The Rockford Files : The House on Willis Avenue (1978)
Directed by Hy Averback
Share on
Synopsis by Hal Erickson
In the first half of a two-part story, Jim (James Garner) investigates the mysterious death of his mentor Joe Tooley (Paul Fix) on the Ventura Freeway. Assisting Jim--in a manner of speaking--is greenhorn detective Richie Brockelman (Dennis Dugan), who likewise suspects that Tooley's demise was no accident. The evidence leads to a crooked city councilman and a sinister data-storage firm called the Credit Computer Centre. This episode and its followup served to introduce the character of Richie Brockelman, soon to be spun off into his own eponymously titled TV series.