Two Hundred A Day - Episode 88: Requiem for a Funny Box

Episode Date: July 25, 2021

Nathan and Eppy go to the comedy club in S4E6 Requiem for a Funny Box. Washed-up comedian Kenny Bell asks Jim for some help after his "funny box" is stolen, but the exchange draws Jim into a mob murder! Untangling the murder requires Jim to suffer through getting the real story from the self-interested Kenny. Content Warning: This episode has quite a reveal (which we talk about in our intro) having to do with virulent homophobia and related off-screen violence. This is a good episode with some serious tonal shifts that make it interesting, but not necessarily one we'd recommend over other episodes. 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) * 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) * Matthew Lee, Kip Holley, Dael Norwood, 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

Mr. Rockford, Sue Ellen, our class is having that crazy scavenger hunt I told you about. If you're wondering what happened to your trailer door, it's gonna win me first prize. 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 Epidaeus Ravishaw. What's so funny, Epi? I don't know,. Something about the way you said the Rockford...

I think it was just slightly more serious than we normally are. So it had a very, like... For some reason, in the back of my head, it felt like it was a true crime podcast that we were going into. The Rockford Files. No, only fake crimes.

Or fictitious crimes, at least. And this fake crimes or fictitious crimes. Yes. And this time the fictitious crimes come to us in season four, episode six, Requiem for a funny box. Yes. We are now venturing, venturing a field from our season two,

uh, season two, a go-go that we recently finished. Yeah. I feel like we've been asked about, or had this episode mentioned to us at various times and uh most recently by one of our patreon supporters uh rebecca who uh mentioned that that uh they they were very excited for when we would eventually do requiem for a funny box and so why not now yeah this is where we're at yeah so that is why this

one was selected for for us this time this is one of're at. Yeah. So that is why this one was selected for us this time. This is one of those episodes where I remembered the premise and I remembered the character, Kenny Bell. Kenny Bell, yeah. I remember the premise. I remember the character. Didn't really remember the story. And this one has a hell of a twist.

Yes. Yeah, I don't remember the... Like I remembered that part. Right. But I don't remember the like i remembered that part right but i didn't remember it was in this episode yeah i think that was my same situation i mean it's been well documented documented it's been well documented here on uh 200 today that my memory is not so good uh and i think i had the same experience like i uh didn't even have the sometimes, you know, as I'm watching it, I'm like, oh, I kind of remember, you know, it wasn't until that twist that I was like, right. Yes. Now I remember, you know, I think partly because it hit a bunch of just regular, like good, solid Rockford beats in the beginning so it just felt of a piece with

so many other rockford files episodes that i was i was like yeah yeah you know just kind of rolling along with it yeah so this one is uh directed by william wired uh another of his many many contributions um so we'll continue putting a pin in in in him for when we eventually get to the full when we finally do the full William the full William and this one has two writing credits it is a teleplay by James Crocker not friend of the show Jim Crocker unfortunately

as far as I know unless he's had a secret career that we don't know about but a writer who would end up writing and also doing a bunch of television production including both outer limits twilight zone and ended up a i believe an executive producer on deep space nine i mean it could could be friend of the show jim crocker i just i really doubt it i feel like we would know if he had been a writer and producer for d space nine i just feel like it would have come up by now but maybe maybe it was a secret past life i don't know yeah i mean well we'll have to we'll have to let us know yeah shouts to jim uh yeah and just looking at the um

i didn't really look into uh this this james crocker just looking at a list of credits this is literally his first writing credit on IMDb, so that's pretty cool. And then he also wrote another episode of The Rockford Files. Again, in this one he did the teleplay, and the story is by Bert Prelutsky, who was a columnist. He did a bunch of movie reviews in the 60s in the Los angeles magazine which were apparently famous for how searingly critical they would be um he also wrote a bunch of tv he wrote a bunch of mash uh in particular um and then in his later career apparently got into the conservative blogosphere and has some very very strong opinions opinions about what has happened to America

that I don't particularly care to amplify. But that was kind of a needle scratch moment for me. I just want to kind of look up people, want to find out fun, interesting stories. And obviously, I don't ask that everyone agree with me or everyone be an angel or anything. Obviously, I don't ask that everyone agree with me or everyone be an angel or anything. But his devotion to a particular kind of writing and political viewpoint in his later years definitely threw me for a loop. Yeah, it's something that like not to dwell too much on any of this, but it's my knee jerk reaction now to recommending anything on the Internet is to spend time right googling and hoping you don't uncover this it's the is this metal band i like actually full of nazis problem like right before recommending a metal band you have to do your due diligence because you just don't know yeah or as

as it turns out uh mumford and sons wait really there was a guy in mumford and sons who was i can't remember it was something something around the January 6th. Oh, boy. But this is neither here nor there. That's not what this podcast is about. That's not what it's about. But I do, you know, there was a moment we were talking before the show and it's like, oh, we could just mention his name and move on.

But you know what? I do do the research. Yeah. We call out people who we agree with and that we like their positions. Yeah. It's worth also mentioning, hey, sometimes people who you don't agree with make something that is perfectly fine uh for example i don't think any of that has any relevance to this episode actually right but if you enjoy hearing the little bit more that i tend to try and dig up about the writers of the show

there's a little bit more yeah yeah so which is a bit of a segue into my kind of larger response to this episode which was that i was settled in for like a real kind of romp because like i remembered the character as i said the the comedian character and all the like putting jim in tight spots that he does yeah maybe not lighthearted is the right word but maybe a little more comedic kind of yeah story um and then there's there's this hard hard twist um into a much more serious direction and one that is really kind of a bummer uh at the end of the day so like when it comes up i'm like oh right there that's this episode and then at the end of the episode, my takeaway was a bit of like, this is a good episode, and I am not excited to talk about it. So, okay, so let's, we should probably hit like a content warning.

There's nothing graphic that happens in it, but there is homophobia in the episode. Right. And there's off-screen violence because of that homophobia. And there's like one bit of off-screen violence is barely off-screen violence because of that homophobia and there's like one bit of off-screen violence is barely off-screen so it it hits pretty hard so if that's the thing that you're that you don't want to deal with skip it yeah and specifically it is homophobia that is that is framed as part of the episode like it's not no it's not casual it's not casual they didn't think about like it's not. No, it's not casual. It's not casual. They didn't think about it. It's like the twist in this episode is the revelation of a character is gay. And then he has this very, very strong conflict with his father over that fact.

Yeah. And I mean, we might as well put all the cards out on the table. This character and his father are mafia. Right. Right. So there's this threat of violence already there. Right, right. And there is no reconciliation.

Yeah. It is conflict that is settled very dramatically. That said, and pointing out that I am not the person to make this judgment, aside from like the events that happened, it was handled deftly, I thought. That part of the episode is about that. It's like, let's put this on screen. Let's explore this dynamic. Yeah.

Yeah, and it's not, I don't know, it's not mawkish and it's not poorly handled. There is nothing but empathy for the gay characters in this from the script. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So this is all to say it is not uncritically handled. It is a critical part of what they're trying to show the audience. Whether it's successful or not,

that's up for the audience to decide, I think. That's the ball of wax that kind of rolls in in the third act. And you go, oh, there are a couple little hints, I guess, towards the fact that that character is gay. But there's nothing in the episode to prime you for this kind of explosive outcome of that revelation. I don't know what your experience of it was but my experience was uh like you were saying you've got this comedian like right from the get-go it sets itself up for a lot of good rockford files humor right like where jim's put upon

by somebody who's you know slightly obnoxious but is also going to i mean we'll get into it we get into it but clearly Rocky loves them in the beginning. Yeah. The Rocky stuff is, is, is good. Classic Rocky. Yeah. And I don't want to say that I went into this on autopilot,

but I went into this on autopilot. Like we've done how many episodes so far? Right. Right. Yeah. This is going to be like in the upper eighties of our episode. Yeah. You know,

so I can't speak for Nathan here, but I definitely have like a like a whole mechanism for how i do prepare for these these uh episodes and that's been let's say honed sure yeah because you know um we we have day jobs we have other other things that we do as well so we so i was just like okay this is gonna be a nice you know and i'm i'm not i'm writing down the things that i like about it i write down the lines that i like the things i find funny and my reactions but i wasn't digging into it until that twist and then that was like oh i should be paying attention it's not that i wasn't paying attention but you know i guess

what i'm trying to say is like okay imagine you are a firebird and you have several gears and you're coasting along in high gear because you've been down this highway before. But this metaphor is really bad. But suddenly there's a mountain that you weren't expecting. You have to shift into low gear. That's what that was. You have to engage a new part of your brain that you weren't necessarily planning to. Yeah low gear. That's what that was. You have to engage a new part of your brain that you weren't necessarily planning to. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And also, honestly, before that point, it's not like there's a ton to dig into. Maybe there is. We'll see when we get into it. Yeah.

So that's all the preamble. I guess I just to mix in another metaphor, my my sales when setting out on this journey have very little wind in them. So I guess I just want to make clear that that doesn't mean that it's not a good episode. Yeah. But, you know, as we do, sometimes we get into these and our opinions change. So we'll finish our extended preamble and just jump right into our fairly unextended preview montage. I have two syllables. All right. Rocky. Oh, no. Sorry. Three montage. I have two syllables, alright? Rocky, oh no, sorry, three syllables because Rocky is two syllables.

Rocky, exclamation point, deal, question mark. I thought we were done with deal. We're not. No, yeah, this is one of his few I think this is the only season four episode. There's one more. He's got two of them in 77. so that might be season three

and season four or it might just be season four and then of course he's he shows up in the in the movies later on when we do our podcast within the podcast the deal deal um the deal deal i have something else to say about uh about deal here but uh we'll get to that when we get there. But yes, I also did Deal! Someone's a Creep! Mob Stuff! They got his funny box, so we know where our title's coming from. And of course, a car chase.

Oh yeah. We're going to take a quick break to say thank you to our patrons over at patreon.com slash 200 a day. Thanks to you, we are a 100 listener supported show we extend special thanks to our gumshoe patrons supporting this episode chuck from what you're reading.com paul townend who also recommends the podcast fruit loops serial killers

of color at fruitloopspod.com shane liebling check out his dice rolling app roll for your party for all of your online gaming needs at roll for your dot party jay adan check out his dice rolling app Roll4YourParty for all of your online gaming needs at Roll4Your.Party Jay Adan, check out his amazing miniature painting skills over at JayAdan.com Dale Norwood, Dave P, Dale Church, Dave Otterson, Kip Hawley, and Matthew Lee And finally, we can't thank our detective patrons enough for their generous support Eric Antenor, at Antenor on Twitter Brian Pereira, at Thermoware can't thank our detective patrons enough for their generous support eric antenner at antenna on twitter brian perera at thermoware bill anderson at bill and 88 and of course richard haddam at richard haddam we follow them too at 200 pod why become a patron for as little as one dollar 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 media we're enjoying and the things going on in our lives an episode of plus expenses comes out in advance of every episode of 200 a day 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. So we start our episode with our credits right over big spotlights at Hollywood and Vine. And we're going into a TV studio where they're doing a some kind of broadcast entertainment show broadcast or taping. It's a little unclear. It doesn't matter too much. I guess they say they're live at some point, so I guess it's a broadcast. This episode has a lot of establishment, kind of establishment backstory, establishing the characters' relationships with their dialogue.

All that good stuff in the first couple, three scenes that, when you're watching, really organically emerges, you know, in the way that we appreciate this show for doing so well. But I'm not going to summarize in order because there's lots of stuff you learn about in the next scene and kind of doubling back to explain where this came from or whatever. So I guess if I skip over something in particular you wanted to highlight, go ahead and throw that in. Oh, sure. I was just going to kind of run down the premise as established over these scenes. I was just going to kind of run down the premise as established over these scenes. So our, our, our principles here,

Jim and Rocky have come to this taping or this, this broadcast at the invitation of Kenny Bell, who is played by Chuck McCann in a fairly memorable performance in large part because he's a memorable physical figure. Like he has in large part, cause he's a memorable physical figure. Like he has just a face, like he's a guy with a face. He's got a face. And I remember him.

He's in a Columbo episode. He's not the one who gets murdered, but he's the second one who gets murdered to cover the original murder. Um, he plays a projectionist in, in an episode. Uh, I'm blanking on the title, but our, our Colombo heads will know the one with the subliminal cuts one of the all-time classics uh he also does a ton of voice work so if you look over his imdb you will see all of your favorite cartoons yeah like uh he's leatherneck and gi joe got some ducktail stuff going on some tailspin stuff going on toxic crusader stuff going on he was a villager in robin hood

men in tights all the ground oh yeah i think you can see if you look for him i think i know what scenes he's in he's the voice of ben grim in the 90s fantastic four animated series which i will tell you i don't think i even knew existed i kind of want to check that out there was a period of time where you would go to the grocery store and while your parents were checking out, you would go to the video section. Yeah. And you, and by you I mean I, would rent the videos that were basically like three episodes of a cartoon stapled together. That is where I saw a lot of the Spider-Man cartoon. Yeah.

And I'm pretty sure that I probably checked out at least one Fantastic Four video cassette at the grocery store. Because I can picture in my mind the animated model, like what they look like. Anyway, that is neither here nor there. Kenny Bell is going to be one of our main characters. And then we are also going to be concerned with Lee Russo. Kenny and Lee used to be a comedy duo. And I guess they did movies, among other things. And then they split up into solo careers.

And Lee Russo has been much more successful. And when we come into our come into the episode we're seeing so he's backstage he's this is lee this is lee yeah yeah lee russo he's practicing material and he's going to be like the he's he's the main he's the main event the headliner yeah he's the headliner yes thank you yeah when you're talking about things that aren't wrestling right right yeah that's the he's he's he thank you. When you're talking about things that aren't wrestling. Right, right. He's in the world championship title bout. Kenny is opening.

So Kenny has invited Jim and by extension Rocky because they had some kind of vaguely defined interaction in the past where Jim helped him out somehow. I don't think it's ever really delved into they said it was three years ago and it had me thinking because three years ago this is season four right that would have been season one but i don't think uh it's actually in reference to no i don't think so yeah there's a good line where uh jim's like uh you know why didn't you bring lj he'd actually like this kind of stuff right it's like oh ken, Kenny Bell doesn't know LJ. Um, and there's also a dinner invite in it for everyone.

Yeah, actually this threw me, uh, because it comes out slightly later that this is Kenny's first time meeting Rocky. Right, right. So it had me thinking that Rocky,

like he's an old friend of Rocky's. Like I thought we were going to get one of these episodes, right? We're an old friend of Rocky, but it's, it is definitely, uh, Jim's the connection here and jim was just like he would have happily given his ticket to lj right yeah and rocky's the one who wanted to see kenny bell because yeah as we know rocky loves television so yes anyone who's on tv movies right like he uh not to keep hammering that but uh people enjoyed movies nathan what but they did movies together right like that was the lee russo and kenny bell right right right

it's kind of like a uh uh it's like an abin costello kind of thing you know i was trying to think of like a more modern uh thing but that was the one that was coming to my head too yeah so i know there's, there's comedies. Yeah. There's comedies. There's comedy duos that people do. I guess there isn't the same thing where it's just like, these two people are in a movie together.

Right. And that's the only reason, like whatever the premise is, it doesn't matter. It's just that these two people are in it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Now it's more of a franchise thing where it's like, I don't know,

the hangover movies or something right yeah you're probably seeing that for the same reason but it's wrapped up in a premise that is the continuity anyway again wow we're really all over the place um so backstage we see lee russo practicing this material in a mirror um and he's there with his uh like his manager and his uh there's a there's a woman there who's clearly his like lady yeah my notes on this material is these are the worst boomer one-liners boy i sure hate my wife material yikes yeah it's the joke is even made later in the episode where it's it's the it's the take my wife please yeah like joke it's yeah my note for it was oof oof yeah yeah yikes is my version of that um yeah yeah which i think is presented as this is not

cutting edge like this is in the world of the show this is aging material yeah because i was watching rocky and jim and rocky's all starry-eyed right he's but he's also enjoying it sort of like you know going to see a band and hearing the classics yeah i'm sorry i'm i'm jumping ahead a little bit so what happens is he's practicing this material then we go out to see kenny bell doing his opening and he starts doing that material yes i mean he's delivering it differently but he's making literally almost line for line the same one-liners yeah and rocky is is enjoying it and like i said it feel like you get the feeling that he's he's here for the greatest hits uh and jim is constantly looking around uh and i like i was like is he bored Is he worried about something? What's happening?

But he does laugh at one of the jokes. I don't remember which one it was, but he does like. But I was trying to also find out if like the show is trying to tell us. Because usually if the show is trying to tell us that something. They'll give Jim the moral. Yeah. Focus there. And his reactions seem to be kind of the like, OK, I kind of see why that one's funny.

Right. Yeah. But Rocky's like, can you believe that of see why that one's funny. Right. Yeah. But Rocky's like, can you believe that he said that joke about his wife? Yeah. Yeah. It's rough. So backstage,

uh, Lee is watching this on the monitor and he starts doing the material and he's, you know, he, he gets angry and he says, this is the last time. Clearly something like this has happened before. Um,

Jim and Rocky rocky i guess came in late or something so they're leaning up against the like control booth right so we can see through the control booth window and then jim can see because he's right there that after kenny finishes his set he goes into the control booth and then lee russo comes in after him and starts yelling at him and they clearly are having a physical confrontation and Jim ends up running in and breaking it up before it can get to actual blows as opposed to just shaking each other

by the lapels. As part of breaking that up, Russo's yelling at him about, you're stealing my material Kenny's denying it you know, that's all original, all original Kenny Pal. And that's when it really gets physical Jim breaks it up. He gets Russo to leave.

And then we get the establishment through their dialogue that, yes, Kenny knows Jim specifically. Calls him Rocks. Oh, hey, Rocks. So now we have Jimbo, Rockfish, and Rocks. And Jim says something, again, to reinforce that they used to be partners. Well, when you break up a partnership, you really go all the way. This continues through to Kenny's dressing room, where Jim finally introduces Rocky. And same thing.

I thought that Kenny would know Rocky. Right. But I think this is key to Rocky's progression through this episode, is that he... His emotional journey. Yeah. Does not know Kenny. And then we also meet Kenny's's wife maxine who is the unsung hero of this episode yeah from the get-go my first note on maxine is poor maxine yeah and

and that note does not change oh it does near the end but we'll get to it there is a thing going on in this early bit where you have the material uh and i can't we didn't mention her name but uh we i mean maybe it's mentioned uh uh she's wow i can't even find her in the credits yeah jim talks to her later calls her miss thompson and that i don't remember her name being mentioned before then oh laurie thompson there we go all right so laurie th So Laurie Thompson is the woman that's with Lee. And throughout that scene, she is reading a newspaper. If this scene were done today, she'd be on her phone, right? That's the thing. There's a gag where he... Every month, she wanted to go on a vacation. So I sent her to Paris, sent her to Rome,

the Via Veneto, Spain, all the great places. Finally, she comes to me and she says, I want to go someplace different, someplace I've never been before. So I took her to the kitchen. Good timing, huh, babe? Oh, I was just laughing at this cartoon. Yeah. This gets mirrored later with Maxine where so they're both doing this material about how demanding and overbearing their wives are when uh uh well first of all lee isn't even married uh and uh in both cases these

women are not they're they're right it has nothing to do with reality yeah yeah there's a whole textual analysis you could do of like this kind of stand up humor and like, yeah, gender dynamics. And I mean, it's 50s stuff. Right. Again, the the episode doesn't present it as cutting edge humor. It presents it as kind of it already reads as a little old in this context. Um, in introducing everyone around, uh, Rocky, Maxine, et cetera, we get the, the backstory of, um, Jim helped him out three years ago and he's been trying to repay the favor ever since by hiring him specifically.

He's worried about threats or something. It's a little vague, but basically Jim has earlier, he said like, I, I don't want to be his bodyguard or something like that. Yeah. But, uh, Jim's a hard guy to hire. Not hard, Kenny. Impossible. Yeah, it's a great line.

Kenny gets a call and he gets very excited. It's apparently from some kind of agent. And he says he's going to have to skip out on dinner. He's been trying to find a new agent and this guy wants to hire him to exclusive representation in all fields based on the material that he just was doing apparently he's gonna have to meet him at a party up at heff's um which is not worth doing the research i'm sure uh hugh hefner had parties in la in the 70s that sounds about right um he's sorry to skip on dinner he's been looking to change agents for a year. He has to take up this offer to talk.

Maxine will take you to dinner. Y'all put it on my tab. She's like, sure, that's great. And he makes another, as I call it, another cringe joke. You're such a treasure. I should have buried you years ago. And she makes this face. My first note was she rolls her eyes but i actually watched it again

because i was trying to pin down something else and she makes this pained expression like like she does very good she's very good in this episode yeah this is also the scene where he refers to them as the two rocks yeah it's like okay what i like about that is that well first of all it plays into like you were saying before it plays into our collection of jim nicknames that we're enjoying but also uh this is his actual original material right like we're seeing that he's not funny right right yeah he's not a writer at least like he may be able to deliver the lines like i i shouldn't yeah but he's yeah his comedic instincts are uh cringe yeah yeah um he specifically tells them to try the lobster

a la kenny bell yes i think that's the grove like it's a fancy fancy restaurant right that they go to so we have a scene with uh jim rocky and maxine at restaurant. There's small talk about how they must go there all the time. And she says that it's actually the first time she's ever been there. Usually Kenny does business there. She does want Jim to take the job for Kenny and explains that Lee Russo, he's bad news. He's becoming worse and worse over time. And tells a story that was in the preview montage of uh there was a drummer who did rim shots behind his lines that he didn't like so he broke the guy's

fingers well he had someone like he hired someone to break his fingers which i think uh sort of plays into like like i'm like oh okay so he's mobbed up right right and this is the sort of the first call it a red herring because he is mobbed up. Right, right. And this is sort of the first, call it a red herring, because he is mobbed up, but not the way you expect him to be. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it's a little foreshadowing. It's a little clue. We get a little more about their partnership. Sure, they were partners, but they were never close.

They always have lots of conflict, and they've been split up for over five years. But for some reason, things are just getting worse now than they've ever been between them. Then we get into the big actual joke of the episode, which is Rocky ordering the lobster a la Kenny Bell. Yes. Sir, I'm going to have the lobster a la Kenny Bell. The what, sir? The way you do it for Kenny Bell. Well, you mean the lobster Newberg, sir.

I mean the lobster Kenny Bell. I'm sorry, sir, but that you do it for Kenny Bell. Well, you mean the Lobster Newberg, sir. I mean the Lobster Kenny Bell. I'm sorry, sir, but that's what Mr. Bell has, the Lobster Newberg. I'll have that, too. You make it three, please. He told me to ask for Lobster Kenny Bell. Sir, we have a Milton Berle sandwich and a Hope salad, sir, but no lobster a la anything but Newberg. This is all exactly what I expected and also very satisfying to watch.

It is. I liked watching how angry Rocky was getting. Rocky got so mad. And like, it's displaced anger. He's mad at the waiter. Like he's been told by this big time comedian that this is the thing here. And it's fun to watch where that ball of white hot rocky rage will eventually land so he asked for the lobster a la kenny bell and he goes oh the lobster newberg

yeah which i was not familiar with i did look it up apparently it is basically lobster in a hollandaise sauce which i guess that's fine i don don't know. I don't actually like lobsters. So if that does it for you, great. That's the cuisine of the era. Yeah. Yeah. Rocky is clearly angry about the name. And then we have a scene in the background where we see Russo and Laurie Thompson.

Laurie. Yeah. They kind of storm in. He's mad about something. She's trying to tell him to like, take it easy. Can deal with it later. He waves her off and goes stomping out of the out of the restaurant alone.

And Maxine's worried. They all see this happen. And then Maxine is like, you know, he's he's out of control. I'm worried about what he's going to do and asks Jim to find out what Russo is going to go be off to. Jim to find out what Russo is, is going to go be off to Jim. I think both to do a favor for Maxine, who has been nothing but kind and, and generous and made to get out of what may end up being kind of a boring dinner agrees to,

to, to go check it out. He does say to, if he's not back, he tells Rocky to make sure that Maxine gets home. Rocky asked him what about his dinner? He's like, Oh, just doggy bag that yeah it'll be a good snack later yeah because he says it'll make a nice midnight snack which it clearly won't i think he knows that um there's an interesting thing here because i was wondering with especially with the way jim was reacting to like giving in because obviously he's going to give in, otherwise we don't have an episode, but also more specifically, he can say no to Kenny all day long.

Right, right. The whole year. He can't say no to Maxie. Right. The moment we meet Maxie, we know he won't be able to say no to her. It's kind of similar to how, just because this one's so fresh in my mind, in joey blue eyes how he won't work for joey no matter how much beth asks him to but he will go talk to paulette joey's daughter yes and it's the same job exactly and um at this point i'm wondering if this is a deliberate ploy on the part of Kenny if he shoves the two together.

Now, I don't think the show, eventually, I don't think the show takes a stand one way or the other. But I think very specifically, it doesn't take a stand one way or the other. I think it can play as that. Kenny is a little more of a wheeler and dealer than he lets on to be i guess i spend a lot of this episode wondering about that phone call he got yeah yeah same because at the end of the day there's nothing happening with the new agent or whatever as we'll learn but it's like was that a legitimate call and it just didn't work out or right did he set that up just so that he didn't have to go to the dinner yeah then that also seems to be slightly more forethought than he puts into things.

Right, exactly. So this is exactly it. I'm just like, I don't know. I don't know what's happening with him. He's kind of an agent of chaos. He's very like, this is what I want right now. And I'll use underhanded means to get what I want right now. But I will not think about it past this stage.

Exactly. So he's not a master manipulator or anything like that. No, no. And putting Rockford in the same, putting Rockford with Maxine is almost a master manipulator's touch. It's hard to tell. Right, right. Hard to say. We follow Jim as he follows Russo.

They go to a house. We follow Jim as he follows Russo. They go to a house. We follow Jim following Russo. Then the camera follows Russo into the house. And then we have this scene with Russo and a new character on the scene, Paul Sylvan. So Paul, he's hanging out, he's smoking, he's waiting for Russo to show up. He checked it out and he found a bug in russo's room and he has the physical bug and he shows it to him and so clearly that's how kenny stole his act he's had his room bugged however there's larger implications here yeah you know if he had guts

enough to steal the act we can't take a chance on any visibility very intentionally this is all talking around whatever the thing is that they're worried about specifically if whatever it is got out there's too much at stake um russo says that all they need to do is lean on kenny a little bit he'll fold uh nothing terminal just a band-aid that's all you'll need because you know he knows kenny he knows kenny's a coward right so yeah yeah see yeah this is definitely uh epi on autopilot is like okay so this is their mob he's mobbed yeah yeah i don't know what his i guess because we're on autopilot i assume it's some sort of some kind of financial real estate deal or something yeah some kind of crooked like

tax evasion or yeah yeah because it could anything anything that too that a mobbed up entertainer would talk about in private that he right like this could be lots of things and i think the the episode is leaving it vague specifically so that we're like oh we'll find out later like whatever this is there's something and we'll see part of the episode will be finding out what the thing is um We go back to Jim. He watches both cars leave. He takes a license number of the new car, goes in to check out the house. He walks around, opens some drawers.

There's like nothing there. Like it's empty. Like there's nothing that indicates that it's lived in, which actually is important, as we learn later. But he does find the bug that they left like they just you know left it on the ashtray or whatever and so jim i think makes the appropriate conclusion yes what that might have been about um jim follows up on the license plate uh we see him kind of lurking while uh this guy paul goes to his car and drives away. And helpfully enough, he was in a parking spot with a sign that says, Reserved.

Paul Sylvan. President. Now we can look him up on IMDB and find out who plays him. Jason Evers. Who was also in White on White and Nearly Perfect. And I don't, I feel like his face is so, he's another guy with a face. And I'm like, I just don't remember him but i think he was like one of the other main guy we did that episode too long ago yeah we should

re-watch it i mean i remember him as e2 in escape from planet of the apes obviously because why wouldn't you but uh yeah that was a little aside yeah. Well, we follow Paul as he goes to a payphone. So clearly, you know, something he's not going to do from his office. Makes a call. We take care of everything tonight. Set it up for midnight. This is always ominous. But in retrospect, this is one of the grimmest phone calls we've seen in the Rockford Files.

It might be the second grimmest. Yeah. The grimmest is later in this episode. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. the rock for files it might be the second grimace yeah the grimace is later in this episode yeah yeah yeah yeah um we go to jim and rocky with their fishing poles jim is grumbling for all the time they spent they should have caught something i wonder let me ask you about this little little frivolity here is this a joke in the cut uh because i i mean jim has made progress in his whatever his investigation is but not enough to have any sort of conclusion or know anything like that i wondered if this was meant to be like i've spent all this time working on

this thing and i haven't i think because it's very specifically about like they spend a bunch of time fishing yeah they talk he talks about some teen or something like that coming in and just pulling one out of the... Yeah. Yeah, I didn't... I mean, there is a bit of, like, I spent all this time and didn't get anything. Like, yes, that is resonant. But he also didn't not get anything. It's just not anything that adds up to anything.

I'm reading more into this line than I deserve, I guess, is what I'm... There is a good joke in the cut later, so... Yeah. A wild Kenny appears, and we see that Rocky is mad. Yes. Look, you don't have no charge account at that ponds, and you don't have no lobster named after you, neither. I'm sorry about that, Joe.

He's sorry. They wouldn't let me out of the joint until I left my social security check. Max called me up and told me all about it. It was 59.65, wasn't it? I should have sent you over to see Emilio. They got new waiters in there. They don't know what they're doing here. Look.

He writes a check to Rocky to settle it. It was 59.65, wasn't it? Which, uh, it's a lot of lobster. Yeah. Wow, that's a lot of lobster. Yeah. Wow. That's even in, it's almost $300 nowadays, right? Oh, I shouldn't even do that because of inflation.

We're, it's even worse. Well, right. Our, our lobster is probably cheaper per pound than they, their lobster was in the seventies. Yeah. But it's a lot of money is what I'm saying. It's a whole social security checks worth apparently. Yeah.'s in a rush they got my funny box so part of the humor or at least the dynamic in this scene is he keeps on like tripping over his words and he has all this stuff he's trying to tell jim and jim's like and rocky's trying to get him

yeah acknowledge his terrible terrible life choices in embarrassing Rocky about the lobster thing. And Jim's just like, what are you talking about? So how it all ends up sorted out is that someone broke into his house and stole his funny box, which is a priceless catalog of jokes. But he can't report it to the police because in his business, it's an admission of weakness to say that you write stuff down. Everything's supposed to be real, like it's extemporaneous. Like it's all original all the time. So he can't file a police report, but he does need to get it back. And he got a phone call from the thieves

saying that they will sell it back to him for $10,000. So he wants Jim to make the exchange. You get it back by delivering ten thousand dollars cash up on mulholland at midnight midnight at mulholland oh no i can't do that no no you see i uh i just sent my trench coat my snap brim hat out to be clean yeah i wrote that one down too it was good he assumes it's Lee Russo, but Jim points out that Russo doesn't need $10,000. Like, he makes so much money. It was established earlier that he's like really highly paid.

He's like one of the highest paid entertainers or something. Yeah. It's like he drops that much on a tip. And Kenny agrees. I guess that makes sense. Plus, he wouldn't sell it back to me. He hates me so much. He would just like, you know, why would he give it back? So he he doesn't know who got it but he's on a 5 30 flight to vegas because he's filling in for this big vegas entertainer who got who got laryngitis it was he's filling in for don rickles

yes oh is that a real person that's a real person okay yeah all right let's Let's do this. He's an insult comic. If you look him up, you probably would recognize him right away. Okay. Yeah. What can I just point at that just straight up shows you who Don Rickles is without just saying Don Rickles? No, no, I didn't really note the name because I was like, oh, it's just a person. Yes, this is vaguely familiar to me. So anyways, he's an insult comic. Big name.

He voiced Mr. Potato Head in Toy Story. There you go. See, there's a relevant pop culture thing for my generation. Yeah, I kind of feel like he was in a Scooby-Doo episode when I was a kid, but I guess not. He was in a Scooby-Doo episode when I was a kid, but I guess not. I mean, he's definitely one of those that I think I remember him mainly as on this episode, Don Rickles. Sure, sure, sure. But yeah, I mean, obviously the point is that this is a huge thing. Like, he's standing in for...

Yeah, this is a big deal. Yeah. Yeah, and that's clear even though I didn't recognize that yeah don rickles on on the on the jump yeah and he specifically says that this is this could be his big the big break for his for his career he's got this new agent you know he's gotten this this last minute booking in vegas and like it's super super important um he needs the break what is it gonna take and jim says two grand yes this is this is quite the the upsell from 200 a day so welcome to our new podcast two grand at midnight two grand at midnight um there's a bit of hemming and hawing but then kenny's like you know what i'm gonna be making so much money after

this big break it won't matter and he has the briefcase of cash with him so he gives the 10,000 in cash to jim right there on the beach when i'm done with this vegas stand this is going to be small potatoes there's a real interesting look from jim when he shows him because he opens that thing up yeah and jim is not isn't believing him up until that point right i think jim is like oh you actually do have yeah like this is a thing like i think he's fully expecting a like okay, now we have to go get the money or, like, something. But, like... Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Kenny's ready. So we go to that night where Jim rolls up to another car on Mulholland Drive. It looks empty. He goes to check it out. Then he opens the back door, and Lee Russo's body falls out. Yep. that he opens the back door and Lee Russo's body falls out. And then there are police sirens and a squad car pulls up as Jim is standing next to the body holding the briefcase of $10,000. Well, let's take a little break.

We want to make sure that you know where you can follow all of our other projects and interests online. Epi, where can our listeners find you? You can Google Epidaya. I am the only one out there that I know of. You can go to dig1000holes.com. That's the number a thousand. Or you can go to worlds, plural,

without master, singular, dot com and find my work there. How about you, Nathan? My internet home for all things NDP is at NDP design dot com. You can find all of the links and information for all of my various games, including the Worldwide Wrestling role playing game, my zines and podcast projects of which perhaps there may be more than one. You can also find me on Instagram and Twitter

at ndpaoletta. As always, if you want more information about the podcast, go to 200aday.fireside.fm. And now back to the continuing adventures of Jimbo Rockfish. Cut to deal. Quick aside into the deal deal. Oh yeah, let's do it. The deal deal. quick aside into the deal deal oh yeah let's do it the deal deal welcome to the deal deal first of all he has an amazing mustache and i'm pretty sure he did he was not mustachioed in season two oh does that sound right that my that may be the case i have not been paying attention to deals mustache uh and i should so tom tom atkins hell of a mustache amazing mustache yeah uh as always he's he's he he's fun to watch uh there's a specific thing he does here that uh again in our ongoing contrast

to a chapman um which i think is important but in the even longer going saga of his name his credit and this one is for alex deal d-i-e-l right we can see his door like he has his name on the frosted glass of the door so we can read it from the shot it clearly says thomas deal with an h on the door they do this thing where he's a lieutenant uh it's lieutenant and and for a moment there i thought because of the way it was delivered wait is he now was he not lieutenant deal before and then jim is like oh i forgot how long has it been 12 years yeah so the credit thing so here's my this here's my my my headcanon so he's been alex deal in the other episodes except for the episode immediately

preceding this one and his latest appearance this is his last appearance on the tv show and then he's in the movies but this is his final broadcast appearance in the episode before this which we haven't done yet the battle of canoga park his credit then is lieutenant Thomas Deal with the H. So my headcanon is that they have the set from that episode. And they just kept it or kept the door for this episode because they knew he'd be in it. But for whatever reason in the script, he went back to Alex Deal. Any Rockford historians that could let us know what's the Deal Deal, we would, in our eternal quest, this is our true crime podcast. The deal deal. The deal deal.

We wouldn't even know how to spell deal in the deal deal. I know. Well, do we go with how we assumed it was spelled, where we both put an H in it? Or do we go with how he's credited in seven out of eight appearances, which is D-I-E-L, but not how it's spelled on his door. And his first name changes independent of the last name as well? No, he's Alex Deal with no H, except in the Battle of Canoga Park, where he's Lieutenant Thomas Deal with an H. But then in the movies, he's gotten a promotion.

He's Commander. Oh, good on him. And he's Commander Alex Deal with an H. See? So the mystery the mystery continues um so we're in deal's office uh jim's giving his statement uh beth is there obviously as his attorney uh wearing just an amazing ensemble oh yeah there's a picture of it on imdb on the imdb photos uh it's this like salmon relaxed pantsuit. It's a good look.

I've never bothered to look at the photos on IMDb. This is a fun little. I know it's just because it happens to be on the on the basic page that I can shout that out. There's also a good picture of Deal with his mustache. Yeah, there is. I just saw that one. I was like, yep, that's. Oh, yeah, there's that outfit. it is an amazing outfit god sorry i just not to make this podcast about this single

frame it's a good one it is a good one with the exhausted rockford look uh with beth who there's a little bit there's like a the hunt in her eyes like she's and then there's just dennis there's not a lot of dennis in this episode but he's there and you could just he just feels like again again uh well so we get the you know they go over the events it's pointed out that sure he was there at the scene but no motive and no weapon, so Deal doesn't have any case. Jim explains about the funny box. He was supposed to be exchanging the money for the funny box, which is Deal's

favorite alibi. Yes. We have a surprise Billings appearance, who we haven't seen for a while. Billings pops in to explain how the cops were on the scene. A couple heard gunshots and called. That actually answers the question I had, which is like, how set up was this with the cops were on the scene. A couple heard gunshots and called. That actually answers the question I had,

which is like, how set up was this with the cops appearing at that moment? Right, yeah. But apparently, you know, just kind of organically worked out. And in fact, I think it reveals a little later, it's... That actually wasn't part of the plan.

Yeah, it may have saved Rockford's life, or if Rockford wasn't the one making the deal it most certainly would have saved uh kenny's life that's a good point yeah um beth tells deal in one of my absolute favorite turns of phrase lieutenant mr kenny bell will substantiate my client's claim if you will stop fumphering around and contact him in Las Vegas. To stop fumphering around? Yes. Yeah, I got that one down, too.

And call Kenny Bell. They haven't been able to get in touch with him yet. And then Dennis makes his appearance. And he says that, as it turns out, Don Rickles went on as normal. No laryngitis. And that the booker at the casino or whatever said that Kenny Bell hasn't worked in Vegas since he drove a golf cart into Lake Mead. Jim makes makes a call. He calls, I guess, Kenny's house. Yeah.

So Kenny's watching a news broadcast is covering Russo's death. The phone rings. He wants Maxine to answer it. She's clearly upset he is clearly using her to fill you know he's like i can't talk on the phone calls yeah you know you need to screen my calls essentially and he's using lee's death as an excuse like that he's in mourning or he's he's got to write the obituary or he's got to do the eulogy or something yeah it's definitely two-faced because you know that there's suddenly to write the obituary or he's got to do the eulogy or something yeah it's definitely

two-faced because you know that there's suddenly they're the best partners right right yeah and that comes up a little later also uh where it's like who's gonna speak for lee yeah and maxine tells him like he has plenty of people to speak for him but that's in the next scene i think the thing about this that just like over and over in my uh notes i have things to say about kenny that are not family friendly yeah no kenny's kenny's bad yeah uh but this scene in particular just nails it home because he's within inches of the phone and he shouts max max the phone and she comes in and she's like it's right there her body language is like it's right there yeah that was language is like, it's right there.

Yeah, that was me putting my emotion into it. I'm very angry with him. But yeah, this is not the first time I write down poor Maxine in my notes. And it's not the last time, but we're getting close to the last time. So she does answer it. It's Jim. He explains the situation, says he needs to talk to Kenny. At first, she's like, he's not here.

And then Jim explains it. She's like he's not here and then jim explains that she's like oh i think i hear him coming in and kenny is not happy to be handed the phone and she specifically says i just can't lie for you anymore yeah when he answers the phone he's like oh hey rocks oh i'm sorry to hear that anything kenny can do It's just the most smarmy. Yeah. So bad. But this is our good joke in the cut. Hey! Hey Jimbo, how are ya? You got a little problem. Anything Kenny can do? Cut to

Deal's office. Kenny can start by explaining Don Rickles' miraculous cure. This is peak Kenny's a slimeball. He denies hiring Jim. He denies this whole thing about a funny box and then he says that jim came to him begging him for a job this is this is very angel like dialogue yeah honestly this is uh without the charm, yeah. And that they only talked about employment in the most general sense, but he did, after all, buy him a meal.

Yeah. Jim is clearly furious. And here's where, this is back to the deal deal. So this whole time, Deal's just kind of like prompting, like, you be quiet, you tell me your story, you know. And he's looking back and forth. And I think there's no read on Deal about whether he believes kenny or not yeah he's very like i'm listening i'm listening but he's not he's not taking a side yeah no i agree with you like he's it's what we were observing with the deal uh an episode or two ago where he's he's frustrated

with rockford but he's not out to get rockford. Where Chapman would be like on Kenny's side, like in this situation. But with this information, with Kenny denying that he hired Jim, et cetera, he does send Jim off to get printed. He sends an officer with him, but you know the way. And then we follow Kenny as he comes out to where Maxine is waiting in the hall. And she's like, so you told him the truth right you told me you hired jim and he just like completely blows her like pretends like he didn't hear her says oh it got complicated legally and he just totally disclaims any responsibility

uh this is where he says that someone should speak for lee and maxine is getting more and more frustrated with him and says that it's Jim who needs someone speaking for him now. And she storms out and he kind of follows after her. So two things. In the moment, I was like, couldn't they just ask Rocky? Because like Rocky was with Jim when this whole thing went down. And sure, there's a little bit of like, oh, you know, Rocky would say anything for Jim.

But like at the same time, like a witness is a witness right yeah yeah so i had that kind of sitting in my head and then i had this moment of like maxine's right there like she could go in and tell her story right now and she doesn't and so at the time i was like that's such a weird like you know whatever it just struck me as like here's something that probably could be addressed or should be addressed. Right. As things turn out, it's kind of important that the police not actually get the real story. Yeah, yeah. At the end, because.

Right, yes, yeah. That's how Jim ends up getting paid. Spoiler alert. Yeah. And then with Maxine, I think there is a, this is more of a character thing where like she knows on some level that Kenny didn't do the right thing, but she doesn't have the like,

I don't know, the gumption to just march in there herself. Yeah. She's not ready. She's building up to standing up to him. Like, yeah, she's definitely standing up to him,

but she's not ready to really sock him. Right. Which is what he needs. He needs to just get socked. And I feel like maybe there could have been something of like, we tried to call Rocky, but he's out playing poker with his buddies or something. You know, I don't know, just something. No, but I get what you're saying. It's not the sloppiest bit, but it is a little loose end.

Yeah. At the end of the day there isn't enough to hold him for for long we we do cut to beth and jim leaving the station uh beth tells him that he'll regret like stay away from kenny or you'll regret it and jim says i never do things i regret it's a good jim line uh that would be down too yeah dennis meets them outside and jim asks him what he knows about the cheese place because Sylvan's the president of a cheese company. Yeah. I think we skipped over that earlier.

Yeah, that's where he saw his car. Yeah. And so Dennis doesn't know Paul Sylvan, but he does know his father, the elder Sylvan. And he is he's he's a mob guy. He says something like, yeah, he's the first one into the bushes when we stormed the, I don't know, the country club or something like that. But he doesn't know what the connection,

what any connection Sylvan would have to lead Russo. But Jim sees some kind of something starting to make sense for him, but he needs to find Kenny to, I don't know, make the next, make his next move. So Jim's needs to find kenny to i don't know make the next make his next move so jim's off to find kenny we have a brief scene where he is stopped at a traffic stop a traffic stop that i've only ever seen in 70s television so i assume that's when these things happen uh just a just a temporary stop where they like check that you're registered and that your car has been i think it's like a smog thing to like to make sure you're you're not uh you know your carburetors working or whatever

yeah it's nothing i've actually experienced i've never seen one in real life yeah maybe it's a california thing yeah it could be but uh i remember i wrote this note i was like is this just a moment of irritation so this is this is one of the things about the craft of the Rockford Files. When something like this happens, I think to myself, why? Why? Yeah. And there is a why. And it pays off later.

Yeah, there is a why. But it is also kind of, it is one of those like, this didn't have to be there. Right. I don't know. It's fun enough. Jim's aggrieved because he's in a hurry and now he has to stop. And he has this line where he's like, can I just come down to the station later? But all this stuff is in order.

It's just the time delay. It's not actually stopping him to do anything. Yeah. We just go directly from there to Jim pushing Kenny around, all the lies he told and all that stuff. Kenny is telling him not to worry. The cops will find the real killer. He asks Kenny if he has a.32

and Kenny in fact does have a.32 and Jim says that he has a.38 which is the only reason he's not in jail because the Russo was killed with a.32. Kenny goes to get it at Jim's request but it is not in the drawer where he usually keeps it.

And so Jim posits that it was stolen the same time as his funny box and that it couldn't have been a setup. Kenny's like, oh, they're trying to set me up. He's like, well, if it was a setup they would have left the gun at the scene. Jim thinks that the idea was that it was supposed to be a double murder

and it looked like they killed each other because Kenny theoretically would have been delivering the $10,000, right? So Kenny messed up the plan by hiring Jim to do it. Kenny says he doesn't know who would want to kill him. Jim spins out kind of what we know as well, which is that they must have found out

that he bugged Russo. He must have heard something he wasn't supposed to. Kenny finally admits that Russo was all mopped up and that he only made it as far as he did in the entertainment business because of Paul Sylvan's backing. Kenny has this whole story about like he could have done that, too, but he didn't want to be a puppet for some salad oil czar. It's like, OK. The man's a cheese czar at the very least well i believe that this is a thinly veiled yeah racial uh epitaph uh about italians yeah assume that that's where that's coming from um jim's like okay there has to be something else but you know hey he just has this

murder rap to be someone wants kenny dead yeah so if that's not enough to motivate you to tell me what's happening that's your own problem uh jim leaves he passes maxine on his way out uh as she was getting groceries and as soon as she comes in kenny grabs the bags out of her arms and tells me to pack uh they're going to go stay with her mother. He has a call to make to take the heat off. Poor Maxine. Poor Maxine. Jim goes back to the theater. Quick shout out to the font on the theater. The Palisades.

Yeah, it was good. I like that. It was very reminiscent of The Prisoner. Oh, it is very Prisoner-esque, yes. Good locate. All the stuff like Hollywoodllywood and vine and the palisades and the grove like this is all great like yeah location la hollywood stuff right it's it's good stuff but yeah jim tracks down uh miss thompson um he uh impersonates a police officer

to ask her just a few more questions so he learns that they dated for over two years it was a steady thing because he got tired of all the like women throwing themselves at him all the time uh lee russo they're really good together it wasn't uh i forget if she says it wasn't just sex or it wasn't about sex yeah she she makes a comment i i can't tell because jim is also asking about uh About Paul. Paul, yeah. Right, so it was something like, you know, oh yeah, I know Paul. He was like a brother to Lee. They were always together. Like the three of us were always together, except when they talked business.

And he said something like, oh, that didn't get in the way of your relationship or something. And she's like, well, it wasn't just about sex. It was love and respect and good times. You know how tired a guy like lee gets with women throwing themselves at him all the time but me he took everywhere i mean even if he and paul were just going out shopping he'd take me did he take you to paul's house in the valley paul doesn't live in the valley he lives in bel air we never went there oh and you went everywhere together all the time except when he and paul had to talk business did they talk

business often yeah pretty often why what are you getting at laurie did it ever occur to you that lee russo might be homosexual so there we go that's the that's the twist well twist into a twist like this is a reveal and then i feel like the next scene is the twist. Yeah, that's definitely true. Yeah, he even asks about a house that she doesn't know about. Right, right. So that, like, empty-ish house, I think, in context, it's like, oh, that's their house where they would get together.

We cut from Jim's line there to an older guy, Sylvan Sr., looking at a picture frame, and then Paul comes in. We establish that it's his dad. And they have some loaded small talk asking about his wife and the kids. And then he quickly transitions into memories of your... I was just remembering your grandpa

Nick, with his stories from the old country. Men who loved other men. They weren't in our family because our family is real men this scene is this is the scene paul's situation in this scene uh it starts off with him maybe blindsided but then feeling out what his dad knows right right and then just straight up being like well going at it's all out. Yeah. So what happened was Kenny called his dad. Some scum named Kenny Bell. And I'm like, yes, that is exactly Kenny Bell.

Some scum. And sent him a tape of, because he'd had the bug, so he has a tape of Paul and Lee. They just say like Paul and Lee together. Yeah. He's like, but I know this can't They just say like Paul and Lee together. Yeah. He's like, but I know this can't be my son, Paul. You should deny it. Dad. You deny it to me and we'll never discuss it again ever.

Deny it. No. I'm not going to lie to you anymore. Why? Why would you do this? It's a sin. It's vile. It's perverted.

Our heritage says that it's shameful. All that has a certain piquancy to it, considering how we earn our living, don't you think? No, I don't think. Because I don't understand what them big fancy words mean! I'm just a man who worked hard every day. A man who succeeded. A man who would never shame the business

that put bread in his mouth. And more than that, I'm a man! So am I. Oh, please, huh? My reaction is a little mixed, because on the one hand this is like this is a solid scene with like good acting and i think as you said in the beginning the script gives us like the empathy in this scene is with paul yeah like his dad is clearly the one who's

out of touch who's way over react way overreacting as we learn yeah um and is like clinging to this outmoded he has this line of like this is our family this is this is our heritage or something like that like some real uh real gross stuff um but at the same time it's very broad strokes yeah like like it's kind of painting this dynamic with a very broad brush. And I get it. It's for dramatic effect. Cause this is the only time we see this character. Uh, it just comes up. It's just like,

and here this happens now. So you kind of have to give him something so that his outsized reaction makes some kind of sense. But the feeling of like, Oh, that's what this episode is. Part of that comes from like, this is like a big scene that just drops into what was kind of a beat by beat fairly standard rockford story the the title of the story is a requiem for a funny

box right like it's lots of this story is a joke but yeah there's also this other bit in this scene where at this point we have to be sure we we know that that uh paul killed or had had lee killed yeah so he says i'm not gonna shame you i'm gonna take care of this i already took care of lee i'm gonna deal with kenny bell and that detective he hired and then this all goes away yeah that's why i think like this is this is actually a really difficult scene right because uh he's in a bad situation but also the thing he just did is abhorrent right nobody in this room is a good person right yeah but also uh paul is being accused of being a bad person for the wrong reasons. Right, exactly. Paul, part of the dynamic is also Paul's like, I've tried to tell you.

We tried to have a conversation about it. You wouldn't listen. You went off on a tangent, ignored what I was trying to tell you. You were a child. Young boys, 13, 14 years old, sometimes they get confused. It's a stage. I was 17 years old, i get confused it's a stage i was 17 years old pop 17 uh so considering that this is what like a two-minute scene maybe yeah we do get that like just pure unadulterated here is an entire dynamic an entire relationship just jammed into this to that we understand where all this is coming from why this

is so dramatic why this is such a uh big turning point for paul to stand up and be like i'm not gonna lie anymore yes i love men yeah oh that's i just that's not expecting that yeah yeah it it isn't a gear grinding shift which i don't think is like i don't want to like characterize it as bad right uh it's it but it's it is uh it feels like it almost came from a different episode that just crashed into this episode and and then we'll have another one like that going in the opposite direction a little later on which is the the other like you're like oh yeah. But yeah, so the upshot is Paul says he's going to take care of Kenny and Jim. And his dad says, this filth, it'll never happen again. And Paul just leaves on the back of that.

Jim pulls up outside Kenny's house to cut him off with his bags. And he's trying to get into the car. He's like, oh, Maxine's mother is sick. We have to get on a plane immediately. And Maxine's just like, that's a lie. Yeah, Maxine! Maxine! Kenny finally admits

that yes, he bugged Lee's room to hear the material, and he knew he was gay for years. Right. It was just never a thing. But he didn't know about Paul Sylvan until he heard it on the bug that he was using to get the material. Maxine says that if Kenny doesn't go with Jim to explain the situation to Deal,

she might not be there when he gets back. Yeah. And Kenny doesn't understand. It's like, what? And Jim, to, I guess, get the final motivation for Kenny, is like, look, you can't blackmail people like the Sylvan's. Specifically, I think he said you can't blackmail people like the Sylvan's into letting you live. Yes.

Which is like, yeah, like these are people that are used to killing people. Like you could blackmail people who aren't likely to kill you because they're not likely to kill you. Right. Yeah. I think that there's like a certain logic to what he says oh yeah that's just like you need to face this yeah i guess my question is like what was kenny's i guess his plan was blackmail but like kenny called paul's dad to be like hey i know your son is gay don't let him kill me yeah was that the play that that was the play. And so I was thinking about this because there's, what's his name?

Chuck McCann, who plays Kenny. The scene where he's about to make that phone call is well done. Yeah, he looks nervous. Yeah. He's mustering up his courage to make this phone call. I don't know what his play is there. If I spent any time thinking about it, I would have guessed this dumb move. But it definitely felt like this is a thing.

This is a desperate last ditch attempt at something. This is against the idea that he's some kind of master manipulator. Yeah, exactly. I'm reacting to the last thing. I'm reacting to the last thing. Yeah. And just the way that Jim just kind of lays it bare is like you're giving them a choice of either you're telling them, don't kill me or this will get out. They'll kill you.

It won't get out if they kill you. And so, yes, Kenny goes with Jim to go explain to Deal. We see Paul with another guy in a car across the street picking them up, leaving Kenny's. And quickly, Jim sees that he's being tailed, and we have a brief car chase. I kind of expected this to be longer, actually, but it's pretty quick. There's no score to it, which is always interesting to me. We get a couple good meaty cars bumping around and making turns, which is always my favorite. I was like, hot turns and over

medians right it's like the firebird probably needed some work after this sequence because he just bumps over like two or three medians as part of it uh kenny says oh there's a police station like up wherever and jim's like no no that's too far however yes he pulls you across the median into the very traffic stop that he had been stopped at earlier in order to get brought in by the cops and thus elude the mob.

Classic Jim maneuver. It was a good, tight race. At this point, emotionally, I needed just that. I needed a chase. I needed something to... I mean, they needed something to break this up to chase i need something to i mean there needed something to break this up because now we go we go back to yeah uh to damn yeah we basically cut from there

from from jim saying hi fellas to the cops surrounding his car to the guy who was in the car with paul they stop at a payphone he calls Sr. Mr. Sylvan, you wanted me to call you when it was taken care of. Well, sir, this is very difficult for me, but you see, Paul didn't... You mean it wasn't taken care of? Yes, sir. This Rockford got Kenny Bell to the cops. Mr. Sylvan, I know this is none of my business, but what's this all about? Do it. I don't mean Paul, do you sir just do as i say and then the camera he hangs up and the camera

stays on the phone and then we just hear a shot off screen yeah uh like my notes are again not repeatable on a family podcast uh with that moment and then then we get the cut right so right so this happens his dad can't handle the idea of having a gay son so he has him executed yes and that's the resolution of that which is awful so i was thinking about this because here's the thing before we go on to the very next thing uh if it was some other secret any other secret then this is just typical like what we expect the mafia from our television shows to do right like this is uh it was like oh that's a grim end for that person but that person had this other person killed so we're for the moral count of our our episode we're good right uh but the problem is that why he's doing it is is

homophobia like it's it's not it's not it's not to protect the family the way he says it is right it is just hatred yeah even within the context of like tv mob violence yeah i don't know you snitch to the cops exactly you let something out of go out of control we lost this you know we lost this this income stream or yeah or whatever it's like okay that's all like stuff that justifies mob violence in the context of tv mob stuff right yeah and this yeah as you say it's just like it's not even personal i hate this guy yeah it just feels so like raw well he's my son but he's gay and he has the temerity to not be ashamed of it right like he he doesn't he won't cow to the demands that it stopped yeah yeah that's rough that sucks yeah because it there doesn't even really seem to be uh aside from from that there doesn't yeah like i'm not i'm actually

not even i don't want to even try looking for a motivation for this guy it's it's homophobia yeah and we so rarely get a murder in the rockford files sorry we get murders the before and after of murders this isn't on screen but it's almost on screen we just happen to be looking away at the moment it happens and that's also a little uncharacteristic of the rockford files i like i'm trying to think of another uh thing where somebody is yeah because it's not like there's a gunfight which we do see yeah but it's like yeah it's like execution essentially yeah people are rarely hit in gunfights anyways so yeah that that really had a punch to it i will say that and then as you say we throw it back into reverse for another total j turn yeah for our final scene

where we just cut to kenny and jim leaving jim's trailer with ken with Kenny thanking Jim for all his help. I mean, it's not a total tonal shift because there is some sadness here, but it's someone who's earned it. So Jim asks Kenny about Maxine, how she's doing, and he says, oh, she's doing fine. And he's like, actually, actually she left. Yeah. Like, yeah, Maxine.

Good on her. And then Rocky comes up and he's, as you said earlier, his bald, incandescent Rocky rage is at a new height because that check that Kenny wrote him. He says, that check you gave me bounced like there's no gravity in the air. That check you gave me bounced like there's no gravity in the air. Just, oh. Kenny tries to explain with some flim flam about, oh, that business manager of mine, he's always putting money in the wrong account. I'll get it straightened out.

And Jim's like, look, don't worry about it. Yeah. Don't bother, Kenny. You don't owe either one of us a thing. What are you saying? You never seen a check bounce that quick. It's okay, Rocky. Just tear it up. Kenny's already paid us. I have?

$2,000 worth. $2,000? You're not talking about the money you brought up to Moholy. Yeah, that's right. Police will be releasing it to me in 90 days, and I keep two grand for our deal, and then I promise Maxine the other eight. Might make her

a little hard to find and since kenny denied hiring jim yes and it was in jim's possession it's jim's just gonna get it yeah it's like but but i was paying you that to get back my funny box and you never got my funny box he's like you denied that there was a funny box you're on record saying there is no funny box and that you didn't hire me yes jim Jim explains how that's all going to go down. And we just fade out on Kenny's disbelieving face as everything, I guess, has crumbled out from under him and not getting his money or his funny box. Jim earned his money. Jim earned the hell out of his money. And that's the end of the episode.

So, yeah. So I guess the tonal shift is like, this is all kind of comedic Rockford Files stuff at Kenny's expense. Yeah. But it is still pretty rough because Kenny is a sad sack. Yeah. But he also deserves it. So I don't feel that bad. He really deserves it.

deserves it so i don't feel that bad he he really deserves it uh yeah this is i i think this is definitely uh we've we've encountered this a few times where uh there is a duality in a rockford files episode where the the action that has rockford in it is one thing and then the action that's occurring elsewhere is someone else but i think this is the starkest uh yeah one two that uh that i i we've we've encountered uh overall like it was a good episode i think that if i had been more prepared for if i had looked into it before i actually watched it which one could argue is my job here uh it may not have hit as hard as it did but but it's hard to say i think it's meant to hit hard though right yeah it's like when you think about it like you know for broadcast exactly you just sit down turn on the tv you're watching the roger files right

you're not doing what we're doing so right the starkness of it, I think, is very intentional. I think a little bit of it, I wonder, so this is season four, and we haven't done a season four episode in a while, but one quality about season four is that it's when the show started pushing the stories into new places and getting a little more, I hesitate to say creative because they're all creative,

but started to expand what they were interested in talking about with the show. This is the season where they won their first primetime Emmy for this season. It was Quickie and Nirvana.

I don't think the Emmys actually tell you what episode, but that's what everyone seems to say was the episode that they submitted for it or whatever. Which is the next episode after this in broadcast order. Oof. So, yeah. So here's the thing. Again, because we've been doing this out of order, here's the string of episodes.

I was just going to say, I was looking through this earlier. We have three episodes that we haven't done yet. Then we have Second Chance, which haven't done yet then we have second chance which is gandhi's second episode yeah uh which does do the thing where it like reboots gandhi's character a little bit but is still yeah about you know there's there's a lot of violence and everything then the dog and pony show which we did do in the last couple of months which is no the mental illness the episode centered around uh treating mental illness and and and another mob yeah mob situation that uh leads to some pretty dark places then this episode then quickie nirvana which we you know did a while

ago now but is one of our one of the standouts one of my favorite episodes and uh that's where it's like this whole thing about like taking responsibility for your own life and has those the those themes that are a little heavier and also has an ending that's a heavier ending so like that four episode stretch is i feel like it's almost a block of like we're gonna we're gonna play around in some new space. Yeah, yeah. And then Paper Palace is in this one. Dwarf in a Helium Hat is in this one. It ends with the house on Willis Avenue. Ends with the house on Willis Avenue, yeah.

And in the middle of it, there's the Hotel of Fear. Right, and the Queen of Peru. So it's not like this is the serious season by any means. But it does, just looking at that lineup it does seem a little bit like they're in a comfortable groove with the show let's do some let's go to some new places yeah which is good like i think most of these you know generally these are all good episodes yeah we're we're pointing out some of our favorite episodes when we talk about these so but there's kind of a quality to the season that is coming together for me you know kind of in light of this particular episode i'm like huh i hadn't really considered that before uh trying to

think like i feel like we've said so much about the episode already there isn't like a a pat wrap up of this one this is an episode i feel like is is interesting to talk about but is not one i would necessarily be like oh you have to watch this this episode. I would say that because of the subject matter, not just with the homophobia, but also with the old comedian material and whatnot, I definitely felt that knot in my stomach about like, oh, are they going to handle this wrong? And I don't think they

necessarily do so i think that's that's good but i'm also again not the person to make to to make that judgment i feel it's it's almost more interesting to me to talk about as like it is more interesting to analyze than it really is fun to watch i see what you're saying yeah because like watching it i was kind of like like I said that I kind of felt that like, woof, like sense of, of, of heaviness,

uh, while watching it. But there is enough in the text to make it interesting to talk about for a show like this, where what we're doing is talking about the episodes in detail. Uh, so, you know, I,

I think I've said multiple times, I'm not trying to say it's a bad episode, and I'm not. It's not a bad episode. It's a good episode. But it's not one that I would, that I'm excited to hear if someone else was like, oh, I watched an episode of The Rockford Files, and I'm like, oh, which one? It's a reference for a funny box. I'd be like,

what did you think? Right? Yeah. So, I don't know. Take that as you will. Thanks again to everyone, including Rebecca from our Patreon for asking us or recommending us this episode. As I just said, it was certainly a trip to talk about. And, you know, that's part of the joy of our show is finding all the directions, really, really exploring all the fun and interesting and weird and

sometimes difficult places that the show decides to go. Yeah, I would agree with that. As you just said, we have said a whole lot about this episode, but do you have any other final thoughts on Requiem for a Funny Box? I will say this, as Jim Rockford's volunteer bookkeeper. I am happy for that two grand that probably kept him going throughout the end of the year in 77. Yeah. And I hope Maxine is thriving. Yes.

Oh, I do too. That all said, I guess we will, you know, we'll take another look at our recommendations that we've gotten. You know, we'll take another look at our recommendations that we've gotten. And if you have any episodes that you would like us to talk about in particular, you can tweet us at 200pod, hit us up on the Patreon at patreon.com slash 200aday, or email us at 200adaypodcasts at gmail.com with your thoughts or shouts for what we should cover. But of course, as always, we will be back next time with another episode of The Rockford Files.