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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It's a special episode! Nathan and Eppy are drafting elements from The Rockford Files to construct two pitches for Rockford Files episodes that never were. It's a great excuse to talk a little bit about our favorite bits of the show, and we have some great Patron suggestions to help us along.
Show Notes:
* Here's the Archive.org link to the 1981 BBC Radio Lord of the Rings recording (https://archive.org/details/the-lord-of-the-rings-bbc-radio-drama).
* Nathan's Episode: from season 3, "The Montreal Connection"
* Eppy's Episode: from season 4, "Fool Me Thrice"
We have another podcast: Plus Expenses. Covering our non-Rockford media, games and life chatter, Plus Expenses is available via our Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/twohundredaday) at ALL levels of support.
Want more Rockford Files trivia, notes and ephemera? Check out the Two Hundred a Day Rockford Files Files (http://tinyurl.com/200files)!
We appreciate all of our listeners, but offer a special thanks to our patrons (https://www.patreon.com/twohundredaday). In particular, this episode is supported by the following Gumshoe and Detective-level patrons:
* Richard Hatem
* Bill Anderson
* Brian Perrera
* Eric Antener
* Jordan Bockelman
* Michael Zalisco
* Joe Greathead
* Mitch Hampton's Journey of an Aesthete Podcast (https://www.jouneyofanaesthetepodcast.com)
* Dael Norwood wrote a book! Trading Freedom: How Trade with China Defined Early America (https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/T/bo123378154.html)
* Chuck Suffel's comic Sherlock Holmes & the Wonderland Conundrum (http://whatchareadingpress.com)
* Paul Townend recommends the Fruit Loops podcast (https://fruitloopspod.com)
* Shane Liebling's Roll For Your Party dieroller app (https://rollforyour.party/)
* Jay Adan's Miniature Painting (http://jayadan.com)
* Brian Bernsen's Facebook page of Rockford Files filming locations (https://www.facebook.com/brianrockfordfiles/)
* Brian Cummins, Robert Lindsey, Nathan Black, Jay Thompson, David Nixon, Colleen Kelly, Tom Clancy, Andre Appignani, Pumpkin Jabba Peach Pug, Dave P, Dave Otterson, Kip Holley and Dale Church!
Thanks to:
* Fireside.fm (https://fireside.fm) for hosting us
* Audio Hijack (https://rogueamoeba.com/audiohijack/) for helping us record and capture clips from the show
Episode 141: No Fault Affair
Episode 141
Sunday, August 25, 2024 • Duration 01:55:08
Nathan and Eppy get re-acquainted with national treasure Rita Moreno in S6S8 No Fault Affair. After Jim's friend Rita, a sex worker, gets beat up badly by her pimp, he nurses her back to health - and she falls for him in the process. He has to navigate her emotions while she's trying to get out of her current life, but of course it's not going to be quick or easy. This is the last "regular" episode of the show for us, and we're really glad it fell here. It gives us almost all of our favorite things in the Rockford Files, and we have a lot to talk about!
We have another podcast: Plus Expenses. Covering our non-Rockford media, games and life chatter, Plus Expenses is available via our Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/twohundredaday) at ALL levels of support.
Want more Rockford Files trivia, notes and ephemera? Check out the Two Hundred a Day Rockford Files Files (http://tinyurl.com/200files)!
We appreciate all of our listeners, but offer a special thanks to our patrons (https://www.patreon.com/twohundredaday). In particular, this episode is supported by the following Gumshoe and Detective-level patrons:
* Richard Hatem
* Bill Anderson
* Brian Perrera
* Eric Antener
* Jordan Bockelman
* Michael Zalisco
* Joe Greathead
* Mitch Hampton's Journey of an Aesthete Podcast (https://www.jouneyofanaesthetepodcast.com)
* Dael Norwood wrote a book! Trading Freedom: How Trade with China Defined Early America (https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/T/bo123378154.html)
* Chuck Suffel's comic Sherlock Holmes & the Wonderland Conundrum (http://whatchareadingpress.com)
* Paul Townend recommends the Fruit Loops podcast (https://fruitloopspod.com)
* Shane Liebling's Roll For Your Party dieroller app (https://rollforyour.party/)
* Jay Adan's Miniature Painting (http://jayadan.com)
* Brian Bernsen's Facebook page of Rockford Files filming locations (https://www.facebook.com/brianrockfordfiles/)
* Brian Cummins, Robert Lindsey, Nathan Black, Jay Thompson, David Nixon, Colleen Kelly, Tom Clancy, Andre Appignani, Pumpkin Jabba Peach Pug, Dave P, Dave Otterson, Kip Holley and Dale Church!
Thanks to:
* Fireside.fm (https://fireside.fm) for hosting us
* Audio Hijack (https://rogueamoeba.com/audiohijack/) for helping us record and capture clips from the show
Episode 132: Rattlers' Class of '63
Episode 132
Sunday, March 10, 2024 • Duration 01:24:07
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!
Show Notes: The book Nathan was trying to remember is Considering David Chase: Essays on The Rockford Files, Northern Exposure and The Sopranos (https://bookshop.org/p/books/considering-david-chase-essays-on-the-rockford-files-northern-exposure-and-the-sopranos-thomas-fahy/11085111?ean=9780786432844&ref=&source=IndieBound&title=Considering+David+Chase%3A+Essays+on+The+Rockford+Files%2C+Northern+Exposure+and+The+Sopranos)
We have another podcast: Plus Expenses. Covering our non-Rockford media, games and life chatter, Plus Expenses is available via our Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/twohundredaday) at ALL levels of support.
Want more Rockford Files trivia, notes and ephemera? Check out the Two Hundred a Day Rockford Files Files (http://tinyurl.com/200files)!
We appreciate all of our listeners, but offer a special thanks to our patrons (https://www.patreon.com/twohundredaday). In particular, this episode is supported by the following Gumshoe and Detective-level patrons:
* Richard Hatem
* Bill Anderson
* Brian Perrera
* Eric Antener
* Jordan Bockelman
* Michael Zalisco
* Joe Greathead
* Mitch Hampton's Journey of an Aesthete Podcast (https://www.jouneyofanaesthetepodcast.com)
* Dael Norwood wrote a book! Trading Freedom: How Trade with China Defined Early America (https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/T/bo123378154.html)
* Chuck Suffel's comic Sherlock Holmes & the Wonderland Conundrum (http://whatchareadingpress.com)
* Paul Townend recommends the Fruit Loops podcast (https://fruitloopspod.com)
* Shane Liebling's Roll For Your Party dieroller app (https://rollforyour.party/)
* Jay Adan's Miniature Painting (http://jayadan.com)
* Brian Bernsen's Facebook page of Rockford Files filming locations (https://www.facebook.com/brianrockfordfiles/)
* Robert Lindsay, Nathan Black, Jay Thompson, David Nixon, Colleen Kelly, Tom Clancy, Andre Appignani, Pumpkin Jabba Peach Pug, Dave P, Dave Otterson, Kip Holley and Dale Church!
Thanks to:
* Fireside.fm (https://fireside.fm) for hosting us
* Audio Hijack (https://rogueamoeba.com/audiohijack/) for helping us record and capture clips from the show
Episode 42: The Big Cheese
Episode 42
Sunday, November 25, 2018 • Duration 01:33:46
Nathan and Eppy discuss S6E10 The Big Cheese. Jim gets a phone call from a reporter friend telling him to expect something in the mail... just as he's murdered! He doesn't know what it is, but it's something that a crooked union boss wants to get ahold of. And when the package is finally delivered... well, it really "sharpens" the mystery (it's a wheel of cheese!). This is a remarkable episode in how it handles considerable back-and-forth tone shift between grittiness and humor - and it also reveals another emotional layer of the Jim Rockford character, as he reacts to the death of his friend Eddie. Quite recommended!
Your hosts Nathan and Eppy have a short conversation about what's changed over the course of the podcast so far, what has surprised us about the show, and what we're thinking about for the future. It happens to be Thanksgiving, so we also take a moment to say thank you for listening. Thanks so much!
To celebrate our 40th episode, Nathan and Eppy take a look at the second Rockford Files TV movie, 1995's A Blessing In Disguise. The premise is that Angel has become a televangelist preacher, so it's worth watching for that alone! Though padded out in some odd ways to our eyes, this movie really showcases how rock-solid Garner and Margolin are in their roles as Jim and Angel, no matter how much time has passed since the original show.
As a 2-hour TV movie, we use our entire episode to go through it, with overall impressions and digresses about the highs and lows of the storytelling. We certainly enjoy the performances and the character arc of the actual center of the story, an aspiring actress played by Renée O'Connor (Gabrielle from Xena: Warrior Princess). However, it does feel more like a victory lap than a really sharply rendered story, with too many scenes that don't seem to do anything past provide a gag, and a story that simply drops threads as the movie goes on without any impact to the story. It's always a pleasure contrasting these movies with the original show, but we are still left a little wanting compared to the best 70s episodes.
Nathan and Eppy discuss S3E22 Dirty Money, Black Light. Rocky finally gets a break and wins a vacation in Hawaii - but once he's gone, starts receiving thousands of dollars in cash in the mail. Jim, worried that he's been tricked into a scam, has to hustle to figure out what's going on and why in this episode full to the brim with crooks, loan sharks, feds, Angel, Dennis AND Beth! One of the Stuart Margolin-directed episodes, there's so much packed into this episode that some of the threads are hard to follow, but many of the specific bits are really well done.
In our second half, we talk about the elements that contribute to the "overstuffed" feeling of this episode, including techniques for juggling a bunch of moving parts in a piece of fiction and our thoughts on ways to figure out when you have too much going on.
And thank you to Dael Norwood, Dylan Winslow, Bill Anderson, Adam Alexander, Chris, and Dave P!
Episode 38: The Big Ripoff
Episode 38
Sunday, August 26, 2018 • Duration 01:23:42
Nathan and Eppy discuss S1E7 The Big Ripoff. Jim goes on a European jaunt to track down the truth about a widow who received a big insurance payout, but his client doesn't buy his conclusion that the husband is still alive. Trying to figure out a way to get paid for his work, Jim goes to the insurance company, leading him to yet another town in California to prove that Steve Nelson is still alive. We felt a very strong "back to basics" vibe with this episode, which features a fantastically tight script by series creator Roy Huggins, good humor, Jim pulling quick-thinking cons, and a fun mystery that keeps the energy moving with each reveal of the NEXT thing that's going on.
In our second half, we talk about our a new approach to the show, where we don't get so into the nitty gritty of each episode in favor of talking about how the overall story is structured. We break down this episode and how it transitions from one "act" to another, how to use plot holes as part of storytelling, and the ways in which the writing in this one always is serving more than one purpose, even the stuff that seemed like a throwaway gag when you first view it.
Nathan and Eppy discuss S4E14 The Attractive Nuisance. Rocky has started a road-side restaurant, but a mysterious figure keeps prowling around the place. Simultaneously, Jim is being threatened by a lawsuit from a guy who climbed onto his trailer to look at the interesting telescope that was up there. In trying to keep Rocky out of trouble and also track down why his roof was REALLY so interesting, both Rockfords are caught up in a knotty situation with roots in the Prohibition era mob/FBI conflict. Thankfully, a smooth Cannell script keeps watching this mess unfold entertaining and rewarding. Maybe an episode that actually is better the second time you watch it, but it has a lot of fun, noir-inspired characters, witty dialogue, and a strong set of motifs throughout that keep this messy mystery engaging.
In our second half, we discuss how expertly this episode uses motifs in order to keep everything coherant and feeling like it's part of a single piece, even while the storylines don't all end up with neat endings. We also talk about the use of characters that feel like they're from a different story, and how integrating them into a narrative works to create and then resolve tension.
Episode 36: The Mayor's Committee from Deer Lick Falls
Episode 36
Saturday, June 30, 2018 • Duration 01:31:49
Nathan and Eppy discuss S4E9 The Mayor's Committee from Deer Lick Falls. A group of stand-up citizens from Deer Lick Falls, Michigan employ Jim to find them a firetruck, but of course that's just a cover for their real intent: hiring a hit man! Once Jim rejects their offer, he needs to find the niece who's the target and try to convince the various bureaucracies involved that these "black-belts in respectability" have murder on their mind. A memorable episode that approaches the Rockford Files formula from a skewed direction, we really liked this one, and not just for all of the connections to Eppy's childhood haunts!
In our second half, we talk about how this episode gives us a set of non-standard villains who manage to be simultaneously awful and endearing, and how it uses seperate mini-character-arcs within the group of them to achieve that. We also break open the idea of each step of the story raising the stakes for our hapless committee, and how to include that in your stories and games.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
And thank you to Dael Norwood, Dylan Winslow, Bill Anderson, Adam Alexander, Chris, Dave Y and Dave P!
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.
