This episode was co-written by Leigh Brackett, writer of "Star Wars: Revenge of the Jedi" along with Robert Altman's "The Long Goodbye", the Bogart version of "The Big Sleep" and John Wayne's "Rio Bravo" and "El Dorado" among others. With that in mind, this episode is a bit disappointing. It's a pretty straight cop action episode and its not that different than most TV cop shows.
The widow of Rocky's friend, Kate Banning (Edith Atwater--"Aunt Gertrude" in the Hardy Boys series!) is suspicious when her son, a rookie police officer is killed in a car accident. Her son always kept his car in mint condition, had just had it worked on and would not have neglected his brakes. Rocky, ever the soft hearted, volunteers Jim's services to investigate.
However, Jim is not willing to work for free, so Rocky fights his own tendency to being cheap and hires Jim to investigate--$200 a day plus expenses--and Rocky plans to keep an eye on those expenses!
The cops are convinced what happened is an accident and have closed the investigation. The son's partner Sgt. Wilson (Paul Carr, Lt. Kelso on "Star Trek") feels the same way. The case looks like a dead end. But what kind of episode would that make?
This episode includes a scene that I first thought was shot at the Hollywood Bowl, but then realized it was a rare shot of the Universal Amphitheater before they decided to enclose it. Frank Campenella, Joe's brother makes the first appearance of three on the series, this time as Morrie, a crime boss.
The relationship between Dennis and Jim is finally expanded beyond the detective/cop contact and we see they actually do hang out together and really are friends. Watch Dennis' reaction when he finds out Rocky is actually paying Jim to investigate! He insists on being there when Rocky gets the bill--and is!
The widow of Rocky's friend, Kate Banning (Edith Atwater--"Aunt Gertrude" in the Hardy Boys series!) is suspicious when her son, a rookie police officer is killed in a car accident. Her son always kept his car in mint condition, had just had it worked on and would not have neglected his brakes. Rocky, ever the soft hearted, volunteers Jim's services to investigate.
However, Jim is not willing to work for free, so Rocky fights his own tendency to being cheap and hires Jim to investigate--$200 a day plus expenses--and Rocky plans to keep an eye on those expenses!
The cops are convinced what happened is an accident and have closed the investigation. The son's partner Sgt. Wilson (Paul Carr, Lt. Kelso on "Star Trek") feels the same way. The case looks like a dead end. But what kind of episode would that make?
This episode includes a scene that I first thought was shot at the Hollywood Bowl, but then realized it was a rare shot of the Universal Amphitheater before they decided to enclose it. Frank Campenella, Joe's brother makes the first appearance of three on the series, this time as Morrie, a crime boss.
The relationship between Dennis and Jim is finally expanded beyond the detective/cop contact and we see they actually do hang out together and really are friends. Watch Dennis' reaction when he finds out Rocky is actually paying Jim to investigate! He insists on being there when Rocky gets the bill--and is!