Two Hundred A Day - Episode 75: The Dog and Pony Show

Episode Date: September 27, 2020

Nathan and Eppy join Jim and Angel in group therapy for S4E5 The Dog and Pony Show. In lieu of a jail sentence for something Angel stole and hid in Jim's car, this therapy group is a pretty good deal, until fellow participant Mary Jo has someone actually break into her house. Jim agrees to help, and a couple of goons and one Firebird chase later realizes that something Mary Jo knows is putting them all in danger. A listener suggestion, we really enjoyed this David Chase-written episode - it has all the elements we love about the show, as well as a familiar face that delighted us upon his surprise appearance! We have another podcast: Plus Expenses. Covering our non-Rockford media, games and life chatter, Plus Expenses is available via our Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/twohundredaday) at ALL levels of support. Want more Rockford Files trivia, notes and ephemera? Check out the Two Hundred a Day Rockford Files Files (http://tinyurl.com/200files)! We appreciate all of our listeners, but offer a special thanks to our patrons (https://www.patreon.com/twohundredaday). In particular, this episode is supported by the following Gumshoe and Detective-level patrons: * Richard Hatem (https://twitter.com/richardhatem) * Brian Perrera (https://twitter.com/thermoware) * Eric Antener (https://twitter.com/antener) * Bill Anderson (https://twitter.com/billand88) * Kevin Brown * Chuck from whatchareading.com (http://whatchareading.com) * Paul Townend, who recommends the Fruit Loops podcast (https://fruitloopspod.com) * Shane Liebling's Roll For Your Party dieroller app (https://rollforyour.party/) * Jay Adan's Miniature Painting (http://jayadan.com) * Dael Norwood, Dylan Winslow, Dave P, Dale Church and Dave Otterson! Thanks to: * Fireside.fm (https://fireside.fm) for hosting us * Audio Hijack (https://rogueamoeba.com/audiohijack/) for helping us record and capture clips from the show * Spoileralerts.org (http://spoileralerts.org) for the adding machine audio clip * Freesound.org (https://www.freesound.org/) for other audio clips

Jimmy, Lou, you owe me five bucks. Manorazzo's average in the 68 series was 310, not 315. Oh, and Fran and I are getting divorced. Welcome to 200 a Day, the podcast where we talk about the 70s television detective show, The Rockford Files. I'm Nathan Paletta. And I'm Epidio Ravishaw. And which episode are we talking about this time, Epi?

We are going to do season four, episode five. This is a episode that's called The Dog and Pony Show. This was a recommendation from a listener of the show, Richard Haddam. He says

he sent us a DM via Twitter. Long time listener and detective patron over on Patreon. Yes. He says, hey, guys, just watched an episode I haven't seen in years, and I think you guys would love it. It's called The Dog and Pony Show, and it's a mini treasure trove of all the things we love. I won't say any more. Just check it out when you have a chance.

You will not be disappointed. And I'm going to say, spoiler alert, I was not disappointed. I really, really enjoyed this show. We've been doing some shows now that have been recommendations from the fans. I'd say keep that up. Oh, yeah. We don't have a master plan for the schedule. the schedule like we we have some ideas of like finishing up some um directors the work the body of work from some of the directors that we've been doing but like i don't yeah we're just we're

hitting these as they occur to us right yeah there's a couple two-parters that we've talked about but we keep putting off because like the amount of work that goes into doing the two-parter is yeah more more than our standard episode. And I think a familiar thing to all of us at this point is only having so much energy to do things. So we will get to the house on Willis Avenue eventually. We promise. It's been great to get the recommendations because uh yeah it feels like we're um it feels like we're doing what the people want and who are we to say no exactly yes plus uh you know

they're all good so so the dog and pony show i thought this was a different episode and then when it started i was like oh this is not the episode i had in mind so uh it was a bit it was pretty pretty fresh to me i have seen it before uh but i don't know if i've seen it more than once i don't know if i've re-watched it i clearly had a conversation about this show probably with emily after i watched it years ago when i re-watched the rockford files which launched all of this right um because i as soon as it started i was on our 200 a day Rockford files files going, did we do this already?

And we, uh, are we finally at the point where we accidentally redo an episode that we had done before? Uh, and it's not the case, but I, I clearly had a conversation about certain events in this, uh, with someone. had a conversation about certain events in this uh with someone so it was in my brain not so much that i was like oh i know how this is gonna happen i know what's happening next or any of that i remember the once it started i remember the premise but i did not remember how it how it goes so which is the sweet spot for me usually because i'm then i am you know genuinely um caught up with the storytelling.

And I feel like it gives me a better chance to be a little more like, not honest necessarily. But I think for the ones where I'm already very familiar with them, I get very analytical in a way that might be less fun. Yeah. I try to resist that, but that's just how my brain works. So this is a little more like along for the ride just seeing how it happens i think also perhaps importantly i did not remember the twist right yeah and that was the and then when it happened i was like oh this is so good so we should say up top that this episode and thus our episode does deal with mental illness. Yes. Rockford's client slash the co-lead, co-main character is a woman who is in therapy for symptoms of anxiety and paranoid schizophrenia.

Something like that. Who has previously been hospitalized, but that is not part of the episode. Like we don't see her in that. That's just part of her backstory. Yeah. It is not like the competitive edge, uh, where there is a full blown one floor,

the cuckoo's next nest, uh, send up slash ripoff, uh, towards the end, which is a very un, um, thoughtful portrayal of mental illness.

I think part of this episode is and we and there's dialogue about this jim has this yeah in his lines about like the difference between how society perceives people who have mental illness versus how they perceive themselves and you know what that actually means for a person uh versus the stereotypes So it is in that vein. It's not a full issue episode. It's not about that really. It is part of the premise and part of the story. And I think it's handled,

you know, it's generally pretty solid. Yeah. I think especially for the time. Yeah. There's a point. We'll probably talk about it when we get to it, but there's a point where Jim admits to having a stigma.

Yeah. Yeah. And against it. And you just, you're just like to having a stigma. Yeah. Yeah. And against it. And you just, you're just like, yeah, okay. That's honest.

Yeah. So that's just to say that content is in here. If that is a, you know, a content issue for you. There is certainly cartoonish stuff in this episode, but thankfully most of it is not about mental illness. It's some of the other stuff

yeah um this episode is written by david chase and uh does have some signature david chase mob stuff no spoilers but there is some there are some fun sudden reveals uh that are very david chase e and it is directed by reza badi who we recently talked about uh in our episode on dwarf in a helium hat but if you are coming fresh and haven't heard that episode um it's extremely he's an extremely prolific television director so this is the third of his seven rockford files episodes and, and they're quite the distribution so far. All three of these have been very different. A lot of range, a lot of variety. Anything else before we get into the preview montage?

No, let's jump into it. All right. The preview montage starts with another classic Jim quote. He's like, I'm scared for her. I'm scared for myself. Admitting that he's scared. Then we see a jump, which is a rarity in the Rockford files. We see a car jump, I should say. And then I have Angel with an exclamation

point because, of course, when I see Angel in the opening montage, I'm happy. And then a wonderful, this is the quote. I swear I talked about Rocky and Rocky's personality when he's like, Uncle Sam is too good, too smart, too decent to do anything like this. And it was just like, that's so, so Rocky. Yeah. So naive about it. But then I think my favorite bit and the great ending is when Jim's like, well, first she's going to make out a will. I'm going to make out a will.

You're going to make out a will to Angel. And Angel's like, a what? It was a will, as in last will and testament. I'm like, yes. Like, whatever this is, I hope they kill Angel again. Yeah, my only other note was that we get to see all the cast. We have Angel, obviously. Rocky.

There's also a shot in the preview montage of Dennis. Almost all of the cast, just no Beth, unfortunately. Hello, listeners. This is a quick break before we get into the episode to say thank you to our patrons over at patreon.com slash 200 a day. This show is free to all, but the support from patrons really goes a long way. So we always extend a special thanks to our gumshoes. This time, we say thank you to Chuck from WhatYou'reReading.com. Check out the site for reviews of books, games, movies, comics, and more. Paul Townend, who also recommends the podcast Fruit Loops, Serial Killers of Color,

at FruitLoopsPod.com. Shane Liebling, you're playing games online, so check out his dice rolling app Roll For Your Party at RollForYour.Party. Jay Adan, check out his amazing miniature painting skills over at JayAdan.com. Dylan Winslow, Dale Norwood, Dave P., Dale Church, and Dave Otterson. And finally, we cannot thank our detective patrons enough for their generous support. Big thanks to Kevin Brown, Eric Antenor, at Antenor on Twitter, Brian Pereira, at Thermaware, Bill Anderson, at Billand88, and of course, Richard Haddam, at Richard Haddam. We follow them too, at 200pod. Why become a patron for as little as $1 an episode? In addition to supporting the show and exclusive episode previews, our patrons get plus expenses, a bonus podcast where we casually chat about all the media we're currently enjoying and things going on in our lives. Help out the show by leaving a rating or review wherever you

get your podcasts. Tell a friend who you think would like it and check out patreon.com slash 200 a day to see if becoming a patron is right for you. We start off this episode with one of the greatest premises of the show so far, I think. We are at the L.A. County Courthouse. Jim and Angel are standing in front of a judge. Angel apparently stole $207 worth of silver from a restaurant and hid it in Jim's trunk. seven dollars worth of silver from a restaurant and hid it in jim's trunk so even though jim was unaware of this theft uh he is still being being charged with transporting stolen goods or something yeah yeah angel's lied it opens with angel going everybody takes a souvenir fork now and then and then we we can pan over to this silver set. This mound of fine silver dining ware.

Oh, so good. Strong opening. And so we confirm in this, you know, pleading with the judge that, you know, Angel testified that Jim had nothing to do with it. But that's no excuse. So he is handing down a 30-day for Jim and a 90 day sentence for Angel. But he will suspend those sentences on condition that they receive psychiatric help. So there's something meta about this moment because it definitely feels like this. Like the two of you have gotten involved in more criminal and violent behavior than any normal citizen should have.

You know, like, I don't know. It just felt like a little bit like we've got to reach that point where we have to admit that. At some point, something will have stuck. Yeah. But it's great. Yeah. So he sentenced them to essentially, well, the catalyst, but also sort of the wraparound story of this this episode, which is I quite like. Oh, interesting. Yeah. And thought about that. But yes, apparently this psychiatric help is going to take the form of group therapy.

And so we cut directly from Jim being mad at Angel, which is, again, a core starting point for an episode to the two of them in this group with all the I suppose with all the trappings to tell us that this is a group therapy session. Yeah. Yeah. In 70s television, this would probably be the setup for more jokes than it delivers. this would probably be the setup for more jokes than it delivers. Like this would have been like, isn't this a ridiculous thing that people do, right? Especially people in LA or, you know, like that.

But one of the things I like about it is that most of the jokes are about how bull angel is. They're mostly at the expense of not taking it seriously, not at the expense of the people who are there, you know, because they're working on something. And the body language that Angel and Jim have, the way they sit in their chairs, the,

oh, it's so good. It just, I was really cautious going into this particular scene. Cause I was like, oh no, I can't, you know,

I don't want to, I don't want this whole thing. And, but it turned out not to be this old thing, I guess is what I'm saying. Yeah. It does start with a, with does start with a very situation comedy gag where one of the other members is telling a story

and he's talking about how his clothes were thrown down the stairs and he was getting kicked out. The other participants are asking him, the important question is, did you stand up for yourself? The whole setup is very much a, you know, someone getting kicked out by their romantic partner. But then the joke is he's like, I did. And I said, Mom, I'm not going to take it anymore. Kind of a groaner.

I was like, yeah, but that's pretty much the only real. I don't know. The only one of those that I noticed pretty quickly transitioned to, you know, what's up with Jim and Angel. Like someone asked Jim what what he thinks. And he has just a very straightforward answer. They start talking about how like Jim really seems like he has his life together. That was a little like, let's talk about how great our hero is. But it wasn't too bad.

Even the premise here is that he's not there because of something he did he's there because of something angel did so you know he's gonna do what he needs to do to not go to jail yeah but i think his his honest reactions are very much like like kind of giving the advice you would give your buddy at the bar right like they're not he doesn't really have other stuff going on necessarily. Yeah. So Jim, he's a straight shooter. He has his life together, but Angel, he's a mystery. He's just been sitting there like a lump of lard.

A lot of good Angel lines in this episode. Angel hates being there. And it's wonderful. Angel hates being there so much. He, I mean, we've seen this before, I think, where he simultaneously is afraid of and like derisive of people who need help. There's an end of an episode where Angel, like they snuck him into a hospital, like a mental hospital. Oh, yeah, yeah.

He's like, oh, this is great. I can just tell whatever stories they want and they'll listen to me. Angel, you know that they're taking you seriously, right? He's like, no, no, no. And then he realizes that he's like no no no and then he realizes that he's stuck there right like this is an element of his character where he doesn't take this kind of stuff seriously it's like legitimately he he knows he he belongs there yeah like angel needs therapy angel needs help uh and he's uh definitely putting himself in a situation where he won't he doesn't want to admit it.

And so he's he's very tight lipped. And he turns that into being pretty, pretty mean to the other people there. For example, this line. Hey, Doc, if I want to take guff off a bunch of bananas, I'll go down to the produce department at Safeway. I'll go down to the produce department at Safeway. But the group leader encourages him to confront, you know, these other people are giving you this guff. You should confront them. Tell them how you feel.

And he's like, I can't do that right now. Someone close to me died and I'm in mourning. And then under his breath, he goes, turkeys. And everyone hears him. We then ask Mary Jo, how is she doing? Says that she's fine. No fine no no she's not fine um she's starting to feel like someone is out to get her again and that someone is always watching her there's a little bit of conversation but um mary joe you know she will be the the subject of our episode yeah she was in the group previously you know working through some like paranoid

issues and it sounds like she felt like she was over those and now what she's describing sounds to everyone else in the group like the same thing yeah but she's saying no it's different like specifically i'm pretty sure someone followed me home from she teaches at an art school uh i feel like someone followed me home feel like someone's literally like in the bushes watching me there's two sort of technical things that happen here that i think are really good like well first of all because of the opening montage we know that a married joe is important to the plot we're already cued in to to pay attention to what she's saying

but also there's this camera pan that they do as she starts talking where they're panning over i think they're panning over to her but there's something about that camera pan that feels like murder mystery ominous that makes you go like okay we've had our fun now it's time to get to the case yeah there's a change in tone from the humor to the like yeah here's the serious bit it really drives it home like it you there's there's no doubt that what she's about to say it helps that what she's about to say is the kind of thing that jim would be very helpful for uh she's being followed like jim's great when people are being followed like uh but um it's there's just the way it's presented is also very like okay it's time it's time now to to pay attention

this is important we cut to the hallway hallway where Jim and Angel are leaving, and Angel's just busting on the group. I don't know how ridiculous this whole thing is. And Jim stops them and says, They're not crazy. They're just normal people with problems they're trying to solve, is all. Ah, Jim. Yeah.

Okay, this is the point where, in my notes, I mentioned the clothing and the patterns. There's so many patterns. Angel's shirt is amazing in this one. But Mary Jo is wearing, I don't remember exactly what she's wearing, but she's got so many patterns on her thing as well that when they're both in the scene, it's quite good. There's a lot going on. Yeah. it's quite good there's a lot going on yeah yeah mary jo wants to talk to jim uh alone because she wants to know if he's available as a pi um she thinks that she saw someone watching

her from a car and she thinks that someone tried to get into her apartment uh and she's gotten over her prosecution complex and that this is different and she wants to find out what's going on jim is uh apparently over committeditted as it is because he's so busy with his insurance cases. And so he turns her down. We get the kicker at the end of the scene with Angel asking him, you're overcommitted to what?

Being broke? I mean, this is, you know, getting us into the story. But I think also primarily with body language, this is also, I think, showing us that there is a little something going on with them. There is some attraction. Yes.

I think there are eyes being made. Yes. But it's hard to tell because they're not really focusing on it. But also, you know, he's Jim. And the other thing is that she is so very Beth in her appearance. Yeah. You can't, you're like, well, if Jim has a type. That's true. This woman is his type.

So Mary Jo is played by an actress named Joanne Nail, who was not in any other Rockford Files and has a fairly limited film biography, which is kind of a shame because I think she's really good. She's quite good, yeah. She does have a face that is physically similar to Gretchen Corbett's. Yeah. And her hair is also kind of similar and she's kind of the same size.

There's a part of me that was kind of like, is she kind of a Beth stand-in? But the role is not one that beth would be in and so yeah i don't know how intentional it was to kind of be like cast someone who would as you say be jim's type in this if that was intentional or not i have no idea uh but i think she's i mean i think she's she's very good in this episode so it is what it is. Agreed. Also, I think that that contributes to Jim turning it down.

Cause it's a little bit of a sense of like not mixing business with personal life and this, whatever's happening in like this group therapy does, I think to Jim count as like personal, right? Yeah. There's a thing here. You know, we talk about dialogue doing more than one thing. And Angel's line there, you're overcommitted to what? Being broke.

First is a great Angel line. It shows us that Angel's thinking about the money and the money situation that Jim's in. It also sort of tells us that Jim is lying about being overcommitted, or at least that's not how everybody who sees Jim's situation would, you know, perceive it. And I think that sets it up for this dynamic here where, like exactly what you were saying, that this, it's Angel telling us, the audience, that Jim is making excuses for not getting involved. And it's also probably because, like you were saying, mixing the business with pleasure,

but also Jim doesn't want to, I would think that there were some ethical implications if you went to group therapy and then with people who possibly have delusions of being followed and then offered your services as a private detective right like there's but angel on the other hand would look at that situation as a gold mine uh so i i really like that moment there that that does a great job of like showing us both characters but also

establishing the situation uh going forward here we then get our episode credits over, uh, Mary Jo driving home. Uh, she comes home with her groceries and, uh, her dog, her dog's name is Pepper, uh, is barking at the bedroom door inside the apartment.

So she goes over and opens it. And there is a, a man in dark clothing ominously in the room. And then, uh, the, her dog aggressively chases him out of the open window in a very chaotic scene uh he jumps out the window this dog jumps out the window chases

him across the street he jumps into his van and peels out uh we have we have pepper to the rescue and then unfortunately we do not see pepper again in the rest of the episode yeah oh pepper is such a gorgeous dog too pepper is very pretty yeah um i had this thing where as the title sequence is going i wrote down in my notes at least mary jo was in the opening montage so i know she doesn't disappear here right like i had some fears but i'm like okay those fears are fine they're done and then when pepper jumped out that window i was like oh no not pepper i know and she's calling she's like no pepper come back i'm like, OK, those fears are fine. They're done. And then when Pepper jumped out that window, I was like, oh, no, not Pepper. I know. And she's calling. She's like, no, Pepper, come back. I'm like, oh, no. But the dog is fine. I will say one thing. There's a few moments in this episode where the audio is a little weird.

I thought there was a second dog in the room. I think it was just like a processed audio of the dog barking. Yeah, but like, it made me think that there was a dog behind in the bedroom as well. Like, like Pepper was angry at a dog in the bedroom. And I kept thinking, well, not kept, it was only a brief moment. But I was thinking, Oh, my God, who brings a dog to a break in? There's also I don't remember if it's in the initial setup, or if it's in a later group scene, but there's, there's a bit where the camera kind of pans around to everyone else while Mary Jo is telling her story.

And that's like pretty obviously 80 yard in. Yeah. There's like a lot of details in it that they're like, Oh, we need to get that in. Yeah. Yeah. So,

you know, this action happens and we are also being definitively shown that she, you know, has reason to be worried right like here's an actual person in her actual house uh so this episode is not about the is she isn't she what's actually happening right which is a relief yeah this episode is about the thing that is happening yeah we cut to jim uh in the apartment talking to Mary Jo. She doesn't think it was a robbery because nothing was taken. Well, maybe you just surprised him.

And she's like, well, how long does it take to take, you know, this expensive camera and like this jewelry that's right here? OK. It is a twelve hundred dollar camera. And I'm just going to put this in our our nineteen seventy seven twelve hundred dollars. Calculate five thousand dollar camera. I'm just going to put this in our 1977 $1,200 calculate. $5,000 camera. What? Yeah.

I mean, she does teach photography. Yeah. No, no. I mean, I believe. I'm just like, yeah, that's an expensive piece of equipment. Yeah. Well, Jim, of course, does not want to jump to conclusions. And he finds a pen on the floor for the Nuko car leasing company.

And they talk about it. He asked her if it's hers. And she's like, oh, who knows where you get pens. So let's put that aside for a moment. The rest of the scene, they have a little bit of banter. Yeah. As they build up to whether he's going to take the case or not. And, of course, he will because let him do what he's good at. And he'll let her do what she's good at, which is moping. This kind of gets her attention.

And he asks, if it's not too personal, can you tell me more about what the problems that you were talking about in group? What's the deal? So I know what's happening with you and she explains more of her backstory she had a love affair with a man it didn't go so well in the aftermath of that she thought the world was against her but she's worked through that and she got over it

and now she's teaching photography and she's still working on you know still working on her problems and she literally says and that's it and we end the scene with Jim smiling and validating her right and saying yeah that's it if you haven't seen the episode before if you if you're not like if you're coming at it unarmed and you're just

trying to figure out what's happening like you said we just established that it's not a uh is it all in her head or not episode right right? We then establish, but she does legitimately had, or at least legitimately had some issues. We don't know if the history she gave is part of the greater case, but now looking back on it, having watched the whole episode, it's true. She had a breakdown after a breakup,

which happens to people, but that doesn't mean that she's wrong about all the stuff that has happened since, which is great. Here's a question for you. What's up with the pen? Right. I'd forgotten about it until getting back to here in my notes. And it is treated expressly as a potential clue. He even like says he'll take the case now because it's a piece of cake.

Because like now I've got the pen. Well, the case now because it's a piece of cake because like now I've got the pen. The pen will... Well, he's like, it's a piece of cake. I have this and I have part of a license plate and a van that's black or gray or blue or green or dark red. No, that's a very good question because I don't think they do come back to it.

And it's not tied into how he figures out where the van is from. No, he just looks up the license plate number. Yeah. Well, I mean, you get a bunch of clues, you take the ones that work. Yeah, no, exactly. It's just like, is it a cute kind of nod to like, here's a clue, but that's not what this episode is about. Yeah.

The investigation, such as it is, is pretty, pretty limited. Yeah. It's just kind of like, why is it in here? Why is it in this scene? Like, is it part of a storyline that got cut out and they just couldn't edit it out or it didn't make sense to edit around it? Or is it in there as kind of a joke? Now he's on the case. The former, I think, seems very likely because, like, all of the stuff around that is good banter.

It's really good showing the two of them. Like they do a close up on the pen so you can read the name of the car. Like I wrote it down in my notes. New Co. Car Leasing Company. Because clearly this will be important later. Maybe maybe they just had a product placement. Maybe that is the last we ever hear about the New Co. car leasing company. Yes.

We do cut to Jim in disguise. We know he's in disguise because he's wearing glasses. He's at a boutique where he is looking for whoever was driving a van in this neighborhood with this license plate number. He says that he's Jim Slate from a local radio station and that this van was spotted driving crazy. And so the driver has won the radio station's Nice Guys Finish First Award. It was driving courteously. Oh, courteously. Yes. That makes so much more sense.

Yeah, yeah. I thought he said crazily and I did not know what this meant. That makes much more sense sense. Yeah, yeah. I thought he said crazily, and I did not know what this meant. That makes much more sense, driving courteously. Yes. And the award is two albums on vinyl, of course, and $1,000 if he can answer the pop music question of the day. So this boutique is owned by a guy. I forget if they give us his name here, but he is Vic. Yeah.

They clearly don't give us, because if they told us his name was Vic, we would know. We would know. But he, you know, he's an older guy with salt and pepper hair. And he's like, oh, aw, gee, thanks. No, listen, I could use an extra thousand dollars. My kid just yanked out every brace in her mouth. But no, I drove my van to my home in Truesdale. You must have the wrong license.

Damn it. Oh, Vic, you're such a poop. What'd you have to tell him that for? He never would have known. Yeah, my notes are this is too honest of a man. And they kind of make a thing of it. Or he never would have known. Yeah, my notes are this is too honest of a man. And they kind of make a thing of it. And so there's a thing I thought Jim was doing here that he does later, which is the like Jim being obvious about the fact that he's doing running a con

to see if the other person catches on to that. Right. I don't think that's what he did here. I think he legitimately thought this guy was just too nice of a guy. There's like a woman who like runs the checkout counter and she's there saying like, you know, you could have just gone with that. And I hire her to run my cash register. Can you believe it? He's good.

He's definitely affable. Like, I like this guy. So Jim, you know, you get the feeling that he has struck out with this line of inquiry. Yeah. We cut from there back to the group where you can tell by Jim's expression that Angel is telling lies. He's talking about how poor he was when he grew up. And before Christmas one year, they hit a pig on the road. And that was the only Christmas that they all ate dinner. And then he got that pigskin stuffed as a football as a gift.

Yeah. Oh, my God. I'm glad you have more notes in it than I did. Because my notes at this point were angel. Oh, angel. Oh, angel. Yeah. Yeah.

And Jim kind of calls him on. It's like, didn't you tell me that your dad owned three grain silos? So there's some competitive poverty stories. And again, you see that no one really like they keep giving Angel chances. They're like, come on, you know, tell us something real. And he launches into another story. But then they do get around to Mary Jo telling the story of the break-in. And they ask Jim about it because that's part of the story that he's involved and he says that uh he traced the license plate and I think he

specifically says like you know the people I talked to seem like seemed real straight or something like that yeah I didn't see the tie-in like I don't see any connection between this boutique and this break-in and so I think largely because jim he's not saying like oh nothing happened but he is saying like i followed up on what i could and i don't i haven't figured anything out uh the other group members start saying that it sounds like the same kind of thing for mary jo that landed her in the psychiatric hospital and jim didn't know that you had been institutionalized. Why didn't you tell me? Because of that,

that look, you'd never have taken the job. Well, you don't know that when I take on a job, there are certain risks of legal hassles, physical threats. It's bad enough without having my own client pull the rug out from under me so that's just another way of saying you just don't work for flippos

you put it that way i probably wouldn't have and so she's you know i think understandably upset and defensive and jim's response is very honest but not terribly tactful right uh i i there's a couple things i really like this scene because it complicates things but it doesn't complicate the case it uh jim has a legitimate concern but also she's right and that's really good like she actually should have tricked jim the way she tricked him like i don't feel that uh she's wrong in doing that um but also i don't think jim is wrong in being suspicious of these sorts of things because yeah like he he does get put in danger and if he doesn't have all the information he doesn't have the tools he needs but the the point is is that like uh i think

they handled this part really well and the other the the point is is that like uh i think they handled this part really well and the other thing i really like is it i mentioned this before this is almost like a framing mechanism this therapy session it's not quite it's like halfway to a framing mechanism so it's not a framing mechanism in the sense of like now we're gonna tell the story of what happened right now we're not shifting around in time that's a really good narrative purpose in that it gives these natural ways for jim to learn about mary joe's past because they're in context with people who already know it and then it's also kind of like uh it's a good pacing mechanism it gives us a chance to digest what just happened in the story yeah and contextualize it which is exactly what they're doing.

And maybe sort of one of the features of group therapy. Sure, yeah. So I really like the scene. And I'm saying that like that because going into this whole thing, I was like, oh no, for a number of reasons. But it turns out that I think they did it well. It also gives this episode an interesting character

in contrast to some of the ones we've done recently, where this episode is very much like Jim with people. Like he's kind of with groups of people almost all the time. And we've done at least one or two recently where it's very much like Jim is off having the story in a place by himself. Yes. It's the other side of Jim where we get to see him kind of being very socially aware,

and he's not always like problem solving all the time. That said, the next scene is him by himself driving the Firebird, and he notices that someone is following him. I sat up. I was like, all right, I'm ready for this scene. He pulls a little stratagem to confirm that he is in fact being followed where he pulls some tight, tight turns and sees the car accelerate to follow him. And he He gets out and goes like he's checking his front tires. And he sees a visitor sticker on the front bumper of the following car for the hospital that Mary Jo said that she had been in. Yes.

Dun, dun, dun. And then we cut into the car. This is where, oh, yes. Richard, Mr. Haddam, if you will, good call. Yeah. Oh, yes. Richard, Mr. Haddam, if you will. Good call.

Yeah. So the prime follower in said car is George Loros, who we on this show know affectionately as Anthony Boy Gadgevio. From our early 2020 examination of the Anthony Boy saga, which occurs later in the series. He also plays another character in a two-parter in the same year that he comes back as Anthony Boy. This is really interesting. Same year as this, he plays Anthony Boy in the first two-parter. And then when he comes back to play Anthony Boy to reprise the role in The Man Who Saw the Alligator Suit, in that same season, he plays somebody named Eddie in a two-parter.

Then we've done his entire Rockford oeuvre. So we are almost there. Yeah. Let's make sure we do that soon because, yeah, the moment I see him, I was like, I really like this guy. Why do I really like this guy? So, yeah, he plays three characters over seven episodes which is pretty good you know go back and listen to our i think particularly our our episode on the man who saw the alligator yeah to talk about uh his his whole deal and his acting and everything george loros he's great uh

he is of course playing a mobster here tommy They give him such good lines too. This is stupid. He looks stupid. We look stupid. Yeah. It seems like Rockford turned down the alleyway to just make sure that he's being followed. Yes. And then the alleyway has this construction so he can't go any further. So he comes out to pretend to check

his tire pressure. Yeah. Just casual. But this is definitely this case where everybody involved knows what's actually happening. And nobody knows how to break the facade. Yeah. And what's great is just having this character, this Tommy Lorenz, just stated out loud to his partner, like, what are we even pretending now? Oh, yeah. So they get out.

His first feeble lie is that they're following a map and they got lost. Jim picks up a convenient 2x4. Yes. He says something like, you'll get more than lost if you don't tell me why you were following me. And then they use his name. Mr. Rockford, we just want to know what case you're

working on. We know you're a PI. Jim, of course, would not break his confidentiality until the the other guy the other goon we have tommy and the goon and the goon pulls a gun oh you want to know what case i'm working on yeah oh well it's a divorce case yeah there's a guy named milbank out in calabasas yeah he went up and married a 19 year old french gymnast at the olympics up in montreal you know yeah he's trying to figure out why he can't keep her at home. I mean, the man's 62 years old.

This is, I think, the technical definition of blather. Yes, he is in fact blathering, lulling them with his tale of silliness until the goon's attention wanders enough that he hits the gun out of his hand with the 2x4. And then he makes his break for the Firebird where he jams on the gas and makes the exciting launch of the car over the construction pit that we had seen from the preview montage. Two things about that jump. Number one, I was expecting more of a run up for it.

Yeah, he backs up like three feet and then just goes for it uh so it kind of impresses the hell out of me well i think if i remember right there's a cut yeah the car actually launching i'm sure had much more run-up than what we see on camera uh and then i think to myself oh my god that that can't be good for the car and then and then the start of the next scene is, that can't be good for the car. And then. And then the start of the next scene is a long shot of the Firebird pulling into a parking lot with the front driver's side wheel all cockeyed. So it's spinning off its axis like it's about to fall off. Their onset mechanics earned their keep that day.

Yeah. And that's the last we see of the Firebird this episode. So it's like, you think they did the jump and then they're like, no, we can still drive it. Let's just get the shot. It looked sickening. It's just, it was one of those

moments, like, you're just like, oh, no. No, it doesn't fit together that way. it is the the benefit of the practical effects uh really bringing home the reality of jim's world where he's pulling in is uh to to meet mary jo as she leaves presumably the class that she teaches and uh he says that he's going to stay on the case he has a good news bad news kind of situation for her the good news is that she's sane as anybody. But the bad news is that someone might want to cancel her scholarship, which she doesn't seem to quite understand that he means like someone might want to kill you.

Right. Yes. Because is there anything stemming from her hospitalization that might explain why she's being followed? And she can't think of anything. It was just a expensive private mental hospital and he kind of tries to dig a little bit and she's clearly ashamed about her stay there right yeah uh the fact that she had to go and the fact that she has to talk about it jim stops her and says i bet you're the only person that you know who thinks your mental

illness is so shameful i think he's kind of like apologizing for his very untactful remarks to her, partly. And again, he's doing the Jim thing that we like so much, where even if he doesn't necessarily agree with her, though I don't think he disagrees with her or anything, but in this moment he is validating how she feels yeah he's like i'm not here to judge you i just need to know this because it's important and you're you're ashamed of this but you don't have to be yeah that's the the good friend validating jim that we like so well but she doesn't want anyone to get hurt forget exactly the line but it's like if she had to choose she'd like rather be crazy than have anyone get hurt yeah something like that which is not really her choice to make nope but she does think of something uh there was a patient there in isolation who had attendants around him all the time but one night they he was able to talk to her through the wall or whatever

and he said he was an american intelligence agent who was involved with overthrowing the chilean government and that he was going to write a book about it but uh you know the agency got to him first and he was uh being put away to keep him to keep him quiet so this is not the first time we've interacted with uh the coup uh in chile right is it i can't remember what episode but i remember the Chilean coup coming up in a previous episode and it had something to do with Angel. I'm sure it has come up at some point.

I do not remember it specifically, but maybe one of our listeners will remind us. Here we will be getting into the NIA. Yes. Which we will remember from the Battle Axe and the Exploding Cigar. Yes. That's a good one. Where we will remember from the battle axe and the exploding cigar. Yes, that's a good one.

Where we talk about this, the presence of the NIA as a stand in for the CIA, essentially, but the National Intelligence Agency. I believe we talked about that a little bit because that's not a real agency, right? And we're like, is that just a TV thing or was there some kind of like fear? Like it would be bad to mention actual intelligence agencies. And I believe we got some comments from listeners along the lines of there were other shows in the 70s that also referred to the NIA just as a thing. So it seems like it was just like what people did instead of talking about the CIA. At some point, somebody called it the National International Intelligence Agency. Yes. Yeah, the NIA is clearly the CIA, as we will learn as we get more into the subplot about the Chilean government.

But you weren't expecting that, were you? No. Listener. And I think we see Jim being like aha I now see how these things are coming together we're going to take a quick break so that everyone can walk around stretch get a

refreshing beverage of choice and find out where you can find us on the internet when we're not talking about the Rockford Files of course 200 a day can be found at 200aday.fireside.fm, patreon.com slash 200aday, and on Twitter at 200pod. You can also email us at 200adaypodcast at gmail.com. Epi, where can our fine listeners find you elsewhere on the internet?

You can find my games at digathous holes.com. That's dig and then the number 1000 and then holes.com. Or you can find my sword and sorcery fiction and games at worlds without master.com. Or you can find me on Twitter at Epidia, E-P-I-D-I-A-H. Where can we find you upon this internet? All of my stuff, including my game design, my freelance graphic design and layout work, and other projects that I do, like zines and podcasts, are at ndpdesign.com. You can also find me on Twitter at ndpeoleta.

I'm also on Instagram at the same handle where you can see pictures of my dog. I hope you're comfortable with your favorite beverage in hand as we return you now to the show. We cut to Dennis because of course Jim is going to file a police report.

Apparently this patient or potentially agent is named Joseph Bloomberg. In the course of this, I think we get Jim's line from the preview montage of, I'm afraid for her, I'm afraid for myself. Yeah. Because things are getting heated now that people are coming after Jim about this. And Dennis's line is like, you know what you sound like?

A conspiracy buff. Cutting. The L.A. Police Department has nothing to do with the National Intelligence Agency. They're barred from operations, from domestic operations, right? They only do stuff overseas. But Jim thinks that what's been happening to Mary Jo is connected to this agent that was in the mental hospital. He has a line where he says, you know, the guys that came after me, now one of the guys had a hog this big. And that joke lands very differently today than I think it did in 1977.

He means the gun. And he's putting his hands about 14 inches apart. I remember that gun. It was not that big. Yeah. I don't think we need to know more about the size of anyone's hog in this episode but i i thought that was funny jim just wants to know if dennis has some contact that he can call at the nia to confirm whether this agent even exists and uh even though he's not supposed to he gives jim

the name of a guy who heads up the la branch office and we end with a joke of you know la branch office since when is los angeles a foreign country so we have an establishing shot of a guy who heads up the LA branch office. And we end with a joke of, you know, LA branch office. Since when is Los Angeles a foreign country? So we have an establishing shot of a big federal building and Jim pulls his second and final fast talk con. It's not really fast talk, but con of the episode where he poses as a messenger who's been hired, you know,

through, through a messenger service to bring a package from the lax vip lounge to agent joseph bloomberg so this is this is the one where it's not stated outright but i think that jim jim's going here thinking okay this could be just uh i don't even know if this is like if the place he's going because he has the suite so he has the suite number yeah so he has like the right address right but like i don't know if it's advertised that this is where the nia is i don't think it is it feels like jim is deliberately going in with a cover that's like

if it isn't the nia nobody's gonna know what he's talking about and that's fine or whatever but if it is they're going to react in a way that he's going to like i don't think he's going in thinking he's going to fool the nia i think he's going in to see how they respond right to him mentioning this agent's name his goal is to find out whether this person actually exists yeah he knows that there's no one there is going to be like oh that's me. Yeah. Which would also be an interesting twist, right? Like, that episode could have gone in that direction, right? And I think this is all telegraphed, you know?

The way that the guy he interacts with, NIA agent Bill Simons, we get all the tells that this is, in fact, you know, an intelligence operation or whatever. So what actually happens in the scene, Jim gives his cover story. He says, well, there's no one here. intelligence operation or whatever so what actually happens in the scene jim gives the uh gives his cover story he says well there's no one no one here agent did you say so it's even like

why would anyone called an agent be at this innocuous you know office in this building and we see him try to get more information from jim like where did you get it who was the guy who gave it to you what did you look like like that kind of stuff. And Jim has lots of like non-reply replies. Like, Oh, just a guy. He says, hold on one second.

And he makes a phone call to Martin. Hey, just a reminder to have my car washed and waxed. Clearly a code phrase. Uh, and then he goes into another room to make a call. He thinks he knows, you know,

someone who might be able to help him. Then we cut to the garage where rocky's pickup is there and we see these these agents check it out they you know take a look look in the glove box etc our guy comes back out says there was an agent joseph bloomberg he was with the department of weights and measures and their office here shut down but you know if you want to give me the package i have a buddy who who works at W&M in San Diego, and he can probably pass it along. And so Jim, you know, has him sign for it and leaves. And then our agent calls for senior staff, my office, now.

The aftermath of this visit from Jim is great. It's very good. I mentioned in our intro that there's some cartoonish stuff in this and i feel like this guy in particular the older agent simons he seems very hammy to me okay so looking back on it now knowing what the twist is at the end and what's actually going on here because watching it without knowing what's going on, we have people that ostensibly are NIA agents pull a gun on Jim earlier. Like they chase him down into an alleyway

and they pull a gun. Oh, right. What we saw earlier, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Now these people are coded in a different way and later on we figure out why and all that. Yeah, I don't think I felt like Tommy uh tommy and his goon were nia i did feel like oh now we're bringing in an additional an additional interest so to me like

the this whole thing that happens after jim leaves is yeah is meant to feel like a spy show yes meant to feel like it came right out of Mission Impossible or something else. They're throwing up all these hypotheses. They're trying to figure... It's a whole lot of theory about who this Bloomberg is. Alternative scenarios?

Scenario number one. Bloomberg works in this office. Identity altered. Why, Bill? Why indeed. Logical extension of scenario one. Bloomberg works in this office. Identity altered. Why, Bill? Why, indeed. Logical extension of scenario one. Bloomberg works in or near this office on a project that's top drawer. Too top drawer for us to handle, according to the brass in Washington.

But you're right. Like, there's the way he walks towards the camera when he's being thoughtful. He's really emoting. Yeah. And there's that one guy who's just really eager to help him out yeah going behind our backs well i gotta admit it wouldn't be the first time or a scenario two there is no top draw project bloomberg or just code name bloomberg is sent by headquarters to interface with us to compile an efficiency report and then to put on a big dog and pony show for the brass a definite possible oh yeah we get the name of the episode yeah so so the deal

here is that no one knows an agent bloomberg so you know jim has come in tossed out this feeler and everyone there is like why is he asking about this guy what's happening something must be happening though they do say the most likely scenario is just a mistake or something innocuous however there are other scenarios it could be a mole or it could be a test scenario to see how we respond to new input but i think the the major purpose of this scene is the very next scene yes because don't we go from here to the dinner table? And just the difference between this elite force of national intelligence agents to the Rockford files. To the Jim Rockford detective agency. Yes, it is very good.

We do end the scene with him saying that he does want Rockford wired and followed. Yeah. So I did want to note, so our main agent, this guy, Simons, is played by Walter Brook, who was also Mr. Gertmanian in Just Another Polish Wedding, as recently covered in Malibu Madness. Yes. He's also in The Dark and Bloody Ground, which I don't remember very well. Yeah, I don't either.

As well as one more appearance in the show. The other, the eager guy who is the other agent that we'll see later, Agent Mike Krasny, he's played by Michael Bell, who was also in one of the Rockford Files. But I was just checking his stuff out, and he is a very prolific voice actor. And so he's all over like superhero cartoons from that era from then till now like he was a voice in darkwing duck he did a bunch of nickelodeon stuff he was a voice for rugrats uh and into the video game era he's done voice work for a ton of video

games so it was just like oh what an interesting person yeah if you really want to go down memory lane with uh superhero cartoons of the 70s and 80s though this guy michael bell yeah everywhere he's in all of it yeah just scrolling through it i'm like yeah the gargoyles and their contrast is so funny because simon's is so kind of like scene chewy and over the top and then krasny is kind of like all right well what should we do next like he's extremely naturalistic yeah so just the two of them i'm sure it's just you know casting like whatever uh i don't think there's anything there it's just they're they're kind of a fun watch the two of them but yes as you say we go from this to dinner at rocky's house opening with a shot of angel reaching out with his fork and getting two biscuits yes rocky

mary joe angel and jim jim is filling in filling in some stuff for them and for us he knows that there's something going on with that office uh he would have noticed if the guy was actually calling around the building because no light came on on the secretary's phone. So, you know, they were giving him some kind of runaround. And the owner of the boutique, who had not been driving the van, went on a sudden buying trip and no one knows where. So there's suddenly a little bit of sinister, like, oh, what's up with that? After all, Jim doesn't know where to go next,

except that he wants to talk to this agent Bloomberg, which Mary Jo doesn't think is a good idea. He's, you know, it's too hard to get in there, etc. But he has no choice. He will need a diversion. And now Angel knows why he was invited to dinner. Yes. It's great because Angel is just not paying attention to the conversation at all and so

focused on the food, like the best biscuits he's ever had. All of that. And then he's like, oh, invite me over. My favorite meal. Which is fried chicken, biscuits, collard greens. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, it's good.

You don't buy Angel Martin with a couple of drumsticks and some red-eyed gravy. Yes. So because Angel, of course, doesn't want to put himself in danger, but he doesn't want anything to do with the government. Yeah. And Jim starts off asking and then ends up telling him that he needs his help, including the use of his car. But he just got the Naga hide seats and the caddy just the way he wants them. Yes. But apparently, I feel like this is new to us.

Who loaned him the 200 bucks to buy it in the first place? Yes. And who's going to take the pink slip if he doesn't come through? So in the way that he does, Jim leans on Angel, gets him to reluctantly agree, and then takes his colored greens away from him at the end of the scene. I do. I love the way Angel, or Jim, strong arms Angel. I don't know why. I mean, it's it's not a great relationship, but I feel like we haven't seen it for a while. So when he did, I was like, oh, yeah, he does this. All right. We cut to the next grift, which is Angel pulling up outside this hospital at night and honking his horn.

honking his horn oh my god this caddy this is so batmobile i mean obviously let me just quick check the rockford files files uh it's a caddy uh it's a 5960 caddy but it's got those fins on the back and it also looks like it's in rough rough shape it has big primer yeah spots on it uh so his he he pulls up and honks gets the attendance attention he comes out you're not supposed to be on these grounds past 9 p.m i was supposed to be at the santa barbara arms keyboard sales convention i left showroom four hours to los angeles this thing now it's gonna stop on me. Because he has a custom stick shift, he needs to get a push to get going. And so that's the distraction is he gets the attendant to, you know, help him push this heavy ass car all the way down this long driveway. So while that is happening, Jim sneaks around the back and finds the right cell, I guess,

which has a big window. I guess all of these big windows with wire mesh over them. Yeah. Because at first I was like, did he get inside? Is that some, like, atrium? The geography of this scene is a little confused, but it's fine. It doesn't really matter. Sure enough, he has come to the cell of a man who answers to Bloomberg,

who indeed is a little frantic and a little paranoid. I think that's fair to say. Jim describes Mary Jo and says says you told this woman something i want you to tell me the story that you told her he's like ah very smart you need to check back out front the orderly gives up he's like i'm not going to keep pushing your car i'll call the motor club uh so he's heading back inside we cut back and bloomberg is telling his story which is he was in deep cover as a professor of latin american studies uh in chile the nia was part of the you know back the coup and that salvador allende was was shot by american trained experts with american made guns and jim's like all, can you give me a name?

Just someone out here that I can talk to. Like, yeah, I hear your story, but like, can you give me something solid? And the guy continues not giving him anything solid. And then Angel comes down to tell them that they're blown and they need to get out and recognizes the guy in the cell. Hey, that's Joey B. He's all mobbed up yeah on hearing that name i think this is the most interesting part about this joey b that was a cover but like i can't be joey b he's unclean yes there's like this little nugget of explanation for this

character's story which is super interesting yeah this is kind of great because we do get like a little bit of what's actually happening uh that our most reliable person in the scene is angel yeah which is great i like angel's fear when he realizes who this guy is we have to go what are you doing but also like the wisdom of bringing angel is that this kind of stuff happens because angel's gonna to know people. Right, yes. Exactly. It's a little cartoony about the problem because this guy legitimately has some

disorder. Yeah, he's like legitimately like schizophrenic. Yeah, so I am not equipped to tell whether or not this is a accurate or compassionate portrayal of that. Right, yeah. I'm going to guess it's not.

And then just leave it at that. It's meant to make us suspicious of everything that's happened so far. Yeah. Which it works. In my notes, they're like, is this guy even Bloomberg? Or is he just, you know, somebody... Did he make up that name? Yeah.

But the angel's reaction to him is the part that i'm like oh that's what's happening there's just something about it in the rockford files that when angel had you can't trust angel until angel is terrified right and then and then it's like oh oh okay now that's a real reason that's why angel you should be paying attention to what angel's doing here yeah um i agree i think the only thing i wanted to say was that that that little note that i think was most interesting to me about like joey b was unclean yeah that's good that does a lot to make this slightly less like i agree i don't know how accurate or compassionate this betrayal is and i presume not very but there's something there that's a little bit of grounding of like

someone who has constructed an alternate reality. Cause there are, cause their reality was one that they weren't willing to keep experiencing. Yeah. Cause we learn more as well. And basically in the next scene that, you know,

this guy married into the mob. Yeah. That is probably a rough way to, you know, have a life go and then if you already are having some kind of uh some kind of mental health issues you can see how that would suddenly escalate from that point and concerned parties have probably told him that he can't tell anyone that he's joey b yes absolutely in in the created fiction of this spy. In kayfabe.

Yeah. Then Joey B is definitely an identity, a persona that is no longer available to him. Yeah. But yeah, so they get out of there. They run to Rocky's truck. So it is never stated, but now that we have gone through it, it makes sense that Jim is driving Rocky's truck because clearly the Firebird is messed up. Yes. Yes. that Jim is driving Rocky's truck because clearly the Firebird is messed up. Yes, yes.

I love that that's just how it is. Like, it's not part of the plot. It's just like, oh, that's why he's driving Rocky's truck everywhere. Anyway, they have to leave Angel's Cadillac, his poor baby, and they take off kind of over some rough road to get out of there. There's cops coming up. Sirens are flashing. And they pass our two agency guys in a van. Yes.

This might be my favorite single line delivery here where Agent Krasny, the younger one, goes, What the deuce? This is definitely the moment when it all becomes very clear to me. Well, I guess it's this and then the next couple of moments. But just like I'm like, oh, this is one of those wonderful moments in the Rockford files where several differently interested parties all collide. Yeah. Quite often, if the feds are involved, they're involved because Rockford did something to raise their suspicion and then draw them to unwittingly draw them to the mob or to, you know, whatever. But yeah, I'm like, I got excited at this point. I was like, yeah.

Typically or usually the feds are interested in something that is happening. That also happens to be, you know, something that the mob is doing. And then Jim comes in from the doing something for someone involved with the mob. Yeah. But then he attracts the attention of the feds and that's what complicates things here it's like jim went out on his lonesome grabbed the feds and then pulled them by the ear into the situation by accident which uh it's kind of inverting that a little bit which which I like a lot. But yes, they put a tracker in the truck so they know where Jim's going. We cut to Angel explaining this backstory, because now Angel's the one who knows things.

Because it was back when he hung out at the Caputo Clam House. And every Friday night was Bula-based night. So Joey B would come in every Friday night, get soup all over his shirt. He married a mob boss's daughter, and that is the Lawrence, Papa Frank, I believe that's what he's called, family. But then he disappeared a year ago. So Jim's starting to put this all together, right? He's like, if you went off the deep end, he could know a lot of secrets. Angel brings up, I think, brings up the point that I would have thought about.

So speaking for the audience here, when they just kill him but jim's uh idea is that since he's since he married in and he's essentially family then that probably protects him from just being killed but they stashed him at this mental hospital instead to protect him from the other families yeah and so mary joe that's why they're after me so i don't leak his location to anyone so like they know who he is she doesn't know who he is but they don't anyone. So like they know who he is. She doesn't know who he is, but they don't know that she doesn't know who he is. Yeah.

Rocky says that he's just a crazy guy. He don't know nothing about chili except it's something to eat. I told you Uncle Sam was too good and too smart and too decent to do anything like this. And I'm just typing ha ha ha and capital letters in my notes yeah oh rocky angel's name is on the registration in his car and they left the car so they're gonna find him and come after him they being the mob but jim says they can make a deal because they're holding all the cards arguable i think he says or they have the best cards they're gonna get this is this is the best shot we've got right now.

He's like, well, we'll talk to them. Angel, of course. Well, when you talk to them, can you tell them that you stole my car and that Angel Martin's a great guy? Yeah, his line is like, listen, Jimmy, you think you can slip it in before they kill you? Yeah. But Papa Frank moved up to Carmel. So his son Tommy is the one in town. So and then we get to our other dramatic moment from the preview montage.

It's time to make out the wills. Yes. As in last will and testament. So I have a brief Salvador Allende story for you. Oh, okay. Well, and also to kind of contextualize this. So Allende was a socialist president of Chileile and then he's overthrown in a coup in 1973 and that's when pinochet comes to power yeah and then there's a military dictatorship

and it's you know horribly repressive and people are disappeared and all that stuff this episode's happening in 77 so this is like recent history by now do we know that the CIA was involved? And by we, I mean like the American people? I don't know. I don't know either. I can say definitively by 1992, we do know. Yeah. Because I go off to college and I learned it. Yeah.

So two things. I assume that this is because I did a little bit of research, not a ton. Yeah. And there was a New York Times expose about some of this stuff while Nixon was still in office, I think. So like, or shortly after, because this was under Nixon's presidency. I kind of assume, given what we're told by this character in this episode, that it is at least not a stretch for people to be like, oh yeah, the CIA was involved with that.

He does specifically say that they're the ones who shot Allende. And I guess there was like, he was exhumed in the early 2000s. And to like settle this, because that's been a question whether he killed himself, which is what was said at the time, or whether he was like assassinated. And it's been pretty definitively declared that he did commit suicide before the military could take control of the palace or whatever. Ah. Which't know i did not know that either so there's some historical context for this but also one element very specifically that that i think leads to my ongoing uh radicalization over time i was in either or ninth grade, I forget exactly,

but I had a history class where I had to do original research for something. I think there were some topics you could pick, and so I picked this one or whatever. Anyway, I was doing original research on Salvador Allende

as an eighth grader. Yeah. The internet exists. Wikipedia does not exist. Right. Okay, yeah. That puts us in context. Yeah, so there's stuff in the library, you know an eighth grader yeah the internet exists wikipedia does not exist right okay yeah that puts us in context yeah so there's like stuff in the library and then i'm looking up stuff on i'm using you know all to you're asking jeeves i'm asking jeeves yeah i'm exploring the internet back before everything was just a click away and i found a website that linked to documents that i think were from because

there was like a commission about this like a government commission i think it was in the 80s maybe i forget exactly but like later that was like all right here's the commission on american involvement with the overthrow of you know the jordanian government and I remember reading the summaries of these government documents and they were like uh uh redacted right there was stuff that was blacked out and everything but they're very specifically about like all right so here's the CIA agents that went to Chile and here's what they did and here's what their mission was and here's who they reported to and here's like the the American government like officials who denied any any knowledge even though they had it and i was just like wait this happened like this is a thing that happens which just seems obvious now right but

yeah as a you know young person doing original research and being like the american government was involved with the overthrow of a foreign leader how is this not a bigger deal like i remember specifically thinking that why are we talking about this all the time so this whole thing just made me flash back to that like that feeling of simultaneous like this doesn't seem right. And why is nobody talking about this? Your very Rocky moment. So, yeah, there's a radicalization of a young Nathan starts with redacted CIA involvement reports with the overthrow of Salvador Andes. So there we go. Full circle.

We're back to the files of the Rockford. We're back to the files of the Rockford. So moving on, we cut to Jim talking to Tommy Lawrence, a.k.a. George Loros, a.k.a. Anthony Boy. This is good. We know he's a villain because he's poolside. And there's a phone. And in the background, which I didn't notice until a couple minutes into the scene, there's a full breakfast bar that someone is setting up. Maybe even with the same platter of silverware that we saw at the beginning that Angel stole. So Jim's play is that he has copies of the wills that they made out.

Say if anything, you know, if any of these people die as a result of anything other than natural disease or natural causes, that is going to trigger friends of theirs to send telegrams to all the heads of the mob families with the location of Tommy B. Tommy? Tony? No, wait. Well, Tommy is George. Joey. Joey. We're talking to Tommy, talking about Joey. Right.

Joey. We're talking to Tommy, talking about Joey. Right. So this will trigger telegrams to be sent to the heads of all the families about where Joey B is and what's up. Tommy is not impressed with this. And he swore to his sister, Barbara, that he wouldn't let any harm come to her husband, Joey B. Then the guy from the boutique arrives. Dun, dun, dun.

Turns out his name is Vic. And if we had known that, as you said, at the time, we would have been suspicious. So he appears to be Tommy's right-hand man slash probably the connection between him and his dad. So his dad's out of the picture up in Carmel, but Vic, who's older, is kind of like

counseling Tommy about stuff. Tommy asks Rockford if he knows what buckwheats are yes which apparently is getting beaten it's a good threat he says why go through buckwheats before you die yeah he yeah so he's not afraid they'll just move him again and uh jim says well what's a better risk all of the mob families knowing he's alive or three civilians who have no interest in this who just want to be out of it, who just keep a secret. You know, if everyone else finds out, maybe you'll be the one eating buckwheats.

Yes. Could be your wife or your kid. You know where you are, mister. Do you know who you're talking to as you can make threats and give ultimatums? I don't care about your slop. I'll take my chances now you're gonna tell me where martin and the girl is he opens the scene this whole scene with um telling jim that he's he was dead when he walked in yeah i'm not threatening you with death i'm threatening you with a type of death right with with pain before death yeah yeah. Jim's deal is that if he doesn't leave there in an hour, the telegrams start to fly.

Tommy is clearly, I like how we kind of are picking up on this has been an issue for Tommy and he just wants it to go away. But now it's right in his face. It's like, why me? Why is this family cursed by God? It's all for one squirrely brother-in--law his sister is sulking on barbiturates and his father is plotting against him um you know because he also just wants to get rid of joey b just wants to put him in the ground and vick is counseling like you know it's maybe it's time to just let part of this go move on do other things you have more important stuff to deal with right and so he says that rockford has a deal so jim starts to leave he grabs something off the buffet on his way out

which of course he does but then vick gets a phone call and there's two guys outside staking out the place dun dun dun jim almost got out of there but no and then we cut to they've brought in the our two agents agent simons and krasny and they're all in the uh i forget what he says calls it he's like the game room or something like that yeah so now jim is in an awkward spot because he's like i have nothing to do with them but they know about the hospital like one of them mentions los brisas hospital and tommy's like, so first there were three, and now there's five who know about it. You see how this kind of thing mushrooms?

I don't want to deal with it anymore. I said he's going to pop them all today and just be done with it. He also doesn't really believe that they're federal agents. They have their IDs and stuff, but, you know, he's like, sure. Yeah. So the balance here is really interesting. It's like Tommy has the power because he has the guns jim is just trying to get out of it he's like we had a deal everything was fine

now these guys are screwing it up these guys are like what are you know what is happening who are you why are you with him why did you come to talk to us and then tommy doesn't believe that they're agents so like who are you why are you with him It's a good expression of the tangle of interests as they all just barreled into each other. And, and Tommy just has one solution for all of his problems. He's sick of complex solutions. He's got a very simple solution.

And then his sister is on her own. So it sounds like he's going to deal with them and then probably just kill joey b is that what yeah he's implying um so they we cut to the uh f lawrence and son's bakery which is an extremely good sign uh i wonder if that's just a sign that was somewhere so they named the family after them so yes because it looks very weathered and not really like a prop. So the goons hustle everyone in. Tommy grabs a giant whisk out of a barrel.

I was wondering if that's... It's huge. What is this threat with the whisk? Is that how you get buckwheats? Agent Simons says dead bodies have a way of turning up and causing problems. And then the goon turns on the giant bakery oven so there's just the flames behind them and i think that's when it gets very real

for the agents yeah i mean the whole thing gets like even real for the audience here because the the you know i'm laughing about the whisk and then that fire comes on and then they're like okay now face down on the ground yeah and it's like oh yeah this is happening um so jim's like look in eight minutes i'm not gonna be out there and those telegrams are gonna go out this is your last chance tommy tells him to make a phone call tell him you're gonna be okay you know we can kill you now or you can do this for us and we'll kill you later i guess like well the threat was that he was going to i think just throw him in the oven live. Yeah, because he's like, you want to see how fast flames consume a body or something like that?

And so Jim's like, okay, okay, fine. Vic goes with him to go to the phone. And then we get a classic Jim maneuver. As they're going up these stairs. And Vic's right behind him with the gun. And then Jim just like stops like he's stumbled. like he's kind of like caught his toe or something. And so he just stops abruptly. Vick runs into him.

And then before he can do anything, Jim spins around and grabs the gun and they start scuffling. It's classic. Very classic. He shoots out a window and then shoots the fire alarm with the gun while Vick is also holding on to it. So good crack shot Jim Rockford here. The goon with the feds like turns to see what's going on when the feds trips him. So he goes down. The other guy gets the gun.

Tommy's running after Jim. He's shooting at him. Jim's ducking behind big trays of like bakery carts and stuff and then agent uh krasny pops up behind tommy and gives him a very 70s style karate chop on the neck and he goes down so that there's these bakery trays on the uh carts that that have them so there's probably like four to six inches of clearance between each tray uh giant rows of these carts the the camera set so that you can see through them to the other side where the guy with the gun is so it feels like no cover at all but when you think about it it's just a bunch of metal yeah and and the

distance that that bullet has to go uh you know ostensibly in a straight line i mean it's not really a straight line but like for for these purposes, it is. A little angle here or there is going to, your target is just that big. It's only those four inches from, because any little bit of angle is going to hit one of the other trays. But what I love about this scene is that the gunfire goes off, Jim doesn't get hit, and it doesn't seem to hit anything. You just hear the gunfire i don't know it just for me i was like expecting to see trays flip around or you know like ricochets of some kind yeah like he's missing but where is he missing too uh probably someplace off camera

the physics of the situation was interesting enough to me that i got lost in it. And then did the karate chop bring you back? Oh, it did. Oh, in fact, my notes are nice chop. Yeah. Outside, there are cops responding to the fire alarm, I guess. And they corner Vic and, you know, have him up there arresting him. Jim went outside. Then he goes back inside.

And Agent Simon says. Ruffus, you've got a lot of explaining to do. I'm not too worried. I'm licensed to work in this country. You guys are supposed to be tending the Berlin Wall. Got him. Presumably, justice is served and we end

our episode back in group where Jim explains that the agency made threats but they had nothing to back it up. Everything is resolved. One of the other members says that there's been a lot more excitement in the group recently and they'll be sad to see jim go uh and mary jo says of course i'm really happy that my fears were reality based for a change but it's much more than that it was a bad experience really bad but i held together i made it is this mary joe flynn talking i don't think i've ever heard you sounding so positive it's terrific and like this is a nice

moment yeah i feel like that is a underserved message in television and movies where it's like yes you go through a traumatic experience and acknowledge that it was difficult i don't know i think that all the time especially i, I mean, whatever their action, but especially for like action movies. Right. At the end of it, like, you know, our hero has like killed 12 people and been through all this stuff. It's like, and we'll, we'll end this with a, you know, a big laughing handshake or whatever. Yeah. That person is going to be in therapy for years.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So just her acknowledging that like, this was hard, but I got through it, and that's what's important. That's nice. The leaders. Mary Jo, you're talking around it. Tell the man how you feel about him.

She looks at Jim, makes eyes, I would say. Yes. And smiles and says, I like you, and I hope we'll always be close. Right. So this is a very sweet moment. The way it was filmed felt vaguely ominous to me. And I don't know if like, that's just me and my own dating history. Sure.

Or anything like that. But I was like, whoa. I think the thing to me, what made it ominous to me was that this is a thing that the leader of the group therapy made her confess to Jim in group therapy, which puts Jim in a spot where he has to be like, yes. Yeah. Well, he like smiles. He's like, same here, Mary Jo. Yes. Yeah. Well, he like smiles. He's like, same here, Mary Jo.

I'm going to just like be super honest here. I was in a very similar situation and my answer was not same here. But I had to say same here because of the situation. Like there's just a ton of pressure in that moment. There's the whole group therapy. We're all now staring at you. Yeah. Waiting for you to make this moment that should go a certain way.

Yes. It's interesting, right? Because on the one hand, this idea of like, why don't you share what you're actually feeling right now has been an important driver of stuff in this group and is an important therapeutic question. Yes. But like the directed nature of like, all right, now share how you really feel about this specific person who we're all sitting with right now.

Now kiss. Yeah. It's a little weird. It was meant to be sweet, I think. It is meant to be sweet. I didn't really read it as ominous. I mean, I think it's a little inappropriate, but I think it's also like implying that perhaps they, you know, end up having something outside of group.

Seems fair enough to me. But let's get to the real meat of this. He's asking Angel to tell them his emotions as he's been through this whole thing as well. And he says that he's just glad that the agency didn't find out about my gun running days. And making the correct call, the group leader tells him to stop concocting stories to evade being vulnerable with us we all know that's what you're doing

like just be honest for once I don't have to make up phony stories didn't you hear what I said I said I was glad that the agency closed the books on us otherwise I might have found out about the time I was running guns down to the rebels in Guatemala. Me and another guy.

Dead, man. That's right. And we cut outside to the van where there's the agency guys still listening in. And we see the reel-to-reel recording Angel's wild story about smuggling guns. And that's our freeze frame on the reel to reel. Oh, that was fun. Thank you, Richard Haddam. That was a wonderful suggestion.

I was a little apprehensive because I do feel like the mental health premise, I was like, okay, I don't remember how this goes. Right. I think as we talked about at the top it ends up handled more honestly and thus not it's not very it's not like cringy or anything maybe a little bit with joey b you know his story or whatever but it's uh yeah she is treated as fully realized this kind of character as any other character that hires jim to help her out in a jam. Yeah. That's good. We get the good mob stuff. So that's the David Chaseness.

We get George Larros, who's always a delight, with his giant whisk. Yeah, I don't know what it is about the NIA guys just kind of like hamming it up that it could be a more serious episode, and it's not that serious. It is more comedic than non non and part of that is the nia um guys and how they behave but uh it just seems a little weird to me that they're so kind of silly but maybe that's just you know those actors yeah i mean i could i could definitely see that uh so the question is if they were done more serious, then how much more trouble would Jim be in? Yeah, they'd be more of a threat, really.

Yeah. So they're not bumbling, although they definitely, at the end of it, still don't know what the hell they got rolled up into. Yeah. And they can't, right? Like Jim says very specifically, he's licensed to work within L.A. They're not. So they can't like everything they're doing is illegal. They're another criminal organization. Right. So yeah, it's, it's interesting, but yeah, I totally, I see what you're,

I see your point and I'm trying to figure out like, yeah, it's not really a criticism. It's just kind of like, this episode has like some weird little rough edges that aren't bad. They're just like, Hmm like like the pen yeah okay the other clue that's a little weird to me and it's i know how to explain it away i just don't is the jim gets tommy and his goon chase jim down into the alleyway jim goes to check his tire pressure and his tire uh or pretend to and he looks over and he sees this tag on the car that says it's from the hospital right but why would that tag be on the mob car like maybe it's a visitor's it's a visit

yeah it's a visit he specifically says it's a visitor sticker from the park okay all right never mind then yeah i had this moment of like i I guess I was running under the impression that they were from the hospital because I was expecting the plot to be some criminal, fraudulent hospital thing, you know, like at the time. So that probably confused me. But anyways, overall, though, it was a fun, fun romp. Yeah, and definitely fun because I didn't really remember the twist. So like when it all came together, I was like, oh, right. Yes, this is fun. In that way where,

as we talked about in the episode, like all the different interests running into each other. Yeah. We see where everyone's motivation is. We see why this can't be solved necessarily just by talking it out. Yeah.

So like why there is conflict and then we see how that, you know, spills over into escalation and it's good stuff. So because, you know, spills over into escalation. And it's good stuff. So because, you know, we did have some questions, or at least I had some questions. I took a look at the entry in Ed Robertson's 30 Years of the Rockford Files. And there are exactly one and a half paragraphs about this episode. And it's just talking about who the guest stars are.

So there's no wisdom. I don't know why the pen was there. Though the son of Bing Crosby is in it. Oh, yeah. I saw that in the, I mean, I saw a Crosby. I don't know what character that is. He's Bo. Oh, he's one of the, he's probably one of the group members.

Oh, yeah. And there's one that calls Angel out on his, that's probably him of the group members oh yeah and he and there's one that that calls angel out on his that's probably him so there you go oh he's good he's had something of a career gary crosby yeah okay well so thanks again to uh richard hadham for this suggestion yeah keep him coming tweet us at 200 pod or email us at 200 apodcast at gmail.com or contact us on Patreon at patreon.com slash 200aday. Yeah, we'll go figure out where our local clam house is. Clam house, yeah. Maybe drop in for a vegan boule base night.

But we will see you next time when we talk about another episode of The Rock for Fuzz.