The 1974-1975 Primetime TV Season: 'The Rockford Files' Trivia

When Sanford & Son premiered on NBC in 1971, it became an instant hit, ending the season in the #6 slot in the overall season ratings. But the rest of the NBC Friday night schedule was a mess and despite the fact that Sanford & Son remained in the Top 10 over the following two seasons, the network rolled out an impressive lineup of shows on Fridays that failed to find an audience despite have Sanford & Son as the lead-in: Ghost Story, Banyon, The Bobby Darin Show, The Girl With Something Extra, Lotsa Luck, Needles & Pins, and The Brian Keith Show.

But the 1974-1975 season was a different story. NBC's Friday night lineup opened with Sanford & Son, which finished as the second-most popular show that season. It was followed by the new Jack Albertson/Freddie Prinze comedy Chico & The Man, which ended the season in the #3 spot for all primetime television. 

That was followed by James Garner's The Rockford Files, which finished #12 for the season and Angie Dickinson's Police Woman, which finished #15.

The Rockford Files ended up running for six seasons, with the final season being abbreviated due to injuries to Garner that were apparently primarily due to his insistence on doing many of his own stunts.

The show has remained in syndication ever since it went off the air and is a popular classic TV title on streaming services.

Here is a bit of trivia about the show and James Garner's life during the series that you might not know:

* In real life, Noah Beery Jr., who played Jim Rockford's father Joseph "Rocky" Rockford, as only fourteen years older than James Garner.

* During the run of The Rockford Files, Garner partnered up with actress Mariette Hartley in a season of commercials for Polaroid. The ads began in 1977 and were so popular that by the end of the 30 or so commercials, Hartley reportedly had a T-shirt made that read "I am not James Garner's wife!"

* The name of "Rockford" was used after co-creator Stephen J. Cannell found the name listed in the Universal Studios employee directory.

*  The show was a co-production among three companies, the production companies owned by Roy Huggins and James Garner and Universal Television. Garner's Cherokee Productions owned 37.5 percent of the series, with the remaining 62.5 percent split between the other two companies.

* Garner sued Universal Studios twice over ongoing disputes about residuals and other payments he felt he was due from The Rockford Files. In July 1983, he sued the studio for $16.5 million, charging Universal with "breach of contract; failure to deal fairly and in good faith; fraud; and deceit". It was settled out of court in 1989. 

He sued Universal a second time in 1998 for $2.2 million over syndication royalties. The suit charged the studio with "deceiving him and suppressing information about syndication." According to the lawsuit, he claimed he was contractually promised he would receive $25,000 for each episode running in syndication, but Universal charged him "distribution fees", which was not in the contract. He also claimed the studio of double-dealing by syndicating the episodes to a favored partner instead of licensing the show to the highest bidder.

* Jim Rockford's iconic trailer was moved several times during the run of the series. In the pilot, according to Rockford's ad in the yellow pages, the trailer was in a parking lot located at 2354 Ocean Boulevard, Los Angeles. The trailer moved to another lot just off the Pacific Coast Highway (22968 PCH) in Malibu for the remainder of the first season. The trailer moved to another Malibu location for the remainder of the series, in an area known as Paradise Cove, using the fictional 29 Cove Rd., Malibu (although the approximate real-life address was 28128 Pacific Coast Highway.

* In the 2011 autobiography The Garner Files (co-authored by Jon Winokur), Garner told a story about punching writer/producer Glen A. Larson. According to Garner, Larson had been taking produced scripts from The Rockford Files, changing them slightly and reusing them on his own shows. Garner's production company filed a complaint with the Writer's Guild, who ruled in Garner's favor and proceeded to fine Larson for plagiarism. Garner also said that several months later, Larson visited the Rockford Files set and apologized. Garner responded by punching Larson so hard that it knocked him right across a curb, into a motor home and out the other side.

* There was a 2010 attempt to reboot The Rockford Files, with Dermot Mulroney as Jim Rockford, Alan Tudyk as Dennis Becker, and Beau Bridges as Joseph "Rocky" Rockford. Despite the fact the reboot was a high priority for NBC head of entertainment president Angela Bromstad, the completed pilot was described as "listless" and not picked up by the network.