In Other TV News: Rockford's Return and Feminist Porn

Never really understood the laid-back charm of Rockford Files, though that probably has more to do with being 8 years old at the time it was airing in reruns. Other shows that seem to be fondly remembered but I am not sure why: Hart to Hart and Moonlighting. I’m just sayin’.

Ken over at EW hit the nail on the head: if the stars align, ABC will cancel ‘Castle’, which will thus free up Nathan Fillion to do this, which would be perfect.
For the record, not crazy about the idea; it strikes me as strange to attempt to remake a show that is identified so heavily with a specific actor- you weren’t watching Rockford, you were watching James Garner do his thing. I’m positive my dad would use many words about this, most of them four-lettered.
However, since they’re apparently set on doing it anyways, it wouldn’t hurt to have the best guy for the part actually available.

As the #1 fan of the Rockford Files, I always wondered how a present day Rockford Files would work. Jim is no longer in his forties and he was kind’a beat up then. Would a new Rockford have the same old- school charm with clients and women, Rocky, Dennis, Angel. Would he drive a Camaro (it fits Jim’s budget) or an old Firebird? Firebird, Rocky, and Isaac Hayes are gone. Jimmy would have a cell but a Blackberry or a laptop…I don’t know. The Rockford series as did the CBS movies have a moral & common sense approach to problem solving, with a taste of a con. Would that circus act sell today or is that something that is needed. I hope a new Rockford is successful, I know all episodes by heart, and something good and new would be great, yet challenging to the writers and producers.

Since James Garner is still alive – and hopefully for a long time to come – the slickest way to produce the show would be for Jimbo to have a son, also named Jim. Could be an illegitimate son he never knew about, whose mother named Jim after the love of her life. Angel could still be around. His son inherits his trailer, or claims to want to, and there you have the plot for the first story. Is this Jimbo’s real scion? Or merely his old flame’s wishful thinking? The boy (could be in his twenties, which would be a neat twist all by itself – Jim fathering a child in his sixties) has heard nothing but stories of the legendary James Rockford and decided at the age of 1 to be a P.I. himself, starting with reading – and collecting – the entire Hardy Boys series, then working into Raymond Chandler. He’s a licensed P.I. and against his mother’s wishes started hanging around Jim, asking a lot of personal questions, trying to get to know him without admitting anything.

Alternately, THE YOUNG JAMES ROCKFORD: Jimbo before 1974, the young man who decided to be a private investigator. This has the advantage of nostalgia, mid-sixties, hippies, protests, cool cars, cool music, cool clothes . . . Well, you hadda be there. He’s poor and the idea of cheap accommodation appeals to him, not necessarily immediately a trailer. Young Angel. Becker just out of the academy. All that delicious back story. Tons of fun.