PILOT EPISODE - “Backlash of the Hunter”
Original air date: March 27, 1974
Director: Richard T. Heffron; Writers: John Thomas James (story); Stephen J. Cannell (teleplay)See full review of this episode.
S01E01 - “The Kirkoff File”
Original air date: September 13, 1974
Director: Lou Antonio; Writers: John Thomas James (story); Stephen J. Cannell (teleplay)Jimmy Kirkoff (James Woods) is accused of killing his parents (a very large inheritance is involved), but the cops or D.A. can't make a case against him. Jimmy hires Rockford to clear up matters once and for all, and either establish his innocence or not. Rockford has to talk to a Mafia-like union leader (Abe Vigoda) and deal with thugs who rough him and his car up badly. (Rockford later says “they beat the poo out of me.”) Rockford gets chummy with Jimmy's father's mistress Tawnia Baker (Julie Sommars) and figures out how the mother was killed. Rockford says that Baker’s background is like The Chapman Report, a 1960 novel about a sex survey of American women. The logic at the end of the show as to how the mother’s killing was done has difficulty getting from Point A to Point B. Best parts of the show are Rockford arguing with Becker at the police station and a great car chase at the end of the show across a golf course. After a lot of yap-yap, Jimmy brings everything to a conclusion at the show's last minute by admitting that he really did kill his father as revenge for the old man having contracted some guy to murder his mom, which Rockford reads about in the paper.
S01E02 - "The Dark and Bloody Ground"
Original air date: September 20, 1974
Director: Michael Schultz; Writers: John Thomas James (story); Juanita Bartlett (teleplay)This is the first episode featuring Rockford's lawyer girlfriend Beth Davenport (Gretchen Corbett) who wants Rockford to help her with a charity case, a woman arrested for the murder of her husband. In other words, Rockford will provide his services for nothing or next to nothing. The couple was in the Regal Motel, they had a big argument and the wife, Ann Calhoun (Patricia Smith) left. When she returned soon after cooling off, her husband was dead and his room was on fire. The only thing vaguely interesting about this show was when Rockford goes to Parker, Arizona, a town with which the couple had some connection. Rockford inquires at typical places in the town, trying to dig up information, and then gets pursued by a huge Mack truck cab in a manner similar to Stephen Spielberg's TV movie Duel. There is no explanation given for this, maybe the people in the town found Rockford's presence objectionable or something. Later back in L.A., the brakes on Rockford's car are tampered with. The most intelligent user review of the show at IMDb says "The motive revolves around a copyrighted book which was to become a film, I believe, and if the writer's dead before a certain date, someone else gets the fortune and fame. A fiancé of a woman ends up in jail after killing the attorney (not Beth), but Rockford figures out this woman killed her first husband on a boating trip." That's nice. I couldn't understand anything in this episode past a certain point at all.
S01E03 - "The "Countess"
Original air date: September 27, 1974
Director: Russ Mayberry; Writers: John Thomas James (story); Stephen J. Cannell (teleplay)The countess is played by the very good actress Susan Strasberg, an old acquaintance of Rockford. Her former name was Deborah Ryder. After hanging around disreputable Chicago mob characters years ago, she fled to Europe where she married a count and later, after he died, married Mike Ryder (Art Lund), a self-made man who has been successful in business. She has asked Rockford for help, because she is being blackmailed by Carl Brego (Dick Gautier), an organized-crime-connected guy from her past who has information about her life in Chicago. Rockford goes to visit Brego and the two end up fighting, but then someone shoots Brego from afar and Rockford gets blamed for this, not only by Brego's girlfriend Leah (Gloria Dixon) but also some old folks who are nearby. Beth manages to get Rockford off the hook, but when Leah comes to the cops, she starts incriminating Rockford big time. Brego's cousin Sorrell (Harold J. Stone) sends a couple of thugs to pick up Rockford because he figures someone paid Rockford to knock off Brego. The cops show up in the nick of time to serve a warrant on Rockford for murder, acting on what Leah told them, though there is some serious time-compression involved. Rockford goes to Mike and Debbie's place where Mike says he found out about the blackmail attempt and wants to kill Rockford to sew up loose ends. As the two of them drive away, Rockford, whose life is in major peril, speeds up the car and drives over a cliff. Mike shoots Rockford as this happens, though there is no sign that the bullet hit Rockford, who is sitting right next to him, and Rockford manages to get out of the car as it barrels down the hill, with Mike getting near-fatal injuries. At the hospital as Mike is passing away, Rockford and Debbie have a philosophical conversation about life. There is a huge goof at the beginning of the show where Rockford is filming Debbie and Brego from up on a hill, but the view through the camera is at ground level.
S01E04 - "Exit Prentiss Carr"
Original air date: October 4, 1974
Director: Alexander Grasshoff; Writers: John Thomas James (story); Juanita Bartlett (teleplay)See full review of this episode.