The Rockford Files

I'm Althea Morgan.

I'm the court-appointed receiver.

I'm here to inventory your possession.

Receiver?

Well, you should have listed it as an asset securing loan.

It's in hock.

I think you should try to find a way to calm down.

Do you mind?

I'm suggesting that you hire Mr. Rockford as the security person here at the Cove.

I don't do that kind of work.

What are you doing?

What do you mean, what am I doing?

What does it look like?

I'm on patrol.

He's really different.

He's a sucker.

Yeah, but he's a nice sucker.

The protest.

Cruise leaves from the pier, Saturday at 3 A.M.

The whales need you, Jim.

I don't see what you're staying so mad for.

It ain't like it was the first bad breakfast you ever had.

Eggs, courtesy of the U.S.

Rubber Company, orange juice you could put in your battery.

Oh, Sonny, a little help here.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

Here.

Oh, boy.

Don't be in such a rush.

Gets kind of heavy, you know.

I keep forgetting that thing.

Hey, Dad, look at him.

Just look at him.

Don't pay him no mind at all.

The best thing you can do is forget all about it.

Well, how can I forget it, huh?

I'm going to be paying for it the rest of my life.

You all right there?

All right.

Well, open the door.

Would you look at him out there?

Hey, there's no surfboards on this beach.

You all want to go surfing?

Go someplace.

C.C.

Calloway, enemy of surfers.

Well, he totes that metal detector around.

How much do you think that thing weighs?

Tell you, I was thinking maybe I'd fix you up a couple of eggs.

Nice and soft, the way you like them.

I bet it weighs at least 20 pounds.

He's throwing it around like Hank Aaron.

I wonder how he does that with his ruptured vertebrae and his pinched nerve.

I might even be able to find a couple of them old English muffins in here.

If I reach where they are.

Daddy!

Dad!

Dad, don't.

I told you to sit down.

Now, will you please sit down?

No, I was just trying to fix up a little breakfast.

Yours got ruined.

Oh, no, Dad, I'm sorry.

It's just I've had a bad couple of months.

Everything I've done has gone wrong, and paying $35,000 to that grisly old

beachcomber just about ruined the year beyond any chance of repair.

Well, after all, you did run into him with the truck.

I wonder.

I really wonder.

I wouldn't mind losing the judgment.

No, if there had been one broken bone among all those unexrayable injuries, just one.

Oh, come on, Sonny.

Dad, I guess you're right.

I just got to get myself together, take a whole new attitude.

I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what.

Today is the beginning of all good things that are going to happen, all right?

It's you and me go fishing.

Just you and me out on the pier.

We reel in some big ones.

What do you say?

Oh, Sonny, I don't know.

I don't handle this.

Listen, yes, sir.

Why don't we do that?

We'll go fishing.

I tell you what, the reels and the Poles are all in the truck.

You go get them, Sonny, huh?

OK, then.

They can't hurt us anymore.

We're on top of it now.

Yeah, I used to dodge cars for a living.

Then I took to running over other people.

It's not as profitable, but at least I get to do it sitting down.

You wouldn't be James S.

Rockford.

Yeah, yeah, at least for a little longer.

I'm Althea Morgan.

I'm the court-appointed receiver.

I'm here to inventory your possessions.

Receiver?

It's not pleasant news, Mr. Rockford, but Carl Colton Calloway apparently received a $35,000 judgment against you.

The court wants to know whether the state of your business can support a payout or whether to recommend liquidation.

There's a number on the back of that card.

You can call the court and verify my credentials.

You know, I have really had a bad couple of months, Miss Morgan.

Do you think that we could possibly put this off till after the first of the year?

No, but we could possibly put it off till after a cup of coffee.

Oh, well, how terribly rude of me.

I'll see if I can't scrape some off the bottom of the pot.

Well, Sonny, they can't hurt us no more, can they?

Oh, sure they can.

They can?

Just a quick audit, Mr. Rockford.

I'd like to start with last year's tax return, if you don't... Oh, I'm sorry.

Althea Morgan, the court receiver.

I'd like you to meet my father, the crippled house painter.

Now, I don't want any sympathy, but he does sort of depend on me to help him with his medical bills.

You were sued.

You lost.

I think it's only reasonable to understand that the $35,000 has to come from someplace.

If you were the injured party, I'm sure you'd want the court to establish

the defendant's capability of paying the judgment.

Oh, the injured party, huh?

You want to see the injured party?

I'll show you the injured party.

Here, look right through here.

See right out there, the guy with the shovel, huh?

See him?

Oh, boy, those lower back injuries are a murder.

Yeah, sometimes he has to sit down for 10, 15 seconds after digging an hour.

The court has made its decision.

I'm just here to see how solvent you are.

Look at her, Dad.

Look at her.

Already got her eyes on the TV set.

Oh, boy.

I can see this is going to be one of those terrific assignments where I get clubbed

to death for trying to help you with your problems.

I'm sure you have financial statements and records of some kind scribbled on the back of the Sunday Funnies, no doubt.

Uh, if you have some time, I'd like to see them.

Okay, okay.

I get it, Sonny.

I'll get it, Dad.

Oh!

Dad, I said I would get it.

Now, would you please just sit down.

Now, go ahead.

Sit.

Jim, it's Jake.

Jake's in.

10 O'clock.

Meeting starts in a few minutes.

All right.

I'll be right back.

I'll be along in a minute.

Hi, there.

Well, see, Jim, the thing is, Don McClinton said I was to make sure everybody showed up.

I said I'm on my way.

I'll see you in a minute.

Yeah, sure.

Miss, do you think you could come back later?

I have a meeting of the Paradise Cove Homeowners Association.

It's a biannual thing.

Maybe 2 O'clock or so?

Mr. Rockford, one of my best credentials for this job is that once I show up, I stick like glue.

All right.

Now, the first order of business from the side.

Line up Sheed, C.C.

Calloway.

How?

I think all of you know my nephew Cliff right over there.

He's been spending the summer with me.

As you all know, thank you, as you all know, I've been the president of the Keep

the Cove Quiet Committee for almost a year, and I think that this committee has

done one hell of a job in keeping these surfers out and making sure that no dopers

or acid heads use our beach for taking their sky rides.

All right.

OK.

OK.

Now, that brings us to our next real problem.

And that's the problem of unnecessary and hazardous activity by the residents.

Now, I am speaking about Mr. Rockford in particular.

As a Malibu County Sheriff, ex, and as a bodyguard for the late Mayor

Andrew Levin, I want to start off by saying that I think I know just a little bit more about this than a lot of you.

Now here's what we've done, we have recorded some of the incidents that have

occurred around Rockford's trailer in the last six months.

Now I've added the dates and the times to this tape and I think that it speaks damn clearly to the problem.

Now here it is.

November 16th, 10 P.M., December.

24th, Christmas Eve, 746.

June 22nd, 2 A.M.

I think that most of us remember when somebody placed three sticks of dynamite in Rockford's trailer that night.

Well, uh, Jim, uh, you have anything to say?

I don't think it's a secret to anybody that Calloway has been trying to get me kicked out of here.

Dedicated to it, mister?

Dedicated?

Well, that Christmas Eve incident, uh...

so beautifully recorded by Mr. Calloway from the safety of his trailer.

Well, that was when, uh, the two burglars tried to kill Mrs. Taconis in Unit 10.

And apparently ex-Sheriff Calloway was too busy putting tape in his recorder to go out there and do anything about it.