User Reviews

This episode reminded me of when Monk went on jury duty, with Rockford being the sole dissenter. Rockford takes jury duty very seriously, knowing that people's lives being decided This leads to him helping out the accused, played by Mills Watson who later achieved fame playing Deputy Perkins in BJ and the Bear and its spinoff Lobo. I love the 70s nostalgia in this episode, like the other ones.

Sadly The Rockford Files ended mid-way through season 6 due to James Garner's back problems. Those back problems were referenced in this episode.

This is a very solid episode which has Rockford on jury duty for a case of vehicular homicide involving a drunk man, played by Mills Watson, who's also starred in other episodes as well. His drunken character runs over an already dead woman, which he obviously wasn't aware of, and all the jurors, except Rockford, are ready to convict the man and send him to jail. There's a few sketchy details which nag him, and the hoods need to silence him for obvious reasons, as he stars asking questions to the wrong people as usual. He meets some people along the way, such as the unimpressive Margaret Blye, who portrays Bonnie without much emotion, and is the crooked sister of the deceased woman who's in cahoots with an equally crooked insurance company, who's led by the impressive James Karen; he also starred in an earlier episode where he plays yet another crooked executive of a big company. I also had the odd feeling that James Garner went through the motions a bit also, even though this is a very good episode, but he usually displays great emotions, but I didn't sense that here. Keep your eye out for a strange looking yellow Datsun, an old Pontiac Gran Prix, which looked pretty cool, and Jim's Firebird. Rocky has some nice scenes in the trailer, as he's trying to fix his son's doors, and the last scene is rather funny with Rocky unintentionally messing up Jim's plans for dinner with a date. Let me add that the only negative aspect, other than some of the acting, has Jim on the phone with Dennis, even though we don't get to see him. I don't recall that ever happening before with this great show, but as I said above, the serious Rockford fan should enjoy this episode anyway, as it is entertaining.

The usual high quality of a Rockford Files episode is spoiled here as the premise of this has juror James Rockford hanging a jury with reasonable doubts. It's a case of drunk driving and the defendant is Mills Watson. A young woman was allegedly run down by Watson, later Watson and his sister hire Rockford to get to the truth.

First thing there's no way that a private eye would get to serve on a criminal journey. My job with NYS Crime Victims Board got me turned down time and again for criminal cases, imagine what District Attorney would pass on James Garner for a criminal case. I imagine even in a civil suit one of the parties would object.

Of course Rockford's PI instincts are correct would you have a story if they weren't. But the bad guys aren't dumb either, it was a pretty fool proof scheme and they delay Rockford with a plant in pretty Margaret Blye. What she does you have to see the story for.

But this is an incredibly flawed premise.