If not an actual sly spoof, was this meant to be some sort of dark 'send up' of either the series itself, the genre or even America, albeit in keeping with Garner's most liked/successful screen persona from the original 'Maverick' TV westerns on to the original 'Rockford' series ? (Perhaps Garner never made the top tier of 'action' or 'tough guy' actors with his pals Eastwood & Willis because his humorous and gentlemanly streak/side/leanings do not quite fit the taste of filmgoing America) Otherwise, unless US civilisation was actually even sicker or weirder in the 90s than suggested by CNN, this episode/movie featuring a pill-popping black-belt gang boss, psycho sex- and crime- crazed kids, an unwordly saint and wacko cops was just too far overboard or 'over the top' and did not capture the original series premise or magic as straight detective drama with (sometimes cynical) humour; at least one crime scene was needlessly graphic too.This (presumably absurd) episode disappointed and did not entertain this nonAmerican fan of the original 70s series

Rockford's friend from the Sandcastle, Babs, is investigating the murder, 18 monthes earlier. She suspects a local mobster and is harassing him to get him to make a mistake that she can tell the police about. Unfortunately the mistake he makes is killing her when Jim Rockford is on the job. As usual a group of friends collects to help solve the crime, and Jim signs up for Lt. Chapman's class on criminology to get the inside track on the investigation, and becomes the class cut-up.