Reviews

The episode I just referenced was written by Merrill Markoe and featured a guest shot by her then-boyfriend David Letterman, a few months before he started on NBC.

Amazing! 35+ years later, I remember something from such an obscure show.

Gordon is complaining that Susan's neer-do-well ex is back on the scene, and that he'll never change from being a jerk.

Bubba Smith says with perfect dryness:

"People do change. Look at me - 15 years ago, I was a little white man from Switzerland!"

This is not the greatest Rockford, but it is fun. It's also a great one for "Rockford" insiders, who know the show's origins began with another 1973-74 show called "Toma" that Cannell wrote and produced. It was about the exploits of a Newark, NJ supercop named David Toma, who had an outsized ego.

Clearly Cannell is satirizing the enormous ego of the real David Toma. When the star of "Toma," the late Tony Mustante wanted out of that show after just one season, David Toma insisted taking over the role playing himself. His only acting experience was as an undercover cop and showing up on the TV show in non-speaking roles each week. The network and Universal declined such a generous request.Instead, they completely retooled the show with Robert Blake as "Baretta." Gone were the straightforward family life with hot wife Susan Strasberg and nice kids. Blake replaced all that with shtick. We got a "deese" and "dose" single guy who lived in a fleabag hotel with a pet cockatoo and an old drunk for a best friend.

Toma later he went on to become an anti-drug counselor. Some of his crying, screaming rants are on You Tube.

The Rockford movies in the Nineties were familiar and unchallenged, kind of like drinking a warm cup of cocoa. While Jim is more cranky than charming, Dennis is as put-upon as ever, Angel remains Angel and the Firebird's always getting dinged.

The first four were entertaining, but there's a real drop-off in quality after "Godfather Knows Best." I think that's when they stopped caring and just took the money. The movies also seemed to get darker and more violent. The last one, "If It Bleeds, It Leads" is actually a lousy way to wrap up the series. I remember hearing that it was the last one and had sat on a shelf for a year or two. When I saw it, I knew why. It's awful and depressing. Stay with the earlier TV movies if you need a Rockford Nineties fix.