1. THE PAPER PALACE
    Original Air Date:     January 20, 1978
    Synopsis. EGOT winner Rita Moreno stars as Rita Capkovic, a career prostitute who aches for genuine friendship: She’s so lonely that she often wheels an empty cart around a supermarket just to socialize with other people. After meeting Rockford at a disastrous dinner party with Dennis and Peggy Becker, Rita finds herself needing his help after two French-speaking men nearly kill her. Rita Moreno won an Emmy for her performance in this episode. That made her one of just three actresses—Barbra Streisand and Helen Hayes being the other two—to be honored with all four major awards in the entertainment industry: the Emmy, the Grammy, the Oscar, and the Tony. (Colloquially speaking, that feat is known in the trades as an EGOT.)

    In accepting the Emmy for “The Paper Palace,” Moreno thanked James Garner, executive producer Meta Rosenberg, producer Charles Floyd Johnson, and particularly singled out the writer of the episode—Juanita Bartlett—as “a lady who really knows how to write about ladies.” We’ll see Moreno again as Rita in “Rosendahl and Gilda Stern Are Dead” and “No-Fault Affair,” both of which were also written by Juanita Bartlett.

    LEARN MORE about this episode in the revised third edition of 45 YEARS OF THE ROCKFORD FILES, featuring more than sixty new pages of never before published information about both the original Rockford Files and the CBS reunion movies, including twenty new interviews and six new appendices. 25 percent of the net proceeds from the sales of 45 YEARS OF THE ROCKFORD FILES will be donated to The James Garner Animal Rescue Fund, a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising funds to help rescue organizations, shelters, individuals, fosters, and veterans with emergencies, evacuations, medical care, adoptions, training, pet supplies, shelter, rehabilitation, boarding, transportation, food, and other pressing needs. JGARF is one way for Garner fans to honor Jim’s memory and extend his legacy. Plus… if you order 45 YEARS OF THE ROCKFORD FILES directly from Black Pawn Press, you will receive an exclusive bonus gift. Go to Rockford45.com for more details.