The Rockford Files ran between September of 1974 and January 1980. Jim Rockford ran his private detective business from his house trailer on the beach in Malibu, California, and pursued bad guys in his gold Firebird Esprit with a tan interior. Throughout its run, Rockford starred the engaging James Garner, and he always drove a gold Firebird with a tan interior.
1977 Pontiac Firebird Esprit
Although Rockford drove a new Firebird in each season, there were essentially only two different styles—the 1974-76 dual headlight design, and the 1977-78 four headlight design. Garner thought the ’79-80 Firebirds were too ugly to feature on the program. An observant fan of the program and of Firebirds can often detect both styles used in the same scene. The program was said to have been very expensive to produce, both for its extensive use of location filming and probably for the large number of cars Rockford ran through. Those Firebirds must have been extraordinary cars with the ability to self-heal running gear and body damage, sometimes within minutes.
Opening credits AMC Matador cop car
With so much location shooting, a lot of mid-seventies (and earlier) cars can be seen in abundance in every episode. The opening credits always feature an LAPD AMC Matador cop car.
1963 Bullet Bird, a Rivi and a big Poncho
James Garner was a car guy and did all of his own stunt driving. His most famous move was his “J-Turn”, a tire smoking 180-degree change of direction. One would have to say that this stunt was directly inspired by Junior Johnson and his fellow moonshiners. I can’t help but feel that, being a car guy, Garner influenced his production company (Cherokee Productions) to use certain cars as incidental decoration. The ’63 Bullet Bird pulls frequent cameo duty, as do a number of other cars.
Trifecta: 1960 Chevy, Bug convertible, and a Caddy
Unfortunately, this ’60 Chevy appeared in only one episode-the first. I’d love to know more about those red wheels. Directly behind the Chevy is Lindsay Wagner in a green Bug convertible, with a big fat Caddy across the street. Got to give it to Garner—he liked interesting cars and good looking women.
Mid-‘70s Eldo
The bad guys in Rockford generally drive Rolls Royces or Mercedes. In this rare instance, the baddie is driving a big red Eldo.
Carefully arranged location shooting
In the above shot, what appears to be everyday LA traffic has a number of cars that Cherokee Productions called upon for frequent appearances, to wit: the red Karmann Ghia; the silver Audi 100 in front of the Eldo; and the silver Vega. In fact, the GMC Fishbowl bus and Ford Country Squier may also have been part of the cast.
Immaculate chrome and paint on a Fishbowl
Although GMC fishbowls were still in production in 1974, this particular bus is sporting an awfully shiny and un-dented front bumper that just reeks Central Casting.
SOCAL street scene-no two alike
The above shot with Lindsay Wagner driving a green Bug will give some indication of the wide variety of vehicles that populate the typical episode: Opel GT; Buick station wagon; a ’65 Plymouth Fury sedan; Dodge Tradesman van; and a ’64 Chevy Impala 4-dr hardtop. Eye candy in every episode.
This will not end well
It must be an unwritten rule in Hollywood that car chases must include plenty of gravity-defying leaps. Of course, the car is always shown driving off into the sunset, which makes one wonder. Did they use two identical cars or did they film the post-jump scenes first? Regardless, the Pontiac shown in mid-air shortly will become a steaming pile of junk once it lands.
Two deadly sins
I love this shot—two of the worst cars ever made, a Vega and an Audi 100 LS. What are the odds that both of these excresences could be kept running long enough to complete a scene? Boggles the mind.
Lindsay Wagner and her green Beetle
Most of the screenshots in this post were taken from the first episode, but one recurring theme in Rockford is lots of interesting cars, both static and in motion. Every episode of Rockford is available on Netflix, or if you really have to have it, I’m sure Amazon has the complete DVD boxed set.
And then there was Kathryn Harrold, a clone of Ingrid Bergman. I am so in love!
Note: a rerun of an older post, with updated images.
Did you have an unfortunate relationship with a 100 LS Kevin?
They were notoriously problematic as a matter of fact.
Rockford’s dad Rocky drove a GMC Sierra pick up that Jim always borrowed the many times the Firebird was in the body shop.
Interestingly enough, that silver Vega would appear in quite a few episodes in the background or parked, through all seasons.
Ok, mistake number one. First picture is a 1975 Firebird, not a ‘74. 1975 was the first year for the wider rear window for both Firebird and Camaro.
As a car-crazed pre-teen/teen, my big takeaway as an East Coast kid was, “OMG the ten year old+ cars look so GOOD”. In the northeast, it was incredibly rare in this era to see a 10+ year old car that wasn’t rusted and/or beaten into oblivion.
As a kid, I recall watching The Rockford Files with great interest, for both the cars and the girls.
As a much older man now, I still find myself turning on the oldies channel and turning on……you guessed it, The Rockford Files. And yes, I still watch it for the car and women as they just don’t make them like they used to. haha.
Loved watching ‘The Rockford Files’, great writing and acting, good driving, and lots of interesting vehicles. That clean ‘New Look’ coach was quite representative of the condition Santa Monica Municipal Bus Lines maintained their equipment. They really looked that good back in the day, and SMMBL was always willing to charter buses out to the studios for film work. A friend of mine restored one of the original Firebirds from the show, my brother and I helped him a bit on the project:
Kathryn Harrold, born in Tazwell Va. So far back in the boggie woods the roads going in are marked nothing over 35′ in length!
Haven’t watched either lately but I liked the cars on Columbo better. They had more Ferraris.
My favorite bit was in the opening credits. Jim’s answering machine would pick up, with Jim’s outgoing message: “Hi, this is Jim Rockford.Leave a message and I’ll get back to you.”, to be followed by a humorous incoming message, usually someone asking Jim for money or reporting some kind of screw up that would make Jim have a bad day. My favorite incoming message was from a middle-aged woman, who, upon hearing Jim’s outgoing message replies angrily: “Is this a machine? I don’t talk to machines!” Click. She hangs up!
There used to be a place in North Hollywood, Ca. that had a lot full of old transit buses they’d rent out .
Some were permanently dolled up others changed paint schemes regularly to match whatever shoot they were on .
That VW Typ 151 is either a ’66 or a ’67 missing the backup lights .
-Nate
’66
Engine lid not bumped out. Headlights have outer glass covers.
We used to call those J turns “Rockford Power U Turns”
My all time favorite TV show. It seems like that Vega was in every episode. Another car that was often in shots of the Sandcastle or occasionally some other background was a yellow with white top ’54 Mercury two door hardtop.
Several years ago I scratchbuilt a 1/24 scale model of Rockford’s trailer, complete with full interior. It took about two years and I spent a lot of time watching episodes and taking notes. I earlier built a model of the Firebird. Since then I have also built a model of Rocky’s pickup.
Exquisite job. Great display and I like your showcase which I’m sure you also built.
Thanks, but that is actually the top of my TV cabinet. Those cars on the shelf are part of my Mustang collection of kits I built.
Great work on the Models, I was looking for the Ladder to the Trailer roof the burglar fell off and sued Jimmy. They sure can’t make a show like this anymore!
Thanks for the idea. I think I will build that. It will make a nice addition to the lawn furniture and BBQ grill I already have. Incidentally, the lawn chairs were the most difficult part of the whole build.
The interior shots in the series were taken on a soundstage. When building the trailer I noticed that the inside shots show a kitchen window that isn’t there on the outside. My interior has the same window as the outside shows. Everything is scratch built from various materials except the wheels which came out of my parts box.
Who cared about the cars. Jim Rockford had a telephone answering machine! Just sooo cool back then.
I’m watching season 1 now and an episode featured a big bad Imperial helmed by that week’s villains.
The nut in the Eldo was played by William Smith, and was a perfect psychotic representation with his “it’s gonna be alright” and psycho stare.
Regarding cars in the background, there’s a white ca. 1969 T-Bird that is in most shots. I always imagined it belonged to one of the crew. I was going to try and make a chart of what episodes it was in and cross reference it to who was working on that episode. Never had time tho. Never saw anybody ever mention this (it kinda felt like my little secret – kinda hoped I’d win a secret prize by pointing it out one day. But here I share my secret observation with the world. Haha.)
The scene with the poor Pontiac Ventura was filmed on a golf course. Mr Garner was friends with the owner who was redoing that section. Story goes that Garmer brought his chase scene idea to Stephen Canell and the rest was history.
Also, Mr Garner had said a few times that the J turn wasn’t his at all but a moon shiner move he copied. In his honor, most people call it a Rockford turn!
Great article about a great show
Apparently, James Garner selected the Firebird from a list of potential cars after studying the overall length as compared to the wheelbase and track/tread of the candidate models.
He also took a look at the power and torque ratings and selected the Firebird.
The story goes that they started life as Trans Ams but were shorn of the T/A unique adornments and made to look like Esprits as the T/A would be too flashy for a person of Rockford’s status in life.
Also, the network execs were worried about Garner doing his own stunt driving and forbade him from doing this for a time, employing a pro stunt driver to fill in. The film crew were not impressed with his skills as compared to James Garner’s and convinced the network to let Garner resume the stunt wheel work.
They weren’t T/As they were Formula 400s. The 400 engine (all 185 hp of it in those days) wasn’t offered in the Esprit so given the stunt work required Garner wanted the additional HP/torque of the bigger engine. Some cars did wear Esprit badging to give the illusion that they were Esprits.
Correct. The story was they bought Formula 400’s with light brown interiors, painted them the familiar bronze gold (actually a T-Bird color?) replaced the hood with one from the standard Firebird, and removed the decklid spoiler. The car in the Jay Leno video was a California-spec. Formula 400 with the 403 Olds V-8.
“The Rockford Files” was also part of the TV schedule in my country. It was broadcast under the title “Detective Rockford – All You Need Is to Call” (in the local language, of course).
I remember that James Garner, aka Jim Rockford, came across as incredibly likeable.
(Wrong, I’m not gay).
And yes, the twist,(we called it the U-turn, seemed to be a regular part of the episodes. You practically waited for it.
Here a vintage promo of the Rockford Files aired in 1979 which also include CHiPs and BJ and the Bear.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaYY2DBw4qk
I wonder if the Rockford Files have 3 or 4 more seasons, would Jim Rockford move to the 1982 F-body Firebird?
Although it starred James Garner, the grand mold from which so many lesser leading men have since been printed, this wearyingly formulaic book-end-between-ads could not be saved by him, though it was watched assiduously by my aged grandma in my youth. I was bored to snores – or do I mean woken intermittently by grannie’s ones? – and was unaware till now that it had Plots and such. I only looked up from the task of staring at Zoe’s Country Life cigarette ash-ends getting improbably long only for the car chases, which I assumed to be the whole raison d etre of the thing, and they did indeed redeem it entirely, in my small brain. Then and now.
In frankness, I’m pretty sure I thought that this was how Americans often drove in real life., and boy, did I want to go there and see it.
Some Americans drove like that in real life; others drove like your snoring aged grandma. Put them together on crowded streets and freeways, and you can get a sense of why the highway death toll was so high.
Great write up, can’t wait until you do more episodes. Thanks. Waiting for Rocky’s truck.
I remember one episode where Jim mentions something about making payments on the answering machine! Yes they were that expensive back then!