After a year-long wait since the fifth season release, fans will finally be able to get their hands on
The Rockford Files - Season 6, the last season of the classic detective series. The 3-disc set starring James Garner as Jim Rockford brings the final 11 regular weekly episodes (including one double-length installment) home on
January 20th:
- Paradise Cove
- Lions, Tigers, Monkeys and Dogs (double-length episode)
- Only Rock 'n' Roll Will Never Die, Part 1
- Only Rock 'n' Roll Will Never Die, Part 2
- Love is the Word
- Nice Guys Finish Dead
- The Hawaiian Headache
- No Fault Affair
- The Big Cheese
- Just a Coupla Guys
- Deadlock in Parma
Noah Beery Jr., Stuart Margolin and Joe Santos return as "Rocky", "Angel" and "Det. Dennis Becker", and guest star Mariette Hartley makes her only appearance in the series. Hartley and Garner had done a series of commercials for Polaroid around this time, and their chemistry worked so well in the ads that viewers got the mistaken impression they were married. Hartley even had to have a t-shirt made up which said "I am NOT Mrs. James Garner". Despite that, she made an Emmy-nominated appearance in the premiere episode for this season, "Paradise Cove" (she had won an Emmy in the same category the previous year for a guest appearance on
The Incredible Hulk).
In fact, the show's final year, 1979-80, was full of Emmy nominations. Hartley's nom for "Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series" was up against a nomination in the same category for a
Rockford Files appearance by film legend Lauren Bacall in the feature-length episode "Lions, Tigers, Monkeys and Dogs". The show itself was nominated for "Outstanding Drama Series" (the show won that award in 1978), and show star James Garner was nominated for "Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series" (he had taken home that prize for the 1977 season). Noah Beery Jr. and Stuart Margolin were both nominated as the "Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series"; Margolin took the award home for the second year in a row. The show was co-created by Roy Huggins (
Maverick, 77 Sunset Strip) and Stephen J. Cannell (
The A-Team, 21 Jump Street).
Other guest stars during the show's final year include
The High Chaparral's Leif Erickson, rock star Michael Des Barres,
M*A*S*H's "Nurse Cutler" Marcia Strassman,
I'll Fly Away's Kathryn Harrold , the "
Green Hornet" himself: Van Williams, country singing superstar Barbara Mandrell, a pre-
Magnum Tom Selleck, frequent
Rockford guest star (in different roles) Ken Swofford, the return of an Emmy-winning
Rockford role for Rita Moreno, gorgeous television actress Robin Riker (when is
Brothers coming to DVD?), the
X-Files' "Deep Throat" Jerry Hardin,
Charles in Charge's Sandra Kerns, and the late great character actor Ben Piazza. And I'm sure we must have overlooked a few in that list!
This 3-disc set will run 593 minutes long and is presented in full frame video, with English mono audio and English subtitles. Cost is $39.98 SRP. Is this the final DVD release for Jim Rockford? It's doubtful: while the regular series ended in 1979-80 with these episodes, the character returned in a series of 8 movies-of-the-week that came out between 1994 and 1999. It's probably safe to expect Universal to release one more DVD package that contains these stories. But we should point out that this is just speculation at the moment; we've had no word from the studio about it either way. For now, we're sure fans will be pleased to get the final regular season of the show this on DVD this January. We don't have package art for it just yet, but stay tuned.
UPDATE: Our retail contacts have just forwarded over a look at the package art for this release, plus a peek at the main menu screen as well:
