The Rockford Files (1974) s06e05 Episode Script
Only Rock 'n' Roll Will Never Die (2)
Renegade Lotion LP.
It shipped platinum.
However, 300,000 bootleg copies hit the stands the same time ours did.
Bernie Seldon murdered somebody and then buried them on his own property? Somebody blew my cover.
You are talking about the woman I love! You were an uncooperative source.
I was just following up.
You really are a trophy, lady, you know that? Do you hear what I just said to you? You put your finger on me one more time, ace, you're gonna be eating soft foods for a month.
(TIRES SCREECHING) Turn it left! Turn it Not my car again! (PHONE RINGING) ROCKFORD ON ANSWERING MACHINE: This is Jim Rockford.
At the tone, leave your name and message.
I'll get back to you.
(BEEPS) Jimmy, this is Dora.
I'm going to move in with the kids, but I'll sure miss you, dear.
Thank you for taking out the garbage every week.
I'll send you a card for your birthday.
News at 6:00.
Lindy Jones has the story.
This is James Garner.
Here are scenes from Part I of "Only Rock and Roll Will Never Die.
" John, it was the first day of testimony for plaintiff Diane Bjornstrom in her suit against pop star Tim Richie pondering the $15 million price tag of love.
Did you meet with Miss Bjornstrom in connection with this project? Honoré and I wanted her to play the central female role.
Is this a copy of the shooting script of Vitriole? Yes.
This is my rewrite.
I knew when I called you, you'd show up.
Even though, like you said, you're not exactly turned on by missing persons work.
But back in Quentin we didn't call you Mr.
Stand-Up for nothing.
I never was too comfortable with that name, Eddie.
What, are you head of security here? I don't know how much Eddie's told you about the problem.
Not much.
He just said that you're worried about a friend.
Yeah.
His name's Brian Charles.
Brian and me started the group back in the '60s.
Anyway, it's been a week now and no Brian.
Talking about Brian? Jim Rockford, Ron Martz.
Tim's manager.
You are? Jim Rockford.
Hi, I'm Whitney Cox.
You're the private investigator.
Am I right? You're here about Brian Charles.
Women like that don't break out into a sweat over guys like me.
Women like that don't sweat, according to you.
Whitney's going to do an in-depth profile on Tim in three parts.
(SIGHS) Oh, really? You know, I never would have thought you were a reporter unless somebody told me.
What's the angle on your three parter? That Tim Richie is the most sensual man of his time.
(GROANS) You all right? Who was it? That's the point I'm trying to make, Eddie.
I don't know.
How well do you know Brian? Well as you can know a smackhead.
We're right in the middle of reworking some tunes.
What do you need? I was kind of curious about just how she and Brian got hooked up together.
We both met him at Bernie Seldon's house a couple of weeks ago.
He has a pretty hefty yellow sheet for violent crimes, doesn't he, Dennis? BECKER: Bernie Seldon.
So what? I've heard of Evergreen Management, though I know nothing about this greaser connection.
But even if there is one, hoods in the music business? That doesn't exactly rate with "Japan surrenders," does it? And if Brian chooses to hang out with a couple of broken noses, that doesn't mean he's involved with them in any real way.
No.
No, it doesn't.
It only means that this is as far as I'll take an investigation of this kind.
Look, Brian disappeared in the dead of night over a week ago.
Now I'm not going to be the next one to follow him into the flying saucer.
Pay him off.
So how's it going with the Brian Charles case? You come up with anything? You know Miss Cox Whitney.
I do not discuss my cases with anyone but the principals.
You just won't have it that way, will you? Eddie, you don't even know her.
You're reacting to her looks, her appearance.
Oh, Jim.
It's not just physical.
I know what she is.
Hey, Jimmy could you maybe reconsider on the case? (GUN FIRING) Behind the car, Eddie! They're shooting at us, Eddie! (GROANS) Why in that leg? GARNER: And now the conclusion of "Only Rock and Roll Will Never Die.
" The best laid plans.
Can I use your phone? I want to call the auto club.
Make it quick.
I don't want to be hanging around here, swatting nine millimeter slugs again.
Grab a change of clothes and get a toothbrush.
Holy cow, they blew the doorknob off.
We got to use the bedroom.
I'll tell you, Eddie, I'm not gonna hang around here waiting for the cops to get off their bureaucratic duffs.
I'm going to get to work.
Try to put together a package to take to them on Bernie Seldon.
Bernie Seldon? Jim, we don't really know that the shooting happened because you were investigating him.
I think (SIGHS) All right, look, I still have two weeks until I have to get out of Tim's place.
We could just go up there and you could bunk in with me.
You've seen the house.
I mean, nobody's going to get in.
It's like an armed compound.
Yeah, yeah, that's a great idea.
You and me and the Shah of Iran.
Yeah, look my car is broken down.
I need a tow.
Jimmy, what's your nearest cross street? The Pacific Ocean.
I don't know.
There really isn't one.
It's just 29 Cove Road.
Yeah, it's a silver gray Mercedes 450.
Goes to Santa Monica Deutsche Sales.
Yeah.
What? Did you tell anybody about how the investigation was going? Huh? Did you tell them that I was going to Evergreen? Or that I'd been to Evergreen or what I knew about Seldon's background? No.
Well, Tim yeah.
I told Tim you were going.
No, no, no.
Besides Tim.
Now, I went over there under a different name.
Somebody blew my cover.
Or else how could Seldon come back at me? How about Brenda Starr, the ace reporter? Whitney? No.
I never even discussed the case with her and I never would.
All right, all right.
If you say so.
No hard feelings.
Jimmy, if Bernie Seldon is trying to have you stopped, why? What is he trying to keep buried? And where the hell is Brian? I don't know.
I don't know.
But I'll tell you one thing, Eddie, Tim Richie is showing an awful lot of concern about a guy who is basically one big pain in his neck.
Yeah, but Then I told him that I'd linked up Brian and Evergreen Management, a family store.
Did he seem upset? Did he show any surprise? No.
Well, what did you want, the actor's studio? You want him to scream and eat his tie? I don't know but I'm going to tell you something, Eddie.
I don't like your boss.
And besides, we've still got a $2,000 account to settle with him.
You're not gonna go up there and confront Tim, are you? He's not used to being questioned.
I'm already in terrible trouble and I'm hoping I could still get my job back.
Maybe you will and maybe you won't.
Maybe you'll end up as the night security guard at the Sepulveda Pitch-n-Putt.
But I'll tell you something, Eddie.
I am willing to risk all that.
When it's put up against my neck.
Who cares anyway? I Job, money, joy.
(SIGHS) These past few weeks, ever since Whitney, I'm beginning to think how little life holds in store for me.
It's like a cold room with no light and in some ways I'd be better off dead.
Are you coming, Heathcliff? (WOMAN WHOOPING) Hi, Eddie! If you guys are looking for Tim, he's in the room.
All right, that's it.
Jimmy, we can't disturb Tim if he's up in his room.
Why not? We had our first meeting up in the bedroom, we can have our last one.
No, Jimmy Jimmy, I'm telling you.
This is not his bedroom.
This is the other room.
It's way up on the top floor.
He goes there to get away from everybody and write songs.
Now nobody's ever been in it and nobody's supposed to disturb him.
Good, then I'll feel like an innovator.
Just hush, Eddie, hush.
Mr.
Richie? It's Jim Rockford.
I need to talk to you.
TIM: You're not supposed to be up in this part of the house.
Who let you in? It's about Brian Charles.
Go down to the patio.
Mr.
Richie, somebody tried to kill me last night.
That's why I'm limping.
Eddie almost got his arm blown off.
Now what are we supposed to do, huh? How about it, Mr.
Richie? You going to clean it up or are you just going to let what happens, happen? All right.
Renegade Lotion LP.
It shipped platinum.
However, 300,000 bootleg copies hit the stands the same time ours did.
A million four, it cost us.
Tim's got his own label, Butter Records.
RONNY: A million four it cost us to date.
Yeah, things like that are why the mob likes the business.
Yeah, I know all this, I read the papers.
Now you figure it was Brian Charles who rolled over on you? The man is a jealous, spiteful person.
That's all.
Emis.
But Brian does look pretty good for it.
A master disc was missing on one of his trips to the pressing plant.
You see, when I decided to give Migraine or Yours disco shadings, I guess he figured I was just cashing in.
So why shouldn't he? And that's not jealousy.
I don't know what that is.
You know all this and you sent me to Evergreen Management to walk into the propeller? No, no, no, no.
Evergreen Management and Bernie Seldon, well, that was news to me.
But it did confirm my suspicions.
I wasn't sure Brian had sold me out.
What if I'd been wrong? So I just kind of left that part out.
Then if you found him and I was wrong Well, well, I have no reason to feel bad at all then, do I? Okay, Mr.
Richie, you want to put in a call to the police and tell them about it or shall I break the ice? I'm sorry.
I won't tell the police anything about this.
Why not? Come on, Tim.
Let's give Brian the spike.
He's got it coming.
You're not the one in the middle of a court case.
It won't be you the press glom on to as trying to skewer your best friend in a play for sympathy, with no real evidence at all.
In other words, this is my grain and not yours, eh? I'm sorry.
My, my, my.
Wait until Whitney Cox gets an earful of this chit-chat.
Oh, she'll have a field day.
Just last night, Tim was telling me that she was bugging him about Brian and Evergreen Management.
I don't even know how the hell she found out.
Oh, say, guys, did I say something wrong? Darn this silly mouth of mine.
Jimmy! Wait! You wouldn't discuss the case with her, huh? So much for jailhouse loyalties! You see? I knew you'd jump to conclusions.
So I kept quiet.
Okay, so Whitney asked me what you were doing the other day, and I kind of mentioned you'd be going down to Evergreen and I Yeah and she probably told Bernie Seldon I'd been to his place and why.
Now she's gonna truck her little hips down to the police station with me, and tell them all about it.
I'm building probable cause for that shooting and if that gets in the way of your junior high school fantasy, that's tough.
Now where's she staying? The Bever-Wyn hotel.
But you stay out of her way, Jim.
You are assassinating the character of a woman who would never harm another person.
Who are we talking about? Molly Pitcher? You think it takes some kind of grit to sleep with a dozen guys just to get an angle on a story? What is the matter with you, Eddie? You are talking about the girl I love! Ow, Eddie, don't! You think that's funny, huh? (GROANING) How do you like it? How do you like it? (GROANS) You crazy nut! Out of the way, you turkey! Let me see if I can sketch out this little scenario you've got in your head.
You think that I've been pumping your friend about you? And you also think that I've been dogging your footsteps to gain access to information.
That's the scenario.
Yeah.
Well, that's an untruth.
But not a lie? What are you doing? Well, now this is a real un-coincidence.
I had this mud on my shoes after I took a spill in Brian Charles' organic garden.
It's a combination of red clay and You think that I went skulking up to Brian's after you? Well, you're totally wrong.
manure.
(SIGHS) I don't know why I should be embarrassed.
You're an uncooperative source.
I was just following up a story.
Well, how about beating me in the head with a rock? That may not embarrass you but the side of my head was flushed.
You really are a trophy, lady, you know that? Look, I didn't mean to hit you in the head with that rock.
Honestly.
I was trying to throw it in the brush past you so it would make a noise, you would go toward it and I could get away.
Oh, come on.
That didn't even work on The Cisco Kid.
But it's the truth, Mr.
Rockford.
Really, it is.
Look, I admit, I have been behind you a lot of the time.
I did go to Bernie Seldon's office at Evergreen Management right after you'd been there.
But I was just trying to feel him out.
All I said was, did he know why a private investigator had been hired to look into the activities of Brian Charles? Boy, did he blow up.
Didn't he though? Lady, I think you owe it to me to come down to the Hollywood division.
Yeah, I know.
I'll just go change my clothes.
I am sorry.
(KNOCKING ON DOOR) Yeah? Whitney, it's me, Eddie.
Listen, I have to talk to you.
My friend, Jim Rockford, he's got this idea Oh! Look, he told me about the shooting.
That's just terrible.
He said you were hit in the arm.
Well, they sutured it up.
My wrist will always be numb, but that's the way it goes.
They wanted to give me pain pills, but I just don't believe in that stuff.
Hey, look, I don't know what he said, but you don't have to put up with his accusations.
Look, don't be silly.
He's absolutely right.
I did manage to foul things up.
We're going to go down to police headquarters.
Eddie, I'd like to get something straight.
You rushed over here to warn her, but you stopped to change clothes? (CHUCKLES) When you leave here, which is going to be in about 30 seconds, I'll place a call to a Mr.
P.
Truman Dixon, who's a very dear friend of mine in the justice department.
Well, it's up to you, sir.
Mr.
Seldon, why did you react so extremely when Miss Cox told you that Mr.
Rockford was investigating the disappearance of Brian Charles? Oh, is that who we're talking about here, Mr.
Rockford? I do know I was upset to hear that a licensed investigator was in here misrepresenting himself as some cracker in a 10-gallon hat, offering bogus promotional schemes, upsetting the talent.
Where's Brian Charles? Now this man isn't a cowboy and he isn't a police officer either, is he? Or is he? I'm asking the questions, sir.
What do you know about the theft of a recording master from Butter Records.
Tim Richie's label.
Nothing.
Look, we're not going to a bris.
We're talking Grammys here.
I'll be sitting with major people.
I need something more current.
Nobody wears this stuff anymore, do they? You never had any dealings with Brian Charles? Dealings that might have resulted in a loss of revenues to Tim Richie? Brian Charles and I are social friends.
I've had him up to the place a couple of times, because we have a business interest in Robert Indiana.
He's a painter.
I got two of his.
Where were you last night about 1:30? At home, listening to tapes by the talent.
I put in 18 hour days.
At home.
Probably all by himself.
Oh, well, he really threw us a curve with that one, Dennis.
Didn't expect that.
You see that door? Grab the knob, turn it, pull.
Now as a person, I am very cooperative but now, if you have anything you want to say to me, you say it with my lawyer present! I told you, not the regular black shoes.
I want patent leather with the velvet bows! You jocko, I'm gonna remember.
So this is what happens when I'm cooperating with the press, huh? Oh, you were very anxious to talk to me at first, Mr.
Seldon.
You said that publicity in the right magazines is something money couldn't buy.
You told me your story was about the private life, or whatever, of Tim Richie.
So now what? Evergreen Management gets linked up in print with record piracy? Tarred by the same brush? Same brush? You know what I mean, innuendo.
You think you're talking to some chaim yonkel, who stepped onto Ellis Island in his baggy coat? You think I don't know how things work at those chic little rags like Knickerbocker? Okay, everybody.
Let's go out.
Now here's a man who's making sense.
A little too late.
Why Why threaten Whitney, too? I mean, she wouldn't print anything about him and illegal activities, unless she could back it up.
And record piracy isn't even her line of work.
You know, it might be an interesting sidelight to the Tim Richie story.
A man embattled on all fronts, love, business.
Folks, do you think we could get back to our problem, which is what cathedral we go begging to for sanctuary? So you think that's what happened to Brian Charles? I mean, you actually think he's dead? He's been gone long enough.
And you take a guy like Bernie Seldon, I mean, once he's gotten whatever he wanted from Brian, he'll easily dispose of him.
That creep.
Whitney ordered a glass of Chianti, and the guy forgot all about it.
I'm gonna go straighten him out.
Excuse me.
He's a very nice man.
But, boy, he's awfully morose and quiet.
Well, only for the last couple of weeks.
Actually he's a firecracker.
Eddie? Yeah, yeah.
You know, he's top man on the prison variety show.
Told jokes and played blues harmonica.
You take him to parties, he goes into orbit.
What's wrong? Has there been a death in his family? Uh You know, since you're asking, he's really taken with you, you know.
He thinks a lot about you.
Eddie? Yeah.
Who are we talking about? You've never noticed that he's attracted to you? No.
I mean, he never even looks straight at me.
And he either mumbles or is short with me.
I mean, I never even thought he liked me.
Well, I don't think that he thinks you like him, you know.
Sometimes it's very difficult to approach someone that you really think a lot about.
Is this for real? Do you think I really enjoy fixing people up? Do you think I get my kicks that way? Nine times out of 10 it's a sucker bet.
I'm only taking this chance because I know he's unhappy, and I just hate to see him walking around with his tongue on the sidewalk.
The lady ordered some wine, a glass of red wine.
WHITNEY: You know, he's kind of cute.
Come to think of it, I have noticed sort of a virility in his walk, an animal energy Eddie? Yeah, of course, he's no Ronny Martz or Tim Richie.
Ronny, has the sexuality of a pocket calculator.
As for Tim, well, unfortunately, I wouldn't know.
Oh, I kind of thought that Thank you, kind sir.
So you think Bernie Seldon really laid poor Brian in the case, huh, Jim? I think you're probably right.
I'll tell you something else.
If the cops can find Brian's body, they'd have a corpus delecti, and after what we've told them, I don't think they'd have any choice but to launch a murder investigation against Seldon.
Great.
Well, all we have to do is find the body.
You know, if we really luck out, we might come up with Jimmy Hoffa while we're at it.
ROCKFORD: You know, I've been giving that some thought, and I'm not too sure that Brian ever left his house that night after he and Chiyoko Takai were rolling on the sofa.
I mean, the guy didn't drive a car, there was an uncashed airline ticket on his desk.
You remember what Dwight Deleau said? That Brian had gone gaga over organic gardening and then he lost interest and everything died.
Well, the night that I fell and Whitney, too.
I mean, the ground wasn't dry and hardened.
It was freshly dug.
That's right.
That's not too shabby, Jimmy, that's not too shabby.
I think it's worth a shot.
Personally, I think it's a long shot.
Bernie Seldon murdered somebody and then buried them on his own property? Seldon's too savvy for that.
I just think it leaves too much hanging.
Hey, Whitney.
Maybe you better not watch.
I mean, if Jim is right, it's not Oh, Eddie, you see a lot as a journalist.
I did this story once on gang wars in the South Bronx.
You wouldn't believe some of the things I saw.
Hey, why don't you give me your jacket? It looks like a nice one.
You wouldn't want to ruin it.
Well, thanks, Whitney.
It looks like a Ventino.
EDDIE: Yeah.
I think he's the best.
Wonderful material.
Yeah, I think the days of the unconstructed jacket are numbered.
I think Ventino really made a sharp move.
Hey, folks, we are digging for a man's body.
You do realize that, huh? I'm sorry, I didn't bring the Chablis, but that's how it goes.
Okay, Jim, we're sorry.
You made your point.
I think I liked things better before dinner.
Well, what's that supposed to mean? Frankly, I think we're digging for nothing.
I still think Uh-oh! Oh, boy.
Oh! That's him.
That's Brian Charles.
RADIO HOST: '60s rock and roller Brian Charles, whose body was discovered by an associate this evening, buried in the garden of his Topanga Canyon home.
Charles was one of the I got to talk to you.
Get out of here.
You want me to close this? I thought everybody'd left.
Should have locked the door.
I'm only here because everybody has to pay their bills, just like the grown-ups.
I did what I was hired to do.
I found Brian.
I have a lax attitude toward money.
Most people who come around here either adjust to it or they don't stay.
Oh, don't look at me that way, Mr.
Rockford, I'm supposed to have that attitude.
You can't sing songs about personal anarchy on the one hand and be checking your bank statement with the other.
How do you explain this, huh? It's quite a layout for an anarchist.
(LAUGHS) I can't.
Oh, I used to have some line I fed myself.
It had something to do with my contempt for it all and how that made it okay.
How much do I owe you? Two thousand.
Two thousand.
Two thousand.
Well, let's see what we have.
I'm afraid that doesn't quite make it.
I've got it.
I'll give it to you downstairs.
Oh, hey.
This was on the door.
It came for you.
"Ronny phoned me regarding Brian.
Stop.
"Despite all that's happened, wish to say I feel for your loss of oldest friend, "Stop.
"Diane.
" You should have seen her when I first met her.
Before photographers, before all the snow went up her nose, before this, Malibu.
(LAUGHS) Do you know she was older than me? You would've never known it.
She still had her Christmas stocking given to her as a kid when she first moved in with me.
We had to have stockings at Christmas.
Brian was clean then.
You know he was going deaf? Yeah.
So he tried to get away from this kind of music.
Went to New York, composed some half-baked rock opera in '73, scored a couple of movies in London.
But he couldn't stay away from it.
Fads come, fads go.
Glitter, reggae, now disco.
But he couldn't stay away from it.
All he wanted was to sit up with me till playing Johnny B.
Goode till his brains popped out of his ears.
(CHUCKLES) Same as when we were 16.
But you're a sellout, is that it? You see those Those were ours when we were 16.
The record player's his.
He kept it in his room above his parent's garage.
I appropriated it somewhere along the line.
But those records Those records.
Mystery Train, Little Queenie, Rave On, Mona.
We used to cut school, sneak up to his room try to follow the chord patterns.
Practice Chuck Berry's duck walk and dream, dream, dream, that maybe one day we'd be good enough to go back to our high school assembly and blow their socks off.
Show them we really were somebody.
(SIGHS) That's a long way from singing songs about tension headaches for a lot of coked out swingers at private discos.
Long way.
Did you ever go back to your high school and play? You bet we did.
What do you want from life? Hey, come on.
That's a million in one jolt, you know.
I mean, most people go back to their high school reunion, they're overweight, frustrated and unmemorable.
You You've got this big house on the ocean, you're still alive.
You You're gonna be remembered always by the people back home.
So what do you want from life? A putting green? You're going to miss him a lot, aren't you? That's what it always was, wasn't it? I mean, the adverse publicity, the rationalization that you gave me, the truth of it is you really cared a lot about Brian.
You didn't want him hurt.
I blew the chance to ever tell him, didn't I? Yeah.
Yeah, you did.
Those things you said.
Is that how you felt at your high school reunion? No, no, I always kept myself in pretty good shape.
I've got my big house on the ocean.
A big house on big wheels.
Besides, I was in prison at the time.
Come on, I'll give you the rest of your money.
How long you been out here? Not too long, Tim.
I just wanted to see how you were doing.
I just didn't want to disturb you.
I'm very sorry about Brian Charles.
I am, too.
Thank you.
This ought to cover it.
Walk up from your big beach house sometime, Mr.
Rockford.
What do you think Eddie? You want to wind it up with some cherrystone clams and in excess of 40 miles an hour, when he hit the 76-year-old Mr.
Allen, a retired cantor.
So far, a door-to-door search has failed to apprehend the suspect hit-and-run cyclist That's disgusting.
Boy, it's nice to have a meal at home after four days away.
You should have seen this, sonny.
Some fella just run over some poor old senior citizen on his cycle, then he run off like a rat.
Poor old guy was a former horse trainer.
FEMALE REPORTER: A crowded courtroom was surprised this morning when pop star Tim Richie failed to appear in this the 18th day of his settlement trial against former live-in actress Diane Bjornstrom.
Here, sonny, here I heard, Rocky, no thanks.
I'd just as soon let the whole thing slip into history.
After the session, Miss Bjornstrom's attorney, Mitchell Robinson, offered his own theory as to what caused Richie's absence.
MITCHELL: I'm certain that Mr.
Richie is keenly feeling the loss of his friend.
Neither do I doubt that last week's testimony by these two gentlemen caused him to lose his appetite for the fray.
There's little doubt in anyone's mind that, not withstanding Mr.
Richie's protestation, it was he who caused a halt in Diane's career, as witnessed by the fact that he refused to allow her to film Vitriole in London in 1974.
In a related story, charges of grand theft and copyright infringement were filed today against Bernard Seldon, president and general manager of Evergreen Management, a Beverly Hills talent agency.
I don't believe it.
Atta boy, Dennis.
The charges of theft from Tim Richie's Butter Records label were formally filed after coded documents and numbered Swiss bank accounts were found hidden in the home of Butter Records producer, Brian Charles, who was murdered Yeah, well, Dennis got lucky.
Big deal.
Well, I don't see you finding any Swiss documents up there.
Police say they are continuing to investigate the murder of Brian Charles and the subsequent attempted murder of a Malibu investigator, but so far they have no new leads.
More after this Did you hear that? That's That's you they're talking about.
You made the 6:00 news.
(LAUGHS) Oh, boy, I wish they'd mentioned your name, though.
Yeah, maybe when I plummet to my death in a hang-gliding accident.
What? Who you calling? Whitney Cox, please.
When did she last pick up her messages? Okay, thank you.
She hasn't been in her room since yesterday afternoon.
Who for the love of Mike? Whitney Cox.
Now, let's just rethink this a minute, huh? If you were Bernie Seldon, and you'd entered into an illegal arrangement with Charles, why would you have hid him? I mean, he's a valuable resource.
Why use him up? All hell broke loose for me when Whitney Cox started dogging my footsteps.
She shot off her mouth to Bernie Seldon.
Now what if she did the same with the Florio brothers? She even knew them in New York.
I'm going to Eddie's, Dad.
See you later.
Hey, sonny, wait a minute.
Don't leave me eating all alone here with just a TV set.
(DOOR CLOSES) Sonny! TVANNOUNCER: Hurricane Floyd was one of the most powerful and most deadly storms of the year Hey, Eddie? Jim? Yeah.
Hey, is Whitney here? You're pretty sharp, Jimmy.
You don't miss too much, do you? Well, it wasn't too hard to spot the way the trend was going last night.
I need to talk to her.
Well, she just left about a half an hour ago.
Come on in.
What's the problem? The Florio brothers.
I'm starting to wonder if maybe it was them who planted Brian in his garden and then tried to take you and me out.
Why, those two pinkies? Jim, they arraigned Bernie Seldon today.
You ought to try and stay current.
Did anybody arraign him for murder, huh? I mean, the cops said they have no leads.
And when they say no leads, they mean no hope.
Now Tim told me that Brian was scoring pictures in London in the early '70s.
That's London.
Pictures.
Moving pictures.
Yeah, so what.
I mean Wait a minute.
That explains it.
Eddie, Eddie, Eddie.
Don't talk to yourself.
Talk to me.
Whitney.
We were watching the progress of Tim's trial on the 6:00 news and when the Florio brothers came on and Robinson started talking about the picture in London, Whitney all of a sudden sat up in the bed and she whispered something like, "Dear God.
" I asked her what was the matter and she didn't say anything.
I went into the kitchen and when I came back, she was getting dressed, and said she'd be back later tonight.
Yeah, yeah.
Sure she put it all together.
You know, she was standing outside Tim's room when Tim told me that Brian was in London.
You were right there.
Was I? Yeah.
Was that what Tim was talking about? I was kind of preoccupied.
Eddie, just suppose that the Florio brothers testimony was perjured and it was a whole soufflé that they cooked up and then offered to Diane for a cut of her settlement.
Now Brian was in London in the motion picture business at the time.
Maybe he knew that Diane was never even considered for that role.
I think little Whitney put a press card in her hat and went out to scoop the world.
Well, she wouldn't be stupid enough to confront the Florio's with that.
No, but I still think we ought to try and find her.
She might try to talk to Diane.
You know, send up a few trial balloons, watch for a reaction, and then get into trying to prove it out.
Brian Charles, he was a talented man, some say he was gifted.
Why don't we talk about Brian Charles? We all loved Brian.
So it seems, but here was a man to contradict John Donne, a man who was an island.
John and I once had an argument about that.
Once people become critics at Rolling Stone, they think they know everything.
(CHUCKLES) Yes.
Well, anyway, you must have known Brian after his fall from fame.
I mean, his years in obscurity, in sanitariums, trying to write motion picture scores.
Living in exile in London.
What was he like then? Pretty much like himself.
I'm not sure I understand the question.
Well, Diane, what I'm asking you is what was Brian like after he left The Suspects? Were his years in London happy ones? We kind of lost touch.
I sent him money a couple of times.
WHITNEY: Well, did you ever see Brian on your trips to England? Did you ever hear any of his scores? They must have been interesting, to say the least.
DIANE: He was such a cutup.
She knows about Brian.
Are you blind or just stupid? Alain and I, we could go to the electrical chair! You killed Brian? Honoré, that wasn't part of the agreement! I never How did you think he was going to be kept quiet? I better call Alain.
He'll know what to do now.
(SIGHS) I guess that's what happened.
Whitney went out to dinner with the Florio brothers after they met me.
They must have played her like a violin.
Oh, wow.
I know this is hard for you to listen to Eddie but I'm going to tell you something, Jim.
But it's gotta stay just between the two of us.
Yeah? It was quite a night.
(EXHALES) It was amazing.
Well, I'm happy for you in that respect.
No, you don't understand.
I don't really know where it all went wrong.
Maybe it was when we ordered out at Ricky's Rib Ranch.
That's a big mistake right there.
You get sick? No.
It's just hard to stay turned on when somebody's got dried barbecue sauce in the corner of their mouth and on their chin, you know.
There's something about the color of that sauce.
Eddie, do I have to listen to this? (SIGHS) Well, we were drinking a little and talking and fooling around and then she says she's not comfortable unless it's dark.
I said fine.
So I started closing the shades, closing the drapes.
I got it exactly the way she wanted it.
Then she gets up and raids the icebox.
I follow her.
Well, in the light of the refrigerator bulb, I put my arms around her ROCKFORD: Yeah.
Turn her around and I touch her lips with mine, you know.
Yeah, yeah.
And all night sexually, it was just It was nothing.
I mean I don't know.
I'm sorry Eddie, I really am.
It's nobody's fault, really.
It's just no spark.
The appeal to me was strictly looks.
I was taken in by appearances.
Now, Eddie, I tried to make that clear to you.
And talk about self-centered? All night long, yammer, yammer, yammer.
Her father, her job, her French food processing machine! Who cares? Well, she probably feels that nobody does and that's why she stays that way.
A bright, good-Iooking person like her? With a lot to offer if she wasn't so messed up? How could you think that way? She could have it all.
Yeah, well, so could you, Eddie, so could you.
You know, you give power away by the shovel-full to people you don't even know.
EDDIE: This doesn't look too good.
That's Alain's car, and there's Whitney's car.
You carrying a gun? No.
Silly me.
When they arrested Seldon, I thought my troubles were over.
ALAIN: Honoré, what is this? HONORÉ: Must have been Whitney.
There's no time for arguments.
This is madness! Now why are you here to begin with, Honoré? I told you to stay away from her until after the trial was done! Now do you know how this would look? All your life you've been betraying Martz.
And now you risk doing the same to me.
I want no part of this.
Everything, everything will be okay.
But first, we have to do something about Whitney.
Let's get her out to the car.
HONORÉ: Alain! Honoré.
Eddie? I'm all right, Jim.
Turn it left! Turn it (HORN BLARING) Not my car again! Finally! You go ahead, I'm not hungry.
What is the matter with you today, Eddie? All I'm getting from you is monosyllables or bad news.
Well, I wasn't gonna bring it up, Jim.
But since you ask, I'm more than a little yanked off to find out that it was you who told Whitney how I felt about her.
You were in misery at the time.
Remember? Life was a cold room with no light? Don't come down on me just because she didn't turn out to be the lovely Irene Rich.
It doesn't make any difference how it turns out.
I just don't want you interfering in my personal life, Jimmy.
I mean, I don't need anyone to speak for me.
Well, that is choice, that's really choice.
You know, I had to hold your little hand for a week and listen to you braying.
Now you tell me to stay out of it.
Boy, I knew I was making a mistake.
I just knew it.
Never again.
Okay, I don't want to talk about it anymore.
I mean I just don't want it to happen in the future, okay? Uh-oh, boy.
Who told her that we were going to be here? Well, I had left a note for Rocky Look, I'm leaving.
Tell her you don't know where I went.
I am maxed out with that lady, Jimmy.
I just couldn't stand it.
Oh, hi! Hi.
Mind if I sit down? Oh, no.
Please, please.
You just missed Eddie.
Yeah.
I'm sure you could probably find him at his place.
Oh, that's okay.
I didn't really want to talk to Eddie, anyway.
I wanted to talk to you.
I'm going back to New York.
Oh! I just wanted to thank you for what you did.
Well, no need to.
It was pretty much a thankless job.
(CHUCKLES) Look, while we're talking about it, I was just wondering, you know that little cassette that you took from me the other night up at Tim's? I was wondering if I could have it back.
Oh, well, sure, sure.
Oh! I gotta tell you, a really dumb thing happened.
You know, the other night the whole Rockford clan got together.
You know, we sometimes do that and my dad got out his squeeze box and we played The Dust on Mother's Bible and Will the Circle Be Unbroken, Amazing Grace You know, all the old favorites and I wanted to tape it for my nephews.
And well, cluck that I am, you know, I taped right over everything you had.
(CHUCKLES) You are no cluck, Mr.
Rockford.
I think you've got enough on Tim Richie to do a real good job.
Guess I'm just going to have to make do.
I'm sure you will.
You've still got the sexual angle working for you, right? You know, it's a funny thing about that.
You know, I came all the way out here just to see Tim Richie and, well, when that didn't work out the way I wanted it to, I started to see Michael Womack, his bass player.
And I don't mind telling you he's a real attractive guy and a good lover, but really just wasn't Tim Richie.
(CHUCKLES) But I hung in there anyway.
I started seeing Doyle Kaye, his head roadie.
Real funny guy and very exciting and amusing.
But he just wasn't Tim Richie.
And then there was Eddie.
What a nice man.
So kind and warm.
I don't know, afterwards, it just wasn't Tim.
And then the last night when I was doing my last tape of Tim, afterwards he started playing with my hair and I knew what was coming.
I thought this is incredible.
Tim Richie! He's amazing.
He's so sensitive and so warm and so strong and I just couldn't believe it.
I sat there and I just said this is great except He wasn't Tim Richie.
No.
He wasn't.
It shipped platinum.
However, 300,000 bootleg copies hit the stands the same time ours did.
Bernie Seldon murdered somebody and then buried them on his own property? Somebody blew my cover.
You are talking about the woman I love! You were an uncooperative source.
I was just following up.
You really are a trophy, lady, you know that? Do you hear what I just said to you? You put your finger on me one more time, ace, you're gonna be eating soft foods for a month.
(TIRES SCREECHING) Turn it left! Turn it Not my car again! (PHONE RINGING) ROCKFORD ON ANSWERING MACHINE: This is Jim Rockford.
At the tone, leave your name and message.
I'll get back to you.
(BEEPS) Jimmy, this is Dora.
I'm going to move in with the kids, but I'll sure miss you, dear.
Thank you for taking out the garbage every week.
I'll send you a card for your birthday.
News at 6:00.
Lindy Jones has the story.
This is James Garner.
Here are scenes from Part I of "Only Rock and Roll Will Never Die.
" John, it was the first day of testimony for plaintiff Diane Bjornstrom in her suit against pop star Tim Richie pondering the $15 million price tag of love.
Did you meet with Miss Bjornstrom in connection with this project? Honoré and I wanted her to play the central female role.
Is this a copy of the shooting script of Vitriole? Yes.
This is my rewrite.
I knew when I called you, you'd show up.
Even though, like you said, you're not exactly turned on by missing persons work.
But back in Quentin we didn't call you Mr.
Stand-Up for nothing.
I never was too comfortable with that name, Eddie.
What, are you head of security here? I don't know how much Eddie's told you about the problem.
Not much.
He just said that you're worried about a friend.
Yeah.
His name's Brian Charles.
Brian and me started the group back in the '60s.
Anyway, it's been a week now and no Brian.
Talking about Brian? Jim Rockford, Ron Martz.
Tim's manager.
You are? Jim Rockford.
Hi, I'm Whitney Cox.
You're the private investigator.
Am I right? You're here about Brian Charles.
Women like that don't break out into a sweat over guys like me.
Women like that don't sweat, according to you.
Whitney's going to do an in-depth profile on Tim in three parts.
(SIGHS) Oh, really? You know, I never would have thought you were a reporter unless somebody told me.
What's the angle on your three parter? That Tim Richie is the most sensual man of his time.
(GROANS) You all right? Who was it? That's the point I'm trying to make, Eddie.
I don't know.
How well do you know Brian? Well as you can know a smackhead.
We're right in the middle of reworking some tunes.
What do you need? I was kind of curious about just how she and Brian got hooked up together.
We both met him at Bernie Seldon's house a couple of weeks ago.
He has a pretty hefty yellow sheet for violent crimes, doesn't he, Dennis? BECKER: Bernie Seldon.
So what? I've heard of Evergreen Management, though I know nothing about this greaser connection.
But even if there is one, hoods in the music business? That doesn't exactly rate with "Japan surrenders," does it? And if Brian chooses to hang out with a couple of broken noses, that doesn't mean he's involved with them in any real way.
No.
No, it doesn't.
It only means that this is as far as I'll take an investigation of this kind.
Look, Brian disappeared in the dead of night over a week ago.
Now I'm not going to be the next one to follow him into the flying saucer.
Pay him off.
So how's it going with the Brian Charles case? You come up with anything? You know Miss Cox Whitney.
I do not discuss my cases with anyone but the principals.
You just won't have it that way, will you? Eddie, you don't even know her.
You're reacting to her looks, her appearance.
Oh, Jim.
It's not just physical.
I know what she is.
Hey, Jimmy could you maybe reconsider on the case? (GUN FIRING) Behind the car, Eddie! They're shooting at us, Eddie! (GROANS) Why in that leg? GARNER: And now the conclusion of "Only Rock and Roll Will Never Die.
" The best laid plans.
Can I use your phone? I want to call the auto club.
Make it quick.
I don't want to be hanging around here, swatting nine millimeter slugs again.
Grab a change of clothes and get a toothbrush.
Holy cow, they blew the doorknob off.
We got to use the bedroom.
I'll tell you, Eddie, I'm not gonna hang around here waiting for the cops to get off their bureaucratic duffs.
I'm going to get to work.
Try to put together a package to take to them on Bernie Seldon.
Bernie Seldon? Jim, we don't really know that the shooting happened because you were investigating him.
I think (SIGHS) All right, look, I still have two weeks until I have to get out of Tim's place.
We could just go up there and you could bunk in with me.
You've seen the house.
I mean, nobody's going to get in.
It's like an armed compound.
Yeah, yeah, that's a great idea.
You and me and the Shah of Iran.
Yeah, look my car is broken down.
I need a tow.
Jimmy, what's your nearest cross street? The Pacific Ocean.
I don't know.
There really isn't one.
It's just 29 Cove Road.
Yeah, it's a silver gray Mercedes 450.
Goes to Santa Monica Deutsche Sales.
Yeah.
What? Did you tell anybody about how the investigation was going? Huh? Did you tell them that I was going to Evergreen? Or that I'd been to Evergreen or what I knew about Seldon's background? No.
Well, Tim yeah.
I told Tim you were going.
No, no, no.
Besides Tim.
Now, I went over there under a different name.
Somebody blew my cover.
Or else how could Seldon come back at me? How about Brenda Starr, the ace reporter? Whitney? No.
I never even discussed the case with her and I never would.
All right, all right.
If you say so.
No hard feelings.
Jimmy, if Bernie Seldon is trying to have you stopped, why? What is he trying to keep buried? And where the hell is Brian? I don't know.
I don't know.
But I'll tell you one thing, Eddie, Tim Richie is showing an awful lot of concern about a guy who is basically one big pain in his neck.
Yeah, but Then I told him that I'd linked up Brian and Evergreen Management, a family store.
Did he seem upset? Did he show any surprise? No.
Well, what did you want, the actor's studio? You want him to scream and eat his tie? I don't know but I'm going to tell you something, Eddie.
I don't like your boss.
And besides, we've still got a $2,000 account to settle with him.
You're not gonna go up there and confront Tim, are you? He's not used to being questioned.
I'm already in terrible trouble and I'm hoping I could still get my job back.
Maybe you will and maybe you won't.
Maybe you'll end up as the night security guard at the Sepulveda Pitch-n-Putt.
But I'll tell you something, Eddie.
I am willing to risk all that.
When it's put up against my neck.
Who cares anyway? I Job, money, joy.
(SIGHS) These past few weeks, ever since Whitney, I'm beginning to think how little life holds in store for me.
It's like a cold room with no light and in some ways I'd be better off dead.
Are you coming, Heathcliff? (WOMAN WHOOPING) Hi, Eddie! If you guys are looking for Tim, he's in the room.
All right, that's it.
Jimmy, we can't disturb Tim if he's up in his room.
Why not? We had our first meeting up in the bedroom, we can have our last one.
No, Jimmy Jimmy, I'm telling you.
This is not his bedroom.
This is the other room.
It's way up on the top floor.
He goes there to get away from everybody and write songs.
Now nobody's ever been in it and nobody's supposed to disturb him.
Good, then I'll feel like an innovator.
Just hush, Eddie, hush.
Mr.
Richie? It's Jim Rockford.
I need to talk to you.
TIM: You're not supposed to be up in this part of the house.
Who let you in? It's about Brian Charles.
Go down to the patio.
Mr.
Richie, somebody tried to kill me last night.
That's why I'm limping.
Eddie almost got his arm blown off.
Now what are we supposed to do, huh? How about it, Mr.
Richie? You going to clean it up or are you just going to let what happens, happen? All right.
Renegade Lotion LP.
It shipped platinum.
However, 300,000 bootleg copies hit the stands the same time ours did.
A million four, it cost us.
Tim's got his own label, Butter Records.
RONNY: A million four it cost us to date.
Yeah, things like that are why the mob likes the business.
Yeah, I know all this, I read the papers.
Now you figure it was Brian Charles who rolled over on you? The man is a jealous, spiteful person.
That's all.
Emis.
But Brian does look pretty good for it.
A master disc was missing on one of his trips to the pressing plant.
You see, when I decided to give Migraine or Yours disco shadings, I guess he figured I was just cashing in.
So why shouldn't he? And that's not jealousy.
I don't know what that is.
You know all this and you sent me to Evergreen Management to walk into the propeller? No, no, no, no.
Evergreen Management and Bernie Seldon, well, that was news to me.
But it did confirm my suspicions.
I wasn't sure Brian had sold me out.
What if I'd been wrong? So I just kind of left that part out.
Then if you found him and I was wrong Well, well, I have no reason to feel bad at all then, do I? Okay, Mr.
Richie, you want to put in a call to the police and tell them about it or shall I break the ice? I'm sorry.
I won't tell the police anything about this.
Why not? Come on, Tim.
Let's give Brian the spike.
He's got it coming.
You're not the one in the middle of a court case.
It won't be you the press glom on to as trying to skewer your best friend in a play for sympathy, with no real evidence at all.
In other words, this is my grain and not yours, eh? I'm sorry.
My, my, my.
Wait until Whitney Cox gets an earful of this chit-chat.
Oh, she'll have a field day.
Just last night, Tim was telling me that she was bugging him about Brian and Evergreen Management.
I don't even know how the hell she found out.
Oh, say, guys, did I say something wrong? Darn this silly mouth of mine.
Jimmy! Wait! You wouldn't discuss the case with her, huh? So much for jailhouse loyalties! You see? I knew you'd jump to conclusions.
So I kept quiet.
Okay, so Whitney asked me what you were doing the other day, and I kind of mentioned you'd be going down to Evergreen and I Yeah and she probably told Bernie Seldon I'd been to his place and why.
Now she's gonna truck her little hips down to the police station with me, and tell them all about it.
I'm building probable cause for that shooting and if that gets in the way of your junior high school fantasy, that's tough.
Now where's she staying? The Bever-Wyn hotel.
But you stay out of her way, Jim.
You are assassinating the character of a woman who would never harm another person.
Who are we talking about? Molly Pitcher? You think it takes some kind of grit to sleep with a dozen guys just to get an angle on a story? What is the matter with you, Eddie? You are talking about the girl I love! Ow, Eddie, don't! You think that's funny, huh? (GROANING) How do you like it? How do you like it? (GROANS) You crazy nut! Out of the way, you turkey! Let me see if I can sketch out this little scenario you've got in your head.
You think that I've been pumping your friend about you? And you also think that I've been dogging your footsteps to gain access to information.
That's the scenario.
Yeah.
Well, that's an untruth.
But not a lie? What are you doing? Well, now this is a real un-coincidence.
I had this mud on my shoes after I took a spill in Brian Charles' organic garden.
It's a combination of red clay and You think that I went skulking up to Brian's after you? Well, you're totally wrong.
manure.
(SIGHS) I don't know why I should be embarrassed.
You're an uncooperative source.
I was just following up a story.
Well, how about beating me in the head with a rock? That may not embarrass you but the side of my head was flushed.
You really are a trophy, lady, you know that? Look, I didn't mean to hit you in the head with that rock.
Honestly.
I was trying to throw it in the brush past you so it would make a noise, you would go toward it and I could get away.
Oh, come on.
That didn't even work on The Cisco Kid.
But it's the truth, Mr.
Rockford.
Really, it is.
Look, I admit, I have been behind you a lot of the time.
I did go to Bernie Seldon's office at Evergreen Management right after you'd been there.
But I was just trying to feel him out.
All I said was, did he know why a private investigator had been hired to look into the activities of Brian Charles? Boy, did he blow up.
Didn't he though? Lady, I think you owe it to me to come down to the Hollywood division.
Yeah, I know.
I'll just go change my clothes.
I am sorry.
(KNOCKING ON DOOR) Yeah? Whitney, it's me, Eddie.
Listen, I have to talk to you.
My friend, Jim Rockford, he's got this idea Oh! Look, he told me about the shooting.
That's just terrible.
He said you were hit in the arm.
Well, they sutured it up.
My wrist will always be numb, but that's the way it goes.
They wanted to give me pain pills, but I just don't believe in that stuff.
Hey, look, I don't know what he said, but you don't have to put up with his accusations.
Look, don't be silly.
He's absolutely right.
I did manage to foul things up.
We're going to go down to police headquarters.
Eddie, I'd like to get something straight.
You rushed over here to warn her, but you stopped to change clothes? (CHUCKLES) When you leave here, which is going to be in about 30 seconds, I'll place a call to a Mr.
P.
Truman Dixon, who's a very dear friend of mine in the justice department.
Well, it's up to you, sir.
Mr.
Seldon, why did you react so extremely when Miss Cox told you that Mr.
Rockford was investigating the disappearance of Brian Charles? Oh, is that who we're talking about here, Mr.
Rockford? I do know I was upset to hear that a licensed investigator was in here misrepresenting himself as some cracker in a 10-gallon hat, offering bogus promotional schemes, upsetting the talent.
Where's Brian Charles? Now this man isn't a cowboy and he isn't a police officer either, is he? Or is he? I'm asking the questions, sir.
What do you know about the theft of a recording master from Butter Records.
Tim Richie's label.
Nothing.
Look, we're not going to a bris.
We're talking Grammys here.
I'll be sitting with major people.
I need something more current.
Nobody wears this stuff anymore, do they? You never had any dealings with Brian Charles? Dealings that might have resulted in a loss of revenues to Tim Richie? Brian Charles and I are social friends.
I've had him up to the place a couple of times, because we have a business interest in Robert Indiana.
He's a painter.
I got two of his.
Where were you last night about 1:30? At home, listening to tapes by the talent.
I put in 18 hour days.
At home.
Probably all by himself.
Oh, well, he really threw us a curve with that one, Dennis.
Didn't expect that.
You see that door? Grab the knob, turn it, pull.
Now as a person, I am very cooperative but now, if you have anything you want to say to me, you say it with my lawyer present! I told you, not the regular black shoes.
I want patent leather with the velvet bows! You jocko, I'm gonna remember.
So this is what happens when I'm cooperating with the press, huh? Oh, you were very anxious to talk to me at first, Mr.
Seldon.
You said that publicity in the right magazines is something money couldn't buy.
You told me your story was about the private life, or whatever, of Tim Richie.
So now what? Evergreen Management gets linked up in print with record piracy? Tarred by the same brush? Same brush? You know what I mean, innuendo.
You think you're talking to some chaim yonkel, who stepped onto Ellis Island in his baggy coat? You think I don't know how things work at those chic little rags like Knickerbocker? Okay, everybody.
Let's go out.
Now here's a man who's making sense.
A little too late.
Why Why threaten Whitney, too? I mean, she wouldn't print anything about him and illegal activities, unless she could back it up.
And record piracy isn't even her line of work.
You know, it might be an interesting sidelight to the Tim Richie story.
A man embattled on all fronts, love, business.
Folks, do you think we could get back to our problem, which is what cathedral we go begging to for sanctuary? So you think that's what happened to Brian Charles? I mean, you actually think he's dead? He's been gone long enough.
And you take a guy like Bernie Seldon, I mean, once he's gotten whatever he wanted from Brian, he'll easily dispose of him.
That creep.
Whitney ordered a glass of Chianti, and the guy forgot all about it.
I'm gonna go straighten him out.
Excuse me.
He's a very nice man.
But, boy, he's awfully morose and quiet.
Well, only for the last couple of weeks.
Actually he's a firecracker.
Eddie? Yeah, yeah.
You know, he's top man on the prison variety show.
Told jokes and played blues harmonica.
You take him to parties, he goes into orbit.
What's wrong? Has there been a death in his family? Uh You know, since you're asking, he's really taken with you, you know.
He thinks a lot about you.
Eddie? Yeah.
Who are we talking about? You've never noticed that he's attracted to you? No.
I mean, he never even looks straight at me.
And he either mumbles or is short with me.
I mean, I never even thought he liked me.
Well, I don't think that he thinks you like him, you know.
Sometimes it's very difficult to approach someone that you really think a lot about.
Is this for real? Do you think I really enjoy fixing people up? Do you think I get my kicks that way? Nine times out of 10 it's a sucker bet.
I'm only taking this chance because I know he's unhappy, and I just hate to see him walking around with his tongue on the sidewalk.
The lady ordered some wine, a glass of red wine.
WHITNEY: You know, he's kind of cute.
Come to think of it, I have noticed sort of a virility in his walk, an animal energy Eddie? Yeah, of course, he's no Ronny Martz or Tim Richie.
Ronny, has the sexuality of a pocket calculator.
As for Tim, well, unfortunately, I wouldn't know.
Oh, I kind of thought that Thank you, kind sir.
So you think Bernie Seldon really laid poor Brian in the case, huh, Jim? I think you're probably right.
I'll tell you something else.
If the cops can find Brian's body, they'd have a corpus delecti, and after what we've told them, I don't think they'd have any choice but to launch a murder investigation against Seldon.
Great.
Well, all we have to do is find the body.
You know, if we really luck out, we might come up with Jimmy Hoffa while we're at it.
ROCKFORD: You know, I've been giving that some thought, and I'm not too sure that Brian ever left his house that night after he and Chiyoko Takai were rolling on the sofa.
I mean, the guy didn't drive a car, there was an uncashed airline ticket on his desk.
You remember what Dwight Deleau said? That Brian had gone gaga over organic gardening and then he lost interest and everything died.
Well, the night that I fell and Whitney, too.
I mean, the ground wasn't dry and hardened.
It was freshly dug.
That's right.
That's not too shabby, Jimmy, that's not too shabby.
I think it's worth a shot.
Personally, I think it's a long shot.
Bernie Seldon murdered somebody and then buried them on his own property? Seldon's too savvy for that.
I just think it leaves too much hanging.
Hey, Whitney.
Maybe you better not watch.
I mean, if Jim is right, it's not Oh, Eddie, you see a lot as a journalist.
I did this story once on gang wars in the South Bronx.
You wouldn't believe some of the things I saw.
Hey, why don't you give me your jacket? It looks like a nice one.
You wouldn't want to ruin it.
Well, thanks, Whitney.
It looks like a Ventino.
EDDIE: Yeah.
I think he's the best.
Wonderful material.
Yeah, I think the days of the unconstructed jacket are numbered.
I think Ventino really made a sharp move.
Hey, folks, we are digging for a man's body.
You do realize that, huh? I'm sorry, I didn't bring the Chablis, but that's how it goes.
Okay, Jim, we're sorry.
You made your point.
I think I liked things better before dinner.
Well, what's that supposed to mean? Frankly, I think we're digging for nothing.
I still think Uh-oh! Oh, boy.
Oh! That's him.
That's Brian Charles.
RADIO HOST: '60s rock and roller Brian Charles, whose body was discovered by an associate this evening, buried in the garden of his Topanga Canyon home.
Charles was one of the I got to talk to you.
Get out of here.
You want me to close this? I thought everybody'd left.
Should have locked the door.
I'm only here because everybody has to pay their bills, just like the grown-ups.
I did what I was hired to do.
I found Brian.
I have a lax attitude toward money.
Most people who come around here either adjust to it or they don't stay.
Oh, don't look at me that way, Mr.
Rockford, I'm supposed to have that attitude.
You can't sing songs about personal anarchy on the one hand and be checking your bank statement with the other.
How do you explain this, huh? It's quite a layout for an anarchist.
(LAUGHS) I can't.
Oh, I used to have some line I fed myself.
It had something to do with my contempt for it all and how that made it okay.
How much do I owe you? Two thousand.
Two thousand.
Two thousand.
Well, let's see what we have.
I'm afraid that doesn't quite make it.
I've got it.
I'll give it to you downstairs.
Oh, hey.
This was on the door.
It came for you.
"Ronny phoned me regarding Brian.
Stop.
"Despite all that's happened, wish to say I feel for your loss of oldest friend, "Stop.
"Diane.
" You should have seen her when I first met her.
Before photographers, before all the snow went up her nose, before this, Malibu.
(LAUGHS) Do you know she was older than me? You would've never known it.
She still had her Christmas stocking given to her as a kid when she first moved in with me.
We had to have stockings at Christmas.
Brian was clean then.
You know he was going deaf? Yeah.
So he tried to get away from this kind of music.
Went to New York, composed some half-baked rock opera in '73, scored a couple of movies in London.
But he couldn't stay away from it.
Fads come, fads go.
Glitter, reggae, now disco.
But he couldn't stay away from it.
All he wanted was to sit up with me till playing Johnny B.
Goode till his brains popped out of his ears.
(CHUCKLES) Same as when we were 16.
But you're a sellout, is that it? You see those Those were ours when we were 16.
The record player's his.
He kept it in his room above his parent's garage.
I appropriated it somewhere along the line.
But those records Those records.
Mystery Train, Little Queenie, Rave On, Mona.
We used to cut school, sneak up to his room try to follow the chord patterns.
Practice Chuck Berry's duck walk and dream, dream, dream, that maybe one day we'd be good enough to go back to our high school assembly and blow their socks off.
Show them we really were somebody.
(SIGHS) That's a long way from singing songs about tension headaches for a lot of coked out swingers at private discos.
Long way.
Did you ever go back to your high school and play? You bet we did.
What do you want from life? Hey, come on.
That's a million in one jolt, you know.
I mean, most people go back to their high school reunion, they're overweight, frustrated and unmemorable.
You You've got this big house on the ocean, you're still alive.
You You're gonna be remembered always by the people back home.
So what do you want from life? A putting green? You're going to miss him a lot, aren't you? That's what it always was, wasn't it? I mean, the adverse publicity, the rationalization that you gave me, the truth of it is you really cared a lot about Brian.
You didn't want him hurt.
I blew the chance to ever tell him, didn't I? Yeah.
Yeah, you did.
Those things you said.
Is that how you felt at your high school reunion? No, no, I always kept myself in pretty good shape.
I've got my big house on the ocean.
A big house on big wheels.
Besides, I was in prison at the time.
Come on, I'll give you the rest of your money.
How long you been out here? Not too long, Tim.
I just wanted to see how you were doing.
I just didn't want to disturb you.
I'm very sorry about Brian Charles.
I am, too.
Thank you.
This ought to cover it.
Walk up from your big beach house sometime, Mr.
Rockford.
What do you think Eddie? You want to wind it up with some cherrystone clams and in excess of 40 miles an hour, when he hit the 76-year-old Mr.
Allen, a retired cantor.
So far, a door-to-door search has failed to apprehend the suspect hit-and-run cyclist That's disgusting.
Boy, it's nice to have a meal at home after four days away.
You should have seen this, sonny.
Some fella just run over some poor old senior citizen on his cycle, then he run off like a rat.
Poor old guy was a former horse trainer.
FEMALE REPORTER: A crowded courtroom was surprised this morning when pop star Tim Richie failed to appear in this the 18th day of his settlement trial against former live-in actress Diane Bjornstrom.
Here, sonny, here I heard, Rocky, no thanks.
I'd just as soon let the whole thing slip into history.
After the session, Miss Bjornstrom's attorney, Mitchell Robinson, offered his own theory as to what caused Richie's absence.
MITCHELL: I'm certain that Mr.
Richie is keenly feeling the loss of his friend.
Neither do I doubt that last week's testimony by these two gentlemen caused him to lose his appetite for the fray.
There's little doubt in anyone's mind that, not withstanding Mr.
Richie's protestation, it was he who caused a halt in Diane's career, as witnessed by the fact that he refused to allow her to film Vitriole in London in 1974.
In a related story, charges of grand theft and copyright infringement were filed today against Bernard Seldon, president and general manager of Evergreen Management, a Beverly Hills talent agency.
I don't believe it.
Atta boy, Dennis.
The charges of theft from Tim Richie's Butter Records label were formally filed after coded documents and numbered Swiss bank accounts were found hidden in the home of Butter Records producer, Brian Charles, who was murdered Yeah, well, Dennis got lucky.
Big deal.
Well, I don't see you finding any Swiss documents up there.
Police say they are continuing to investigate the murder of Brian Charles and the subsequent attempted murder of a Malibu investigator, but so far they have no new leads.
More after this Did you hear that? That's That's you they're talking about.
You made the 6:00 news.
(LAUGHS) Oh, boy, I wish they'd mentioned your name, though.
Yeah, maybe when I plummet to my death in a hang-gliding accident.
What? Who you calling? Whitney Cox, please.
When did she last pick up her messages? Okay, thank you.
She hasn't been in her room since yesterday afternoon.
Who for the love of Mike? Whitney Cox.
Now, let's just rethink this a minute, huh? If you were Bernie Seldon, and you'd entered into an illegal arrangement with Charles, why would you have hid him? I mean, he's a valuable resource.
Why use him up? All hell broke loose for me when Whitney Cox started dogging my footsteps.
She shot off her mouth to Bernie Seldon.
Now what if she did the same with the Florio brothers? She even knew them in New York.
I'm going to Eddie's, Dad.
See you later.
Hey, sonny, wait a minute.
Don't leave me eating all alone here with just a TV set.
(DOOR CLOSES) Sonny! TVANNOUNCER: Hurricane Floyd was one of the most powerful and most deadly storms of the year Hey, Eddie? Jim? Yeah.
Hey, is Whitney here? You're pretty sharp, Jimmy.
You don't miss too much, do you? Well, it wasn't too hard to spot the way the trend was going last night.
I need to talk to her.
Well, she just left about a half an hour ago.
Come on in.
What's the problem? The Florio brothers.
I'm starting to wonder if maybe it was them who planted Brian in his garden and then tried to take you and me out.
Why, those two pinkies? Jim, they arraigned Bernie Seldon today.
You ought to try and stay current.
Did anybody arraign him for murder, huh? I mean, the cops said they have no leads.
And when they say no leads, they mean no hope.
Now Tim told me that Brian was scoring pictures in London in the early '70s.
That's London.
Pictures.
Moving pictures.
Yeah, so what.
I mean Wait a minute.
That explains it.
Eddie, Eddie, Eddie.
Don't talk to yourself.
Talk to me.
Whitney.
We were watching the progress of Tim's trial on the 6:00 news and when the Florio brothers came on and Robinson started talking about the picture in London, Whitney all of a sudden sat up in the bed and she whispered something like, "Dear God.
" I asked her what was the matter and she didn't say anything.
I went into the kitchen and when I came back, she was getting dressed, and said she'd be back later tonight.
Yeah, yeah.
Sure she put it all together.
You know, she was standing outside Tim's room when Tim told me that Brian was in London.
You were right there.
Was I? Yeah.
Was that what Tim was talking about? I was kind of preoccupied.
Eddie, just suppose that the Florio brothers testimony was perjured and it was a whole soufflé that they cooked up and then offered to Diane for a cut of her settlement.
Now Brian was in London in the motion picture business at the time.
Maybe he knew that Diane was never even considered for that role.
I think little Whitney put a press card in her hat and went out to scoop the world.
Well, she wouldn't be stupid enough to confront the Florio's with that.
No, but I still think we ought to try and find her.
She might try to talk to Diane.
You know, send up a few trial balloons, watch for a reaction, and then get into trying to prove it out.
Brian Charles, he was a talented man, some say he was gifted.
Why don't we talk about Brian Charles? We all loved Brian.
So it seems, but here was a man to contradict John Donne, a man who was an island.
John and I once had an argument about that.
Once people become critics at Rolling Stone, they think they know everything.
(CHUCKLES) Yes.
Well, anyway, you must have known Brian after his fall from fame.
I mean, his years in obscurity, in sanitariums, trying to write motion picture scores.
Living in exile in London.
What was he like then? Pretty much like himself.
I'm not sure I understand the question.
Well, Diane, what I'm asking you is what was Brian like after he left The Suspects? Were his years in London happy ones? We kind of lost touch.
I sent him money a couple of times.
WHITNEY: Well, did you ever see Brian on your trips to England? Did you ever hear any of his scores? They must have been interesting, to say the least.
DIANE: He was such a cutup.
She knows about Brian.
Are you blind or just stupid? Alain and I, we could go to the electrical chair! You killed Brian? Honoré, that wasn't part of the agreement! I never How did you think he was going to be kept quiet? I better call Alain.
He'll know what to do now.
(SIGHS) I guess that's what happened.
Whitney went out to dinner with the Florio brothers after they met me.
They must have played her like a violin.
Oh, wow.
I know this is hard for you to listen to Eddie but I'm going to tell you something, Jim.
But it's gotta stay just between the two of us.
Yeah? It was quite a night.
(EXHALES) It was amazing.
Well, I'm happy for you in that respect.
No, you don't understand.
I don't really know where it all went wrong.
Maybe it was when we ordered out at Ricky's Rib Ranch.
That's a big mistake right there.
You get sick? No.
It's just hard to stay turned on when somebody's got dried barbecue sauce in the corner of their mouth and on their chin, you know.
There's something about the color of that sauce.
Eddie, do I have to listen to this? (SIGHS) Well, we were drinking a little and talking and fooling around and then she says she's not comfortable unless it's dark.
I said fine.
So I started closing the shades, closing the drapes.
I got it exactly the way she wanted it.
Then she gets up and raids the icebox.
I follow her.
Well, in the light of the refrigerator bulb, I put my arms around her ROCKFORD: Yeah.
Turn her around and I touch her lips with mine, you know.
Yeah, yeah.
And all night sexually, it was just It was nothing.
I mean I don't know.
I'm sorry Eddie, I really am.
It's nobody's fault, really.
It's just no spark.
The appeal to me was strictly looks.
I was taken in by appearances.
Now, Eddie, I tried to make that clear to you.
And talk about self-centered? All night long, yammer, yammer, yammer.
Her father, her job, her French food processing machine! Who cares? Well, she probably feels that nobody does and that's why she stays that way.
A bright, good-Iooking person like her? With a lot to offer if she wasn't so messed up? How could you think that way? She could have it all.
Yeah, well, so could you, Eddie, so could you.
You know, you give power away by the shovel-full to people you don't even know.
EDDIE: This doesn't look too good.
That's Alain's car, and there's Whitney's car.
You carrying a gun? No.
Silly me.
When they arrested Seldon, I thought my troubles were over.
ALAIN: Honoré, what is this? HONORÉ: Must have been Whitney.
There's no time for arguments.
This is madness! Now why are you here to begin with, Honoré? I told you to stay away from her until after the trial was done! Now do you know how this would look? All your life you've been betraying Martz.
And now you risk doing the same to me.
I want no part of this.
Everything, everything will be okay.
But first, we have to do something about Whitney.
Let's get her out to the car.
HONORÉ: Alain! Honoré.
Eddie? I'm all right, Jim.
Turn it left! Turn it (HORN BLARING) Not my car again! Finally! You go ahead, I'm not hungry.
What is the matter with you today, Eddie? All I'm getting from you is monosyllables or bad news.
Well, I wasn't gonna bring it up, Jim.
But since you ask, I'm more than a little yanked off to find out that it was you who told Whitney how I felt about her.
You were in misery at the time.
Remember? Life was a cold room with no light? Don't come down on me just because she didn't turn out to be the lovely Irene Rich.
It doesn't make any difference how it turns out.
I just don't want you interfering in my personal life, Jimmy.
I mean, I don't need anyone to speak for me.
Well, that is choice, that's really choice.
You know, I had to hold your little hand for a week and listen to you braying.
Now you tell me to stay out of it.
Boy, I knew I was making a mistake.
I just knew it.
Never again.
Okay, I don't want to talk about it anymore.
I mean I just don't want it to happen in the future, okay? Uh-oh, boy.
Who told her that we were going to be here? Well, I had left a note for Rocky Look, I'm leaving.
Tell her you don't know where I went.
I am maxed out with that lady, Jimmy.
I just couldn't stand it.
Oh, hi! Hi.
Mind if I sit down? Oh, no.
Please, please.
You just missed Eddie.
Yeah.
I'm sure you could probably find him at his place.
Oh, that's okay.
I didn't really want to talk to Eddie, anyway.
I wanted to talk to you.
I'm going back to New York.
Oh! I just wanted to thank you for what you did.
Well, no need to.
It was pretty much a thankless job.
(CHUCKLES) Look, while we're talking about it, I was just wondering, you know that little cassette that you took from me the other night up at Tim's? I was wondering if I could have it back.
Oh, well, sure, sure.
Oh! I gotta tell you, a really dumb thing happened.
You know, the other night the whole Rockford clan got together.
You know, we sometimes do that and my dad got out his squeeze box and we played The Dust on Mother's Bible and Will the Circle Be Unbroken, Amazing Grace You know, all the old favorites and I wanted to tape it for my nephews.
And well, cluck that I am, you know, I taped right over everything you had.
(CHUCKLES) You are no cluck, Mr.
Rockford.
I think you've got enough on Tim Richie to do a real good job.
Guess I'm just going to have to make do.
I'm sure you will.
You've still got the sexual angle working for you, right? You know, it's a funny thing about that.
You know, I came all the way out here just to see Tim Richie and, well, when that didn't work out the way I wanted it to, I started to see Michael Womack, his bass player.
And I don't mind telling you he's a real attractive guy and a good lover, but really just wasn't Tim Richie.
(CHUCKLES) But I hung in there anyway.
I started seeing Doyle Kaye, his head roadie.
Real funny guy and very exciting and amusing.
But he just wasn't Tim Richie.
And then there was Eddie.
What a nice man.
So kind and warm.
I don't know, afterwards, it just wasn't Tim.
And then the last night when I was doing my last tape of Tim, afterwards he started playing with my hair and I knew what was coming.
I thought this is incredible.
Tim Richie! He's amazing.
He's so sensitive and so warm and so strong and I just couldn't believe it.
I sat there and I just said this is great except He wasn't Tim Richie.
No.
He wasn't.