Rockford - Season One DVDs

[Detective Hunt]

Anyone own these DVDs for the first season of Rockford Files? I am considering the purchase, but I understand they tend to freeze up due to being dual layered (and that it is released by Universal, sometimes known for the same.)

Just curious if anyone has found any problems with their set.

[Detective Hunt]

Update. Found a copy and it does indeed freeze up. But the episodes I do see are great. So there's that. Hopefully the rest of the seasons don't have this problem. Anyone experience this with their DVDs?

[Splishak]

I have recorded all 135 hours of the The Rockford Files to DVD and I have enjoyed watching them many times over the years. About half of those episodes were produced by Mr. David Chase. Also, I have invested many hours compiling a list of all the episodes together with a synopsis of each story and all the characters and actors. Actually, I can give you a couple of links to some sites that contain all this info. I didn't compile it all myself. I mostly copied from these sites which are available to the public - for free. You can get most everything you want with Google.

The following is my favorite TRF site. Of course, IMDB is a great place to visit, as well.

http://www.thesandbox.net/arm/rockfo.../season1.shtml

There are 124 episodes, but 11 of them are two-part episodes. So there are actually 135 hours of viewing pleasure available from the series. Some of the stories were magnificent when they were first broadcast back in the 70s and many have held up all this time. Some of them are still relevent today. I don't think that I'd recommend you buy them however, because they are readily available - for free - to be recorded from old time TV stations such as Nickelodeon and others like that. You may not get any "director's commentary", but I doubt that there would be much of that kind of stuff available now anyway - given that the series ran from Sept. 13, 1974 through Jan. 10, 1980.

Unfortunately for you, when it comes to baseball, there is nothing devoted to The Cubs. However Tom Selleck is a big Tigers fan and he is in two episodes (one from 78 and one from 79) where he plays a private detective named Lance White. Those two episodes were an attempt to spin off a series for him but it never caught on. If they only could have waited a few more years, they could have had one of the biggest hits in TV history (Magnum PI). Oh well, who knew? By the way, most all the regulars from Magnum PI appeared in one way or another in some of the Rockford episodes. I'd call that a testament to the loyalty of James Garner and Tom Selleck. There were some good interviews with Mr. Selleck in which he spoke about Mr. Garner.

Somewhere, I also have a list stating what I consider to be the best episodes (and why) as well as the worst (and why). It would be my pleasure to share any and all of this info with you Mr. Detective.

Perhaps you should send me a PM if you are interested?

P.S. I seem to recall posting a lot of this info (like the best episodes and the worst) somewhere on this site. So if you do a little searching, you may well find that info here.

[Detective Hunt]

Well, it's not so much an episode guide I was looking for but another testament to the DVD's playability. I have seasons one and three and season three plays just fine. My season one DVDs, however, do freeze up during certain episodes which makes them unwatchable.

Thanks for responding, Splishak. Sounds like you bypassed this problem by recording them to DVD yourself.

[biker2]

I have the first three seasons on DVD and many episodes are indeed still watchable and enjoyable. There is a Season 3 episode called Piece Work where the time "3 o'clock" is one of the few recollections of a character who has a concussion. It is the hour where the "deal" is to go down. I wondered if Chase was referencing that in the Sopranos' episode where Christopher, shot, lays in hospital and recounts a dream where "3 o'clock" is the crucial hour. Food for thought.

[biker2]

Yes, I bought the DVDs of Season 1 to 3 and they do tend to freeze, specially towards the last episodes of a dvd. I was blaming my old dirty machine. Incorrect, it seems.