The Disc Detectives

I received an e-mail message yesterday, telling me that a DVD set of The Rockford Files, Season 3, is winging its way to my mail slot. Hot diggity! Even though I still have not finished watching all of the episodes from Season 2, just having more Rockford in my library makes me feel a bit more secure about being entertained through what is now Seattle’s post-snow, “will-we-ever-see-sunshine-again?” season, at a time when the U.S. networks seem to be foundering and clueless. (I mean, why sideline the slowly but smartly developing Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip to make way, if temporarily, for a Goodfellas-wannabe like The Black Donnellys?)

Sure, I watched every episode of Rockford when the series was first broadcast in the 1970s, but that just means I’ve had three decades to forget its many plotting nuances and story solutions, so now I can see it with (almost) fresh eyes again. What’s more, notes TV historian and critic Ed Robertson, who literally wrote the book on this series (Thirty Years of the Rockford Files: An Inside Look at America’s Greatest Detective Series), Season 3 was an important comeback year for this private-eye drama starring James Garner. At the TV Party Web site, Robertson recalls:

“Rockford” in the first season (1974-75) was to private-eye shows what “Maverick” was to Westerns in the 1950s: fresh, irreverent, and clever.

At a time when network TV was saturated with flatfoots and gumshoes, “Rockford” took all the clichés and turned them inside out. NBC programming executives may not have understood the show’s sophisticated sense of humor, but the viewers certainly did, taking to Garner like a long-lost friend. “Rockford” suddenly made it cool to stay home on Friday nights.

When the first season ended, exec producer Roy Huggins left “Rockford” in the hands of his protégé Stephen J. Cannell ...

Though Cannell understood Maverick/Rockford almost as well as his mentor, and had himself created two of the show’s greatest characters (Rocky, our hero’s salt-of-the-earth dad, and Angel Martin, Jimbo’s former stir mate), he initially lost sight of what made the “Files” work--and the show suffered as a result.

The key to Rockford was that, no matter what, he was smarter than anyone else (especially, the bad guys). But that wasn’t the case in the early going of the second season (1975-76) when, week after week, Jimbo found himself taken advantage of, particularly by his own friends. ...

By Halloween, “Rockford” had lost nearly 20% of its total audience, and was finishing third in a time slot it once owned. Though Cannell recognized the problem with the stories, and was able to steer the series back on track, “Rockford” would never see the Top Ten (or even the Top 20) again.

Then a funny thing happened in the third season (1976-77). Buoyed by the addition of writer/producer David Chase (“The Sopranos”), the stories got better, the audience numbers steadied--and the show started winning awards.

Chase’s versatility breathed new life into “Rockford” with stories tackling everything from social ills to Chase’s own peculiar obsession with the mob. In the process, Jim Rockford became reinvented as a sort of Everyman in a world of absurdities, the lone voice in the wilderness willing to stand up and wonder just what in hell’s going on. The best example of this is the brilliant “So Help Me God” (written by Juanita Bartlett), an indictment of the grand jury system pitting Rockford against a weaselly federal prosecutor not unlike Ken Starr. Lauded by law groups across the country, the episode is also said to be one of James Garner’s personal favorites, with good reason--it won him the Emmy Award for Best Dramatic Actor in 1977.

Knowing how casually I wind my way through new DVD sets, I can probably make Rockford, Season 3, last at least until May, when Season 4 becomes available. (So soon!) But there are also a number of other classic crime dramas making their DVD debuts over these next few months. Hawaii Five-O, Season 1, for instance, is scheduled for release on March 6, while The Streets of San Francisco, Season 1, Volume 1, should finally (after a brief delay) reach video stores by April 10--along with The Untouchables, Season 1, Volume 1. Look for Ironside, Season 1, on April 24; Cagney & Lacey, Season 1, on May 8; and Lovejoy, Season 1, come June 19. Oh, and there are rumors that The Mod Squad, Season 1, Volume 1, will be issued sometime later this year, as well.

Hmm. I had better double-check that my DVD machine is in tip-top working order. It’s going to get a workout.