About the show
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. In each episode of Two Hundred a Day, we watch an episode, recap and review it as fans of the show, and tease out specific elements that hold lessons for writers, gamers and anyone else interested in making better stories.
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Episodes
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Episode 134: Star Trek: First Contact
April 1st, 2024 | 2 hrs 8 mins
1970s, 70s, ahab, dixon hill, end program, fifth contact, first contact, james garner, jim rockford, next generation, p.i, rockford files, star trek, television, tv
Welcome to Twenty Dollars a Day, the podcast where we explore our favorite holodeck adventures in the Star Trek universe! Nathan and Eppy are bidding a fond farewell to this podcast with our final episode: the second Next Generation movie, First Contact. Look, it has a Dixon Hill holodeck appearance, so it counts enough for us to talk about it - and it's a great movie! Thanks for trekking through all the holodecks, holosuites and photonic landscapes over the years. End program.
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Episode 133: Piece Work
March 24th, 2024 | 1 hr 17 mins
1970s, 70s, gym, james garner, jim rockford, lousy mackerel, michael lerner, p.i, rockford files, television, threads, tv
Nathan and Eppy hit the gym in S3E10 Piece Work. Jim's insurance investigation gig happens to intersect with flashy dresser Murray Rosner (Michael Lerner), a freelancer for the feds who's getting a gun buy together. After a series of paranoid assumptions, Jim takes a beating from the gun-running goons, uncovers the scheme and brings in Dennis for a bust that doesn't happen. Between Chapman threatening to pull his license and Murray's conviction that Jim is trying to take over the operation, Jim has a lot to handle! This fun romp of an episode gives us a memorable character and a lot of great Rockfordishness, a great watch!
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Episode 132: Rattlers' Class of '63
March 10th, 2024 | 1 hr 24 mins
1970s, 70s, angel, david chase, dump, james garner, jim rockford, p.i, red barn con, rockford files, television, tv, wedding
Nathan and Eppy make a trip to the dump in S3E8 Rattlers' Class of '63. Angel is getting married! Jim is surprised but supportive - until he learns that it's Angel's way of ducking the fallout from a "Red Barn" con gone wrong. His new brothers-in-law are trying to sell a landfill, but once one of them is found dead, Angel and Jim look good for the murder. They need to find the real killer before Chapman can build a case, which sends Jim on a search for the deadly secret buried under the trash. Our last episode written by David Chase, it's a good one even before getting to a top-five finale scene!
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Episode 131: Murder and Misdemeanors
February 25th, 2024 | 1 hr 50 mins
1970s, 70s, 90s, buddha, composite, great score, james garner, jim rockford, john amos, p.i, rockford files, television, tv, tv movie
Nathan and Eppy hit the streets of LA for the penultimate 90s TV Movie, Murder and Misdemeanors. A fellow ex-con-turned-PI, Booker Hutch (John Amos), cons Jim into taking his remaining caseload - and before he can even look over the files, Jim's fielding police harassment. There's an investigation into potentially dirty cops, a reporter hungry for a story (Isabel Glasser), some great goons, and Angel hovering to take advantage of Jim's sudden notoriety - a perfect mess for our friend Jim to untangle! Thankfully, he makes a good friend along the way. A very 70s-era feeling movie, this one isn't as ambitious as some previous 90s stories, but it certainly satisfies with Rockfordishness.
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Episode 130: With the French Heel Back, Can the Nehru Jacket Be Far Behind?
January 28th, 2024 | 1 hr 31 mins
1970s, 70s, burial gown, couture, fashion, james garner, jim rockford, loan shark, p.i, rockford files, schneider, television, tv
Nathan and Eppy hit the runway in S5E12 With the French Heel Back, Can the Nehru Jacket Be Far Behind? After a discussion of the very interesting life of director Ivan Dixon, we join Jim as he investigates the death of a model friend who called him for help. This quickly brings him to fellow-(former)-model Alta (Erin Gray) and then avant-garde designer Masters (Rene Auberjonois). Jim seems to be the only one who sees a connection between the deaths both of his friend and a high-profile socialite who ran in similar circles, and things escalate as he continues to push for the truth. Though we found the villains motivation to be a little vaguer than usual, it's a tight episode that was fun to watch!
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Episode 129: Three Day Affair with a Thirty Day Escrow
January 7th, 2024 | 1 hr 13 mins
1970s, 70s, helicopters, james garner, jim rockford, ludes, p.i, psychobabble, real estate, rockford files, television, tv
Nathan and Eppy join Jim as he faces off with a neurotic playboy, a real estate slimeball and Arabic culture clash in S5E7 Three Day Affair with a Thirty Day Escrow. Rousted out of bed by an angry Arabic patriarch to answer for a recent gig where Jim was looking for his daughter, Jim wants to get to the bottom of the situation. After tracking down his former client Sean, the two of them stumble over the body of the missing woman's husband, and things get weirder (and more dangerous) from there. We found this one chock full of Rockfordishness, but didn't love the trope-y inclusion of Middle Eastern culture as a source of othered menace.
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Episode 128: The Prisoner of Rosemont Hall
December 10th, 2023 | 1 hr 28 mins
1970s, 70s, audio tapes, college, hazing, james garner, jim rockford, p.i, rockford files, taxes, television, tv, yum-yums
Nathan and Eppy head back to school in S4E20 The Prisoner of Rosemont Hall. Jim has a friend whose son is going to Rosemont College, and who seemed to come to him for help... and then denies that anything is wrong. Jim wants to get to the bottom of it, placing him in a mysterious situation involving a fraternity, a hard-nosed campus security chief, an adjust professor of journalism and middle eastern goons. Content warning: there's some central narrative beats concerning framing Jim with false rape accusations, and we parse out how those hit us as modern viewers.
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Episode 127: The Battle of Canoga Park
November 26th, 2023 | 1 hr 25 mins
1970s, 70s, cookie jar, explosions, grenades, james garner, jim rockford, p.i, rockford files, television, tv
Nathan and Eppy don fireproof outfits for the explosive S4E3 The Battle of Canoga Park. Jim's stolen gun is used to murder a man he doesn't even know! While figuring out how to prove he didn't do it, he uncovers a paramilitary militia. From broken glasses to grenades to truckloads of dynamite, this romp of an episode manages to keep the stakes high without undercutting the fun of viewing, and gives us a strong dose of Every Character's a Character. A fun one!
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Episode 126: Aura Lee, Farewell
November 12th, 2023 | 1 hr 24 mins
1970s, 70s, brass cupcake, jackie cooper, james garner, jim rockford, lindsay wagner, p.i, poe, robert webber, rockford files, soup, television, tv
Nathan and Eppy say goodbye to Jackie Cooper (as a director) in S1E14 Aura Lee, Farewell. Jim is asked by sometime-girlfriend-and-previous-client Sara to look into the so-called overdose death of her friend Aura Lee. Once his investigation turns up a State Senator and a slick bunko artist, things get really intense. This is a tight episode with lots of our favs (Robert Webber! Dennis getting mad! Soup!), and we enjoyed both the story and showcase of how it's actually pretty hard to date Jim, when you get right down to it.
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Episode 125: Say Goodbye to Jennifer
October 22nd, 2023 | 1 hr 38 mins
1970s, 70s, big fish, hector elizondo, james garner, jim rockford, noir, p.i, red turtleneck, rockford files, television, tv
Nathan and Eppy join Jim as he travels to the morgue, the dentist and Seattle in S1E18 Say Goodbye to Jennifer. Hector Elizondo guest stars as Mitch, a Korean War buddy of Jim. It looks like the woman he's infatuated with, Jennifer, died in a car accident, and Jim has little patience for Mitch's insistence that she's alive. But once a mobster starts threatening him for sniffing around, he takes up Mitch's offer to look for Jennifer in Seattle - and then things get really intense. This noir-inspired episode is atypical in style, and also stands out as a tight story with great performances!
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Episode 124: William Wiard Retrospective Rewind
August 27th, 2023 | 1 hr 46 mins
1970s, 70s, best of, james garner, jim rockford, p.i, retrospective, rockford files, television, they're all good episodes, tv, william wiard
Nathan and Eppy end our Summer of Wiard by rewinding back through the entire Wiard Rockford Filesography. This excuse gives us a good way to chat about some of the show's most standout episodes, and we assemble a Recommended Viewing list of our 6 most recommended Wiard-directed episodes, one from each season. A fun conversation! We also go to our answering machine to field questions and comments from listeners on recent episodes.
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Episode 123: Only Rock 'n Roll Will Never Die
August 14th, 2023 | 2 hrs 7 mins
1970s, 70s, bowling shirts, george loros, james garner, japanese country and western, jim rockford, mercedes 450, p.i, rock n roll, rockford files, television, tv
Nathan and Eppy complete the Wiard World Tour with this two-parter, episodes 3 and 4 from season 6: Only Rock 'n Roll Will Never Die. Show favorite George Loros guest stars as Eddie, a prison buddy of Jim's now working for rock star Tim Ritchie. He reaches out to Rockford to find a missing member of Ritchie's entourage, but the mystery of what happened mostly backgrounds the (anti) romance of Eddie with reporter Whitney Cox. Jim navigates Eddie's neuroses, an on-going court case, the mob and the whims of a rockstar who has it all in this two-parter that we find almost too relaxed in its storytelling (even though the character stuff is Very Good).