Nathan and Eppy talk about S5E15: Guilt. The woman that Jim almost married calls him out of the blue - someone is trying to kill her! Jim has to handle not only the puzzle of her mysterious assailant, but also how Valerie uses their past relationship to get what she wants out of him. The title of the episode is indeed the main emotional theme, and we find it to be a well-told but, in some ways, difficult story. It does have perhaps the most spectacular vehicle chase we've seen so far, though! We...
Sep 29, 2019•2 hr 33 min•Ep 57•Transcript available on Metacast This is our latest Plus Expenses episode, the show we release to our patrons over at our Patreon . Plus Expenses is our pre-show chatter, where we catch up with each other and talk about other media we've been into and what's going on in our lives as self-employed game designers. In this episode, we talk about: Amazon and capitalism, pricing games, Youtube radicalization, the Star Wars Minute podcast , Godzilla, meat shields vs jobbers, pro wrestling in Japan, a book of essays on David Chase , t...
Sep 15, 2019•45 min•Ep 56•Transcript available on Metacast Nathan and Eppy take a look at the first two-part episode from the first season, Profit and Loss (E12 and 13). Starring Ned Beatty as the villainous CEO of a fraudulent investment firm, this two-parter is very much one linear story through both episodes. Though it features a number of wonderful Jim Rockford moments, and gives us a lot of good Rocky material, we can't help but feel like the big climax is a bit of a let-down given the extensive buildup. On the other hand, it does have perhaps the ...
Aug 25, 2019•2 hr 54 min•Ep 55•Transcript available on Metacast Nathan and Eppy are super excited to welcome Gigi Garner, daughter of James Garner and animal rescuer, to the show! We talk to Gigi about the James Garner Animal Rescue Fund she recently launched, get some of her reflections on the Rockford Files and her father's legacy, and hear some great stories! We then answer questions from our patrons and listeners, including the monumental task of picking a favorite episode! Make a donation to JGARF.org Pick up a "What Would Jimbo Do?" shirt Follow Gigi o...
Aug 04, 2019•2 hr 50 min•Ep 54•Transcript available on Metacast Nathan and Eppy talk about S2E12 The Reincarnation of Angie. Jim gets a call from the panicked Angie, concerned about a mysterious call from her now-missing brother Tom. Things escalate after they find half a million in cash in Tom's wall safe, and Jim calls in a friend from the FBI to help track down what happened to Tom, and why someone is now after Angie. A curious episode that showcases Jim's tradecraft, we found that it has a bit of a mismatch between the emotional beats and the narrative, ...
Jul 28, 2019•2 hr 34 min•Ep 53•Transcript available on Metacast Nathan and Eppy talk about the first appearance of Rita Moreno on The Rockford Files in S4E16 The Paper Palace. When a pair of French-speaking tough guys assault Moreno's character, Rita Capkovic, the police don't seem very interested in helping out a known prostitute. While Dennis is a friend, she ends up hiring Jim to find out why anyone would want to hurt her - and when one of her only other friends, an elderly woman, is killed, it ups the stakes of the mystery. This episode shines as a nuanc...
Jul 14, 2019•2 hr 31 min•Ep 52•Transcript available on Metacast Nathan and Eppy discuss S3E5 Drought at Indianhead River. Jim gets a tip that Angel's life is in danger, but "Angelo" is too high on his newfound success in real estate to take the threat seriously. Determined to save Angel despite himself, Jim drags him along as he fends off both the mob and the cops to try and figure out why his friend is on a hit list. A wonderful showcase of the Angel-Rockford relationship, focusing on just how much Jim can take, we really like this one! It has some unexamin...
Jun 30, 2019•2 hr 32 min•Ep 51•Transcript available on Metacast To celebrate our 50th episode, Nathan and Eppy discuss the third 90s Rockford Files TV movie: If The Frame Fits... This feels like the first true reunion movie, as it features not only Angel and Dennis, but Chapman, Diehl and, triumphantly, a returning Beth Davenport! Jim has been framed for the murder of another PI, and this movie hums right along just like the best of the 70s shows as he figures out what's going on while on the run from the law. Our favorite so far! While the story and script ...
Jun 16, 2019•2 hr 44 min•Ep 50•Transcript available on Metacast Nathan and Eppy discuss S4E4 Second Chance. Following up on our last episode (The Hammer of C Block), we visit the final Gandalf Fitch episode to see how the character has been handled since that debut. Gandy seems to have found a niche for himself bouncing at nightclubs, but when he decides to manage the career of a promising lounge singer (played by Dionne Warwick), he ends up hit on the head and chasing down ghosts from the past - and, of course, turns to Jim for help. Also featuring a compli...
May 26, 2019•2 hr 33 min•Ep 49•Transcript available on Metacast Nathan and Eppy discuss the first appearance of Isaac Hayes as Gandolf Fitch in Season Two's The Hammer of C Block. Gandy has been in prison for 20 years for a murder he swears he didn't commit, and since Jim owes him money from their time together in the slammer, his first stop is Rockfish's trailer. The plot of this one revolves around discovering the truth behind the murder of Lila, Gandy's ex-girlfriend; but what we struggled with as we watched is how Gandy is, at root, the actual villain of...
Apr 28, 2019•2 hr 32 min•Ep 48•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to Twenty Dollars a Day, the podcast where we explore our favorite fictional characters in the Star Trek: TNG universe! Nathan and Eppy discuss the second appearance of holographic Prof. Moriarty in S6E12 Ship in a Bottle. Data and Geordie are just trying to enjoy some simple Sherlock Holmes programs on the holodeck, but there's some kind of fluctuation - and when Reg Barkley takes a look, it allows Moriarty to escape the hell of being trapped in system memory. He quickly launches a plan...
Apr 01, 2019•1 hr 12 min•Ep 47•Transcript available on Metacast Nathan and Eppy discuss S1E16 Counter Gambit. Jim is hired by an unsavory acquaintance to find a woman, which he quickly realizes is a cover for some kind of valuable that this woman may or may not have with her. Once Jim does find her, however, the situation quickly becomes more complicated. This is a con game episode, and we really enjoyed the twists and turns of the con, and (as titled) the counter-con. Of particular delight is the first regular-season appearance of Angel Martin! If you can s...
Mar 24, 2019•1 hr 20 min•Ep 46•Transcript available on Metacast Nathan and Eppy cover our second two-parter episode, a Season Three gem featuring notable character actor Strother Martin as the titular T.T. Flowers, an elderly farmer who refuses to sell his land to a predatory real estate developer. Through a scheme involving his shady son-in-law and an ethically bankrupt psychiatrist, T.T. is hauled off against his will to a mental institution; but Rocky knows that something isn't right. Once he get Jim on the case, it's just a matter of time until he starts...
Feb 25, 2019•2 hr 9 min•Ep 45•Transcript available on Metacast Nathan and Eppy talk about S5E5 Kill the Messenger. Our good friend Dennis Becker is under a lot of pressure - not only does he have his Lieutenants exam coming up, the wife of the deputy chief police commissioner is murdered, and he gets assigned the case. Jim tries to help, but everything he uncovers about this murder just makes it harder for Dennis in one way or another. A spotlight episode for Becker, it really showcases Joe Santos's hold on the character, and we get to see some big changes ...
Jan 27, 2019•1 hr 24 min•Ep 44•Transcript available on Metacast Nathan and Eppy talk about S2E22 A Bad Deal in the Valley. After an old girlfriend saddles Jim with a briefcase full of counterfeit cash, he has to figure out what her con is before the Feds get to him... or her. A solid, but unremarkable episode overall that shares many threads with other others we've talked about so far. We feel like it's a great introduction to the Rockford Files vibe, and fun to watch by itself, but it doesn't do anything in particular better than any other episode of the sh...
Dec 23, 2018•1 hr 13 min•Ep 43•Transcript available on Metacast Nathan and Eppy discuss S6E10 The Big Cheese. Jim gets a phone call from a reporter friend telling him to expect something in the mail... just as he's murdered! He doesn't know what it is, but it's something that a crooked union boss wants to get ahold of. And when the package is finally delivered... well, it really "sharpens" the mystery (it's a wheel of cheese!). This is a remarkable episode in how it handles considerable back-and-forth tone shift between grittiness and humor - and it also rev...
Nov 25, 2018•2 hr 34 min•Ep 42•Transcript available on Metacast Your hosts Nathan and Eppy have a short conversation about what's changed over the course of the podcast so far, what has surprised us about the show, and what we're thinking about for the future. It happens to be Thanksgiving, so we also take a moment to say thank you for listening. Thanks so much! Want more Rockford Files trivia, notes and ephemera? Check out the Two Hundred a Day Rockford Files Files ! Support the podcast by subscribing at patreon.com/twohundredaday . Big thanks to our Gumsho...
Nov 22, 2018•33 min•Ep 41•Transcript available on Metacast To celebrate our 40th episode, Nathan and Eppy take a look at the second Rockford Files TV movie, 1995's A Blessing In Disguise. The premise is that Angel has become a televangelist preacher, so it's worth watching for that alone! Though padded out in some odd ways to our eyes, this movie really showcases how rock-solid Garner and Margolin are in their roles as Jim and Angel, no matter how much time has passed since the original show. As a 2-hour TV movie, we use our entire episode to go through...
Oct 28, 2018•2 hr 42 min•Ep 40•Transcript available on Metacast Nathan and Eppy discuss S3E22 Dirty Money, Black Light. Rocky finally gets a break and wins a vacation in Hawaii - but once he's gone, starts receiving thousands of dollars in cash in the mail. Jim, worried that he's been tricked into a scam, has to hustle to figure out what's going on and why in this episode full to the brim with crooks, loan sharks, feds, Angel, Dennis AND Beth! One of the Stuart Margolin-directed episodes, there's so much packed into this episode that some of the threads are ...
Sep 30, 2018•2 hr 31 min•Ep 39•Transcript available on Metacast Nathan and Eppy discuss S1E7 The Big Ripoff. Jim goes on a European jaunt to track down the truth about a widow who received a big insurance payout, but his client doesn't buy his conclusion that the husband is still alive. Trying to figure out a way to get paid for his work, Jim goes to the insurance company, leading him to yet another town in California to prove that Steve Nelson is still alive. We felt a very strong "back to basics" vibe with this episode, which features a fantastically tight...
Aug 26, 2018•1 hr 24 min•Ep 38•Transcript available on Metacast Nathan and Eppy discuss S4E14 The Attractive Nuisance. Rocky has started a road-side restaurant, but a mysterious figure keeps prowling around the place. Simultaneously, Jim is being threatened by a lawsuit from a guy who climbed onto his trailer to look at the interesting telescope that was up there. In trying to keep Rocky out of trouble and also track down why his roof was REALLY so interesting, both Rockfords are caught up in a knotty situation with roots in the Prohibition era mob/FBI confl...
Jul 29, 2018•2 hr 32 min•Ep 37•Transcript available on Metacast Nathan and Eppy discuss S4E9 The Mayor's Committee from Deer Lick Falls. A group of stand-up citizens from Deer Lick Falls, Michigan employ Jim to find them a firetruck, but of course that's just a cover for their real intent: hiring a hit man! Once Jim rejects their offer, he needs to find the niece who's the target and try to convince the various bureaucracies involved that these "black-belts in respectability" have murder on their mind. A memorable episode that approaches the Rockford Files f...
Jun 30, 2018•2 hr 32 min•Ep 36•Transcript available on Metacast Nathan and Eppy discuss S5E8. We finally meet Angel's brother-in-law Aaron as he's being feted as the new Police Commissioner - but a cadre of socialist revolutionaries breaks up the party and steals the art of the hosts, John & Jeff, right off the walls! Jim is hired to track down the paintings while the police conduct their own investigation, but each thing Jim discovers leads to new questions. He has to untangle a dense web of motivations to solve this one, an effort hindered by Angel's newly...
Jun 17, 2018•2 hr 31 min•Ep 35•Transcript available on Metacast Nathan and Eppy finally venture into Season 6 to discuss E7 Nice Guys Finish Dead. Featuring a returning Tom Selleck as Lance White alongside the also-returning James Whitmore Jr as Freddie Beamer, this comedic episode is all about watching these strong, counterpointed characters collide. Jim and Lance are trying to clear Beamer from being blamed for a murder that occurred right in the middle of a PI association conference! While this episode does have a lot of good gags and character work, it f...
May 27, 2018•2 hr 31 min•Ep 34•Transcript available on Metacast Nathan and Eppy discuss S4E19 The Competitive Edge. Hired to track down the disappearance of a bank executive by his wife, Jim stumbles upon the secret of an exclusive "health club" The Alphian Way, leading to his own abduction to a rural mental health institution! While leaning a little too hard on the comedic portrayal of the mentally ill, this episode is a tightly-plotted piece with a wonderfully broad cast of character actors, and we find a lot to like inside the fantastical story. Want more...
May 13, 2018•2 hr 32 min•Ep 33•Transcript available on Metacast Nathan and Eppy are joined by special guest Jess Banks to discuss one of the most memorable, and perhaps influential, episodes of The Rockford Files: S3E7 So Help Me God. Jim is called before a grand jury to testify about a case he knows nothing about, and when he invokes his Fifth Amendment rights he is jailed on contempt of court! This "issue episode" dramatizes the use of grand juries to compel witness testimony and exploit the mechanisms of justice to deprive innocent people of their rights,...
Apr 29, 2018•2 hr 33 min•Ep 32•Transcript available on Metacast Want more Rockford Files trivia, notes and ephemera? Check out the Two Hundred a Day Rockford Files Files ! Support the podcast by subscribing at patreon.com/twohundredaday . Big thanks to our Gumshoe patrons! Check them out: Richard Hatem Victor DiSanto John Adamus, The Writer Next Door Lowell Francis's Age of Ravens gaming blog Kevin Lovecraft and the Wednesday Evening Podcast Allstars Mike Gillis and the Radio vs. The Martians Podcast And thank you to Dael Norwood, Shane Liebling, Dylan Winsl...
Apr 15, 2018•2 hr 31 min•Ep 31•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to Twenty Dollars a Day, the podcast where we explore our favorite fictional characters in the Star Trek: TNG universe! Nathan and Eppy discuss the character of Dixon Hill as introduced in S1E11 The Big Goodbye. When Captain Picard decides to destress by bringing up his favorite noir detective program on the newly upgraded holodeck, it all seems like fun and games - until a remote probe sends things haywire and the fictional and real dangers facing the Enterprise start to converge. This ...
Apr 01, 2018•1 hr 17 min•Ep 30•Transcript available on Metacast Nathan and Eppy discuss S4E12 The Queen of Peru. Rockford is trying to handle an insurance company client recover a stolen diamond, but things go pear-shaped as the crooks try to pull a fast one and the diamond ends up in... the RV of a family from Indiana? The Wronkos steal Jims grill, where the diamond happens to be, and well things just spiral from there. This comedic episode combines a sparking David Chase script with some great characters, and is rightly considered a Rockford Files classic....
Mar 18, 2018•2 hr 31 min•Ep 29•Transcript available on Metacast Nathan and Eppy discuss S5E12 Local Man Eaten by Newspaper. Jim goes undercover at a scandal rag to figure out why his client, a doctor to the famous, has been burgled; meanwhile, a local mob boss is facing pressure from inside the family due to rumors spread by that very newspaper. This episode features two separate storylines that intertwine as the pressure mounts on each side, focusing on the increasing dissolution of Natalie, the woman driving her husband Augie to take over the mob family. T...
Feb 25, 2018•1 hr 29 min•Ep 28•Transcript available on Metacast 
