Where can I begin? Thank you for this wonderful piece about The Rockford Files, a show I love so much that I purchased the complete series. And I say this as a black woman who grew up in the 1970s and, like you, stared at the television in an effort to make sense of the crazy world outside my high rise apartment on the Lower East Side of New York. The world was not kind, but Jim Rockford was. My late father and I used to watch reruns of The Rockford Files on our little TV set. He would shout “Go Jim Go!” at the TV during every single inevitable car chase during every single episode. But MY favorite part of was the female criminal defense attorney that got Jim out of hot water time and again — and got me thinking that I could grow up to be an attorney too, which I did. My first dog, Gandy was named for the Isaac Hayes character Gandolph Fitch — partly because I became a public defender and have done a fair amount of innocence work, but mostly because I loved that story line and, well, Isaac Hayes. Then there is Angel. I once had the terrific fortune to meet the man who played my favorite character. I learned that, in real life, Stuart Margolin and Jim Garner were great friends which helps explain their great chemistry on screen. Now — by a strange twist of fate —one of my dear friends is Gigi Garner, Jim’s beautiful daughter who carries on his rescue work with animals and his lovely spirit in the world. I was so happy to learn, before he died in 2014, that the Jim Garner who graced this world with his grace, charm and kindness was pretty much the same Jim Rockford we all admire every time we watch an episode of the Rockford Files. Enjoy!