- ONLY ROCK ‘N’ ROLL WILL NEVER DIE (Part 1)
Original Air Date: October 19, 1979
Synopsis. Pop music superstar Tim Ritchie (played by Kristoffer Tabori), already facing a palimony lawsuit by his former live-in girlfriend Diane Bjornstrom, hires Rockford to locate his record producer and longtime friend Bryan Charles, who disappeared after they had a major dispute seven days earlier. Jim learns that Charles supplied Evergreen Management, a rival record label run by mobster Bernie Seldon, with bootlegged copies of Ritchie’s latest LP Renegade Lotion—a move that has cost Ritchie’s company $1.4 million in profits. The matter turns to murder when Rockford finds Charles buried in the back yard of his own home.Marcia Strassman (Welcome Back, Kotter, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids) later played Dr. Trish George in Friends and Foul Play, the fifth of the eight Rockford telefilms that James Garner produced for CBS in the late 1990s. George Loros previously appeared as tightly-wound mobster “Anthony Boy” Gagglio in “To Protect and Serve” and “The Man Who Saw the Alligators” and as equally paranoid hitman Tommy Lorentz in “The Dog and Pony Show.”
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
Ed Robertson
Author ● Journalist ● Radio Host ● Collaborative Writer
Daily Archives: October 19, 2024
This Date in MAVERICK TV History: Efrem Zimbalist Jr. stars as Dandy Jim Buckley in “High Card Hangs,” airing Oct. 19, 1958. MAVERICK: LEGEND OF THE WEST: Revised Third Edition is now available both as an eBook and in softcover paperback through Black Pawn Press
- HIGH CARD HANGS
Original Airdate: October 19, 1958
Synopsis. Bart and Dandy Jim Buckley join a mining camp in the Black Hills, where they await an opportunity to play poker with the other miners. While panning for gold, they meet prospector Genessee Jones, who has $8,000 in gold dust. But Jones is also a card shark who relieves Bart, Mike Manning and Joe Hayes (two other miners) of all their money. When Jones is found dead, Bart, Manning, and Hayes become the likely suspects. Knowing they all will hang unless the real killer confesses, Bart proposes that the three of them cut cards, and that whoever draws the high card must confess to the crime. When Bart wins the draw, he apparently faces the gallows—but it’s all part of a plan that he hopes will lead him to the real killer.
Bart’s relationship with Buckley is nowhere near as antagonistic as brother Bret’s. Bret’s associations with Dandy Jim are always against his will; even when he does side with Buckley, he never lets his guard down (he usually addresses Buckley by his last name). While Bart knows that Buckley is slippery, he not only seems less guarded with Jim, but seems to enjoy a genuine friendship (Bart often calls Buckley “Dandy”). This plays out in later episodes. In “Shady Deal at Sunny Acres,” for example, it is Bart who enlists Buckley in the con game that helps Bret get his money back.
