User Reviews

This two hour pilot movie for "The Rockford Files" is cut into two separate episodes for syndication. Right from the start, Garner has the right tone and put upon attitude as Jim Rockford, even showing a soft heart when Sara Butler, his beautiful client (Lindsay Wagner) can't afford to pay him his going rate. The mystery is a good one. It involves the death of Wagner's father played by "Rockford" veteran Bill Quinn. His daughter believes it was a homicide. The police have no leads and close the case. Enter Jim Rockford.

While the mystery and the performances are good, probably the most interesting thing about this episode are the differences between this and the regular series.

Instead of the usual opening shot from any of the other episodes in which the camera pans across the desk past the cards and the picture of "Rocky" (they can't steal the usual shot from another show since there's a different Rocky in this episode!!!) the syndicated version of this steals a shot of Jim's trailer. However, it's a shot from a later episode in which the trailer is parked on Cove Road. In this episode, its address is 2334 ocean blvd (although in a blooper, a sign on the trailer says 2354 Ocean blvd.) and its parked in an entirely different Malibu location than the familiar 33 Cove Road address.

There is of course, also a different Rocky. Robert Donley looks like a crusty desert rat and the part is written more for a grifter like Angel than the Rocky we all came to know and love. His pick up truck is blue as opposed to Noah Berry Jr's familiar red one.

Speaking of Angel, Stuart Margolin makes his first appearance here as Jim's ex-con buddy and newspaper/information contact. Margolin is great. For what I think is the only time other than the wedding episode, he wears a suit and a tie.

We also get to see Rockford's yellow pages ad, which is also used in the opening titles of this show. The ad features a drawing of Rockford and confirms his address as 2334 Ocean Blvd. Oddly enough, it does not contain any phone number to call. No wonder Jim didn't get any business!

Jim Garner's brother Jack also makes his first appearance in the series, as a guy who walks in on Rockford as he questions familiar Rockford bad guy William Smith in a restroom. Smith by the way is just an excellent menace and a worthy foe to Jim Rockford.

In another interesting moment, the Firebird is completely and utterly destroyed at one point, only to make a fresh appearance in the next episode.

I have always been a huge Rockford fan, starting back in the day when the show was on the air. In those days, VCRs and TiVo didn't exist, so if you missed an episode when it was aired or re-ran, you were out of luck. So I missed this pilot until recently. It was a whole lot of fun, but had some plot holes you could drive a Firebird through, as well as some goofs! For example, Sara Butler's brother (played by Billy Mumy) provided a valuable clue to a conspiracy that ended with Sara's father getting murdered. It was never revealed just why a rich widow was putting the brother through medical school, but that fact had Rockford chasing down a bunch of bad guys.

I'm glad Noah Beery Jr. took over as Rocky...the guy who played him just wasn't as good, and it was jarring to see that old coot getting called "Rocky".

Another thing that I noticed was Jim's Firebird kept changing back and forth between a 1974 and 1975 model. According to IMDb, the air date of this episode was March of '74, so I am wondering how they got their hands on a big-window Firebird that didn't come out until the fall of '74. Was there some later editing going on? Another stretch was having the bad guys running away into the desert and getting into an airplane. They then made strafing runs on Rockford and Lindsay Wagner. Wouldn't it have been simpler just to stop their car and open up with their machine gun? Maybe it was just to give Jim a chance to disable a moving airplane with a snub-nose revolver. He somehow hit something that caused oil to gush out of bullet holes in the aircraft, which led to an emergency landing and the subsequent explosion that destroyed the airplane (or one similar to it). I guess all that was just for show.

Nevertheless, a fun episode and a definite must-see.

The Rockford File debut is solid. Backlash of the Hunter has a solid story. A mystery murder of why and how keeps the viewer guessing whats next. A solid beginning of a homeless murder. Great character development. A charming, hard luck, street wise James Rockford is golden. Many weird circumstance which bubble for a mystery just stands out. Jim has a memorable heavy coming down with heavy muscle for major problems. The viewer see comic smooth slick moves and Rockford streetwise logic out wits the heavy and puts together a mystery. All good great components for a successful series. The template for episode to come. 9 stars.

*some spoilers* This was an underrated pilot movie for the Rockford Files. James Garner did a great job in defining his character in this first episode. This episode also had a good supporting cast including Lindsay Wagner.

The plot is simple and easy to follow: Sara's(Wagner)father is killed and she believes it to be murder. The police wont help her, so she goes to Rockford. There is always tension between these two, but Rockford is able to track down the killers. There is a nice action sequence toward the end in the desert as Rockford is able to shoot down the bad guys' plane. They somehow get a cement truck and Rockford captures the two crooks and orders them into the cement mixer. Sara then drives the truck back into town with the bad guys spinning inside the mixer. This was good as a stand alone movie but even better as a pilot. Highly recommended.

I loved this show when it first was on and just started rewatching it on ROKU. One thing I enjoy is watching the now classic cars, like the 2 Mach 1s you can see through the bus windshield in the opening scene.

At just about the half way mark in Season 1 Episode 1 I noticed Jim's iconic Firebird but it was the 1978 Esprit Firebird, not the 1974 one he should have been driving. I'm not sure if there was some editing done decades after the original show or this is proof of time travel (Man that Jim Rockford could do it all) but I found it very odd. Not sure if it's the same on a platform other than Roku.

If you love watching great on location filming in LA in the 70s this is for you! It's the best part of this episode for me. I have a fascination with LA in the 70s & 80s. Actually older Hollywood as well (as in way back to the 20s & more, but digressing)... so anyway there is some excellent scenes and you can look up all the filming locations. Actually the mystery stumped me too and usually these crime shows even new ones do not. I was surprised it wasn't just that he was secretly rich & somehow doing shady business with the rich man that died or the lady he married right before. I expected something like that. But it surprised me. The ending was pure 70s cheese ya. But from what I have read this was a great show & as a little 70s kid I remember it but thought it was kind of boring (hey I was around 3 years old when it started) but there's been reruns on tv I think I'll check it out, Jim Garner certainly has a certain charisma about him & I enjoy his character. Fun to see Lindsey Wagner as well that was more my thing as a little 70s girl, the bionic woman lol.

I liked this pilot and it does really establish much of Rockford's character for future episodes.

Without going on and on, there are several unbelievable sequences that simply are impossible. Namely shooting down a Cessna with a .38 revolver. Maybe it was a .44... Either way, it messed up a really good show.

It kinda... no it totally reminded me of the Magnum PI pilot where Magnum is driving the Ferrari being chased by the bad guys driving an old Dodge Dart or something and yet he is unable to shake them. Puh-lease!!! Magnum really needed some serious driving lessons! Maybe it was because he can't drive a stick!

Anyway, it has to be the lack of sophistication of audiences in the '70s.