I have always been a huge Rockford fan, starting back in the day when the show was on the air. In those days, VCRs and TiVo didn't exist, so if you missed an episode when it was aired or re-ran, you were out of luck. So I missed this pilot until recently. It was a whole lot of fun, but had some plot holes you could drive a Firebird through, as well as some goofs! For example, Sara Butler's brother (played by Billy Mumy) provided a valuable clue to a conspiracy that ended with Sara's father getting murdered. It was never revealed just why a rich widow was putting the brother through medical school, but that fact had Rockford chasing down a bunch of bad guys.
I'm glad Noah Beery Jr. took over as Rocky...the guy who played him just wasn't as good, and it was jarring to see that old coot getting called "Rocky".
Another thing that I noticed was Jim's Firebird kept changing back and forth between a 1974 and 1975 model. According to IMDb, the air date of this episode was March of '74, so I am wondering how they got their hands on a big-window Firebird that didn't come out until the fall of '74. Was there some later editing going on? Another stretch was having the bad guys running away into the desert and getting into an airplane. They then made strafing runs on Rockford and Lindsay Wagner. Wouldn't it have been simpler just to stop their car and open up with their machine gun? Maybe it was just to give Jim a chance to disable a moving airplane with a snub-nose revolver. He somehow hit something that caused oil to gush out of bullet holes in the aircraft, which led to an emergency landing and the subsequent explosion that destroyed the airplane (or one similar to it). I guess all that was just for show.
Nevertheless, a fun episode and a definite must-see.
I'm glad Noah Beery Jr. took over as Rocky...the guy who played him just wasn't as good, and it was jarring to see that old coot getting called "Rocky".
Another thing that I noticed was Jim's Firebird kept changing back and forth between a 1974 and 1975 model. According to IMDb, the air date of this episode was March of '74, so I am wondering how they got their hands on a big-window Firebird that didn't come out until the fall of '74. Was there some later editing going on? Another stretch was having the bad guys running away into the desert and getting into an airplane. They then made strafing runs on Rockford and Lindsay Wagner. Wouldn't it have been simpler just to stop their car and open up with their machine gun? Maybe it was just to give Jim a chance to disable a moving airplane with a snub-nose revolver. He somehow hit something that caused oil to gush out of bullet holes in the aircraft, which led to an emergency landing and the subsequent explosion that destroyed the airplane (or one similar to it). I guess all that was just for show.
Nevertheless, a fun episode and a definite must-see.