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Columbo walked right by Jim Rockford's trailer home and you probably missed it
A familiar Rockford Files face even shows up in the episode.
The Seventies gave us some eventful television crossovers. Charlie's Angels boarded The Love Boat. Barnaby Jones buddied up with Cannon for "The Deadly Conspiracy." The Six Million Dollar Man fused circuits with The Bionic Woman. Heck, even Mannix got tangled up (literally) with Lucy in "Lucy and Mannix Are Held Hostage."
But those shows were related in some way, spin-offs and parents, sharing a creator. It's tantalizing to think about the crossovers we didn't get to see. Private investigator Jim Rockford (James Garner) and homicide detective Lt. Columbo both operated in Los Angeles at the same time. They were on the same network, NBC. It makes sense that a case could have brought them together.
Alas, the Rockford Files / Columbo crossover never happened. Well, not officially. Because Columbo happened to stroll right by Rockford's "house."
"An Exercise in Fatality" kicked off the fourth season of Columbo. The rugged Robert Conrad played the owner of a health club chain who killed one of his franchisees. The former Wild Wild West star sports tracksuits and a deep tan. His character, Milo Janus, enjoys a brisk swim in the Pacific Ocean.
In fact, Columbo goes to meet Janus at the beach. Janus wears nothing but red trunks. Columbo, naturally, stomps through the sand in his raincoat and slacks.
But take a close look at the location of their meeting. Columbo parks next to an oceanside restaurant and walks to the water, waving at Janus. Does the building seem familiar?
That restaurant is none other than the Paradise Cove Beach Café, where Jim Rockford parked his trailer home in the parking lot. The establishment sits at 28128 Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu.
And here's another fun coincidence: "An Exercise in Fatality" originally aired on September 15, 174 — two days after the series premiere of The Rockford Files on September 13, 1974. There is one caveat. In early episodes of The Rockford Files, Jim kept his trailer at the Tonga Lei Restaurant & Lounge, a few miles east in Malibu at 22878 Pacific Coast Highway. Still, it's cool to see the familiar stomping grounds on another crime show.
Oh, and that is not the only mystery series to visit the Paradise Cove parking lot. Check out this shot from "Keep the Home Fries Burning," a season-two tale of Murder, She Wrote.
NBCUniversal TelevisionParadise Cove Beach Cafe in 'Murder, She Wrote'Hey, that's not Maine!
Wait. There is one more curious connection between this Columbo episode and The Rockford Files. "An Exercise in Fatality" features Gretchen Corbett as a whipsmart secretary.
NBC Universal TelevisionCorbett met both Columbo and Rockford.A handful of days later, Corbett would make her debut on The Rockford Files as Beth Davenport in "The Dark and Bloody Ground." Her attorney character would become a fan-favorite over 33 episodes of the series.
The only thing missing is a gold Pontiac Firebird Esprit.
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43 Comments
Unfortunately, I am not up always in the middle of the night. But when I am, I love watching Mannix, Cannon, Barnaby Jones, Highway Patrol, and the 1967 Dragnet. These are all such great TV shows, but why must you air them in the middle of the night???
Which genius member of the MeTV family brain trust decided on that?
Showing so few episodes over and over instead of five seasons worth drives away
fans after they have seen years 1 thru 3, repeatedly, like me!
There are lots of in jokes in the series, like one of the coppers sporting Karl Malden's
birth name.
If you really want to see an extreme example check the guest list for the Desilu/Paramount series Star Trek and Mission: Impossible (and to a lesser extent, Mannix) for repeated appearances, from major stars (e.g. Ricardo Montalban, William Windom and even George Takei during Star Trek's first season) to bit players. Some Mission: Impossible episodes have two or three recognizable Star Trek actors.
The one I had in mind had a killer doggie and Garner was a small town police chief.
For a small budget flick it had a unusually large cast of stars in supporting roles.
When I mention it to people no one seems to recall it. Can anyone please tell me it's title?
It’s so interesting to see how he determines the killer, as he lines up the clues, and immediately senses the person whom is the Villain. .
Always fascinating ! Thank you for continuing this fabulous Series. 🌟🧡🌟✨👏
His trailer abutted the beach but was on the restaurant parking lot. It was a mobile trailer, it
would have sunk into the sand. They cut a lot of content out of the rerun packages, but I seem to recall - I could be wrong - that in the original NBC run it was briefly mentioned Rockford had some sort of deal with the restaurant.
There were several 90 minute episodes in the original run. Universal padded them out with extra car chase footage to the point of tedium, then threw in a scene at the taco stand with Dennis and Jim, suddenly you had enough footage to make it a 2 part episode for the rerun package.
Note: There was one later episode that WAS expanded to 90-minutes for its original broadcast ("The Man Who Saw the Alligators") but reverted back to an hour for reruns. It is unknown whether the rerun version is the same edit as the original unaired hour version.
You know your Rockford. It's been awhile since I saw the padded out episodes but I recall
being annoyed because the additions slowed the flow of the story.
Sorry I misremembered about the taco scene, I was using it to illustrate the larger point
that there were BORING stretches in the episode as a result of stretching it to 2 hours.
The fact remains it was written as a 90 minute episode and at least for the DVD release
it should have been restored to it's original length. Universal is notorious for taking a hatchet
to their series' rerun packages. McCloud with it's 60, 90 and 120 minute episodes was the worst, according to Dennis Weaver they were marred by marrying different episodes into two hour hybrids. They would link 2 different story lines and bridge them by using a newly filmed shot of Chief Clifford(actually a stand in) with his back to the camera talking to McCloud( a reused reaction shot of Weaver would be inserted) delivering some exposition attempting to make sense of the mismash. Throw in the recycled shot of McCloud driving a cop car, sometimes with passengers who magically disappeared when he got to his destination. I have thought about buying the DVD's as I enjoyed McCloud during it's original run, I hope they are as originally presented.
I recall McCloud was supposedly in Jersey in one episode, and you could see palm trees behind the buildings.
