This is how I always remember this episode since soon after Larry Hagman became synonymous with his role as JR in "Dallas". Curiously at one point his character says "...the more I'm involved in the oil business the less I'm surprised". The things I like here - the plot revolving around the development of a submersible craft for oil exploration and the complexities of the financing and insurance gives the episode the feel of real substance to it. The fact that Beth's client was also a former college rival and the difficulties this places her in means there is always more going on than a straightforward investigation. The scam which Angel runs in restaurants show once again what a brilliant comic creation he is. He can always be relied upon by the writers to drop Rockford in more trouble.
7 Reviews
A golden episode.
mm-3923 February 2019
Warning: Spoilers
Forced Retirement is a golden episode. What works here: We have a prelude to J R of Dallas fame. Hagmen has a scheme of have accidents with companies the business invests in. Rockford is set to investigate the company and wonders into a mystery. What work is the many layers of the story/mystery. There is a famous Rockford art of the con. Great stunts, set etc. We have grade A cast. Well acted and directed. The dialogue between Jame and Larry is classic. 8 out of 10 stars.
What Jim Rockford puts up with from Angel
bkoganbing27 January 2015
Jim Rockford's client is Beth Davenport and considering all the representation he gets from her a freebie isn't out of the ordinary. What Gretchen Corbett wants is for James Garner to check out someone who doesn't seem quite kosher, but whom the senior partner in her law firm swears by.
Who is being sworn by is Larry Hagman and he's playing a big investor in a project involving an underwater caterpillar type vehicle invented by Denny Miller and Margie Impert who is an old sorority sister of Corbett's. Hagman pals around with Ron Masak who has a prison record and that gets Corbett's antenna up. As it turns out she's right to be concerned because these two have a murderous scheme and Hagman is traveling under an alias.
There are two problems that Rockford has. The first is Impert who had a rivalry going with Corbett back to college and she is convinced that Corbett is just jealous. Rockford pulls his Billy Joe Meeker guise during the course of his investigation and his old pal Stuart Margolin blows his cover for a small price. What Rockford put with from Angel Martin during the series run defies belief.
For once Angel gets a real nice comeuppance at the end of the show. Makes it worth watching.
Who is being sworn by is Larry Hagman and he's playing a big investor in a project involving an underwater caterpillar type vehicle invented by Denny Miller and Margie Impert who is an old sorority sister of Corbett's. Hagman pals around with Ron Masak who has a prison record and that gets Corbett's antenna up. As it turns out she's right to be concerned because these two have a murderous scheme and Hagman is traveling under an alias.
There are two problems that Rockford has. The first is Impert who had a rivalry going with Corbett back to college and she is convinced that Corbett is just jealous. Rockford pulls his Billy Joe Meeker guise during the course of his investigation and his old pal Stuart Margolin blows his cover for a small price. What Rockford put with from Angel Martin during the series run defies belief.
For once Angel gets a real nice comeuppance at the end of the show. Makes it worth watching.
Jimmy Joe and silverfish
stones7818 May 2012
What I'll remember the most about this solid, but not great, episode is Rockford going undercover as Jimmy Joe Meeker as he tries to see who's behind the shady dealings of a company which drills for oil in the ocean. Larry Hagman plays a crooked investor rather well, maybe a bit subdued, but overall was solid and convincing to a degree; on the other hand, Margie Impert's role as Susan was underwhelming in my opinion and simply not convincing enough to this reviewer. The other moment I'll remember most has Angel eating at a restaurant, near a table where Rockford and Susan are eating, but this is strictly coincidental; right before Angel's about to eat, he takes out a small vial filled with silverfish, which are insects, are sprinkles them on his food, and then loudly complains that the restaurant is the culprit. In typical Angel fashion, he did this in order to get a free meal, and poor Rockford is the one left stuck in the middle talking to the manager. It is a funny scene, but this act even seems beneath Angel and unrealistic; he does this same act later, but one of the bugs gets stuck in his beard, and thankfully, we don't get to see it this time. Much of this episode is filmed around a boat yard, and the scenery is nice, but I like Rockford more as Rockford, and less as Jimmy Joe, who gets perhaps too many scenes, but he's still entertaining anyway. Dennis and Beth, especially the latter, have important scenes, and I still have to say the chemistry between Susan and Beth, then Susan and Rockford, was lacking. Even though this wasn't in my favorites, I'm still amazed how much story can come in just under an hour, but this great show usually does just that, and that's why most episodes are terrific.
All-star cast
feindlicheubernahme4 January 2024
Warning: Spoilers
This is a great episode of The Rockford Files, primarily due its guest actors. There's Larry Hagman, who needs no introduction. His right-hand man is Ron Masak, who portrays the very likeable but utterly useless Sheriff Metzger (the replacement for the equally likeable but equally useless Sheriff Tupper (Tom Bosley)) in Murder, She Wrote.
Then there's the lovely Margie Impert. Magnum fans will remember her as Madeleine, the Hall of Records clerk who keeps on getting break-up calls from her boyfriend and shutting her counter just when Thomas is finally due to be served. Here, she's Susan, a frenemy of resident sexpot Beth Davenport. I like to imagine that all the girls at the university they both went to were as hot as they are. Sexy times for everyone all semester, every semester. Denny Miller, who plays Chris, also appears in three episodes of Magnum.
My only gripe is, as ever, with Angel. I see from other reviews that he's a very popular character, but I just don't get it. I understand that he's comic relief but they've gone so far over the top with his weaselly, backstabbing nature that his friendship with Jim is unbelievable. He betrays, abandons, cons and steals from Jim at every possible opportunity. No one could ever be friends with the guy.
Then there's the lovely Margie Impert. Magnum fans will remember her as Madeleine, the Hall of Records clerk who keeps on getting break-up calls from her boyfriend and shutting her counter just when Thomas is finally due to be served. Here, she's Susan, a frenemy of resident sexpot Beth Davenport. I like to imagine that all the girls at the university they both went to were as hot as they are. Sexy times for everyone all semester, every semester. Denny Miller, who plays Chris, also appears in three episodes of Magnum.
My only gripe is, as ever, with Angel. I see from other reviews that he's a very popular character, but I just don't get it. I understand that he's comic relief but they've gone so far over the top with his weaselly, backstabbing nature that his friendship with Jim is unbelievable. He betrays, abandons, cons and steals from Jim at every possible opportunity. No one could ever be friends with the guy.
You Beth Your Life
zsenorsock17 January 2007
Warning: Spoilers
Beth's college friend Susan (Margie Impert) gets Beth and her law firm of Harcourt and Lowe involved in a deep sea vehicle she's designing based on Chris Jenks (Denny Miller) ideas. But Beth (the ever fetching Gretchen Corbett) is suspicious of the project and its chief backer, Richard Lessing (Larry Hagman) so she asks Jim to investigate.
I've made no secret of the fact I'm a big Gretchen Corbett fan (she even looks sexy in a neck brace!), and she's terrific in this episode. Tough, vulnerable, outraged, funny, she runs the whole gamut of emotions. This is a great episode for her. Even when hospitalized and things start falling down all around her, her character still has the presence of mind to question Jim's need for some kangaroo skin boots to help sell his Jimmy Jo Meeker character. "You know, ever since I've known you, you talked about owning a pair of kangaroo skin boots..." she mused suspiciously.
Garner also has some great scenes, particularly as Jimmy Joe Meeker. He uses the old "Maverick" bit about quoting his daddy all the time, which both Susan and Richard bust him on.
As Richard, Larry Hagman is great. He's smooth, arrogant, and calculating. It's almost a dry run for his role as J. R. Ewing. If one defines a hero based on the quality of foes he faces, Hagman helps Rockford big time in this episode by giving him a worthy adversary.
He's too smart to do what Wiliam Stratton's script has him do at the end of the episode. After Rockford shows up to blow his scheme involving "key man" insurance, Richard Lessing comes at Rockford and Susan with a rifle and tries to kill them. This makes no sense. A guy as smart as Hagman's character would have realized the jig was up, there was no way anymore he was going to collect, and at the same time THEY HAD NOTHING ON HIM and walked away. But instead he gets dumb all of a sudden.
The use of Stuart Margolin is also a bit questionable in this one. While he's undeniably funny, (he's on probation "for that cockfighting charge") Angel kind of goes over the line in betraying Jim not once but twice. The first time he blows his cover for $50. The second time he gets scared and walks away when he's supposed to be acting as lookout. It's stuff like this that makes you wonder how they remain friends.
I've made no secret of the fact I'm a big Gretchen Corbett fan (she even looks sexy in a neck brace!), and she's terrific in this episode. Tough, vulnerable, outraged, funny, she runs the whole gamut of emotions. This is a great episode for her. Even when hospitalized and things start falling down all around her, her character still has the presence of mind to question Jim's need for some kangaroo skin boots to help sell his Jimmy Jo Meeker character. "You know, ever since I've known you, you talked about owning a pair of kangaroo skin boots..." she mused suspiciously.
Garner also has some great scenes, particularly as Jimmy Joe Meeker. He uses the old "Maverick" bit about quoting his daddy all the time, which both Susan and Richard bust him on.
As Richard, Larry Hagman is great. He's smooth, arrogant, and calculating. It's almost a dry run for his role as J. R. Ewing. If one defines a hero based on the quality of foes he faces, Hagman helps Rockford big time in this episode by giving him a worthy adversary.
He's too smart to do what Wiliam Stratton's script has him do at the end of the episode. After Rockford shows up to blow his scheme involving "key man" insurance, Richard Lessing comes at Rockford and Susan with a rifle and tries to kill them. This makes no sense. A guy as smart as Hagman's character would have realized the jig was up, there was no way anymore he was going to collect, and at the same time THEY HAD NOTHING ON HIM and walked away. But instead he gets dumb all of a sudden.
The use of Stuart Margolin is also a bit questionable in this one. While he's undeniably funny, (he's on probation "for that cockfighting charge") Angel kind of goes over the line in betraying Jim not once but twice. The first time he blows his cover for $50. The second time he gets scared and walks away when he's supposed to be acting as lookout. It's stuff like this that makes you wonder how they remain friends.
JR in training
safenoe11 August 2020
Larry Hagman was in his element here, kind of preparing for his upcoming role in Dallas which made him a megastar after I Dream of Jeannie. Lots of nostalgia watching The Rockford Files in these pandemic times, and seeing the 70s come alive in California.
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