Why didnt we listen? The fourth season of The Rockford Files, arguably the greatest television show of all time, features a futuristic storyline about a terrible threat. What if a private corporation used computers to gather personal information on hundreds of millions of Americans? Could we trust them with that data? I know, its hard to imagine such a thing ever happening — a private company, collecting private and personal data on ordinary Americans and other people around the world. It sounds far-fetched, right? But Jim Rockford, the toughest and most incorruptible P.I. ever to live in a trailer with his dad, teams up with a younger detective to investigate the suspicious death of an old friend, a private detective named Tooley, in the episode The House on Willis Avenue. (This episode is written by the shows co-creator, Stephen J. Cannell, who also gave us The Greatest American Hero.) And what Rockford finds in his investigation is baffling — a mysterious set of real estate developments, with lots of suspiciously huge air-conditioning units attached. Whats going on? Turns out that a corporate scumbag, amusingly played by Jackie Cooper, is creating a secret computer system to spy on ordinary Americans and sell the info — or ruin your reputation — for profit. It should be illegal for corporations to spy on ordinary Americans, Rockford protests. The Rockford Files really wants you to know that corporations should not use computers to collect your personal information. Those final words, Our liberty may well be the price we pay, seem especially prophetic nowadays. The other amazing part of the episode is all the parts where Rockford and his temporary sidekick pretend to be computer experts, and spout ridiculously made-up computer jargon, to try and fool people in the facilities theyre sneaking into.
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 11:42:07 +0000
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