The BEST episodes of The Rockford Files
Every episode of The Rockford Files ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of The Rockford Files!
Emmy® winner James Garner stars as the offbeat Jim Rockford, an ex-con-turned-private-investigator who would rather fish than fight but whose instinct on closed cases is more golden than his classic Pontiac Firebird. From his mobile home in Malibu, this wisecracking private eye takes you on the cases of the lost and the dispossessed, chasing down seemingly long-dead clues in the sun-baked streets and seamy alleys of Los Angeles.
#1 - The House on Willis Avenue (2)
Season 4 - Episode 22 - Aired 2/24/1978
Jim and Ritchie continue to investigate their mentor's death and follow leads to a massive computer data storage company who have a plot in a desert canyon.
#2 - The House on Willis Avenue (1)
Season 4 - Episode 21 - Aired 2/24/1978
When his mentor is found dead in a road accident, Jim teams up with young P.I. Ritchie Brockleman following up leads on a murder and find a lot more than they bargained for.
#3 - Irving the Explainer
Season 4 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/18/1977
The legacy of a famous director haunts Rockford as he digs into the man's past and discovers Nazi sympathies and a missing painting worth millions.
#4 - The Girl in the Bay City Boys Club
Season 2 - Episode 13 - Aired 12/19/1975
Posing as a newspaperman, Rockford goes undercover in a charity gambling operation that his client believes is rigged. When investigation leads him to the district attorney's office, Rockford realizes that the odds are stacked against him.
#5 - White on White and Nearly Perfect
Season 5 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/20/1978
Jim works with Lance White, a fellow who is so perfect it seems unreal, when investigating the kidnapping of the daughter of a prominant weapons industrialist...
#6 - Chicken Little is a Little Chicken
Season 2 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/14/1975
The situation is anything but heavenly when Rockford's old cellmate leads him to an underworld of gangsters and gambling. When the two become the target of a mob boss, they hope a fake funeral will be the answer to their prayers.
#7 - The Competitive Edge
Season 4 - Episode 19 - Aired 2/10/1978
Crazy is as crazy does, and Rockford's heading for the mental ward when a health club doctor unmasks his top-secret cover and attributes his weird behavior to psychological problems.
#8 - Quickie Nirvana
Season 4 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/11/1977
Rockford thinks he's doing a good deed when he allows a hippie girl camping outside his trailer to use his mailing address. But their harmonious relationship comes to a jarring end when thugs working for a high-powered attorney come to call.
#9 - Never Send a Boy King to Do a Man's Job (1)
Season 5 - Episode 20 - Aired 3/3/1979
Jim helps Ritchie Brockleman set up a big con in order to retrieve money which the villain extorted from Ritchie's father.
#10 - A Deadly Maze
Season 4 - Episode 13 - Aired 12/23/1977
The pressure is on when a bizarre scientist asks Rockford to look into the disappearance of his wife in order to study Rockford's reaction to frustration.
#11 - The No-Cut Contract
Season 2 - Episode 15 - Aired 1/16/1976
Rockford finds himself in a fixed game when a small-time pro quarterback implicates him in a blackmail ploy. Wanted by both the feds and the mob, Rockford struggles to clear his name.
#12 - The Italian Bird Fiasco
Season 2 - Episode 19 - Aired 2/13/1976
Posing as an art dealer, Rockford purchases a rare sculpture of a bird for a client. When he is attacked leaving the auction, he realizes that he's just flown into a flock of trouble.
#13 - The Hammer of C Block
Season 2 - Episode 14 - Aired 1/9/1976
Gandy Fitch, Rockford's former cellmate, is released from prison after serving twenty years for the murder of his wife. Still claiming his innocence, he hires Rockford to track down the real killer.
#14 - The Reincarnation of Angie
Season 2 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/5/1975
Believing that her stockbroker brother has been abducted by the mob, a bookkeeper hires Rockford. But once he's on the case, Rockford finds himself the object of another investigation, the feds'.
#15 - In Hazard
Season 2 - Episode 18 - Aired 2/6/1976
When she finds herself in jail, Beth realizes that her clients have ties to the underworld. With her life in danger, she desperately turns to Rockford for help.
#16 - The Real Easy Red Dog
Season 2 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/31/1975
Nothing is as it seems when Rockford is duped by a beautiful private eye who uses him as a decoy to deceive the police. What starts off as a suicide investigation leads to stolen jewels, missing babies and murder.
#17 - The Oracle Wore a Cashmere Suit
Season 3 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/1/1976
Rockford is double-crossed by the supernatural when a psychic points to him as the potential killer of a suddenly wealthy dope pusher.
#18 - Hotel of Fear
Season 4 - Episode 10 - Aired 12/2/1977
Angel's living the high life in return for his testimony against a hit man. But does living in the lap of luxury mean he'll pay the ultimate price?
#19 - Never Send a Boy King to Do a Man's Job (2)
Season 5 - Episode 21 - Aired 3/3/1979
The con continues and proves successful when one of the fellow con-artists appears to make of with the check.
#20 - A Material Difference
Season 5 - Episode 19 - Aired 2/24/1979
Angel poses a high priced hitman but Jim must help when he collects his fee without making his hit, but the victim is apparently still killed, whilst Naval Intellegence and the Russians take an interest in the case and blue jeans...
#21 - Dwarf in a Helium Hat
Season 4 - Episode 17 - Aired 1/27/1978
A wrong-number phone call has Rockford rushing to find and protect its intended recipient, Jay Rockfelt, from imminent kidnapping and death.
#22 - Drought at Indianhead River
Season 3 - Episode 5 - Aired 11/5/1976
Rockford's former cellmate strikes it rich in real estate, but when his underworld connections take offense, it's up to Rockford to get them both to safer ground.
#23 - Counter Gambit
Season 1 - Episode 17 - Aired 1/24/1975
Jim is hired by a former prison mate to recover a pearl necklace stolen by his girlfriend, and after locating it, Jim is charged with stealing it and so must ask the victim and his old friend Angel to help him out...
#24 - The Mayor's Committee from Deer Lick Falls
Season 4 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/25/1977
A group of small-town citizens are hiding a much bigger crime when they hire Rockford first to find their fire truck—and then to find and dispose of one of their former residents.
#25 - To Protect and Serve (2)
Season 3 - Episode 20 - Aired 3/18/1977
Rockford hides the missing woman on a boat, but her location is compromised when the police groupie reveals information to mobster thugs.