Nobody wants to identify with authority, nor with a force that is purely antisocial, so the the perfect hero of a television series is Jim Rockford, of The Rockford Files. He's a private investigator, so he's not a cop, but not a criminal either. He's an ex-con--but innocent and pardoned by the governor. He's good-looking, but rumpled and inelegant. He wears a jacket or blazer, but a cheap one, and worn with no tie. He is suave and awkward by turns. Selfish--and altruistic. Honest and deceitful. He always is reluctant to take any case, but ends up taking it anyway, in a curious blend of activeness and passivity. He charges a lot of money for his service ($200 a day + expenses, a lot for 1975), but the running gag is that he rarely gets paid at the end of the episode. He is friends with a policeman (Sgt. Becker), but every episode involves conflict with the police. Becker benefits from his involvement with Rockford (solving cases) but also gets into hot water with his supervisors for associating with Rockford in the first place. In short, everything in the series is perfectly balanced: cynicism and sentiment, authority and rebellion. Rockford is always in trouble with the police and the mafia at the same time, betwixt and between.

Since receiving violence induces more sympathy than inflicting it, Rockford usually gets beaten up at least once an episode. Yet he also inflicts violence on other in self-defense. (Nobody wants to identify with a pure victim who cannot defend himself.) When he punches someone hard, his hand hurts as much as the other guy's face. In the signature car chases of the series, he is usually the one chased. He is investigating a case, the subject presumed to know, but usually knows less than any of the other parties involved: he gather information mostly through others who seek to do him bodily harm or get information from him that he does not possess.

James Garner brings exuberance to this role: you feel his palpable pleasure, as an actor, at interacting with his costars, so that he manages to be a ham and perfectly "natural," all at the same time. There is always chemistry with the various young attractive women in each episode, as well as with his male co-stars, Noah Beery as his father Rocky, Joe Santos as Becket, Stuart Margolin as his ex-con buddy, conman Angel. Garner inhabits the role physically: it suits his body exactly.

The reluctant hero bit, self-interested but noble, is straight out of Bogart: there's a resonance to his performances, even though in filming over twenty episodes a season things becomes heavily formulaic.