The Rockford Files: Season 6

It's about time Universal got this short-lived 1979-80 Season of this detective drama released on DVD, especially since it's been over a year since Universal had Rockford's 5th Season on DVD along with the fact that this was the last and final season of the ROCKFORD FILES since this season was cut short when NBC abruptly cancelled Rockford in the Winter of 1980 after only 10 episodes, due to James Garners chronic back and knee problems, which was similar to how and why CBS had cancelled the INCREDIBLE HULK all of the sudden in the middle of it's short-lived 5th Season back in November of 1981 after only 5 episodes, due to budget cuts and a change in management at CBS especially since the special effects on the INCREDIBLE HULK were becoming too expensive in the Hulk's last 2 seasons to keep running the show, because of the recession we had going on back in 1981-1982 when Ronald Reagan was the president.In other words, the ROCKFORD FILES and the INCREDIBLE HULK were both abruptly cancelled on such short notice, but weren't cancelled due to low ratings and both shows would've lasted longer and wouldn't have been cut so short if age hadn't caught up with James Garner and the Hulk wouldn't have been axed all of the sudden in the mid-Fall of 1981 if it wasn't for the all the budget restraints we had going on back then.Therefore, the ROCKFORD FILES Sixth Season was only half a season just like the INCREDIBLE HULK's Fifth Season was only an abbreviated season along with the fact that it coincidentally just so happens that both Rockford's final season and the Hulk's final season were both cut short, but for different reasons.Unfortunately, neither the ROCKFORD FILES or the INCREDIBLE HULK had a series finale episode which therefore lead us wondering for a while if Rockford(James Garner) had actually continued being a private investigator and if David Banner(Bill Bixby) ever really ended up finding a cure to his havoc infliction with the Hulk(Lou Ferrigno) along with the fact that the ROCKFORD FILES and the INCREDIBLE HULK were both cancelled without sufficient warning on top of that giving us reason to believe that Rockford and the Hulk obviously had some unfinished-business floating around.In addition to what contributed to Rockford's sudden cancellation, Garner ran out of steam & got burned out playing his Rockford character along with the fact that the ROCKFORD FILES started to become overshadowed by the DUKES OF HAZZARD when the Dukes made their debut on CBS in the Winter of 1979 which unfortunately interferred with the ROCKFORD FILES Friday night line-up on NBC which simply added fuel to the fire for Rockford since Rockford and the Dukes were shown at the same time-slot which was 9PM every Friday night which resulted in the DUKES OF HAZZARD stealing a lot of viewers away from the ROCKFORD FILES, because for one thing the Dukes were a lot funnier than Rockford was.For another, Bo and Luke Duke(John Schneider, Tom Wopat) were eye-candy and were more attractive and better looking than Rockford(James Garner) was since Bo and Luke were a lot younger and a lot more spunky than Rockford was along with the fact that Rockford was getting tired while John Schneider & Tom Wopat were both very young full of lots of pep, energy and years, unlike James Garner who was already becoming an old-fart as opposed to Tom Wopat and John Schneider who were obviously young-farts just getting to become major superstars in their showbiz career along with the fact that the DUKES OF HAZZARD was in its honeymoon phase of the show on top of that while the honeymoon phase of the ROCKFORD FILES was obviously already long gone with the Dukes practically beating Rockford to a pulp.Therefore you could say that John Schneider(Bo)and Tom Wopat(Luke) were peaking while James Garner(Rockford)was creaking since Rockford was huffing and puffing along while Bo and Luke were humming along.For another, the General Lee had outclassed Rockford's bronze Firebird, especially since the Dukes General Lee was a lot more flashy and a lot more upgraded than Rockford's Firebird was along with the fact that the General Lee was the hottest car on Friday nights at the time on top of that.Therefore, you could say that the DUKES OF HAZZARD had K.O.'d the ROCKFORD FILES in the Nielsen ratings and that the Dukes were killing Rockford, especially in the ratings department even though the ratings on Rockford were still high enough to start a 7th Season in the Fall of 1980, but there was no way that Rockford was able to compete with the Dukes either, especially since health problems forced Garner to quit doing this show.Therefore you could say that James Garner had reached a saturation point with his Rockford character and ran out of gas which resulted in the ROCKFORD FILES-6th Season becoming only half a season.Overall, for the record Rockford's short-lived 1979-1980 Season was still a great season and it still had some awesome guest stars like Mariette Hartley, Tom Selleck, and Larry Manetti, especially in the episode "Nice Guys Finish Dead" episode when Rockford ends up reuniting with hot shot fellow gumshoe(Lance White) at a private eyes convention where Rockford ends up teaming up with the stellar Lance White again to help solve a senators murder that took place at the hotel where the private eyes convention was held at with the phenomenal Lance White stealing the show again by outclassing Rockford by making all the leads and finding all the clues and nearly tarnishing Rockford's reputation K.O.ing Rockford in the process just like the exceptional Lance White did in the "White On White & Nearly Perfect" episode in the previous season.It's just too bad Rockfords sexy attorney girlfriend Beth Davenport(Gretchen Corbett) couldn't be in this season either since Beth was abruptly dropped from the show during the second half of Rockford's 4th Season since Gretchen Corbett left the show in the Winter of 1978 due to a salary dispute with Universal which of course resulted in Beth being excluded from the show in the last 2 seasons of the ROCKFORD FILES which therefore made things a little less intriguing & leaving us to still mourning the loss of Beth since Beth wasn't around anymore to be a buffer between Rockford and Becker's hard-nosed superior officer Lt. Chapman(James Luisi)a.k.a. "Chappy" in particular whenever Rockford was in hot water with the LAPD, unlike the case in the first 4 seasons.In addition to what makes the ROCKFORD FILES short-lived 6th Season so interesting is Rockford's 6th Season was also the season and year before the detective drama MAGNUM premiered on CBS back in December of 1980 and made Tom Selleck a superstar as well as a sex symbol, which practically made MAGNUM, P.I. a spin-off of the ROCKFORD FILES and HAWAII 5-0, especially since Tom Selleck did a couple of guest starring roles as the eccentric goody two-shoes private investigator(Lance White) on the ROCKFORD FILES before being a private investigator on his own show(MAGNUM, P.I.)along with the fact that the ROCKFORD FILES and MAGNUM were both private detective shows like MATT HOUSTON, MANNIX, and SIMON & SIMON all were.As a matter of fact, the idea and creation of the show MAGNUM, PI was inspired from THE ROCKFORD FILES, especially after Tom Selleck's 2 astonishing guest starring appearances as the inclusive private dick(Lance White)on THE ROCKFORD FILES.Therefore, it was almost like a preminition of Tom Selleck's days on MAGNUM along with the fact that Tom Selleck wasn't even famous yet when he guest starred on THE ROCKFORD FILES along with the fact that the "Nice Guys Finish Dead" episode was my favorite episode from Rockford's Sixth Season and the "White On White & Nearly Perfect" episode was my favorite episode from Rockford's Fifth Season.It's just too bad that Tom Selleck's role as Thomas Magnum on MAGNUM, P.I. couldn't be as intelligent or as successful as his impeccable private detective(Lance White) role on the ROCKFORD FILES, because Magnum(Tom Selleck) used to get himself into just as much trouble and just as much mischief as Rockford(James Garner)did.It was also in interesting seeing guest stars like*Country Western singer Barbara Mandrell doing a cameo in the "Love Is The Word" episode*Mariette Hartley in the "Paradise Cove" episode before her co-starring days on ONE LIFE TO LIVE*Larry Mannetti in the "Nice Guys Finish Dead" episode before his co-starring days as Thomas Magnum's often skeptical Navy buddy(Rick "Orville" Wright) on MAGNUM, P.I.*Jerry Douglas in the "No Fault Affair" episode during his co-starring days as John Abbott on YOUNG & THE RESTLESS*Sandra Kerns in the "Deadlock In Parma" episode before her co-starring days on CHARLES IN CHARGE*James Whitmore, Jr. in the "Nice Guys Finish Dead" episode before his co-starring days as Hunter & McCall's doofus fellow officer(Det. Bernie Terwilliger) on HUNTER*Award winning actress(Lauren Bacall)in the "Lions, Tigers, Monkeys, & Dogs" episode*Oscar nominee(Rita Moreno)making her recurring role as Rockford's former hooker buddy(Rita Capkovic)in "The No Fault Affair" episodeThis was also the last season with Joe Santos playing Rockford's overworked cop buddy(Det. Dennis Becker)which later co-starred in the last 2 seasons of MAGNUM, P.I. as Magnum's cop buddy(Lt. Nolan Page).It's just too bad that the ROCKFORD FILES had to be axed all of the sudden after NBC showed its last episode "Deadlock In Parma" on Thursday January 10, 1980, despite the fact that this was my 3rd favorite season throughout Rockfords whole 6-year run on NBC along with the fact that Rockford had inspired the premiere of newer detective shows from the 80's like MAGNUM, PI which made its debut on CBS in December of 1980 and SIMON & SIMON which debuted on CBS in the mid-Fall of 1981.In the meantime, I can hardly wait till Rockford's 6th Season gets released on DVD in January and I would highly recommend this DVD season to anybody who was a Rockford fan back in the 1970's like I was and/or to anyone who religiously watched the ROCKFORD FILES every Friday night when it was on NBC from 1974-80, but after reading more recent reviews on Rockford's 6th Season DVD, I'm beginning to wonder if this DVD actually showed each 1979-80 Season episode complete & uncut like they were originally shown on their original air-dates on NBC or if Universal had actually went ahead and released this DVD with deleted scenes on each of these episodes like when they were shown in reruns on A&E, TNN, TV Land, WGN, Me-TV, or Cozi-TV, since one of the recent reviews indicated that this DVD didn't show the episodes complete & uncut and had a lot of scenes that were cut out which may have been due to a fire that errupted at the Universal movie company building in Universal City in the Summer of 2008.Additionally, now that Universal has released a complete series DVD of KNIGHT RIDER, MIAMI VICE, and the INCREDIBLE HULK, I'm hoping to see Universal make a ROCKFORD FILES-The Complete Series DVD, since Rockford was a popular classic Universal TV show like KNIGHT RIDER, MIAMI VICE, & the INCREDIBLE HULK all were.By the way, I've got some great interesting news for all you classic private detective drama fans out there to keep in mind for 2 new releases in the works for the Spring of 2010 since I just got word that Paramount will finally be releasing MATT HOUSTON-Season 1 out on DVD on Tuesday March 9th, 2010 and Shout will be releasing SIMON & SIMON-Season 4 out on DVD on Tuesday April 6th, 2010 and are now both available for pre-order online as we speak.

Now I have all 6 seasons.

I liked it

The Final Season. Quite a Shame, acually. Watching this great series when it was first broadcast, I though Rockford was pretty cool. Smart enough to avoid a fight but, always willing to take 'em on if need be. Pretty humble and down to earth just like his dad. Always had respect for women and had decent relationships with decent women. I didn't know why at the time, I just remember it disappeared and it took me up to a couple of years ago to find out the behind the scenes drama that took place and how Universal was trying to give James Garner a shellacking when he had to stop production because of an injury. I won't go on about it (google it if you want the whole story), just suffice to say that things got settled and Universal even produced 8 TV movies twenty years later.To the set. 12 episodes and NO extras. Housed in the same digipak as the last few sets and having the same menus and options, nothing really much to say about it. As you've probably heard elsewhere, the TV movies are conspicuously missing. With only half a season they could have been added to round out the series and we wouldn't have to wait even longer to see them. To be honest I can't even remember if I saw them and just thought they were reruns or not.P.S. If you want to see a pre-Rockford performance that is so similar you want to believe it's the starting point for Jim Rockford, try and catch "Marlow". TCM shows it once and a while. Playing Ramond Chandler's character, he was updated to be contemporary at the time it was made (1969). A little cameo role in there for Bruce Lee for all you fans. Rita Moreno, a Rockford favorite is in there too.James Garner has always been a solid actor and makes you care for any character he plays. He usually plays a regular guy who has to rise above the situation around him and keep his dignity. You can put him right there with Randolph Scott, Gary Cooper and Gregory Peck as men you could look up to and respect for their craft.Anyway I completely recommend this. Since it's taken so much time to release all six seasons you can go back to the begining, after you finish this set, and watch them through again while you wait for the movies to be released.

Classic James Garner - it's proof that good TV did go to air in the 70s and early 80s. It's got a quality that few shows of that era had - Jim Rockford had a style all of his own and so did everyone else on the show. Rocky, Angel, Dennis ... all of them consistently helped offer up a series that had few peers. Even today, almost 30 years on, Rockford Season 6 delivers DVD therapy for those of us who watched TV back then - it reminds us why we loved it. Watch some episodes of 80s glitz cop drama Miami Vice (if you dare) and (1974's) The Night Stalker (not remotely scary when you're a grown up and these days, even my kids laughed at it). Those shows seemed great at the time - but they've dated badly. Then watch Rockford and you'll discover that great television is timeless. I've bought all six series and I've enjoyed every set. Highly recommended.

Finally completed my collection with the final season of Rockford Files. The final season was certainly lacking the same crisp writing as previous seasons, and Mr. Garner was certainly disillusioned with the economic shenanigans being perpetrated by the producers. However, nice to see some good guest stars (like Tom Selleck) and the usual roster of offbeat characters.One of the most fun shows I have ever watched, even if just to watch James Garner inhabit the Rockford persona.Only 9 episodes here, but come on, you need it to complete your collection too!!If you wait, at certain times you can purchase any of the seasons for under $14 each...well worth the money.Don't think these will ever be on Blu-Ray...but da da, da da da da music starts and you will be taken back to real TV history.

I've got the first 5 seasons of this series and was apprehensive about purchasing season 6 after reading some reviews. Luckily I got it at a good price on Amazon.ca and thought to myself: " just how bad could it be? " I watched episode 1 and wasn't disappointed.The audio and video quality are the same as previous seasons and this is only a half season with 12 episodes- sort of a kick in the pants to this series- but my collection of this series is complete. Glad I bought it.

Unfortunately, I did not realise when I ordered this box set that the DVD's would not play on my player, as it does not support Region 1 discs. They have now been returned without any quibble as a refund has been agreed. Great service- love the Rockford Files and still trying to find Series 6 to play on my European DVD player.

The Rockford Files were state of the art TV back in the '70s. Watching them now, one sees how far TV drama has come, with better scripts and production values. But these are still charming to watch. Season Six is the weakest off all the seasons, though it does have the wonderful Tom Selleck as Lance show. Garner is clearly in pain with his inures, and it reflects in the show's action.

Hi , as usual James Garner put in a great performance as Jim Rockford . The series is timeless and I never tire of watching any of the episodes from the series . Bye the way I've got all seven seasons . Ian Ross

Good DVD set