Sat 28 Dec 2019
A PI Television Review: THE ROCKFORD FILES “Caledonia – It’s Worth a Fortune!” (1974).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[6] Comments
THE ROCKFORD FILES “Caledonia – It’s Worth a Fortune!” NBC, 06 December 1974 (Season 1, Episode 11). James Garner (Jim Rockford), Shelley Fabares, Ramon Bieri, Richard Schaal, Sid Haig. Teleplay: Juanita Bartlett, based on a story by John Thomas James (Roy Huggins). Director: Stuart Margolin.
Rockford is hired by Shelley Fabares as the wife of a critically ill penitentiary prisoner who whispers to her the location of a hidden fortune in collectible stamps, but she needs help in actually digging them up. For a percentage of the find, Rockford readily agrees.
But also on their trail are the convicted man’s former partner, who is also the man the woman was having an affair with, as well as two hoodlums who turn out to have been in the same cell block as the imprisoned man. The big stumling block as far as Rockford and his client are concerned is that they only know the town to start their hunt in (Caledonia). The ex-partner has the only set of directions.
And why is local sheriff so intent in running them all out of town?
If this all sounds very complicated, it is, but there’s still plenty of time to be spent on watching cars drive up an down the local highways, including at least one reckless chase or two.
The overall tone is light and breezy, though, with good rapport between James Garner and his lady co-star, making it very easy for the viewer (me) to safely sit back and enjoy watching this first season episode with no effort at all.
December 28th, 2019 at 9:06 am
I admit I resent Cozi TV replacing ROCKFORD with THE A TEAM…
December 28th, 2019 at 1:31 pm
I agree, Todd. As far as fair trades go, I’d say viewers on Cozi TV got the short end of the stick with this one. I do have several seasons on DVD, but this episode I watched on Netflix.
December 28th, 2019 at 6:05 pm
So much has been written about this series but one of the things rarely mentioned was the casting. I can’t name one of the top TV actresses that did not do a guest role on this series.
December 29th, 2019 at 2:43 pm
Now there’s a thesis topic just waiting to be taken up by a student working on a degree in pop culture!
December 29th, 2019 at 6:42 pm
A lesser episode in most ways, lifted by the teaming up Garner and Fabraes on screen.
December 29th, 2019 at 6:52 pm
There’s nothing fresh about an exchange such as this, but they somehow made it work (paraphrasing):
He: Do you know what’s wrong with you? You apologize too much.
She: I’m sorry.