James Garner won an Emmy for his continuing performance as disheveled, cynically humorous ex-convict turned private detective Jim Rockford during season three of The Rockford Files. This honor may very well have been due to Garner's work in the season's best and most pungent episode, "So Help Me God," in which Rockford finds himself enmeshed in a maze of governmental bureaucracy when he is forced to testify before a grand jury -- a nightmarish situation which, as noted in the episode's closing titles, could happen to anyone in the audience! Also in the cast this season are familiar supporting players Noah Beery Jr., as Jim's dad Rocky; Gretchen Corbett as Jim's attorney girlfriend Beth Davenport; Stuart Margolin as Rockford's humorously untrustworthy former cellmate Angel Martin; and Joe Santos as Rockford's police department pal (and severest critic), Detective Dennis Becker. New to the cast is James Luisi as Dennis' superior Lt. Doug Chapman, who, like his predecessor Alex Diehl, seems to have a permanent grudge against the insouciant Mr. Rockford. As for the season's guest stars, Sharon Gless -- long before Queer as Folk -- makes a return appearance in the opening episode "The Fourth Man"; Burt Young of Rocky fame is seen in "The Family Hour"; Veronica Hamel (Hill Street Blues) and Ned Beatty are in "Return to the 38th Parallel"; Oscar-winner Strother Martin plays the title character in the two-part "The Trees, the Bees, and T.T. Flowers"; comic actress Joyce Van Patten is cast against type as a dangerous obstreperous "police groupie" in another two-parter, "To Protect and Serve," and finally, "The Becker Connection" serves to reunite James Garner with his former Maverick co-star Jack Kelly. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
