lucking in the "Pastoria's Prime Pick" episode before his co-starring days as the incompetent Army nemesis(Col. Lynch) on THE A-TEAM
-Noble Willingham in "The Great Blue Lake & Development Company" episode before his co-starring days on WALKER TEXAS RANGER
-Bill Boyett in the "Two Into 5.56 Wont Go" episode after his co-starring days as Los Angeles police Sgt. MacDonald on ADAM-12
Rockford's 1975-76 Season takes me all the way back to memory lane to the days when I was 3 years old and living in my hometown(El Centro, CA)where I was raised at since I had lived in the Imperial Valley for 21 years, which by the way is a small rural community in the Desert Southwest that is almost always oppresively hot and always ultimately boring.
In the meantime, I just got word that Paramount will finally be releasing the detective drama MATT HOUSTON's 1st Season out on DVD on Tuesday March 9th, 2010 and that the Shout Factory will be releasing SIMON & SIMON-Season 4 on Tuesday April 6th, 2010 and are both available to pre-order which gives us 2 private detective dramas in the works to look forward to watching in the Spring of 2010.
Description of The Rockford Files - Season Two
Jim Rockford is back and better than ever in all 22 Season Two episodes of the celebrated detective hit The Rockford Files. Join James Garner in his breakout Emmy-winning role as the cool, calm and collected ex-con-turned-detective who loves to mouth off but avoids using his fists at all costs. He takes his time, but always solves the crime - whether it be blackmail, theft, scams or murder! Along for the ride on this five-time Emmy-winning series are such stellar guest stars as Rob Reiner, Louis Gossett Jr., Linda Evans, Isaac Hayes and Dick Butkus. Also included for the first time on DVD is the original series pilot. With his no-nonsense approach and wisecracking wit, it?s no mystery that Rockford always gets his man."The best detective series ever," according to TV Guide, the second Rockford Files set begins at the beginning. That's because the double-length pilot ("Backlash of the Hunter") appears as an extra. In this episode, Jim Rockford (James Garner) explains to guest star Lindsay Wagner, "I only handle criminal cases that are closed." The first Rockford file also introduces his errant father, Rocky (Robert Donley, who'll soon be replaced by Noah Beery Jr.), detective buddy Dennis (Joe Santos, The Sopranos), and squirrelly pal Angel (Emmy winner Stuart Margolin) with whom he did time at San Quentin (before being granted a full pardon). Season two highlights include the two-part "Gearjammers," in which Rockford discovers his dad's secret life, "Chicken Little Is a Little Chicken," in which Rockford helps Angel fake his death, and "The Hammer of C Block," with Isaac "Shaft" Hayes as a former cellmate who just can't get his name straight?he thinks it's "Rockfish." (The Oscar-winning Hayes also contributes an original number called "Gandy's Theme.") Even when the episodes are less memorable, Garner's easygoing Oklahoma charm and potent chemistry with his co-stars, including lawyer/ex-girlfriend girlfriend Beth (Gretchen Corbett), makes each one worth watching. Like most Stephen J. Cannell programs (Baretta, 21 Jump Street, etc.), The Rockford Files never had any difficulty attracting famous (and soon-to-be-famous) guests. The second year claims such notables as Linda Evans ("The Farnsworth Stratagem"), Stefanie Powers ("The Real Easy Red Dog"), Blair Brown ("The Girl in the Bay City Boys Club"), Rob Reiner ("The No-Cut Contract"), and Louis Gossett Jr. ("Foul on the First Play'). The only other bonus feature is a short, if informative interview with Cannell, who reveals that the character of Joseph "Rocky" Rockford was modeled after his own father. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
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