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james garner

Started by david@london, July 27, 2014, 11:50:32 AM

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rdelius

Rockfords unit was not a model that the telephone co rented. Cannot remember the brand but the name was not covered up or changed.Almost never saw rotary sets on that show which I thought was unuasual. Saw a NE 3 slot rotary set with Contel markings on the show th other day. Was set  in a small town

TelePlay

Was watching Season 1, Episode 4, the first show that Noah Beery appeared in as his father Rocky (the pilot and first 2 episodes which were a 2 part story had some other guy playing Rocky which apparently didn't work out too well), and noticed another phone in his trailer. It's a hard wired black 2554 on the kitchen wall opposite the living room next to a doorway.

Also, I can see from the action in this early episode why the series eventually ended in the middle of a year due to a major knee injury suffered by Garner while filming the last episode of The Rockford Files. Garner is on YouTube explaining both the wear and tear on his body while filming the series and how he ripped up his knee ending the show in mid season. It was the 12th and last episode of the 6th year of the series when the show ended. A normal full season was about 22 episodes. The last show was titles "Deadlock in Parma," in case anyone still plays Trivial Pursuit. The show had a total of 123 episodes.


david@london

it sounds as if the production of that series entailed a pretty heavy work schedule for mr g......... nice of the studio to sue him for being injured.

i had noticed that rockford often looked awkward when running. i saw an episode recently where he is constantly being asked why he is limping, to which he replies along the lines of ............"i fell off my skateboard."

the kitchen wall-phone is a good match for the black desk-phone. 2 phones in such a small trailer home ? stylish !

TelePlay

Quote from: david@london on August 03, 2014, 12:58:10 PM
i had noticed that rockford often looked awkward when running. i saw an episode recently where he is constantly being asked why he is limping, to which he replies along the lines of ............"i fell off my skateboard."

I skipped to the last episode in the series and watched it last night. He was not shown walking much. A lot of starting to move and then a camera cut away to his arrival. But even in that little bit of seeing him try to walk fast, I could see he was not standing straight, was limping on both legs and certainly could not run or turn. After watching the 4th episode and jumping to the 123rd, he looked like a totally different actor, not age wise so much but in the way he carried himself. The studio must have been making a ton of money off of him and cared more about that than their lead actor's health.

Raymond Burr was out of Perry Mason for a few months with health issues and they stuck in famous name people to fulfill his role. One episode even had Joan Crawford as the lead. It was strange not to see Raymond Burr but the studio handled that much better than what they did to Garner.

And the other thing which I noticed is that most long long running series end with a grand finale of sorts. Rockford just ended so that fit with the health issues and mood of the studio and its ending the series in mid season with no final show.

As for the two phones, it allowed him to sit and talk on the desk phone by himself and to stand and talk to someone in the same shot if he was on the wall phone. They were maybe about 10 feet apart. When the phone rang in this shot I posted, he could have just as easily picked up the desk phone he was standing next to but instead motioned to Beth toward the wall phone which they walked to and he answered. Stage blocking as the director wished.

tallguy58

He stated once that college football did his knees in.
Cheers........Bill

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Quote from: tallguy58 on August 04, 2014, 10:03:28 AM
He stated once that college football did his knees in.

In one of the interviews with him on YouTube, he did say his first knee operation was when he was 18 so that makes sense.

He went on to say filming the series took place on asphalt, concrete and other hard surfaces which took a toll over 6 years.

He said he injured it for the last time taking a fall on some steps in episode 123. I watched closely for a change in his gait during that show. I could not see any major change but he was walking better during the first 10 minutes of the show than during the last 15. I'm sure they edited out any fall and then, as I said, filmed him beginning to walk from a point and then cut to him reaching his destination, like his car in the last 20 minutes or so of the show. I have to watch it again a few more times to get a better feel of when during the filming the fatal fall took place.

It's nice that he is well self documented on YouTube, on much of his work. Always liked him regardless of what he was in. He had a great smile.

TelePlay

Was watching an episode last night when this scene came up. He's talking on his 2500 and the 2554 is behind him on the far kitchen wall, about 10 feet away, a bit out of focus.

Adam

#22
My Rockford phone.  It is in daily use on my desk as my secondary phone whenever I need to touch tone something, as most of the other sets in my place are all rotary.

[Edits: Diligent Mod removed phone number from the image, but it's not my number, so original photo was reposted.  :-)]
Adam Forrest
Los Angeles Telephone - A proud part of the global C*Net System
C*Net 1-383-4820

david@london

adam -

that's a great-looking rockford speaker-phone.
i have a red 2500 hooked up for TT purposes.

teleplay -

if you can find an episode entitled 'the deep blue sleep' (season 2, ep. 5) you'll see an additional ivory 2500, installed as a bedside unit.
yes, there are 3 phones (and counting) in that trailer !

TelePlay

Quote from: david@london on August 06, 2014, 12:35:42 PM
if you can find an episode entitled 'the deep blue sleep' (season 2, ep. 5) you'll see an additional ivory 2500, installed as a bedside unit.
yes, there are 3 phones (and counting) in that trailer !

Yes, watching it now. It shows up in the opening few minutes.

david@london

teleplay -

you're definitely much better at capturing 'screengrabs' than i am. actually, i just point the camera at the laptop and shoot.

but, notice how my picture of the ivory 2500 has superimposed the houndstooth pattern of the rockford sports jacket ? rather nifty that, i think.

TelePlay

#26
Quote from: david@london on August 07, 2014, 08:50:37 AM
teleplay -

you're definitely much better at capturing 'screengrabs' than i am. actually, i just point the camera at the laptop and shoot.

but, notice how my picture of the ivory 2500 has superimposed the houndstooth pattern of the rockford sports jacket ? rather nifty that, i think.

Yes, that is interesting, how it blends with his jacket.

As for my posts, I use a camera to take pictures off of my 1080 LCD high def TV screen with the scene paused using a moderately high resolution digital camera. I then crop and downsize the image before posting it. No raster effect. I used to set up a tripod but have found that using the anti-motion feature of the camera is about the same so just hand hold it now. I take 3 shots and pick the one that is the least blurry.

One thing about those 3 phones. When the phone rings in his trailer, you only hear one phone and I guarantee it isn't any of the 3 phones. The ring is most likely a sound effect added to the "tape" after final edit was completed. Even the bell "tingle" on a hard hang up is an added effect as is the sound of the handset being placed on the phone. They call it Foley (the reproduction of everyday sound effects that are added to film, video, and other media in post-production to enhance audio quality).

Most likely no one on the phone either, any phone, any scene, any episode, either side of the conversation.

Scotophor

It is common for actors to be speaking into a dead phone during film and TV production, often with someone reading the "distant party's" side of the conversation from a script off-camera (for timing purposes only - if the voice is picked up by the on-set microphone, the sound editor will have to remove it). But sometimes due to director or actor preference, the production personnel will connect the on-set phone to another nearby phone and have the distant party's lines delivered that way. In either case, if the other side of the conversation is to be heard at all in the finished scene, it will be dubbed in later by the appropriate actor during post-production.
Name: A.J.   Location: LAPNCAXG, EDgewood 6

TelePlay

Grabbed this closeup of the wall phone in a Season 1 episode. It seems to have a number card similar to the desk phone but it is a bit too much out of focus to read the number.

I'm really enjoying watching this old series, the cars, the fashions, the freedom, the actresses and the absence of computer generated eye candy.

TelePlay

Working my way through all of the episodes in order, I seem to have found a 4th telephone in that small trailer. This from Season 1, Episode 16. It's a black desk set on the floor next to his bed. It rings and he answers it with the camera shot from the living room through the kitchen into the bedroom.