User Reviews

This episode was the second to last of the magnificent series the Rockford Files. At this time James Garner was in a phenomenal amount of physical pain from the toll that this show took on him. Garner was also deep into a lawsuit against NBC at this time. This probably explains why he makes really only a cursory appearance in this episode.

The real story revolves around two wanna be hoodlums trying to gain credibility and respect from Jersey Mobsters.

What is interesting is that this was written by David Chase who later went on to create the Sopranos. In this episode if you watch you can see the embryo of the Sopranos. Many themes that would become huge for the Sapranos:

• There is an old cranky, self-absorbed mob boss in it. This very similar to uncle Junior.

• With the young crooks trying gain cred you can see the beginnings of the Christopher Moltisanti narrative in the early season of the Spranoes. Do not for get that in season 1 Christopher had a partner named Brendan Filone.

• There is the younger mob boss who is very temperamental ala Tony.

• The Mob boss has a strong wife like Carmela.

• The younger mob boss is vying for leadership and control with the old mob boss. Is this not very like the relationship between Tony and Junior?

• The younger mob and his wife have son who is spoiled brat. This look a lot like AJ to me.

• The older mob boss has daughter who is a good girl who the mob boos wants to keep away from his life. We will see this story later in the Sopranos with Meadow.

• The real star of this episode, is not James Garner but, Greg Antonacci who would later figure prominently in the later season of the Sopranos as Butchie.

It is said of all great TV shows. How long did they last? At least one or two season longer than they should have. Maybe that is the case with the Rockford Files as seen through this episode. But it is it interesting that from the flames of the Rockford Files we can see the birth of and very early development of what would later become the Sopranos?

A few years before this episode when The Shootist came out, at the very beginning there's a guy on the desert who sees in John Wayne a likely victim for a robbery. Wayne turns the table on him and leaves him with a bullet in his side and the parting words that a life of crime "don't fit his pistol".

Well if there ever was a case of a life of crime not fitting someone's pistol it's with Greg Antonacci and Gene Davis. These two clowns who can have a decent living working in Simon Oakland's delicatessen think that they've got the right stuff to be wiseguys. But they have a positive genius for making the wrong move every time.

These two are the leads really with James Garner reduced to a supporting role in this Rockford Files episode. Garner is hired by retired mob boss Gilbert Green because he's from California and on the recommendation of his daughter. Some disturbing incidents are happening to this retired mob boss who now is into evangelism. Of course some would call that another racket, but we need not be cynical here.

Green is being pressured for a favor and you will not believe what the favor is. Like Michael Corleone they want to drag him back in, but Green is resisting.

Of course Davis and Antonacci keep making all the wrong moves because they don't know the players. I suspect in real life they would be part of the New Jersey landfill by now.

Not the best episode, but it has its amusing moments.

This episode features none of the supporting characters and Rockford appears in only a few scenes. The episode is mainly a chance for David Chase to write about New Jersey mobsters. Except this episode isn't anything like "The Sopranos". The biggest problem is that the two protagonists (the "Coupla Guys" in the title) aren't very interesting characters. They're just a coupla guys. There's not much too them. They aren't interesting. You can't tell if they are good or bad.

Rockford shows up at the Newark Airport and gets his car stolen, his luggage stolen, his watch stolen, and later his wallet and plane ticket home stolen. This kept James Garner in one set of clothes which likely made it easier on his work schedule.

I've often wondered if this was a failed pilot. If so, I am glad it was. There is no way an interesting series could have come out of this clunker of an episode.

I agree with many reviewers that say this was not a favorite episode (okay, some were more disparaging than that). I agreed with one reviewer who said that those Coupla Guys were not prime series material either.

However, because of the script (and a decent enough stable of actors) I found myself enjoying this one. Granted, I would have wanted Rockford to be a more busy participant than he was. Most of the cast, though, proved themselves to be up to the quality of the script.

No, this was not my favorite Rockford episode. Not even close. At the same time, I found myself feeling pretty darn good about the whole thing by the time the credits rolled.

For a 6th season episode, it wasn't as weak as I'd expected.

Thanks to the script, primarily.

Short note, not review: The funniest line in this episode is from Mickey and Eugene, discussing their newly acquired stolen hair dryers. "These things are really popular with the ladies, thanks to Gore Vidal." Flashback in time to the 1960's and 1970's, Gore Vidal was a famous American author. Vidal Sassoon was the person they were trying to give credit to, he was a famous British hair stylist. A great example of what idiots these two mini-mobsters were.

This was not necessarily a horrible episode, but far, far from good as the story was extremely pedestrian. Someone left a review that stated this episode might have been an introduction to what could have been a new TV show starring "just a coupla guys", the so-called "stars" of this. (Yes, there was very little of Rockford, which is bad regardless, so be forewarned.) Garner is still quite good in a limited role, but he wasn't working with much.

The main problem is, these "coupla guys" are very uninteresting and uninspiring. Furthermore, the writer couldn't seem to decide whether they were more creeps or heroes, and I use that latter term lightly. Lenny and Squiggy would have been better options, I'm not even completely joking about that. So much for starting a new series with these two characters.

Sadly, this was probably written just to finish off the series (with one more left.) It pales in comparison to those of the first two seasons, and scattered others the rest of the years. I kept waiting for it to get started, and there were certainly possibilities for it along the way, but this writer couldn't find them.

If you have watched all the episodes like I have, well, there were better days for sure. If you don't care to watch them all, do yourself a favor & take a hard pass on this one.

I'm in the minority. I like this episode. Yeah, it's a disappointment when you tune in to see Jim Garner, and he gets about ten minutes of screen time. But good writing is good writing, and David Chase is a good writer. I also laughed out loud 4-5 times while watching this episode. I remember seeing it when it originally aired, in prime time on NBC. I've watched it a half dozen times since and remember much of the dialogue word for word. Love Gilbert Green! It's easy to look back now and say the show was running out of steam, but I've been watching season 6 on dvd for the first time in ages, and the quality remained consistently high. There were plans in place to finish the season, which would have meant ten more episodes. Then things bet fuzzy. Garner is exhausted from filming the show and fighting with Universal over money. He checks into a hospital. The shows goes on an unexpected hiatus. Universal sued him for breech of contract. NBC quickly announces Garner will star in a reboot of 'Maverick' and 'Rockford' just falls by the wayside, never going back into production. Summing up: Mickey & Eugene are idiots but the writing is smart and the pacing is swift. Endings are never pretty.

I'm working my way through the complete rockford files bluray boxset and just tried to watch this episode.

I had to turn this drivel off.

Season 6 was a massive drop in quality with so many duds but I managed to watch them all until this one.

All I will say is that it's a good job this one brilliant series came to an abrupt end.

Avoid this episode.

While I agree with the criticism of this particular episode, and how Rockford is basically reduced to a secondary character, I would recommend you give this one a chance, as the story is still fairly complex with some solid writing, and decent performances. Eugene and Mickey(Greg Antonacci and Gene Davis)make their 2nd appearance, although it was unrelated to a prior episode when they were very unlikable, and pestered poor Rocky; both Gilbert Green and Antony Ponzini give credible performances, and look for a scene or 2 from Simon Oakland(Night Stalker)and actress Robin Riker. Shortly after Rockford is being told by a fellow airplane passenger how nice Newark is, his watch, rental car, and luggage are stolen, and he's even mugged later in the episode. It's obvious to me that over the 6 seasons of this show, Newark is never looked upon nicely, and every hood the show produced seemed to originate from that city. Something that may or may not stand out is that this is the next to last episode of this great series, and it's filmed entirely on location, which was a letdown however. The 2 "hustlers" try everything in their limited power to be part of a crew, and have the worst luck. In this instance, they vow to help Mr. Lombard(Green)locate his kidnapped daughter Renee(Lisa Bowman), and to locate, although I don't recall why, a corpse which has been dead for a few days and kept in storage for proper burial, which the church won't allow; there's a good scene between Lombard and a Cardinal regarding the dead body, although I'm not sure why Lombard wants a proper burial for a rival gangster's(Tony Martine)cousin, but is turned down. Eugene and Mickey locate the body in Martine's storage room, and survive being shot at again, and the police come and save the day, and locate Renee in Martine's store, although I'm not quite sure why she was kidnapped to begin with. Lastly, a few tidbits worth mentioning is that Rockford has shorter hair; maybe since 1980 is around the corner, he decided to lose the 70's hair? I was quite surprised to hear Bruce Springsteen's name mentioned at the end when Mickey says he's going to see the concert with Renee in Boston. After a slow start, the episode picks up steam, and maybe James Garner was mailing it in, knowing that the end of the series was weeks away, as he didn't really do anything of consequence this time around, but it's not that obvious, just a random observation from this reviewer, and I do recommend for any fan of the series.

I also agree with the consensus of this being one of the worst of The Rockford Files, and, I'm not going to g to repay what's already been said - about this being a script by David Chase, and yes, you do see the embers of what would become The Sopranos, ex.

I know that Mr garner was in a lot of pain, as well as the lawsuit over the series, and, it left the people (left) in charge with very little to do.

I mean, if Rockford, of The ROCKFORD Files isn't available, what can you do - and on such short notice.

If you aren't familiar with how TV shows are made, the scripts are planned in advance, and the cast goes through it (a 'read-through') on,y shortly before filming, and on network shows at this time, this was usually only a couple of weeks before airing.

So, again - what could've been done - another Lance White? Richie Brockleman (although, I can't recall if his series had aired - and died - by this time)? Though, I would've liked another Marcus Hayes (this time, with Gandy working with him...)

Personally, I think a show focusing on Angel, Dennis, and, Rocky, stuck in the midst of it would've been not just preferable, but, would've been very good (I know Stuart Margolin didn't want to be tied to doing a network series, so, if it had been filmed - and was (undoubtedly) funny, and popular, the NBC brass would've wanted to do just that.

So, I think it's without argument that David Chase is a talented writer, and, they must've asked him to build up an already-written episode which cantered on Jim, but, to re-focus on others, and, since he'd already used the characters of Mickey and Eugeme, whales could he really do?

There also the financial issue, because letting the two actors be the major thrust of the episode meant the pay would've been a lot less, than, if it had been the regular supporting cast (one aside about the actor who plays Mickey: if he looks 'familiar'

OK, so, so far, I think I've done a quite fair job at explaining what I think happened.

I think - gibes these circumstances - Chase could've really buffed up the episode a LOT more, because, in essence, this was HIS moment to put HIS writing abilities on display, and, true - the germs of The Sopranos is here, but, Mickey and Eugene are still such...noodniks.

One other thing - in regard to the 'religion' in this, and, in particular to some person ('yortsnave') who wrote how he(?)'s happy they showed 'evangelical' Christians a positive light.

There Buddhists, b'hais, Mormons, different 'flavours' of Judaism,as there are of Christianity. There's voodoo, there's Mormonism, and the Muslims, and on, and on.

In the past two, decades, what was once a good, fair place - for all, has become a place where it's 'freedom!' But, just as long as YOU believe what I do.

The religious right co-opted the Republican Party of the U.S., and a country - which was once a 'meting pot,' became a country of specific groups - all out to 'get their' religion to be 'the' religion.'

They made the region in this episode what they did, because - the U.S. was at this time, STILL a melting pot, and not a bunch of lunatics all trying to have everyone believe as they do... even though this is a country of FREEDOM of RELIGION (as well as NON religion).

In counter to 'yortsnave,' I'll say this; how'd you feel, if they'd shown., Lutherans/Orthodox Jews p/Buddhists (let's say Shinto, to be specific), or ANY other religion.

Would you've been so quick to say such nonsense, or is it because they mentioned YOUR brand of religion? See I don't think your religion is 'the' religion, any more would anyone not of (your) like mind, and, honestly, it's because of people who think like you do, who don't eve. Realise how similar you are to radical Muslims. They're JUST as fervent, and, though this is not the place for a political debate, I'd be just as offended if ANYONE - a so- called 'do-gooder' - showed up and tried to 'casually' (wink-wink) shove THEIR religion down my children's, or families throat - in a place which has NOTHING to do with YOUR beliefs.

Most of the major wars in the era since the Dark Ages have fought over religion. Ones beliefs - in a democracy - are theirs, and theirs ALONE - between their belief and themselves. PERIOD.

Most people - most sane people, who understand this, and still mourn what these SAME idiots who bemoan what 'this country's become,' are the very ones who ARE a BIG cause of the problem.

It WAS a melting pot. Now, anyone who doesn't believe like you is 'wrong.'

Guess what? I think exactly the same. Difference is, I know enough tokens MY beliefs JUST that.

Unless I missed it or made a mistake, Jim Bailey (actor, singer, famous female impersonator) did not appear in this episode. I looked and looked again-could not find him. Apparently, he was playing the part of himself in this episode. An internet search did not help.