Rockford Files, The

$200 a day plus expenses

The show was created by Stephen J. Cannell and Roy Huggins. Roy had produced Maverick in the early days of TV and wanted to update show to a contemporary setting. The Rockford Files was a very different type of crime show for the 70's and Jim Rockford was a very different detective from those viewers were used to seeing. For the start James Scott Rockford, had served time in jail: having been convicted of a crime he had not committed (armed robbery). He was freed after five years, and received a pardon. His job as a private investigator only just allowed him to live in a run down mobile home in a car park near the beach in Malibu. His hourly rate of "$200 a day, plus expenses", often remained unpaid and seemed high to many of his clients.

The Rockford Files was first aired NBC in the US on September 13th 1974 and ran until January 10 1980, reruns have been shown all over the world since. Making Jim Rockford one of the most loved detectives of all time. Rockford would rather avoid a fight than wade in, rarely carried a gun, usually leaving it at home in it in a biscuit tin in his kitchen, which made him very different from the "Dirty Harry" style detectives of the day. Working on old cases, missing persons, insurance scams and the like Rockford hated taking on Divorce work and typically talked and conned his way through any trouble.

The show was written mainly by Stephen J Cannell, Juanyita Bartlett and David Chase and owed much of it's success to the charm and quality of acting of James Garner (already loved by the public for his role as Maverick) and of course a certain Pontiac Firebird.

The show's title sequence always began with someone leaving a message on Rockford's answering machine (cutting edge technology for the time) a different message for each episode. Often these were from creditors or clients who couldn't or wouldn't pay. The messages never had anything to do with the episodes plot.

The show was credited as -"A Public Arts/Roy Huggins Production in association with Cherokee Productions and Universal Studios" - Cherokee was James Garners own company (named after his own native american heritage) and was run with his partner Meta Rosenberg and the shows story editor Juanita Bartlet.