I didn't know, watching Isaac Hayes push James Garner around on The Rockford Files, that I was seeing a special character continue an important television legacy.
All I knew, as a devoted fan of Garner's put-upon private eye, was that Jim Rockford seemed like a kind of hero you never saw anywhere else on television.
Perpetually strapped for cash and working a case that wasn't likely to change that situation, Rockford was a wrongly imprisoned ex-con who cloaked his heroism in a cynic's quips and world-weary attitude (Hayes was a physically intimidating fellow ex-con who always mispronounced his name as "Rockfish").
"Rockfish" rarely pulled a gun or won a fight with his fists — which could be a little frustrating to those of us weaned on more, say, direct TV private eyes like Mannix or Shaft. Instead, he maneuvered among a seedy universe of corrupt cops and crooks, lame hustlers and earnest victims, using his street smarts and an unerring sense of justice to save the day.
He wasn't an anti-hero as much as an "unhero"; a regular Joe with a sardonic sense of humor who stepped up when he was needed.
And the creation of that type of character may be one of the most enduring contributions to television made by James Garner, who died Saturday at the age of 86.
The Two-Way
James Garner, Of The '70s TV Show 'The Rockford Files,' Dies