So Help Me God

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, in a way that is compelling and educational, not preachy. Jess brings in the perspective of an activist for criminal justice reform (among other things!) and really brings a lot to our discussion. Enjoy!

Find Jess Banks at her blog (profbanks.com) and on Twitter @ProfBanks.

Want more Rockford Files trivia, notes and ephemera? Check out the Two Hundred a Day Rockford Files Files!

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Thanks to:

• zencastr.com for helping us record
• fireside.fm for hosting us
• thatericalper.com for the answering machine audio clips
• spoileralerts.org for the adding machine audio clip
• Freesound.org for the other audio clips

Two Hundred a Day is a podcast by Nathan D. Paoletta and Epidiah Ravachol. We are exploring the intensely weird and interesting world of the 70s TV detective show The Rockford Files. Half celebration and half analysis, we break down episodes of the show and then analyze how and why they work as great pieces of narrative and character-building. In each episode of Two Hundred a Day, we watch an episode, recap and review it as fans of the show, and then tease out specific elements from that episode that hold lessons for writers, gamers and anyone else interested in making better narratives.