5/5 Rockford Rocks!
  by Taheen Lopez (United States- San Diego, CA)
Rockford's 1975-76 Season is awesome and is a definite upgrade to THE ROCKFORD FILES 1st Season even though critics indicated that The Rockford Files took a big dip in the ratings in Rockford's 2nd Season, which I really find hard to believe and the one thing I really cant understand about this show, since Rockford's manipulative ex-con buddy Angel Martin(Stuart Margolin), Rockford's sexy attorney girlfriend Beth Davenport(Gretchen Corbett), Rockford's often agitated cop buddy Sgt. Dennis Becker(Joe Santos), and Becker's hard-nosed superior officer Lt. Diehl(Tom Atkins) all seemed to really start hitting their stride on this show in this season.

In fact, Rockford's 2nd Season is also the season when Becker(Joe Santos) becomes a permanent and full-time co-star on this show and when Beth, Angel, and Lt. Diehl started appearing on this show more often as well, which made this season more enjoyable to watch than the First Season was.

In addition to why I like The Rockford Files Second Season so much, Rockford's 1975-76 Season was what got me to like and start watching this show a lot more often, especially since Rockford's 2nd Season was a definite upgrade to Rockford's 1st Season, since The Rockford Files was pretty much starting to walk in it's Second Season, but was just starting to crawl the First Season throughout The Rockford Files whole 6-year run on NBC even though critics say differently.

In addition to that, Rockford's 1975-76 Season was more sophisticated with more action in it than Rockford's 1974-75 Season was especially since Becker and Beth started getting more involved with Rockford and his investigations, which often got Rockford(James Garner) in a lot of hot water and often got Becker under fire with his cynical superior officer(Lt. Diehl)which despised Rockford very much and always looked for excuses to bust Rockford and have his PI license removed, but at the same time it was always kind of funny how Angel would always get Rockford into mischief and how exasperated Lt. Diehl and the cranky Lt. Chapman(Jim Luisi)would always get with Rockford and Becker, especially when Beth defended Rockford and bailed him out of a jam, but Joe Santos later became a co-star on MAGNUM, PI as Magnum's new cop buddy(Lt. Page) during Magnum's 7th and 8th Seasons, which by the way was quite interesting watching Joe Santos go from playing Rockford's cop buddy to Magnum's cop buddy.

Rockford also lived somewhat of a bizarre lifestyle, since he was a private investigator who was somewhat low-classed who had a gold Pontiac Firebird who almost always dressed spiffy in 3-piece suits who lived in a small ragged looking old trailer in a parking lot in a swanky area by Malibu Beach, but it kinda makes you wonder how was Rockford able to afford living in a trailer in a parking lot right next to a nice seafood restaurant near a swanky beach and if anyone even charged him rent to have his trailer space there, especially since Rockford was a private detective who obviously didn't make much money, despite that Rockford charged his clients $200 a day plus expenses along with the fact that Rockford would get beat up and shot at a lot at his trailer and often had his Firebird racked up too, just like the General Lee often did on THE DUKES OF HAZZARD.

Therefore, Rockford(James Garner) had a tendency to get himself into a lot of hot water just like Magnum(Tom Selleck) did on MAGNUM, P.I. for very similar reasons, especially since Rockford and Magnum both had cop buddies in the police department who'd help them out in their investigations, but had a lot of police detectives who despised Magnum & Rockford for meddling into a lot of police investigations, since cops typically don't like private investigators interferring with police matters.

It was also kind of funny how Rockford kept his gun in the cookie-jar, since most people wouldn't expect to find a gun a place like that and it was neat how Rockford would sometimes end up beating the goons up whenever he outsmarted them too, like in the "A 3-Day Affair With A 30-Day Escrow" episode when Rockford kicks Richard Moll's butt after outsmarting him while Richard Moll(Ludes) has Rockford's gun and knocks him to the ground after Rockford comes home to an unpleasant surprise in his trailer, but part of what made that so funny was Richard Moll was a big guy who was about twice the size of Rockford, yet Richard Moll still ends up getting beat up by Rockford after Rockford turns the tables on him.

Therefore, THE ROCKFORD FILES was almost like a carbon copy of the private detective show MANNIX, since Joe Mannix(Mike Connors)was also a private investigator who lived in the L.A. Area near the beach and also got beat up quite a bit too.

I think this was also the season when THE ROCKFORD FILES theme song became a big hit on the radio back in the mid 1970's and I also liked the music scoring that was done by Mike Post & Pete Carpenter on this show, especially since they used a lot of harmonica in their music composing on THE ROCKFORD FILES, which I thought was pretty cool, which made the music scoring sound kind of Country Westernish, kind of like THE DUKES OF HAZZARD's music scoring was.

Additionally, it's nice to be able to have The Rockford Files out on DVD complete & uncut like they were originally shown on their original air dates on NBC with the exception of no commercials, especially since they had deleted too many scenes when The Rockford Files was on cable TV like when it was on A&E, TNN, TV Land, and WGN; in order for cable TV networks to allow more time for more commercials in between, which is what cable TV and local TV stations do with every show that gets converted into reruns.

It was also interesting seeing
-James Luisi guest starring in the "Joey Blue Eyes" episode before his co-starring days as Becker's cynical superior officer(Lt. Chapman) and before James Luisi's co-starring days on the soap opera ANOTHER WORLD
-Linda Evans in "The Farnsworth Stratagem" episode before she was even famous and before her co-starring days as Alexis's nemesis(Crystal) on DYNASTY
-Football celebrity(Dick Butkus) doing a cameo in "The No-Cut Contract"
-Dana Elcar in "The Great Blue Lake Land & Development Company" episode before his co-starring days on MACGYVER
-Gerald McRaney in "The Farnsworth Strategem" episode before he was even a star and before his co-starring days as Rick Simon on SIMON & SIMON and before his co-starring days on MAJOR DAD and TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL
-Tom Atkins co-starring as Becker's superior officer(Lt. Diehl) before co-starring in John Carpenter's THE FOG and ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK.
-Richard Herd in the "Pastorias Prime Pick" episode before his Capt. Sheridan days on TJ HOOKER
-Singer/actor Isaac Hayes in "The Hammer Of C Block" episode
-Joan Van-Ark in the "Resurrection In Black & White" episode before her co-starring days on KNOTTS LANDING
-Stefanie Powers in "The Real Easy Red Dog" episode before her co-starring days on HART TO HART
-William Daniels in the "Italian Bird Fiasco" episode before his days as Dr. Mark Craig on ST. ELSEWHERE and doing KITT's voice on KNIGHT RIDER
-Rob Reiner in "The No Cut Contract" episode during his co-starring days as Meathead on ALL IN THE FAMILY
-Bill Lucking in the "Pastoria's Prime Pick" episode before his co-starring days as Col. Lynch on THE A-TEAM
-Joe Santos co-starring on this show before his co-starring days as Magnum's cop buddy(Lt. Page) on MAGNUM, P.I. in Magnum's 7th and 8th Seasons
-Noble Willingham in "The Great Blue Lake & Development Company" episode before his co-starring days on WALKER TEXAS RANGER

This season was also part of Rockford's better days when THE ROCKFORD FILES was still a very popular detective drama hitting its stride when this show was still in its honeymoon phase and wasn't that old and way before the days when James Garner's health problems and newer more popular shows like THE DUKES OF HAZZARD led to Rockford's cancellation on NBC back in January of 1980.

Rockford's 1975-76 Season takes me all the way back to memory lane to the days when I was 3 years old and living in my hometown(El Centro, CA)where I was raised at since I had lived in the Imperial Valley for 21 years, which by the way is a small rural community in the desert southwest that is almost always oppresively hot and always ultimately boring.

5/5 Winter Movies
  by NANA MARY (Arm Pit of America, OK)
Arrived on time. No damage. Gave as gift and recipient says they have wathched over and over again.

5/5 Rockfish...according to Gandy
  by G. E. Bobel (Indianapolis, Indiana United States)
What more can you say about one of the finest TV series of all time. Good stories played out by a great cast playing great charecters from Angel to Dennis to Rocky to Lt. Chapman and the smart and beautiful Beth.

Miss the entire series at your peril.

5/5 I love this show.
  by G. Pierce (Utah)
I thought it odd that the pilot episode was put into the season two set...but oh well, still glad to see it. :D

I remember watching this show on TV as a kid & until last year, haven't given it much thought. Today I find it highly entertaining & really enjoy seeing all the guest stars that I remember from my younger days.

Great show, I'm totally hooked & must own them all!

4/5 The Rockford Files, Season 2
  by Harry Brewer (S'port, La.)
James Garner absolutely shone in this role. Twenty-two episodes here prove why he is considered one of this country's greatest actors. Garner could do it all; romantic leading man, tough guy, western hero & his comedic abilities were, perhaps, his strongest area.

This series was practically tailor made for Garner being, essentially, an update of the Maverick character he had portrayed fifteen years earlier. When Stephen Cannell pitched this series to Roy Huggins (creator of Maverick & The Fugitive), Huggins told him the same thing: This is Maverick updated! Get Jim Garner to play the role.

Bonus features include the original Rockford Files pilot which ran as a Movie of the Week. It's about 72 minutes long & full of vintage Rockford, There are some subtle differences from the subsequent series, the most notable being another actor portraying his father. Also included is a short interview with Cannell discussing the creation of The Rockford Files.