Like many of you, I'm a long-time fan of both
The Rockford Files (1974), and Mr
James Garner.
One of my favourite things about modern tech, and, in this case, streaming television, is it lets us watch WHAT we WANT, WHEN we WANT.
I love getting in bed, and watching an episode, or two of this great show.
This episode is - outside of the story, from a purely 'what the future predicts' and a 'retro-tech' POV, both interesting, and - in some parts, funny (Not 'jokey-funny, but 'look at the old 'high tech', and a little portentous view of things to come.
All we know at the beginning, is the episode's 'baddy' is a man named Garth McGregor.
As most people under the age of about 30 can't imagine life before WiFi, and all which modern tech brings, this episode was an attempt to show what can happen in an unchecked future.
It brings a smile to my face, as I write this, on my MiniPad,, I'm holding in my hands something FAR more powerful, With far more memory, speed, etc, than ALL of the MASSIVE 'Iron side's (old massive computers) seen in this 2-part story.
It's also funny to see Mr McGregor's 'secuity' staff acting as if they're above the law, and can do whatever they want (just from that opening scene, where an older investigator's calling his client from a roadside payphone, when the 'security' guys (led by (
Pernell Roberts), come barrelling down the road, jump out of their cars - guns drawn, and acting as if they'd just grabbed a mass murderer, with an semi-automatic in his hands.
These 'security' goons are employed by the afformentioned Garth MacGregor, who's a former detective, himself, who's always had a fixation on gadgets, and tech, and power (NO, I don't mean electrical current, rather, the power from having Info at one's fingers in an instant.
The 'high-tech' secuity' talk's so ludicrous, and the most comtrived-soumding 'codes' (as an example, when Vern St Cloud's in the deceased's office, a hidden mic picks him up, and the next shot's of some massive flourescent-lit room, with lots of 'blinkenlights', and typewriter sounds (as old printers used everything, from daisy-wheels, and honest-to-goodness typewriters which have been fitted out with equipment, enabling them to make a printout). Some (70s) suited guy rushes to a phone, when '35679 KLM' lights up. He pushes the 'button' by its name, and rather than seeing what he's got to do on even an old CRT screen, he opens up a teensy-weensy 3-ring note binder, with even MORE lists of 'codes'. When he gets to the name he was looking for ('Joe Tooley OFFICE I NS TALLALATION 1/27. DORMANT SOUND ACTIVATED: PHOME RECIEVER'), then he gets up (wearing a phone headset) from sitting in front of what looks like the control board of a nuclear power plant, and spout;, 'we just got a kick-off one of the dormant mics, number (then, in a cheesey-soumding, police dispatch voice); '3-Fiver, 6, 7, niner, L, W'.
The person he's rattling this ...'verbiage' to (
Pernell Roberts) starts saying, that party's been 'neutralised'...(I have to remind myself, this ISN'T a cheesy spy film), ... we'll notify a unit', old SansaBelt slacks says, 'that's a wilco'.
Just tack on, 'good buddy' to that last bit, and I can hear the song, Covoy playing,to all CB radios.
Again, I remind myself, I'm currently holding a device which could easily blow that room -sized mass of 70s 'computer' away, and it fits in my hand, with NO cables (though I'd love to grow a 70's pornstache, and wear the groovy Dacron blazer (in mid-70's brown, of course).
The 'funny' aspect of this episode, is ALSO the important point of this story about privacy, it's VALUE, and that it must be safe-guarded (esp from Garth McGregor types), from being eroded - as well as freely given - away.
Sadly, MOST people under the (afformentioned) age of 30 barely grasp this, whereas, we ALL understood that we've each have a RIGHT to our privacy., and its importance to maintain it. The under 30's crowd would probably just say, 'privacy, schmivacy - just let me be famous on f-book'.
I don't like giving spoilers, and with this episode it's especially hard to do. If a person under the age of 30 watches this, the 'clues' Rockford comes across won't make ANY sense, but, to those of us older, as well as those of us who remember things like going to high school computer class, which had its 'network time', and writing all those codes ('10 if 1+X = > than..., Then GOTO....'), printed out on those huge, lined greenish-timted sheets of perforated 'computer paper', we 'get it'.
Things like Jim and Richie going into an abandoned house, and finding a MASSIVE industrial-size a/c unit IN-side, and taking up practically half of a room, and all those MASSIVE power cables (yes; the 70s was the age of REALLY BIG stuff for computers) will more than likely register a 'huh?' out of so-called Millenials.
I guess it's only fair to dislike both
Jackie Cooper, and
Pernell Roberts, as the characters they play are just oily and sleazy.
The biggest negative thing about this episode is one thing; it's the first appearance of Richie Brockleman (
Dennis Dugan) on this series.
I've never liked
Dennis Dugan on this show. He NEVER stops babbling, and it's supposed to show how 'clever/cute' he is. Ugh. Even worse is when he also is in another Rockord 2-parter, in which his father - played by terrific,
Harold Gould - and ostensibly, they're supposed to be Jewish, and quotes his dad by descring someone as a real 'gonstemacher'. When he relays this to Jim, he says - in his awful, SOUTHERN twang, 'thats Jewish for...'😳. Excuse me?!?! There's NO SUCH LANGUAGE, dummy! It's Yiddish, but Dugan wouldn't know anything, because he's a dreadful actor (and director).
This episode's believed by many, to be a back-door introduction of the character Richie Brockleman,.and whenever Mr. Dugan (who plays - annoyingly - Brockleman), is on-camera, he acts like nails-on-a-blackboard, and my concentration's shot. I'm stuck between being highly bothered by his incessant babbling, about utterly unrelated topics, as well as his 'gee- whiz, golly-willickers' put-on naievté, that I can't focus on those nuggets which might be revealed in amongst his bleating. Brockleman gets irritating very fast, and as this episode is twice the length of a standard episode, this means, it gets hard to watch - just due to him - very early on.
The ultimate point of this story has to do with privacy, it's VALUE, and that it must be safe-guarded (esp from Garth McGregor types).which makes watching this episode a really interesting, topical plot - years ahead of its time, all the more infuriating.
tt0688073], I think isn't just a good episode, but, considering when it was made, it foresaw by approximately 30+ years the kind of invasive practices which our modern lives are constantly under, a very important episode.
Sadly, now, more than half a CENTURY later, MOST people under the (afformentioned) age of 30 barely grasp this, whereas, we ALL understood that we've each. RIGHT to privacy., and its importance to maintain it. The under 30's crowd would probably just say, 'privacy, schmivacy - just let me be famous on f-book'.