The Rockford Files Trivia
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56 free The Rockford Files trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The Rockford Files ran on NBC from 1974 to 1980 and is still the private-eye show other private-eye shows get compared to: a hero who would rather talk than fight, a trailer in a Malibu car park, a gold Firebird that got wrecked and rebought every week, and an answering machine gag that opened every episode. This Rockford Files trivia quiz covers the whole series and the eight CBS reunion movies, from the pilot with a different Rocky to the never-aired 2009 remake. There are questions on the cast (James Garner, Noah Beery Jr., Joe Santos, Stuart Margolin, Gretchen Corbett), the guest players who became famous (Tom Selleck's Lance White, Isaac Hayes, Rita Moreno, a young Louis Gossett Jr.), the writers who went on to bigger things (Stephen J. Cannell, David Chase), Mike Post's Grammy-winning theme, and the small details fans argue about: the licence plate, the fee, the phone number, the pistol in the cookie jar. Difficulty runs from easy questions any viewer knows to expert ones about backdoor pilots and Roy Huggins's pen name. Every answer was checked against reference pages before publishing, and each question carries a citation.
30 of 56 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In early episodes, Jim Rockford says he takes only which kind of case, to stay out of the police's way?
Closed cases
Closed cases were Roy Huggins's original hook: a private eye who works only what the police have finished with. The rule soon lapsed, and trouble with the police became a staple.
Q 02Which prolific TV producer co-created The Rockford Files with Roy Huggins and wrote its pilot?
Stephen J. Cannell
Stephen J. Cannell got the pilot script from Huggins and had fun breaking the private-eye rules: his hero dodges fights, rarely carries a gun and works from a trailer.
Q 03Rockford was conceived as a modern-day version of which earlier James Garner character?
Bret Maverick
Bret Maverick, the wry gambler Huggins shaped for Garner in 1957, was written to break the rules of TV westerns; Rockford did the same to the television private eye.
Q 04Where had Jim Rockford served time before being pardoned?
San Quentin
San Quentin held Rockford for a crime he did not commit, and he was pardoned rather than paroled, a distinction he is quick to point out whenever his record is thrown at him.
Q 05For most of the series, Rockford's trailer sits at which Malibu location?
Paradise Cove
Paradise Cove gave Rockford a trailer in a beach parking lot as both home and office, a deliberate break from the shabby city office of the classic TV private eye.
Q 06What was Rockford's oft-quoted daily fee during the original series?
$200 a day plus expenses
$200 a day plus expenses was the rate he announced up front, yet the running gag was that he lived hand to mouth because he so rarely collected it in full.
Q 07Where does Rockford usually keep his rarely used revolver?
In a cookie jar
In a cookie jar, because Rockford would rather talk his way out of trouble; asked by a client why he doesn't carry the gun, he says he doesn't want to shoot anybody.
Q 08Who played Jim's father, Rocky, in every season of The Rockford Files?
Noah Beery Jr.
Noah Beery Jr. made Rocky so genial and folksy that his wrangling with Jim over the dangers of detective work became the emotional core of the show.
Q 09What had Rocky Rockford done for a living before retiring?
Truck driver
Rocky was a retired truck driver who spent much of the series urging Jim to quit investigating and take up trucking instead.
Q 10Who played Sergeant Dennis Becker, Jim's friend on the LAPD?
Joe Santos
Joe Santos played Becker as the harried friend on the force who grudgingly runs plates and records for Jim, then takes the heat from superiors who can't stand private eyes.
Q 11Where did Jim Rockford first get to know the con man Angel Martin?
Prison
Prison made them cellmates, and Jim stays loyal to the small-time grifter even though Angel would sell him out in a moment to save himself.
Q 12What is Angel Martin's actual first name?
Evelyn
Evelyn is the name behind the nickname 'Angel', the smarmy con man whose hare-brained schemes keep landing Jim in trouble.
Q 13Which Rockford Files actor won supporting-actor Emmys in 1979 and 1980?
Stuart Margolin
Stuart Margolin won both for playing the con man Angel, beating two of his own castmates, who were nominated against him in 1979.
Q 21Roy Huggins took his Rockford Files story credits as 'John Thomas James', a pen name built from what?
His three sons' names
His three sons' names made up 'John Thomas James', the pseudonym Huggins signed to many of his scripts; he left the running of Rockford to others early in its run.
Q 22The actor who played Angel Martin first played James Garner's shifty sidekick in which short-lived Western series?
Nichols
Nichols cast him as a scheming deputy to Garner's reluctant sheriff in 1971; it lasted one season, but Garner counted it a favourite and took his sidekick along to Rockford.
Q 23Which of Garner's Great Escape co-stars directed an episode?
James Coburn
Q 14In The Rockford Files, Gretchen Corbett played Beth Davenport, who was Jim's what?
Lawyer
Lawyer and sometime girlfriend, the idealistic Beth Davenport handled Jim's frequent scrapes with the law and proved an able foil for Becker's ill-tempered bosses.
Q 15Isaac Hayes played Gandolph 'Gandy' Fitch, who kept calling Jim by what nickname?
Rockfish
Rockfish is Gandy's name for Jim when he turns up on the doorstep to collect an old debt, and ends up getting Jim's help to clear his own name of murder.
Q 16Which future Oscar winner played the boastful, chauffeur-driven P.I. Marcus 'Gabby' Hayes?
Louis Gossett Jr.
Louis Gossett Jr. played Gabby as a smooth hustler whose schemes usually cost Rockford dearly, a few years before An Officer and a Gentleman won him his Oscar.
Q 17Rita Moreno's recurring character Rita Capkovic had what profession?
Call girl and police informant
Call girl and police informant Rita Capkovic hires Jim when she starts getting death threats, a guest turn that won Moreno an Emmy and brought the character back the next season.
Q 18Rita Moreno's 1978 Emmy for The Rockford Files came a year after she won one for which programme?
The Muppet Show
The Muppet Show brought Moreno her first Emmy in 1977, the award that completed her set of an Oscar, a Grammy, a Tony and an Emmy.
Q 19Which young private eye, played by Dennis Dugan, guested on The Rockford Files and then got his own short-lived series?
Richie Brockelman
Richie Brockelman, who teams up with Jim in 'The House on Willis Avenue', got a five-week tryout in Rockford's own time slot in spring 1978, but it was not renewed.
Q 20Which Rockford writer went on to create The Sopranos?
David Chase
David Chase wrote and produced for Rockford before creating The Sopranos; his episode 'The Jersey Bounce' pits Jim against wannabe New Jersey mobsters.
Coburn had also worked with Garner on The Americanization of Emily; Jackie Cooper and Richard Crenna directed episodes too.
Q 24What make and model of car did Jim Rockford drive?
Pontiac Firebird Esprit
The gold Pontiac Firebird Esprit was really a higher-performance Formula rebadged to look like the cheaper Esprit Rockford could afford.
Q 25What sports car did Beth Davenport drive in the first season of The Rockford Files?
Porsche 914
Porsche 914 was Beth's car, and one of the friends' vehicles Jim was given to borrowing whenever his own was out of action.
Q 26The reverse-into-a-spin driving move Rockford used so often is known by which name?
The J-turn
The J-turn, also called a moonshiner's turn or simply a 'Rockford': reverse at speed, cut the wheel, pull the emergency brake and drive off forward. Garner did the stunt himself.
Q 27Why did Rockford's car stay a 1978 model until the show ended in 1980?
Garner disliked the restyled front end
Garner disliked the restyled front end of the 1979 model, reportedly the headlights most of all, so the show kept its 1978 cars running until the series ended.
Q 28What did Rocky Rockford drive?
A GMC Sierra Classic pickup
A GMC Sierra Classic pickup, fitted with Vic Hickey off-road accessories, which Jim was forever borrowing when his own car was wrecked or too well known to the police.
Q 29Who composed the Rockford Files theme with Pete Carpenter?
Mike Post
Mike Post and Pete Carpenter set out to write a two-minute hit record, not just a signature tune, and the single duly climbed to number 10 in the US in 1975.
Q 30Which then-unusual instrument features in the refrains of the Rockford Files theme?
Minimoog synthesizer
It was one of the first hit records to feature a synthesizer, alongside a blues harmonica solo and dobro.