Don't care for Issac Hayes
Didn't realize how many time Hayes was on the show. It's almost like they were trying to get him a series of his own. Always calling Jim, Rockfish and sucker punching. Didn't care for his character.
shareI didn't like him because he was an abuser who beat a woman so often that she resorted to suicide. On top of that, Rockford seems pretty unfazed by this which seems terribly out of character for Jim, who generally is so protective of women.
The whole thing kind of bugged me.
"He was running around like a rooster in a barnyard full of ducks."--Pat Novak
Rockford did say straight out that he didn't consider Lyla's death entirely Gandy's fault. She kept running back to him.
shareI don't think the "She asked for it because she kept returning to her abuser" argument gets much traction any more.
I doubt that a story like this would get very far today. You would have to come up with some other sort of back story for Gandy. I guess that it just points out that the world has changed a lot in 40 years.
I've always reconciled Rockford's excuse-making for Gandy to his (Rockford's) feeling that little was to be gained by laying more guilt on Gandy. Even if he really doesn't deserve it, Jim's giving Gandy a small "out" gives him the chance to turn the page and hopefully do something productive with the rest of his life.
Jim is always a guy pretty quick to forgive human foibles. I don't think Gandy has earned much forgiveness, but doing this is pretty consistent with Rockford's character.
"He was running around like a rooster in a barnyard full of ducks."--Pat Novak
Lyla's parents deserve some of the blame. They threw her to the curb after she had her second kid. That was part of the reason she killed herself.
shareI've always reconciled Rockford's excuse-making for Gandy to his (Rockford's) feeling that little was to be gained by laying more guilt on Gandy. Even if he really doesn't deserve it, Jim's giving Gandy a small "out" gives him the chance to turn the page and hopefully do something productive with the rest of his life.
Jim is always a guy pretty quick to forgive human foibles. I don't think Gandy has earned much forgiveness, but doing this is pretty consistent with Rockford's character.
I think Rockford's view was not to make excuses or to necessarily "forgive" Gandy. But he had just done a 25-year sentence and from Jim's point of view, Gandy paid for his crime - even if it wasn't the same crime he was actually charged with. His idea was that he was "free and clear," his debt was paid, and whatever he wanted to do at that point was up to him. share
Yeah, that makes sense to me. Twenty or twenty-five years is a long time.
Actually, I'm inclined to think that I am probably deserving of being sentenced to the nuthouse for sitting around contemplating the morality of characters in a 40 year-old TV show. I need a hobby...
"He was running around like a rooster in a barnyard full of ducks."--Pat Novak
Okay, on Fitch's negative side: Bully, woman beater, hired muscle.
Positives: Got Lylah out of prostitution, truly loved her, was truly innocent of Lylah's "murder".
The episode with Fitch teaming up with Marcus (Lou Gossett, Jr.) WAS meant as the jumping off point for a possible spin-off with those two characters. The numbers just weren't there.
"There will be blood. Oh, yes, there WILL be blood."-Jigsaw; "Saw II"