User Reviews

Other regular reviewers have done their usual great of annotating this episode, so just a few general comments...

I have been going through the series sequentially after seeing the original airings as a boy. Enjoyed most all the first and second season shows, but in my view the show really takes off in the 3rd season. There is this sort of 'formula', for lack of better words, in seasons 1&2 whereby Jim has thugs around his trailer, and Jim has thugs following him, and Jim has thugs beating him up, and framing him, and so on. And because its Garner, we enjoy it all because he pulls it off so well. But truthfully, if it wasn't someone of Garner's stature in the role the show might not hold interest as well, complex plot lines not withstanding. In the third season however, the show is somehow kicked up a notch, and the producers/writers find a way of freshening the series without altering the basic chemistry. The episodes speak for themselves. This is my favorite season so far.

Something that just now came to my attention is that David Chase had heavy involvement with the series! Hadn't been paying close enough attention to notice his writing and producing credits until now. Chase of course is the man who gave us The Sopranos. No wonder the Rockford files was such a great show and holds up so well!

BTW - Has the interior of Jim's trailer been given a makeover for this season? It looks a bit more organized in their now.

Occasionally Jim Rockford does a pro bono case and usually for a friend. The friend here is airline reservation attendant Sharon Gless who while making a little small talk with a client she's helped before, John McMartin, she says something that gets McMartin on her case and wanting to terminate her. A narrow escape and Gless is on her way to see her friend James Garner.

McMartin has to be one paranoid hit man. Gless doesn't know what he does for a living but when she mentions casually how she took care of a flight to Detroit for him he gets huffy and flustered. Seems as though he did a recent contract there.

I mean really, he should have just ignored it or made a small joke. But McMartin is paranoid and therein lies the episode.

Nothing like having a PI for a friend.

The summary title mentioned above is what Rockford says to Beth, after she asks him who the woman is who he's helping, and that turns out to be Sharon Gless, who plays Lori, and had decent chemistry with James Garner, as she also starred in an earlier episode as well. This time around, she plays an airport employee who says hi to the wrong man, who's named Timson Farrell, played underwhelmingly by John McMartin; by the way, who names their child Timson? To make a long story short, he attempts to kill Lori because he thinks that she could identify him on certain flights if questioned. He's already murdered 3 others for which reason I can't recall, so he has no qualms about killing her. It strikes me odd as to why Farrell wouldn't just hire someone to kill, considering he's very slick, according to Rockford. Apparently, Jim and Lori are friends, and he agrees to help her out of this mess, and we all know that having him around to help is a great remedy. A funny scene worth mentioning has Rockford playing Jim Taggart, who visits Farrell's place of business, a collector coins store, to look for a certain coin for his nephew Ralph. There's another great scene when Rockford and a reluctant Angel stake out a bogus place that Jim pretends to reside in so he can draw Farrell there, who predictably breaks in the house carrying a gun; as soon as Angel sees the man's shoes enter through the window, he starts screaming and yelling for Jim to shoot him. My explanation doesn't do the scene justice, so it was one of the funnier moments of the series, in my opinion. Rocky and Dennis both have good scenes, and Rocky's reaction to his son pulling the gun out of the cookie jar is also very funny. I'm usually surprised how great the writing is, considering the show comes in just under an hour. Let me also mention that the Firebird and trailer make appearances, and that's always a plus on this great show.