Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

From my favorite movies..

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

The Show was first aired on my birthday. And now, 43 years later it still comes fresh and in no way quirky or odd. That has to mean something.It also is a very pleasant change to the overly hectic and rushing crime shows running nowadays. Which I also like most of the time but still it is a little exhausting and there comes handy the nice and relaxing fifty second drive of Jimmy Rockford just to show off his ride.

Although I was sentient between 1974-1980, I never watched this show because I was a kid and it seemed like a "boring grown up show." Now that James Garner has sadly passed on, I decided to check it out and am highly enjoying it. Very little about this show seems dated (except for the clothes and the 1970s lack of TV sex and gore). The dialogue often sparkles and even when the plots are repetitive, you just want to spend an hour hanging out with Jim and his friends every episode.Also, you can tell a high quality show by the caliber of guest actors it attracts. The Rockford Files attracted the cream of the crop of '70s TV, including many actors who would go on to have their own shows and be pretty famous. And of course, Garner is so perfect in this role that you don't even notice the character he's playing is a bit of a loser! (not personality-wise -- but he's got no money, lives in a trailer, has lowlifes for friends and is constantly getting beaten up and arrested... that he managed to attract any women at all is a minor miracle.) I'm sorry it took me so long to check it out. It's awesome.

James Garner stars as PI Jim Rockford in this seminal TV-crime series that until now has not been matched (and probably never will). Rockford is a modern-day Philip Marlowe operating from his trailer house in a Californian beach. His ability to read the situations beforehand gives him an edge and never ceases to outsmart the 'bad' guys even in cases when the odds are too skewed against him.The chemistry with his father is great and I always enjoyed the episodes when he tries to cover for 'Angel' his old pal who always brings him unwanted trouble.The fact that Rockford served time in prison makes him 'streetsmart' and he appears to know many of the ways the crime people operate. Despite some of his unorthodox methods that are on the verge of crossing the law lines he is a person of dignity and humanism. The 'Files' will remain a landmark of high quality television.

Probably the 2nd best detective show of the 70s - I'd put it just marginally behind Starsky and Hutch. He was like a down-market Philip Marlowe; a crabby cynic with a heart of gold.Perhaps not surprising, when he was surrounded by the likes of Angel, Rocky and Dennis who were either stiffing him out of his hard-earned cash, telling him what a mess he'd made of his life or just telling him to get lost. It certainly broke the mould of detectives-with-all-the answers shows; and Gretchen Corbett, who played Beth Davenport, his long-suffering friend and attorney, was one of my dream women back then (Funny, but I don't remember seeing her in anything else).I think it maybe went on a season or two too long, but nothing's perfect.