Rockford Files - Season Four (1 Viewer)

[Brent Avery]

I have been watching some episodes since late last week and they are great as usual. Should not take too long to go through all 21 episodes, plus one extra from the Fifth Season - "White On White And Nearly Perfect". There is also a Feature included entitled " America's Top Sleuths: A Sleuth Channel Countdown of the Top Sleuths of Television and Film".

 

[70sTVlover]

I'll be getting my copy right after I've finished season 3! Hopefully 5th will be announced soon!

 

[Dan*T]

It's great that this is selling so well. I am looking forward to owning all six seasons!!

 

[Jeff#]

Garner was in such pain from frequently doing his own stunts, that he cut The Rockford Files short in the 6th season. NBC continued to run new episodes into the first few months of 1980s, but I don't believe Garner filmed any in the 80 half of the 1979-1980 season.

After that Universal should get to work on the 1990s / early 2000s Rockford Files 2 hour TV movie sequels.

 

[70sTVlover]

Yeah, on tv.com there's at least half a season of TV movies isn't there? So that means we're waiting for basically 3 more releases, season 5, 6 and 7 or movies..

 

[Jeff#]

The old show was on for 6 years, not 7.

As for the post-series movies, James Garner did at least 8 of them according to the Internet Movie Database. I could have sworn there was one that aired in 2000 also. A few surviving co-stars returned too:
Joe Santos (as Dennis Becker), Stuart Margolin as Angel Martin, and even Gretchen Corbett as Beth Davenport.

All of these could fill one box set:

The Rockford Files: I Still Love L.A. (1994) (TV)
The Rockford Files: A Blessing in Disguise (1995) (TV)
The Rockford Files: If the Frame Fits... (1996) (TV)
The Rockford Files: Godfather Knows Best (1996) (TV)
The Rockford Files: Friends and Foul Play (1996) (TV)
The Rockford Files: Punishment and Crime (1996) (TV)
The Rockford Files: Murder and Misdemeanors (1997) (TV)
The Rockford Files: If It Bleeds... It Leads (1999) (TV)

 

[RickardL]

What about the last episode of S4: "The House on Willis Avenue"?
I have seen it listed as two parter, at least the book I have lists two
different phone messages, but it is edited togerther as one long episode on
the DVD. Another curious thing is that is also has the old Universal logo at the end.

 

[Jeff#]

I haven't even purchased the 3rd season yet, but it's good to know the original Universal logo makes a rare return appearance on a 4th season DVD.

 

[Joseph Bolus]

Wikipedia states that "Four filmed and completed episodes were destroyed in a fire in 1980. These presumably would have been Season 6 episodes. They may have been re-filmed and then still broadcast for Season 6 as intended, but that has not been confirmed by Universal or other sources."
Link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rockford_Files

Anybody have any details regarding these (possibly) missing four eps?

 

[RickardL]

I don't think the book "Thirty Years of THE ROCKFORD FILES" by Ed Robertson
mentions any missing episodes that were lost in a fire but I do recall
that it mentions a number of unfilmed episodes which are briefly
described storywise.

 

[70sTVlover]

I e-mailed Cannell.com and this is what they said:

Sorry for the delay in responding. We just received word from Universal (who distributes this DVD) and season 5 is not on the schedule for later this year and the 2008 schedule is not yet complete. All of the seasons have done well on DVD so I am sure they will continue to release them.

Best Regards,

Joan
Cannell.com

That sounds like good news, do Universal publish their schedule? I think that would be good but I guess it would cause alot of fuss...