The Rockford Files (TV Series) Chicken Little Is a Little Chicken (1975) User Reviews

The Trouble with Angels

[zsenorsock · 10/10 · 15 November 2006]

There's a lot to like about this episode. Stuart Margolin puts in one of his best performances as Jim Rockford's old prison buddy Angel Martin. This time Angel asks Jim to help him get back $2,000 Tom Little (yet another old San Quintin acquaintance) owes him. When Jim agrees (for half the money!) he is swept into a mob turf war between Marty Fishette (the very very good Frank Campenella) and Chester Sierra (Ray Danton, who played Don Felipe in a 1961 episode of "Maverick") involving forged checks and $30,000. Jim figures the only way out of the mess is for Angel to die and for him to pull a briefcase con.

In this episode we learn Angel once wrote for the Quintin Courier (hence his newspaper background) his real name is Evelyn and he deserted under fire in Korea. Angel and Dennis Becker meet for the first time and it's pretty funny. Dennis immediately smells prison on Angel, who's just nervous being around cops to begin with. There's also a GREAT eulogy to Angel at the funeral, which Angel has apparently written himself.

There's a curious moment involving Beth Davenport, even though she isn't in this episode. Jim is staying at her house cat sitting. But for some reason he's sleeping on the couch (knowing his previous relationship with Beth, this seems quite odd!). Garner's brother Jack appears with a mustache and his hair grayed in the funeral scene.

There's also a fine moment in which Jim wonders why he's put up with Angel's antics and seems to give up on him, saying there's no reason he should stay involved and help. Angel responds with a moment of rare sincerity: "Yes there is. Because you're my friend."

The Angel-Rockford relationship is cemented.

Some of the Best Dialogue of the Series

[faffaflunkie · 9/10 · 18 September 2014]

The Late Emmy Award Winning Rockford Series Co-Creator Stephen J. Cannell firmly establishes "Rockford" as a Character driven crime drama in this Episode with superb dialogue that would have given even the Great Crime Novelist Elmore Leonard a run for his money. Angel (Stuart Margolin) for the first time becomes the central character in twisted plot that has him unknowingly ripping off his own employer and unwittingly becoming indebted to shady characters. Angel exclaims after a run in with Sgt. Becker (Series Regular Joe Santos) that "I'm Getting a Bad Case of the Fifth Amendment". Local Mobsters propound on the authenticity of Los Angeles Pizza while trying to get their hands on the stolen loot and Jim composes a hilarious "Obituary" exposing Angel's awful real First Name and his shoddy record of desertion under fire in Korea. David Chase now gets all of the writing accolades for this excellent series- But this Episode written by Cannell is one of the Finest. A must see for the serious "Rockfordphile".

The whole show/series is picking-up steam and starting to hit it's stride right about now !

[ronnybee2112 · 9/10 · 26 September 2021]

By this point in time,the Rockford crew has worked out all the bugs and glitches involved with the production of the show,and things go pretty smoothly on this episode. The actors and crew are all comfortable and they are able to concentrate on doing their best work.(As it should be!) The writing was good,the acting is inspired,and the plot flows at a good pace. Very enjoyable episode,the show was,in my opinion, starting to enter it's heyday right around the time of this episode. This is just about a perfect example of a typical,very-good episode.

9/10 solid.

Phone number

[hipchecker20 · 8/10 · 1 November 2017]

So many people love Rockford. We know all of the characters.

So who, of the clear-thinking Rockford aficionados, would ever believe that Angel would know Beth Davenport's phone number from memory?

This, along with a few other items, prevent me from giving this episode a ten.

Angel Unaware

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 23 April 2012]

This particular episode of The Rockford Files was a seminal event of sorts. It marked the first time that Angel met up with Sergeant Dennis Becker of the LAPD, Jim Rockford's friend on the force. They would meet up again and usually in circumstances similar to this episode.

Which involves Stuart Margolin as Angel getting James Garner to do him a favor that could earn him $2000.00. Later on it got somewhat monotonous to see Margolin just suck Garner into one of his cons every time and need Garner to bail him out. Monotonous but always fun.

In this case he's ripped off two crime organizations, they're after him and they've also murdered another guy who was in on the con with Margolin. Or at least one of them did and Joe Santos as Becker tells Margolin he's a known associate of the deceased making him a person of interest.

Some real kudos have to go to Ray Danton who was a guest star as one of the crime bosses and he overacts outrageously in a part that you could see was enjoying doing.

Garner pulls a real con on his own to get out from under and to get some justice for the deceased who probably didn't deserve any anyway. You have to see the episode to see how he does it.

Let down by making Rockford and Angel stupid

[feindlicheubernahme · 6/10 · 14 December 2023]

I would have given this episode an 8, but for the fact that both central characters were turned into fools, for a while at least, in order to set up the story. Making normally smart people inexplicably dumb is a lazy plot device that always irritates me.

First of all, Rockford. For someone as savvy as he is, it's unbelievable that he doesn't smell a rat when Tom Little asks him to pick up his brother on the way to the meeting with Angel, rather than on the way back. Especially when the idea obviously comes from Little's "brother" after he's asked who he's meeting and where. Of course, it could be legitimate, and Little's brother just wants to come along and make sure Little doesn't get hurt. But from what we know of Rockford, he would at least be suspicious and take some precautions to guard against precisely what ended up happening. Taking one notorious conman to see another notorious conman about money, both of whom constantly have people chasing after them, he would be on his toes and alert to any possible danger.

Which brings us to Angel. As a conman himself, would he really be so stupid as to let Little get all the information out of him that he needed for his fraud, even if it was bit by bit over a long period of time and maybe when he was drunk? Those are tricks Angel himself would have often used in his criminal career and he should easily be able spot someone else using them on him. Particularly when they're pumping him for such unusual and sensitive details as who supplies the paper for the company cheques and who prints them!

But, ending on a positive note, I did otherwise enjoy the episode. In fact, I don't think I've seen a Rockford episode so far that I've disliked, which is really saying something now that I'm up to number 30 or so.

The Chess Game

[jtdavis62-1 · 8 June 2009]

It's fun to see Jim and Rocky playing chess early in the episode, and Angel's commentary on the game is hilarious.

Unfortunately, like many depictions of chess in movies, television and advertisements, the chess board is set up incorrectly. In the correct and standard set up, the corner square to the right of each player should always be white (and queens start each game on home colors). The square to Jim's lower right is clearly a black square in this scene.

This fact is a minor problem for most non-chess players, to be sure, but a major problem for fans of the ancient game. I see this oversight often. It's kind of funny, and non-chess players have a fifty-fifty chance of setting up the board correctly.

slightly unrealistic

[stones78 · 2 July 2014]

While I would say this is a typical solid episode in the stable, I have to point out that when an entire show deals mainly with Jim running a con, those type of stories aren't my favorites. I feel that most of the scams wouldn't happen that way in real life, and they come together much too conveniently, considering that there's some powerful hoods on the receiving end; one of those hoods was played by a tough, familiar face in Frank Campanella, and of course, falls too easily into Rockford's trap. I don't think powerful crooks are that stupid. I am glad that Rockford got caught in his own trap actually, and had to spend a night in jail. The other moment I wasn't crazy about is moments after another powerful hood orders Rockford and Angel to be shot and killed, Rockford only has his arms folded like he's saying "whatever", while Angel's visibly upset. I know you're tough, Jim, but in real life I'm thinking you just wet your trousers. This is surprising that such a talented team of writers let this slide. Some good moments involve great chemistry between Rockford and Angel, a few scenes with Rocky's truck, Jim babysitting Beth's cat, and a hot dog stand near Jim's trailer.