The Rockford Files - Season Six

I just re-watched my old videotapes of the Rockford movies, circa 1994-99. They are terrific, and the storylines hold up well. It is great to see old Rockford regulars re-appear, older and usually no wiser. Write to everyone involved and try to get these released on good quality DVDs (my tapes need to be remastered, hahaha) with a bit of commentary, maybe by Ed Robertson, they guy who wrote the book on the series, Steven J. Cannell, Mike Post, and of course, the man himself. I'd pay a premium price for "the rest of the story."

NBC did not cancel the Rockford Files in the traditional sense. Scripts were written for the full season, but James Garner became ill filming the "Hawaiian Headache" episode on location and was unable to work. Season 6 is full of great episodes and while Rockford Files was excellent throughout its run, it really hit its stride in this final, truncated season. Turns out that many of the scripts for the cancelled episodes were re-worked for other Stephen Cannell series. Since Season 6 was not a full season, it would be nice if Universal could license the Rockford TV movies and include them for this finale.

The Rockford Files Season Six (1979-1980) would be a perfect DVD release for the Holidays of 2008. I hope Universal plans to Release The Final Season of The Rockford Files this November, at least. Please release The Rockford Files Season Six in the Holidays of 2008!

Now that Universal has the first 5 seasons of The Rockford Files released on DVD, I dont know what's taking them so long to bring this last and final season of Rockford out on DVD, despite the fact that the 1979-80 Season was cut short, since NBC had unfortunately cancelled The Rockford Files in early 1980 during the middle of Rockford's 6th Season.

Therefore, when THE ROCKFORD FILES cancelled in the middle of it's Sixth Season, it was a very similar scenario to why THE INCREDIBLE HULK cancelled in the middle of it's Fifth Season, since THE ROCKFORD FILES and THE INCREDIBLE HULK were very popular hit TV shows that ended up being cut kind of short that weren't cancelled due to low ratings, except Rockford ended up cancelling, due to James Garner having health problems, but THE INCREDIBLE HULK ended up cancelling, due to budget cuts.

In addition to what lead NBC to cancel THE ROCKFORD FILES; Rockford started getting a slight decrease in the ratings when THE DUKES OF HAZZARD joined the Friday night line-up on CBS in 1979 while THE ROCKFORD FILES was on NBC's Friday night line-up, which kind of interferred with Rockford's time slot, since Rockford and the Dukes were both shown on the same night back in 1979 along with the fact that more people preferred THE DUKES OF HAZZARD to THE ROCKFORD FILES, because for one thing, THE DUKES OF HAZZARD was a lot funnier than THE ROCKFORD FILES was.

For another, Bo and Luke Duke(John Schneider, Tom Wopat) were both a lot younger and better looking than Jim Rockford(James Garner) was.

For another, THE DUKES OF HAZZARD had a lot more impressive stunts than THE ROCKFORD FILES did, plus the General Lee had outclassed Rockford's Firebird on top of that along with the fact that the General Lee was the hottest car on Friday nights at the time as well.

Therefore, THE DUKES OF HAZZARD nearly K.O.d THE ROCKFORD FILES, despite the fact that THE ROCKFORD FILES was a very popular detective drama throughout it's whole 6-year run on NBC.

It's just too bad NBC couldn't have at least had a series finale episode of The Rockford Files.

Overall, this short-lived 1979-80 Season of THE ROCKFORD FILES was still a great season and almost as good as the Fifth Season, since it had some great guest stars like Marriette Hartley and Tom Selleck, especially in the episode "Nice Guys Finish Dead" when Rockford ends up reuniting with hot shot private investigator Lance White(Tom Selleck) at a private eye's convention and ends up teaming up with him again to help solve a murder that took place at the convention with Lance White outclassing Rockford by making all the leads and finding all the clues, just like Tom Selleck did in the "White On White & Nearly Perfect" episode in the previous season along with the fact that the Sixth Season of Rockford was also the year before MAGNUM came out and made Tom Selleck a superstar, which nearly made MAGNUM, P.I. a spin-off of THE ROCKFORD FILES; especially since Tom Selleck had a couple of guest starring roles as a private investigator on Rockford before being a private investigator on his own show, which was obviously Magnum along with the fact that MAGNUM, P.I. and THE ROCKFORD FILES were both private detective shows, just like MATT HOUSTON, MANNIX and SIMON & SIMON were.

It was also interesting seeing Larry Manetti in the "Nice Guys Finish Dead" episode before his co-starring days as Magnum and TC's buddy(Rick Wright) on MAGNUM, PI.

In the meantime, I can hardly wait till The Rockford Files short-lived Sixth Season comes out on DVD and I recommend the Sixth Season of Rockford to anyone who liked the first 5 seasons of The Rockford Files, especially to anyone who liked the 4th and 5th Season of Rockford and I agree with Mr. or Mrs. DiRienzo that The Rockford Files-Season Six should be released by November of 2008 at the lastest, in order to make a perfect gift to a friend or a loved one or even to yourself and/or to anybody who was a Rockford fan back in the 1970's like I was.