What I always find pretty amazing about ROCKFORD is that for such a popular and iconic 70s show, in fact the ultimate PI show, it had pretty low ratings. As you mentioned, season 1 was the only season where it actually finished pretty high (#12) which coincidentally is my favorite season. But most fans prefer the later seasons and critically it certainly became a bigger hit in the later seasons (especially with season 3 and onwards), racking up Emmy noms and wins left and right. Yet the ratings don't reflect this at all. It never broke into the top 20 after that first season, being surpassed by lesser shows like POLICE WOMAN, BARNABY JONES, BARETTA, VEGA$. Shows that we don't even talk about anymore. It's actually pretty mind-boggling if you think about it. I can understand certain shows being way ahead of ROCKFORD (like CHARLIE'S ANGELS) not because they were better but because they were something of a pop-culture phenomena at the time, but these other shows that I mentioned were just your run-of-the-mill cop/detective shows, pretty generic stuff. Not something that took America by storm. Was it just a case of ROCKFORD being too "smart" for the average viewer?Pahonu wrote: ↑Mon Jul 12, 2021 6:25 pm
Hey Ivan, I just learned an interesting story about two of our favorite shows, H5-O and Rockford. The Rockford Files debuted on Fridays at 9:00 in 1974 and finished the season ranked 12th overall behind H5-O on Tuesdays at 9:00 in 10th. CBS was dominating the ratings at the time with eight of the top ten shows and decided to challenge NBC’s Rockford by moving H5-O from its lead in MASH, to the same Friday time slot as Rockford. Both shows’ ratings dropped dramatically as they cannibalized each other’s audiences.Rockford dropped to 32nd and H5-O to 39th. ABC moved the initially low performing Six-Million Dollar Man out of Friday and it’s ratings started improving. They replaced it with the ABC Friday Night Movie which finished better, just behind H5-O at 40th! Before the season ended, CBS moved H5-O to Thursdays at 9:00.
P.S. This probably belongs in the ROCKFORD thread.
Even before I had a baby of my own I found it very unsettling. Glad he got plugged in the back by sniper Danno at the end! Loved the detail of the fly landing on his face as he expires. The apartment building where the standoff happens is located in Kaimuki, on the corner of Sierra Dr. and Keanu St. I was there, you know. 
I made a point 3 years ago to visit this spot and the apartment still looks exactly as it did in 1974. Also walked by the place where Ted worked and where the hit at the start happened - also in Kaimuki. It's funny that all 3 male guest stars are Marks. 
Mark Jenkins, Mark Lenard, Mark Gordon. Mark Jenkins, who plays Ted the "secret witness" here, was memorable as the guy strapped with a bomb who walks into the Five-O office in "The Bomber and Mrs. Moroney" back in season 3. He guested again in season 4's "Follow the White Brick Road" as the junkie aboard the navy ship. Mark Lenard also appeared twice earlier. Also we get a pre-LAVERNE & SHIRLEY Cindy Williams here as the wife with the baby. Great episode, with lots of cool camera angles as is usually the case with episodes directed by Michael O'Herlihy. Don Ray provides his usual excellent music score as well.
Doesn't Rockford call him a gorilla and that he's trying to overcompensate for something? That really makes him fly off the handle! Smith really was the ultimate thug/bully/enforcer type on TV. Which is why seeing him play a Five-O team member was so weird. He's the type of creep who would normally be brought down by a hail of bullets. A missed opportunity that he was never a heavy on the show.
