1. THE HOUSE ON WILLIS AVENUE (Two-hour episode)
    Original Air Date:
    February 24, 1978


    Synopsis.
    Rockford and greenhorn investigator Richie Brockelman probe the suspicious circumstances surrounding the accidental death of their mentor, veteran P.I. Joe Tooley, who died in the middle of a case involving a series of properties housing an extensive computer system. After questioning Tooley’s last client, political activist Albert Steever, Rockford and Richie determine that Tooley had run afoul of Garth McGregor, an electronics expert who plans to install a national computer network capable of providing access to personal information on more than 250 million Americans—for his own means. Rockford and Richie try to pull the plug on McGregor’s operation. 

    “The House on Willis Avenue” was the second pilot for the Richie Brockelman, Private Eye series, which ran in Rockford’s time period for five weeks in the spring of 1978. Stephen J. Cannell had originally introduced Richie in The Missing 24 Hours, a 1976 TV-movie starring Dennis Dugan and Suzanne Pleshette.



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