I've seen every single episode of The Rockford Files and multiple times. I think he might actually eat in every single one of them but I don't remember for sure. Usually it's an actual meal at a restaurant (usually his favorite, Tacos, even for Breakfast) but sometimes another favorite, just an Oreo Cookie with some milk. Maybe in retirement I'll actually document if he eats in every episode lol.

I believe he does eat at least once every episode.

Me too

I never thought about it, but probably...

I think he does!

There are some actors that are known for doing specific things in each movie that they are in.
Tom Cruise seems to run in every movie.
Brad Pitt eats something.
Rob Reiner sucks in everything that he is in and he doesn't even do porn.

no love for Meathead?

I think he does. I've got Rockford on DVD. Now I'll be looking for that next time I watch it. Thanks for that

I think I read somewhere that, despite the notoriety of the series for depicting them, he only did 13 Rockford turns during the run of the series.

Rockford turns are really tough on steel belted radials. Ask me how I know.

He may well have eaten something in every episode, either as "character development" or an inside joke.
IIRC, the trailer was parked at Paradise Cove, which was later the site of the Jim & Tammy Bakker melt-down...
Back in that era, I was running a Material Damage Appraisal unit in SoCal and was the guy who handled the Hollywood stuff.
Livingston Pontiac in the SFV did the repairs & maintenance on the Rockford Firebirds, and I recall side moldings that had their inserts removed, allegedly because they came across as pink on-camera.
I was never sure if that was true, and it didn't matter to me, but it was kinda funny.
One of 'em had its front cover stitched like a baseball to get it through filming.
Livingston is also where Hal Needham had the wreckage of the Smokey & Bandit cars - which had been procured as loaners - dropped off. I totalled all of 'em. Pontiac PR was really PO'd at Needham, but TA sales took off.
John Wayne's Pontiac wagons - with a raised roof on at least one I recall - were handled by another Pontiac dealer in No Hollywood.
Got cussed out by Craig T Nelson ("Coach") once on his Porsche - because I didn't total it for some minor damage - so badly that it made me laugh.
The high-end shops that handled the Hollywood clientele, the Vector circus, ad infinitum...sometimes it was like a parallel universe, but often very amusing.

Celebrity claims are awful for the most part.

Not gonna lie I had to do an internet search for a Rockford turn. I guess I didn't watch the show enough. LOL

For anyone else that doesn't know.......

It looks like every instance, he turned the wheel LEFT. Never right.

Thanks for posting that, always loved that series
We just called it "doing a Rockford", kind and funny to find out he only did it 13 times.
I would have sworn it was every show.

Weight transfer reasons? Or just simply not wanting to be on low side and feeling like its gonna roll over?

The Rockford Files is available free on the FreeVee app, if you have a smart tv.

Sight lines and vision.

One of my favorite shows of all time. Issac Hays calling him Rockfish, lol. To put in perspective for me my dad is 94 same age Jim would be if he was alive. Angel was a pain in the [censored] but really helped the show. The sound of one hand clapping. Ah the moments.. and he never got paid, $200 a day plus expenses.

i watch this show every night on over the air digital TV, the get TV channel.. it on every day except for saturday night.
rockford got his rear kicked almost every episode. he usually returned a few punches also but the end isn't good for him.

https://www.get.tv/

I first started watching as an elementary schooler. I loved the chase scenes and my mom and dad watched it too. He was also a "cool guy" to me as a kid. He seemed like a real guy because he didn't always come out a winner, but he was a real "man's man", someone a man would like to hang out with. In syndication, some of the chase scenes are cut short!!! BS!!!!

I also own the series on DVD. It's really excellent. Reading about the series is very interesting; how James Garner preferred doing as many of his stunts as possible and suffered a lot of injuries. His limp from Korean War, often seen in show and how he would sometimes have to make a comment about it because it was obvious. I remember the one to "Rocky", his father; "I fell off my skateboard". One of the producers commented in an article once that James always wanted to do his own driving but of course they didn't want to chance his being injured. The producer then commented "then we realized he was better than any of the stunt drivers" LOL.

I use to notice as a little kid the early Firebird had the single round headlights and the "400" emblem. Then they upgraded him to the quad headlight and no more 400. He had the Esprit or however you spell it.

Garner was also a racer of some repute, so yeah, he knew a bit about handling a car.
That was an era where men who projected calm capability and ethics were role models.
The Esprit model was allegedly chosen because the Rockford character wouldn't have the money for a TA, nor a desire to project flashiness.

I guess Garner was a pretty meticulous sort: I read in McQueen's biography that McQueen used to toss empty beer cans on Garner's roof to drive him nuts when they were neighbors.

Steve McQueen was friends with a motorcycle collector 5 miles from here, and visited now and again.
i never knew that until MANY years after his death. [R.I.P. Bullitt]

That's hilarious.

A few years ago I googled "29 Cove Rd" and it looks similar now just more grown. I'll have to look again. I'd love to drive by the spot someday.

What a great choice Noah Beery Jr. was to play his father! So believable, and such a likable character (Remember a different actor played his father in the Pilot). Their relationship was so sweet and believable with their frequent arguments that always ended showing their loving father/son relationship.

If you need to show someone an example of horrible understeer and body roll, here's a good chase scene to use. Poor (75?) Imperial lol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3J__64lAg3Y

I read something that said all the cars used were Formula 400s because the standard models wouldn't necessarily perform and hold up to what they were put through. They made the cars look like Esprit models to seem more realistic for his character. Garner didn't like the look of the 79-80 models so they continued to use old ones.

Body roll so bad, the Chrysler lost its fender skirts somewhere along the way.........................


And the scary part is a GM or Ford full size luxo barge probably would have been worse.

I remember reading that too.

I sometimes wonder what they would have done if for whatever reason the show had made it into the totally redesigned Firebird of 1982? I can't picture Jim driving one of those.

If you watch the two part episode in which Rocky is selling tickets to the OOTA (Owner Operated Truckers Association) Ball "Gearjammers" there's a good chase scene in which Rockford is being chased by a light green Monte Carlo which loses a wheel cover. A bit of an editing mix up because at the end of the chase the wrong cover is missing lol.

Yep.

Back then TV actors didn't make a million dollars an episode like now. A free meal in each episode was probably part of his compensation.

Speaking of the meal, I always wondered where they got the food the actor ate in scenes. The commissary? Catered? Was it good? Made me hungry sometimes, lol.

OMG - yes - "Rockfish." One of my very favorite shows of all time - Jimmy was GREAT! I especially loved the episodes with Angel in them - they were ALWAYS so entertaining. As for Jimmy eating in every episode, I've been meaning to start watching the entire series again & will watch for this! I will report my findings! The era of this show was a fun time in America. The cars, the women, just everything.

A friend here in town owns 2 of the original cars. He's a Mopar guy too.

Yes, they removed the scooped hoods to make them look for mundane and everyday.

He also owns an original Cookie Jar and lots of other show memorabilia.


...helping stuff a Hemi into an A-body:

Starts off at the gas stations that used to be on Sunset Blvd and Fairfax. Then at this point they turn on Cherokee and De Longpre

Eating is definitely something all humanity does.

If “Rockford Files” has a theme it is that a good show does not have to center on a “Superhuman”
but that normal people can do good.

Does eating simple food in every show send a message?

Is that message opposite to the message of

Vodka Martini, Shaken not Stirred

Like people rarely having to go to the bathroom on TV shows...

The eating also gave them one more place to sit around and talk or give a bit of break from the different scenes.

The made for TV movies that came out later were good too. Still lived in a trailer but nicer etc.

Wow some really neat information you all posted!!!

And yes Angel was so frustrating the way he would burn Jim and even Rocky sometimes, but he really added to the show! Remember his Cadi "Lucille"? lol.

And yes, the sound of one hand clapping LOL. That was a funny episode especially when Jim goes off on her.

'Consciousness'? You're practically UN-conscious 24 hours a day! What you're 'into' is having somebody else to do your thinking for you. There's Gordon Borchers, Baba, the Bhagada-Gita. Next it's gonna be Sam Levinson, or Francis, the Talking Mule, for all I know. They have all the answers, right? Don't you have any answers of your own?

That’s interesting. Hot Rod many years back ran a little thing maybe an editorial talking about cars on film and where they were now. It said the Rockford cars vanished and wondered how a show using so many had none in circulation.

That’s not so surprising given the era.

He's got all the docs. And even found the bolt holes drilled for sound mics. Finishing up the resto.

There's fake one around here too.


He's got a truck he's recreating too. The owner of the original one won't sell it.