Like any other original-gendered male I could never get enough of Rockford's lawyer Beth Davenport. Gretchen Corbett left big shoes to fill when she walked away from the series over a salary dispute.
But I gotta say, they scored big bringing in Bo Hopkins as disbarred lawyer John "Coop" Cooper. Not only does Hopkins cut a dashing figure in his own right, but he shows instant chemistry with James Garner. The producers must have known it, too, because the epilogue includes an exchange between Hopkins and Garner that sets up Coop to be Garner's legal advisor from there on out. Anybody in development at a studio who saw that episode the first night it aired must have been calling Hopkins' agent. His disbarred lawyer character should have been the lead on its own primetime series. He was decades ahead of Saul Goodman, or even Lionel Hutz.
David Chase wrote the episode. The plot involves a couple of Jersey transplants who set up Rockford for a murder. They have the patter down. Later put to full effect on Chase's Sopranos. At one point, one of the jabronis refers to the mob boss (Johnny Nodzak, or something) as ''Johnny Nutsack." Man, I laughed.