The Rockford Files

[Mr. Mike]

There is another Hawaiian connection with Rockford, S06E08, "The Hawaiian Headache," which aired November 23, 1979. I haven't seen this show in a long time, but the IMDB description says "Jim is tricked into believing he's won a trip to Hawaii, when it really turns out to be doing a favor for an old army pal in the CIA."

This show stars Elissa Dulce as a waitress. Some screen shots are here.

There are some other H50 actors in the show as well: Jake Hoopai (Elissa's husband at the time), Danny Kamekona, Carmella Letman and Jimmy Borges, as well as Christopher Cary, who played Michael in season 2 Classic H50 finale, "Kiss the Queen Goodbye."

There is also a Canadian connection with James Garner, who filmed a movie in Victoria, BC. Here is a Victoria newspaper article from after Garner passed away.

[Bobbi]

I don't know if it counts as a Hawaii connection, but I watched a Biography on Tom Selleck years ago. One of the things *he* mentioned specifically was his guest turn on "The Rockford Files" and how James Garner nurtured an environment of real teamwork. It impressed Selleck to the point that when he was in the position of having his own show, he wanted to have that kind of environment. He succeeded with "Magnum, P.I." and while I don't know much about "Blue Bloods" (I've seen some episodes but don't regularly follow it), I believe he succeeded in making that type of environment in his second show too.

[Todd]

I don't know if it counts as a Hawaii connection, but I watched a Biography on Tom Selleck years ago. One of the things *he* mentioned specifically was his guest turn on "The Rockford Files" and how James Garner nurtured an environment of real teamwork. It impressed Selleck to the point that when he was in the position of having his own show, he wanted to have that kind of environment. He succeeded with "Magnum, P.I." and while I don't know much about "Blue Bloods" (I've seen some episodes but don't regularly follow it), I believe he succeeded in making that type of environment in his second show too.

Yes, on "The Rockford Files" he played Lance White, a PI who was much "cleaner" and upbeat than Rockford. I believe he appeared in two episodes.

It has long been acknowledged by Selleck that the White character was the inspiration for Magnum, and in fact they had a few inside-joke callbacks to "The Rockford Files" during the Magnum run, even though Rockford was already cancelled.

BTW, due to the second season being directly against Five-O, Rockford was never a ratings hit.

It would have been mostly forgotten in time, but it was aggressively sold in syndication in the '80s and '90s, thus introducing a new generation of fans to it. The show enjoyed a second life this way (in reruns), enough to where eight TV movies were produced in the 1990s.

However, the TV movies were of inferior quality, despite being written and produced by most of the same people. It appears that they simply had rust regarding writing properly for Rockford. It also didn't help that James Garner was in his late 60s (and looked it), so the "action" sequences had to be much toned down. Additionally, Noah Beery who played his father died before the TV movies could be made, thus also creating a void. In general, the TV movies were not well received by fans of the show, but people kept watching them because they liked the characters and the original series.

The syndication also created a big legal dispute, where James Garner felt he was being severely underpaid in royalties. This dispute led to the studio eventually settling in Garner's favor, and this changed the standard for compensating actors for appearing in syndicated reruns. This might actually be the most lasting impact Garner had on Hollywood. While the dispute raged on, he refused to perform the Rockford character, thus delaying the TV movies until 1994. Otherwise, we probably would have seen Rockford back on TV in some form in the '80s.