Two Hundred A Day
by Nathan Paoletta
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.
Episodes
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Episode 148: Marlowe (1969 Movie)
We're back! We watch the 1969 movie Marlowe, starring James Garner, Rockford Files alums-to-be Rita Moreno and William Daniels as well as Carroll O'Connor and Bruce Lee. An adaptation of the Raymond Chandler story "Little Sister," contemporary reviewers seemed to find it lacking as compared to…
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Episode 147: Deadlock in Parma
Well friends, here we are. Nathan and Eppy take a day trip with Jim to Parma, CA in the series finale episode. The sixth season of The Rockford Files was cut short by James Garner's medical needs, so this last episode was not intended to be a goodbye to the series. Thankfully, we found that it…
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Episode 146: Plus Expenses #81
In this Plus Expenses we talk about: **It’s the official “crossover” Plus Expenses, James Garner handing off a baton to a wizard, feelings about ending Two Hundred a Day (but Two Hundred a Day will remain!), actually ending a thing, starting a new podcast: Unwritten Earths Symposium, how Plus...
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Episode 145: The Kirkoff Case
Nathan and Eppy start from the beginning with S1E1 The Kirkoff Case. Jim's client is a real slimeball who's been arraigned, but not prosecuted, for murdering his own parents. The money is too good for Jim to drop the case, and then it gets personal when he takes a beating from not a "goon", but a...
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Episode 144: Backlash of the Hunter
Nathan and Eppy go to where it all began with the TV movie pilot for The Rockford Files: 1974's Backlash of the Hunter. It's a good excuse to talk about the roots of Rockfordishness, the greatness of the casting, and the changes to come for the main show. While we obviously can't watch it with...
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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...
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Episode 142: Speculative Episode Draft Special!
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.…
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Episode 141: No Fault Affair
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…
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Episode 140: Paradise Cove
Nathan and Eppy take a little tour through Malibu in S6E1 Paradise Cove. Mariette Hartley joins James Garner in this final season premier episode as Althea, a court-appointed adjuster sent to audit Jim in the wake of a lawsuit he lost to fellow Cove resident C.C. Calloway. Calloway wants to get...
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Episode 139: Forced Retirement
Nathan and Eppy revisit the first of our "lost episodes" with S4E11 Forced Retirement. An old college friend of Beth's is involved with a secretive undersea submersible project, and after Beth surprises an intruder in her apartment, Jim offers to look into it. He calls in his Jimmy Joe Meeker...
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Episode 138: New Life, Old Dragons
Nathan and Eppy close out Season Three with S3E18 New Life, Old Dragons. Jim is hired by a Vietnamese refugee to find her missing brother, but as he (reluctantly) pursues the case, it becomes clear that he doesn't know the whole story. When Rocky takes a beating, it turns personal, and Jim needs…
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Episode 137: This Case Is Closed
Nathan and Eppy finish the main tour through the first season with the 90-minute S1E6 This Case Is Closed. Jim's client sends him to Newark to check up on a soon-to-be son-in-law, and Jim starts getting heat from the mob, the cops and the feds - and he doesn't know why! With an unconventional...
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Episode 136: In Pursuit of Carol Thorne
Nathan and Eppy take a road trip in S1E9 In Pursuit of Carol Thorne. Jim is hired to keep an eye on a newly-released-from-prison Carol Thorne - but he's not the only one! Carol takes a hike and Jim pursues her to Nevada, only to find that he's being used by a conman to get Carol to find another...
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Episode 135: Find Me If You Can
Nathan and Eppy join Jim for one of his most unique challenges in S1E8 Find Me If You Can. His client has hired Jim to find... her. While the money is good, the mystery surrounding why Barbara (Joan Van Arc) is trying to stay un-discoverable concerns Jim, and his search for answers takes him to…
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Episode 134: Star Trek: First Contact
Welcome to Twenty Dollars a Day, the podcast where we explore our favorite holodeck adventures in the Star Trek universe! Nathan and Eppy are bidding a fond farewell to this podcast with our final episode: the second Next Generation movie, First Contact. Look, it has a Dixon Hill holodeck...
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Episode 133: Piece Work
Nathan and Eppy hit the gym in S3E10 Piece Work. Jim's insurance investigation gig happens to intersect with flashy dresser Murray Rosner (Michael Lerner), a freelancer for the feds who's getting a gun buy together. After a series of paranoid assumptions, Jim takes a beating from the gun-running...
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Episode 132: Rattlers' Class of '63
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...
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Episode 131: Murder and Misdemeanors
Nathan and Eppy hit the streets of LA for the penultimate 90s TV Movie, Murder and Misdemeanors. A fellow ex-con-turned-PI, Booker Hutch (John Amos), cons Jim into taking his remaining caseload - and before he can even look over the files, Jim's fielding police harassment. There's an…
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Episode 130: With the French Heel Back, Can the Nehru Jacket Be Far Behind?
Nathan and Eppy hit the runway in S5E12 With the French Heel Back, Can the Nehru Jacket Be Far Behind? After a discussion of the very interesting life of director Ivan Dixon, we join Jim as he investigates the death of a model friend who called him for help. This quickly brings him to...
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Episode 129: Three Day Affair with a Thirty Day Escrow
Nathan and Eppy join Jim as he faces off with a neurotic playboy, a real estate slimeball and Arabic culture clash in S5E7 Three Day Affair with a Thirty Day Escrow. Rousted out of bed by an angry Arabic patriarch to answer for a recent gig where Jim was looking for his daughter, Jim wants to get...
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Episode 128: The Prisoner of Rosemont Hall
Nathan and Eppy head back to school in S4E20 The Prisoner of Rosemont Hall. Jim has a friend whose son is going to Rosemont College, and who seemed to come to him for help... and then denies that anything is wrong. Jim wants to get to the bottom of it, placing him in a mysterious situation...
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Episode 127: The Battle of Canoga Park
Nathan and Eppy don fireproof outfits for the explosive S4E3 The Battle of Canoga Park. Jim's stolen gun is used to murder a man he doesn't even know! While figuring out how to prove he didn't do it, he uncovers a paramilitary militia. From grenades to truckloads of dynamite, this romp of an...
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Episode 126: Aura Lee, Farewell
Nathan and Eppy say goodbye to Jackie Cooper (as a director) in S1E14 Aura Lee, Farewell. Jim is asked by sometime-girlfriend-and-previous-client Sara to look into the so-called overdose death of her friend Aura Lee. Once his investigation turns up a State Senator and a slick bunko artist, things...
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Episode 125: Say Goodbye to Jennifer
Nathan and Eppy join Jim as he travels to the morgue, the dentist and Seattle in S1E18 Say Goodbye to Jennifer. Hector Elizondo guest stars as Mitch, a Korean War buddy of Jim. It looks like the woman he's infatuated with, Jennifer, died in a car accident, and Jim has little patience for Mitch's...
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Episode 124: William Wiard Retrospective Rewind
Nathan and Eppy end our Summer of Wiard by rewinding back through the entire Wiard Rockford Filesography. This excuse gives us a good way to chat about some of the show's most standout episodes, and we assemble a Recommended Viewing list of our 6 most recommended Wiard-directed episodes, one from...
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Episode 123: Only Rock 'n Roll Will Never Die
Nathan and Eppy complete the Wiard World Tour with this two-parter, episodes 3 and 4 from season 6: Only Rock 'n Roll Will Never Die. Show favorite George Loros guest stars as Eddie, a prison buddy of Jim's now working for rock star Tim Ritchie. He reaches out to Rockford to find a missing member...
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Episode 122: Claire
Nathan and Eppy head back to the first season to meet another of Jim's old flames in S1E17 Claire. After a rough breakup and years of separation, Claire calls Jim for help. Of course he agrees to do what he can, but she isn't being straight with him and he needs to figure out who's life is in...
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Episode 121: Heartaches of a Fool
Nathan and Eppy continue to tour the William Wiard-verse with S5E1 Heartaches of a Fool. After a truck accident lands Rocky in the hospital, Jim is determined to find out who caused it and hold them accountable. His quest leads to a country music star, a sausage-smuggling operation and a brewing...
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Episode 120: The Return of the Black Shadow
Nathan and Eppy go back to their old ways in S5E17 The Return of the Black Shadow. This was a hard one for us, folks! After a biker gang assaults Jim and abducts and sexually assaults his date, Coop's sister Gail, Coop relives his past as a biker to infiltrate the Rattlers and get revenge.…
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Episode 119: A Deadly Maze
Nathan and Eppy join Jim as he reluctantly takes on a missing persons case for an unemotional client in S4E13 A Deadly Maze. The money is good, but the case is just weird, and even after Jim finds the client's wife, he can't let go of the feeling that something else is going on. This is an…
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Episode 118: The Fourth Man
Nathan and Eppy take a flight into the start of the third season with S3E1 The Fourth Man. Jim's friend Lauri, an airline booking agent, can't figure out why she's being stalked by a seemingly up-and-up rare coin collector. The menace escalates as Jim calls on the expertise of everyone in the…
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Episode 117: Trouble in Chapter 17
Nathan and Eppy enter the publishing world in S4E2 Trouble in Chapter 17. "Feminity not feminism" author Ann Louise Clement wants to hire Jim as a bodyguard, which isn't his beat. But after witnessing an apparent attempt on her life, he can't not look into it. Unfortunately for Jim, Ann Louise is...
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Episode 116: Star Trek DS9: Our Man Bashir
Welcome to Twenty Dollars a Day, the podcast where we explore our favorite holodeck adventures in the Star Trek universe! Nathan and Eppy join the crew of Deep Space 9 for some thrilling spy action in S4E9 Our Man Bashir. Doctor Bashir is enjoying his new holo-adventure as a Bond-esque superspy...
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Episode 115: Love Is the Word
Nathan and Eppy finish the Megan Dougherty cycle with S6E5 Love Is the Word. After a lengthy absence, Jim finally returns to Megan only to find that she's gotten engaged! Fair enough, but when her fiancé is accused of murder, of course Jim is going to help find out what's going on. This episode...
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Episode 114: Black Mirror
Nathan and Eppy go to the first appearance of Megan Dougherty (Kathryn Harrold) in S5E9 Black Mirror. This double-length episode, split into two for syndication, gives us plenty of time to learn about Megan and see exactly why she and Jim have such a unique connection. Despite the length, this…
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Episode 113: A Plus Expenses Special
In this Plus Expenses we talk about: We have Shirts! Plus, recordings and noise, sheep, deer, the Langley Bunnies, our public Plus Expenses, New Year's Fray 2022, fun trading cards, Epimas, buying and selling PDFs, holiday theming, publishing calendars, hype cycles, jgarf.org, the Two Hundred a…
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Episode 112: Punishment and Crime
Nathan and Eppy return to the 90s for the sixth Rockford Files TV Movie, 1996's Punishment and Crime. A chance encounter with a woman from Jim's past, blind psychologist Megan Dougherty, leads to a reunion! However, Megan's cousin Patrick is in some trouble with Russian heavies, and Jim is…
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Episode 111: The Family Hour
Nathan and Eppy learn a lot about family in S3E3 The Family Hour. Jim and Rocky find Marin, a young girl, seemingly abandoned on Jim's doorstep. They can't help but try to find her family, but are quickly drawn into some kind of scheme centering on Marin's father involving creeps, death threats,...
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Episode 110: Crack Back
Nathan and Eppy go to the courtroom in a "Bethisode", S3E21 Crack Back. Beth is defending a rising football star accused of murder during a violent robbery - but her defense is being compromised by someone stalking her. Jim wants to help her out with both, of course, but has to navigate what Beth...
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Episode 109: A Fast Count
Nathan and Eppy get in the ring with S5E10 A Fast Count. Jim is invested in a promising young boxer, but when his manager Morry is pulled in by the feds for a bribery charge, Jim reluctantly agrees to protect his investment by figuring out who is framing Morry and why. It seems that a rival…
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Episode 108: The Jersey Bounce
Nathan and Eppy take a trip to the first appearance of Eugene and Mickey in S5E3 The Jersey Bounce. Our "coupla guys" rent a house next to Rocky, and after some serious threats are made, a dead body shows up. Jim is implicated and needs legal counsel, finally hooking up with disbarred attorney…
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Episode 107: Just a Coupla Guys
After fielding the recordings on our answering machine, Nathan and Eppy take a trip to Jersey in S6E10 Just a Coupla Guys. This is a very Rockford-lite episode, centering instead on two hapless Jerseyites who want to make it in with the mob. A backdoor pilot for a never-produced show, this David...
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Episode 106: Exit Prentiss Carr
Nathan and Eppy go to Bay City in S1E4 Exit Prentiss Carr. An old flame hires Jim to find her husband, but he only finds the body. When the Bay City police rule it a suicide, Jim has to figure out who is lying to him and why, all while keeping one step ahead of the local cops who have it out for...
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Episode 105: The Deuce
Nathan and Eppy spend some time in the jury box with Jim in S5E15 The Deuce. It looks like a drink driver hit and killed a woman, but some trouble details give Jim reasonable doubts. The driver asks Jim to keep looking into it, and each thread he pulls on uncovers another lie. The strength of…
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Episode 104: Return to the 38th Parallel
Nathan and Eppy get to hear some of Jim's Korean escapades in S3E9 Return to the 38th Parallel. An old commander of his, played by the always-delightful Ned Beatty, comes calling out of the blue. Down on his luck, he takes a case that Jim turns down - but it turns out to be only the first step in…
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Episode 103: Lions, Tigers, Monkeys and Dogs
Nathan and Eppy take on a stand-out double-length episode in S2E6 Lions, Tigers, Monkeys and Dogs. Lauren Bacall guest stars as a Kendall, a woman mysteriously marked for death. After a chance encounter at a restaurant, her friend and patron Princess Irene Rachevsky hires Jim to find out who's...
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Episode 102: Beamer's Last Case
Nathan and Eppy return to Paradise Cove in S4E1 Beamer's Last Case. Jim returns from a shortened vacation to find that someone has stolen his identity - and not only that, but wrecked his car and gotten him into trouble with some serious people! Once Jim tracks down the culprit, a mechanic named...
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Episode 101: Star Trek TNG: A Fistful of Datas
Welcome to Twenty Dollars a Day, the podcast where we explore our favorite holodeck adventures in the Star Trek universe! Nathan and Eppy go back to the Ancient West in TNG S6E8: A Fistful of Datas. The Enterprise has some well-deserved downtime, and Worf can't invent enough work to keep him from...
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Episode 100: Episode 100 Spectacular
It's our 100th episode of Two Hundred a Day! To celebrate this milestone, we draft our picks for recommended episodes of our own show. If you've joined us recently, these are some of our most fun, interesting and memorable episodes. Thanks so much for listening! Our Recommended Episode List: Ep…
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Episode 99: The Gang at Don's Drive-In
Nathan and Eppy meet an old friend of Jims in S4E15 The Gang at Don's Drive-In. Jack Skowron, former best-selling writer and current alcoholic, is in LA chasing down stories for a new book with Jim's help. When he gets beat up, Jim starts to suspect there's more to his agenda, and has to uncover...
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About this show
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.
Hosted by
Nathan Paoletta