The Four Pound Brick

Theater actress Edith Atwater and Daytime-Emmy winner Jess Walton are among the guest stars in this installment, with Atwater playing the widow of one of Rocky's oldest trucker buddies who is now mourning the unexpected death of her son, a rookie cop on the force. But was the death really a murder having to do with the dead officer's partner, Sgt. Wilson (played by Paul Carr), being on the take for distributing narcotics, or were both the cops in on it? Either way, his investigation gets Rockford in hot water with Dennis Becker's boss and department. Angel provides a bit of humor by running through the woods away from helping Jim. I round up the rating of this episode for Ms. Atwater's excellent believable performance.

About ten minutes into the episode, Jim and Rocky share a couple beers from Jim's "frost free" refrigerator (which is due for replacement). Rocky removes the beer can pull tab, and delicately deposits it into a nearby ashtray, while Jim, when the camera turns to him, opens his can and PLUNK! drops his pull tab right into the can! How very "Jim" that move is! A few minutes later, a couple hoods make note of Jim's license plate number, which we all know to be California 853 OKG ("Ocean King George"). But as the camera zooms to the plate, one hood tells the other to write down OKG 853. Dyslectic? A great exchange between Jimmy and Rocky: Jim: "You ate my steak...." Rocky: "Well, it was in the freezer.... you defrosted it... it was gonna spoil" Jim: "Not before dinner!" Rocky: "It didn't have no sign on it." Jim: "Next time I'll have 'em all monogrammed." Rocky: " Hah ha... we have the same initial!"

Good to see Stuart Margolin as 'Angel' even if it's only incidental to the story of Jim investigating the apparent accidental death of a rookie cop as a favour to his father on behalf of Edith Atwater's character.

Paul Carr has an integral supporting role as a could-be crooked cop, whilst the senior Campanella brother- Frank- plays his usual kingpin outline. John Quade is also in typically fine form as a smart-mouth heavy, and Tom Atkins makes his second appearance in the series as another hard-nosed detective with little time for Jim's casual interference. The action is relatively taught with a decent car chase, and some modest suspense.

It's a predictable caper, but the actors are becoming more relaxed in their characters, and the chemistry which was such a standout of the series is starting to become apparent, especially between Santos and Garner.

Edith Atwater plays the wife of an old truck driving buddy of Rocky's and she refuses to believe that her son died in an accident. So he offers James Garner's help to check out her son's demise. Now Garner isn't in the business of being a PI for love, no more than Noah Beery, Jr. made free hauls in his truckdriving days. So Beery hires his own son and refuses even to accept a family discount.

Turns out the young rookie cop was not killed in an accident and that Atwater's suspicions were correct. Her late son's partner Paul Carr is very much on the pad.

This episode belongs to Noah Beery, Jr. who even though he's not crazy about his son's profession finds it handy in this situation. However being the frugal fellow he is, Rocky tags along to see he's getting his money's worth. That is kind of cramping Rockford's style.

As Sgt. Becker says, he wants to be around when Garner tries to get Beery to pony up.

In this opening season episode from this terrific series, it was clear to me that there are some rough edges and the show was still trying to find the formula which we all know and love. This is a decent entry, although hardly a great one, revolving around Rockford helping a lady friend of Rocky's, who's son was a cop believed to have died in an accident, but she has her doubts. The mother(Kate), played by Edith Atwater, at times talks so fast that I could hardly understand her, and is devoid of much emotion; there's a few familiar faces in Frank Campanella, and John Quade(Any Which Way But Loose), who's characters are more interesting, but they don't get as much face time. Dennis, Angel, and a very fine performance by Tom Atkins as Diel, also have several scenes, especially the latter when it comes to a rather heated conversation between he and Rockford when it comes to dirty cops. It's amazing how much father and son have aged during the run of this series, as the 2 look very young in this episode, but in only a few years later, they almost look like old men. The plot eventually boils down to the woman's son being murdered by the mobster's(Campanella)goons because he had a crooked partner and knew too much I guess. Look for Jim's Firebird exchanged for a rental Monte Carlo, as his car's in the shop after damage done in a chase. This isn't a very memorable episode, let alone a very good one, but the show is rounding into shape and many better ones are around the corner.