The Rockford Files Reboot Gets NBC Pilot Order

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A new version of The Rockford Files is in the works. A pilot episode has been ordered for a contemporary update of the classic detective series, which originally aired from 1974 to 1980. Mike Daniels is writing the pilot, and Sarah Timberman and Carl Beverly are producing through Universal Television.

The classic TV show The Rockford Files was created by Roy Huggins and Stephen J. Cannell, and starred James Garner as private eye Jim Rockford. It’s a bit unexpected to see NBC using the traditional pilot season process to reboot the show, as most networks now develop programs throughout the year instead.

The new version of The Rockford Files will follow a similar storyline to the original: Rockford is a private investigator who comes back to work after being wrongly convicted of a crime and serving time in prison. Here’s what NBC says the first episode will be about:

This is a fresh take on the original series. After being released from prison for a crime he didn’t commit, James Rockford is back working as a private investigator in Los Angeles. He relies on his personality and intelligence to crack cases, but his search for a normal life quickly puts him in danger, attracting unwanted attention from both the police and criminal organizations.

The Rockford Files Reboot Will Put a Modern Spin on a Classic Detective Show

James Garner famously played the lead in The Rockford Files, which also featured Noah Beery Jr., Gretchen Corbett, Joe Santos, and Stuart Margolin. The show ran for six seasons, totaling 123 episodes, before concluding in 1980. It received 18 Emmy nominations and won five, including Outstanding Drama Series, and Garner himself won an Emmy for his performance. Over a decade later, Garner reprised his role as Jim Rockford in eight television movies that aired on CBS between 1994 and 1999.

This isn’t the first time someone has tried to bring back The Rockford Files. Back in 2009, Steve Carell helped create a new pilot with Dermot Mulroney as the lead, but the network didn’t order it as a series. Universal Pictures also considered a movie reboot with Vince Vaughn, but that project never moved forward.

Before this project, Daniels was the creator of NBC’s The Village and also worked on several other shows, including Bluff City Law, Taken, Shades of Blue, Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist, and Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin. Timberman and Beverly have a strong television background, with credits including Elementary, SEAL Team, Fleishman Is In Trouble, and the Netflix series Unbelievable. They are also currently producing the upcoming ABC series RJ Decker.

So, digging into the behind-the-scenes stuff on this pilot, I learned Chris Leanza was a key creative force as co-executive producer, representing Timberman/Beverly. And the whole thing was brought to life by the team at Universal Television – they’re the studio that made it happen.

We don’t know who will star in the show yet, and whoever it is will have big shoes to fill after Garner’s award-winning performance. If NBC follows its usual pattern, they’ll announce the lead actor soon.

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2026-01-14 01:40