'David B must have the best agent in Hollywood': the Rockford Files reboot proves it
NBC set a January premiere date for its Rockford Files revival. The safest bet on network television isn't the 52-year-old IP — it's the man playing Jim Rockford.
NBC's The Rockford Files now has a date: a special preview on January 2 right after the network's NFL coverage, then its regular Thursday 8 p.m. slot from January 7, leading into the Law & Order block, with episodes on Peacock next day. David Boreanaz plays James Rockford, fresh out of prison for a crime he didn't commit and rebuilding his PI business in Los Angeles. Michaela McManus, Ilfenesh Hadera, and Jacki Weaver co-star; Mike Daniels runs the show for Universal Television.
Strip away the vintage title and look at what NBC actually bought. Boreanaz has been a broadcast lead without interruption since the Clinton administration: the vampire Angel on Buffy from 1997 and his own spinoff through 2004, FBI agent Booth for twelve seasons of Bones, Bravo 1 on SEAL Team from 2017. Networks don't get that from stars anymore — film actors visit TV for limited series and leave, and franchises burn through leads. A man who carries procedurals for decades at a time is the scarcest asset in the business, and the fans pricing this reboot understood it instantly:
"David B must have the best agent in Hollywood. TVs leading man for what almost 30 years straight now?"
— a commenter on r/television
The envy is just arithmetic.
Vampire, FBI agent, Navy SEAL, private investigator: four leading roles, thirty years, zero cancellations that stuck to him.
The parts of Rockford that can't be recast
What NBC still has to prove is that it bought The Rockford Files for a reason beyond the trademark. The 1974 original ran on texture: James Garner's Rockford was a laid-back ex-con who'd rather talk than punch, lived in a beat-up Malibu trailer, and opened every episode with a joke message on his answering machine over Mike Post's harmonica theme — a theme so beloved it hit the Billboard top 10.
The early signs at least show homework. NBC's launch stunt is a Jim Rockford hotline — a recorded Boreanaz message in the spirit of the original answering-machine gags, the same trick Better Call Saul ran with Saul Goodman's number.
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The pilot logline, though, is standard prestige-procedural armor: wrongful conviction, police friction, organized crime. The original's whole charm was that the stakes were low and the lead was broke. Keep the harmonica and the laziness, and this runs five seasons; polish it into another grim crime drama, and it's The Equalizer with a classic-rock title. The fanbase has already issued its terms:
"If they don't use the old theme we riot."
NBC has until January 2 to reveal which show it actually made. The hotline stunt says at least somebody in Burbank knows what the answering machine was worth.
Previously we wrote: Pierce Brosnan is Irish. MobLand viewers say his Irish accent is the worst thing on the show