This Reboot Makes the Least Sense of All
TV classic's return reveals spotty track record for show revivals
Let’s start with the theme song.
The 1970s gave us a crush of great ones, from “Barney Miller” to “Happy Days” and “Welcome Back, Kotter.”
“The Rockford Files” theme may be the very best, a ditty that meshed with the cop show’s irreverent charm.
The rest, of course, was up to James Garner.
The actor also starred in iconic films like “The Great Escape” and “The Americanization of Emily,” even earning an Oscar nomination for 1985’s “Murphy’s Romance.” For many, his TV work is his legacy.
He’ll always be the rumpled detective living in that less than glamorous trailer.
What series wouldn’t be blessed to have Garner as its star? His Jim Rockford was handsome and charismatic, reluctant to fight but capable of finishing a brawl if needed. In short, “The Rockford Files” wasn’t “The Rockford Files” without him.
It was just another detective yarn. Tell that to Hollywood.
We’re getting a “new” Jim Rockford, the latest attempt to revive an aged IP. Does it matter that today’s TV viewers may have never heard of Jim Rockford, his “Files” or that inimitable theme song?
Of course not.
NBC has given out a pilot order to a reboot of the classic series “The Rockford Files.”https://t.co/T1wbUgiucv pic.twitter.com/gs7AessDIb
— Variety (@Variety) January 13, 2026
The show’s DNA will remain the same, from the hero’s prison past to his unorthodox sleuthing. But who can step in for Garner?
Good luck!
Some classic TV shows soared thanks to precise casting, not any remarkable premise. That hasn’t prevented other reboots from hitting the boob tube.
Remember “Kojak,” but this time starring Ving Rhames instead of Telly Savalas? That 2005 reboot failed to launch, with no insult to the versatile Rhames. That signature lollipop could only do so much heavy lifting.
The 2004 “Starsky & Hutch” big-screen adaptation failed to spark a franchise, but its $88 million U.S. haul proved the concept had some appeal. It helped to have “It” comic actors Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson above the title.
Back to the small screen, CBS revived “Magnum P.I.” without Tom Selleck in 2018, and the show’s lush setting and likeable lead (Jay Hernandez) helped it reach the five-season mark.
More recently, “Matlock” came back to life via Oscar-winner Kathy Bates. Once again, the late Andy Griffith couldn’t be replaced, duplicated or imitated, but the gender switch at least let viewers know the concept was the same, but little else.
That show remains a hit, and it likely explains the “Rockford” reboot.
Chances are, longtime fans will watch the new version with arms folded tightly across their chest, daring the show to recapture that ’70s magic. The very least they can do is bring back that theme song without a single note updated.
They can’t help themselves – they are so creatively bankrupt they’re incapable of even understanding what made the series one of the best ever.
Rockford Files started with wonderful writing and character development, and maybe the best set of character actors ever assembled, from Dennis Becker, Beth, Angel Martin to all of the guest stars. Hollywood is incapable of doing this anymore. They may as well make Jim Rockford a black lesbian, for all I care. This is an atrocity in the making and I won’t watch 5 seconds of it, not even to mock it.
Before Bart Simpson was writing “I will not…” on the blackboard, Rockford had a new phone message every episode. I don’t know what show was the first to do that.
Hire some people with new ideas, can’t anyone come with new ideas in Hollywood.
He also did the voice of Commander Rourke in the Disney film Atlantis. He was an excellent villain.
“Reticent” to fight?
Reticent means unwilling to speak.
The word you’re looking for is “reluctant.”
I don’t know why those words have been getting conflated in the past few years, but it has to stop. The line must be drawn HERE!
Consider it drawn! And corrected! Thank you for educating me, truly!
I grew up on Mission Impossible, Ironside, Hawaii 5O, Rockford, Starsky & Hutch, Magnum and so many others. In fact, I rewatch most of those shows as I have them DLed into my computer. I did watch several seasons of the new Hawaii 5O and was so appalled over and over and over again that I stopped and refused to watch any of the other crappy reboots. The Starsky & Hutch and Man From Uncle and Get Smart movies are all so awful. Part of the problem is that the quality of actors is so much less than it used to be. It isn’t a lack of talent because there is no “acting” talent. Anyone can act. Look at the Baldwins, the Skarsgards, the Wahlbergs, and the other nepotism clans and tell me that there is talent. No, actors have charsima – a quality of character that appeals enough to entrance or please. I’d watch Tom Sellect read a newspaper. I’d watch Cary Grant walk down the sidewalk. Their like does not exist today. The real problem of reboots, just like talent, is that scriptwriters today don’t know how to write a good story or anything without inserting their godawful politics into it. These TV Shows and Movies fail because they are just awful and usually stupid. The ones that last several seasons are a testament not to talent but to the low intelligence of the audience.
To bad Bruce Campbell is past his prime he would have been great for the role.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the geniuses in Hollywood cast Bobbi Salvör Menuez, the ginger trans actor that plays Paigyn on Landman, to play Rockford.
I’ve haven’t watched a single episode of the new Magnum and I certainly wouldn’t watch this abomination.
Same here.
Some things are best left alone.