User Reviews

Rockford is looking for a missing person when his brakes go bad outside of a small town called Pastoria. Fortunately there's a tow tuck driver passing by who gives him a tow in to town. Unfortunately the tow truck driver is part of a scam that the town uses to shake down passing tourists. Before you know it, Jim is in jail facing charges of Grand Theft Auto, possession of drugs, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, bribery--whatever else you can think of.

Rockford calls on his dad, who sells his truck (!) to get bail to get Jim out of jail. The lovely Beth Davenport (Gretchen Corbett) is also quickly on hand to help. But before you know it, THEY'RE in jail too. Jim has to find someone who's not in on the scam to get his friends and himself out of trouble.

This is a very well written episode and features good performances pretty much all around-- most notably from Corbett (her scene where she is angry and frustrated about how the law is abused is a good one for her), Bill Quinn is as solid and reliable as ever and Warren Kemerling is great as the old retired sheriff who's been muscled out by the new guy (Richard Herd). Jack Garner appears briefly as the court clerk. The stunt that ends the show is nicely done as well.

While Dennis is mentioned, he does not appear in this episode, though it is his voice on the answering machine at the show's opening thanking Jim for helping him with his taxes and asking whether he wants to be on hand for the audit!

Just five episodes after Jim Rockford runs into trouble in a small town, he does so again. In general, Jim and small towns didn't get along well.

This episode having only two virtuous characters, the judge and the retired sheriff, is somewhat reminiscent of "Bad Day at Black Rock." Except Rockford doesn't have the same air of mystery about him as Spencer Tracy's character did in that film. And it's a bit more light-hearted too.

There are references to the city of Holtville, which is a real city in California, although it is unlikely that is near the fictional town of Pastoria unless a huge mountain range sprung up near the carrot capital of California.

Jim gets into another small town jam. Being this is a character driven show does the plot really matter that much? As usual, the characters and the acting are top notch. Some of the highlights are an attractive (nice mid-riff)young hotel clerk (Rita) played by Smith Wordes. There is a very nice stunt near the end of the show when Jim rigs up a cable to slice the top of a police car off! I like how the RockFord Files portrays a good share of law enforcement and the criminal justice system as being corrupt. This gives the show a more realistic feel. Having lived in a rural area myself, the small town portrayals are also pretty accurate!

It's only a few episodes since Jim's car broke down in a small town and he was first robbed of $10,000 and then wound up being arrested for murder. So when his car breaks down near little New Pastoria, maybe he should be thinking of just walking back to the nearest city. I mean, what's a few hundred miles if you have a pair of good shoes?

But, of course, he chooses to go into town and stay in a motel while he waits for his car to be repaired. Now, when he gets to the motel and sees the maid, that's when all the alarm bells should start ringing at full volume. The girl might as well have "Jailbait" tattooed all over that glorious body. Something bad is about to go down here. Could it be her?

But Jim doesn't notice anything odd. And this is where the problems really start. And they don't stop coming. Within the space of a few viewing minutes, he's been arrested for having committed pretty much every crime under the sun apart from armed terrorism, sheep bothering and eating tofu.

I start panicking. I'm sure a combination of pure bad luck and the unbelievably hot motel maid's jealous boyfriend manipulating evidence are threatening to send Jim to prison for the rest of his life. How can he possibly get out of this in the short remaining time of the episode? Will all future episodes be about Jim outsmarting mafia goons in prison and getting them sent to... other prisons?

But look! It turns out it's all an enormous racket, involving virtually the town's entire population. I breathe a sigh of relief. Now that we and Jim know that it's all about the money, I'm in no doubt that he'll come up with a clever plan to come out on top. I can concentrate on my perpetual Rockford Files task; ogling the 70s superbabes in every episode. Most unfortunately, Smith Wordes (wordsmith?) doesn't make a reappearance. But with Gretchen Corbett and Kathie Browne, I'm happy.

Sure enough, Jim finds a few good men and comes up with an impossible plan which works. The evil empire is vanquished and all the bad guys arrested, leaving the town's population standing at five people, four chickens, two skunks and Ebeneezer the goat, newly elected mayor. But they're honest people and animals. They'll make it.

Me, I march, head held high, into the camp of those who, while recognising the ever-so-slightly exaggerated nature of this episode, love it dearly and will defend it passionately.

The End.

Unbelievable but entertaining. Well I bet there is real life small town scams. The more unbelievable the story and there is a possibility that it probably happen. Jim has a car break down which set up the whole scam. A pretty girl in a hotel room, planted drugs and a sheriff set into motion a mess Jimmy needs to figure out. Well directed and acted the story hooks the viewer into the mystery. There is a build up and build up as the viewer learns more and more information about the set up. Reminds me of the movie Break Down. The ending with the police car is memorable. Pastoria Prime Pick will be remembered for the bombast story, but Pastoria Prime Pic is not a classic episode like the drill for Oil one. 7 stars out of 10.

The basic idea is that a small town makes huge sums of money sabotaging cars of passing motorists, and then framing them for crimes ranging from grand theft all the way up to murder. *Everybody* in the town is in on the scam, and no one in the higher courts of California seems to have noticed. Will Rockford be able to clear his name and right the wrongs? In the end, unsatisfying and silly, since a call to NBC or the LA Times would have been the obvious move all along. Considerably less credible than the 5 episodes prior "Great Blue Lake Land and Development Company", which required only dishonesty on the part of land company.

Now I didn't watch this in the 70s, I'm watching it for the first time now.... I love these older shows, but it's hard for me to binge the rockford files.... Once a week back when it was on the air, was most likely great..... But back to back to back? It's all the same..... Bad guys kid nap rockford..... He gets hit over the head and knocked out, he almost get killed after being threatened to be killed every episode... And somehow at the end...... It all falls into perfect place. Frame job episodes in any show are typically the worst.....