The Rockford Files

A 20th anniversary tribute to the classic James Garner Private Eye series.

A celebration of the 45th anniversary of the television series The Rockford Files starring James Garner. A wonderful retrospective featuring interviews, episode guide, trivia, and much more.

The revered actor and quintessential self-made man recalls "trying to decipher" William Wyler with Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine, breaking Doris Day's ribs, having a "heart-to-heart and eyeball-to-eyeball" with Steve McQueen, being "a card-carrying liberal--and proud of it," and much more.

A classic Rockford case involves retrieving stolen property, locating a cat for an eccentric old lady, thugs out to rearrange Rockford's anatomy, and a hunt that turns deadly when a beautiful woman in search of Hollywood fame turns up missing.

Private eye Jim Rockford receives a visit from a girl claiming to be his daughter and she has proof. The girl says her mother, the woman with whom Rockford had an affair, is missing and may have been murdered by her husband. Rockford investigates.

Synopsis and commentary of the television episodes and the made-for-TV movies.

Many know James Garner as Jim Rockford. That is understandable because The Rockford Fileswas one of the most popular private-eye series of all time. It ran for a good portion of the 1970s, and aged well in syndication through the 1980s. Rockford was quick with a quip, crafty with a fake business card, and could drive the wheels off his gold Firebird. What many don't know is that James Garner was a "car guy" long before he played Jim Rockford, the patented J turn was a piece of cake for the lifelong racer and hobbyist. Hollywood had had its share of car guys over the years, James Dean notoriously in the 1950s, followed by the likes of Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, and James Garner in the 1960s. From starring in Grand Prix, tackling the rigors of Baja off-road racing, forming his own road racing team (called American International Racing), driving the Pace Car at the Indy 500, all the way to his stunt driving in The Rockford Files, James Garner was a true enthusiast. James Garner actively escalated his participation as a racing driver after the making of Grand Prix, and somehow walked the line between acting, television production company boss, and motorsport. He appeared to be able to keep them all balanced with little interference among them. James Garner's Motoring Lifecovers the cars he owned and drove, the cars he raced, his tour of duty as a racing team owner, his great racing film, the drivers on his team as well as the drivers he competed against. This book tells you the whole story of James Garner: racing actor, racing team owner, and automotive enthusiast.

A compelling and innovative television writer, David Chase has created distinctive programs since the 1970s, each reflecting his edgy humor and psychological realism. These critical essays examine Chase's television writings, placing particular emphasis on how his past works have shaped and influenced the cultural phenomenon of HBO's The Sopranos, and studying Chase's use of identity, community, and place in defining his on-screen characters. Topics explored include Chase's constructs of the urban L.A. environment in The Rockford Files, the portrayal of hybridized American archetypes in Northern Exposure, and the interpretation of sexual identity/masculinity in The Sopranos. An appendix containing complete episode guides for The Rockford Files, Northern Exposure, and The Sopranos is also included.