Episode 143: If It Bleeds... It Leads

Nathan and Eppy bid a bittersweet farewell to Rita with the final Rockford Files TV Move: If It Bleeds... It Leads (1999). This was a hard one! Rita's husband, schoolteacher Ernie (Hal Linden) is falsely accused of a series of child sexual assaults, and while Jim helps to clear his name, it's not enough to prevent a series of tragedies. While this one has wonderful performances and some great spots of the Rockfordishness we always love, the content and tone made it tough to say we "enjoyed" it. It did give us great closure on "Rita and Jim, their whole thing" but, unfortunately, was not the warm victory lap to bid farewell to our friends that we kinda wanted. Content Warnings: the plot is about a child rapist, scenes include child endangerment and there is a (relatively) graphic suicide. We have another podcast: Plus Expenses. Covering our non-Rockford media, games and life chatter, Plus Expenses is available via our Patreon at ALL levels of support. Want more Rockford Files trivia, notes and ephemera? Check out the Two Hundred a Day Rockford Files Files! We appreciate all of our listeners, but offer a special thanks to our patrons. 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 Dael Norwood wrote a book! Trading Freedom: How Trade with China Defined Early America Chuck Suffel's comic Sherlock Holmes & the Wonderland Conundrum Paul Townend recommends the Fruit Loops podcast Shane Liebling's Roll For Your Party dieroller app Jay Adan's Miniature Painting Brian Bernsen's Facebook page of Rockford Files filming locations 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 for hosting us Audio Hijack for helping us record and capture clips from the show