Synopsis. In the mining town of Dangerfield, Bart wins $3,000, but he can’t collect his winnings until the town banker returns with his money. The matter becomes complicated when Bart learns that the banker has been killed.
Although Roger Moore is billed as the star in the opening credits, “Dodge City or Bust” is really a Jack Kelly show. Moore does not actually appear onscreen until the last few minutes of the episode.
Apparently, Rockford served under three commanding officers during the Korean War: Al Brennan (according to this episode), Daniel Hart Bowie (“2 into 5.56 Won’t Go”), and “Howling Mad” Smith (“The Hawaiian Headache”).
LEARN MORE about this episode in the revised third edition of 45 YEARS OF THE ROCKFORD FILES, featuring more than sixty new pages of never before published information about both the original Rockford Files and the CBS reunion movies, including twenty new interviews and six new appendices. 25 percent of the net proceeds from the sales of 45 YEARS OF THE ROCKFORD FILES will be donated to The James Garner Animal Rescue Fund, a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising funds to help rescue organizations, shelters, individuals, fosters, and veterans with emergencies, evacuations, medical care, adoptions, training, pet supplies, shelter, rehabilitation, boarding, transportation, food, and other pressing needs. JGARF is one way for Garner fans to honor Jim’s memory and extend his legacy. Plus… if you order 45 YEARS OF THE ROCKFORD FILES directly from Black Pawn Press, you will receive an exclusive bonus gift. Go to Rockford45.com for more details
FALSE WITNESS
Original Airdate: Dec. 10, 1967
LEARN MORE about “False Witness” in THE FBI DOSSIER, everything you wanted to know—and more—about the long-running ABC-TV series produced by Quinn Martin and starring Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.
THE FBI DOSSIER is available through Black Pawn Press, Amazon.com, and wherever books are sold online.
Ellen Geer on Theatricum Botanicum’s Holiday Family Faire
Original Airdates: Dec. 5-8, 2025
TVC 717.4: Ed welcomes back Ellen Geer, daughter of Will Geer and the artistic director of Theatricum Botanicum, the outdoor amphitheatre in Topanga Canyon, California that Will Geer founded in 1973 and which has been described as one of the fifty coolest places in California. Theatricum’s fifth annual Holiday Family Faire will take place on Saturday, Dec. 13 from 11am to 5pm, followed by a special live production of It’s a Wonderful Life featuring Beau Bridges, Wendie Malick, Joe Mantegna beginning at 5pm. Tickets for the live production of It’s a Wonderful Life are available as an “add-on” to Faire admission. Please visit Theatricum.com/holiday-family-faire for more information.
Theatricum Botanicum is located at 1419 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga CA 90290, midway between Pacific Coast Highway and the Ventura Freeway.
Alison Arngrim on the epic Little House cast reunion in Simi Valley
Original Airdates: Dec. 5-8, 2025
TVC 717.5: Ed welcomes back actress and author Alison Arngrim (Little House on the Prairie, Confessions of a Prairie Bitch). Alison has news about several events coming up over the next few weeks that will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the premiere of Little House on the Prairie (NBC, 1974-1983), including the recent Live Before a Studio Audience edition of The Little House 50th Anniversary Podcast featuring Alison, Dean Butler, and Pamela Bob that took place on Saturday, Nov. 22 at 1pm; the world virtual premiere of Little House Homecoming, the new documentary by Jonathan Parker that, to quote Alison, “really gets what Little House means to so many people around the world” (now streaming at LittleHouseHomecoming.com); the huge three-day Little House cast reunion at Strathearn Historical Park in Simi Valley, CA beginning Friday, Dec. 12 thru Sunday, Dec. 14 (click here for tickets and more information); and a joint book signing featuring Alison and Dean Butler that will take place Saturday, Jan. 17 at Chili John’s Restaurant in Burbank, CA (for more details, call 818 846-3611 or go to ChiliJohnsofCA.com).
Ruta Lee with Dick Van Dyke
Mary Tyler Moore, Dick Van Dyke, and Carl Reiner
Happy 100th Birthday, Dick Van Dyke
Original Airdates: Dec. 5-8, 2025
TVC 717.3: From December 2011: Tony, Donna, and Ed send birthday wishes to film and television legend Dick Van Dyke (The Dick Van Dyke Show, Mary Poppins, Diagnosis Murder). Dick Van Dyke turns 100 on Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025.
THE KILLING TRUTH
Original Airdate: Dec. 9, 1973
“The Killing Truth” marks the first of two ninth-season episodes featuring William Reynolds as Tom Colby, the character he played in each of the previous six seasons of The FBI (the second was “The Animal,” which aired in February 1974). LEARN MORE about the circumstances that led to Reynolds’ return to the series in THE FBI DOSSIER, everything you wanted to know—and more—about the long-running ABC-TV series produced by Quinn Martin and starring Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.
THE FBI DOSSIER is available through Black Pawn Press, Amazon.com, and wherever books are sold online.
“Forced Retirement” marks the first appearance of Jimmy Joe Meeker, the Oklahoma oilman who’s “smoother than oil on a blister.” Rockford adopts this alter-ego on three other occasions throughout the remainder of the series. As Gigi Garner notes her in her Foreword to 45 Years of The Rockford Files, much of her father’s innate wit “bled through in some of his Rockford funny bits where he played Jimmy Joe Meeker.”
LEARN MORE about this episode in the revised third edition of 45 YEARS OF THE ROCKFORD FILES, featuring more than sixty new pages of never before published information about both the original Rockford Files and the CBS reunion movies, including twenty new interviews and six new appendices. 25 percent of the net proceeds from the sales of 45 YEARS OF THE ROCKFORD FILES will be donated to The James Garner Animal Rescue Fund, a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising funds to help rescue organizations, shelters, individuals, fosters, and veterans with emergencies, evacuations, medical care, adoptions, training, pet supplies, shelter, rehabilitation, boarding, transportation, food, and other pressing needs. JGARF is one way for Garner fans to honor Jim’s memory and extend his legacy. Plus… if you order 45 YEARS OF THE ROCKFORD FILES directly from Black Pawn Press, you will receive an exclusive bonus gift. Go to Rockford45.com for more details
LEARN MORE about this episode in the revised third edition of 45 YEARS OF THE ROCKFORD FILES, featuring more than sixty new pages of never before published information about both the original Rockford Files and the CBS reunion movies, including twenty new interviews and six new appendices. 25 percent of the net proceeds from the sales of 45 YEARS OF THE ROCKFORD FILES will be donated to The James Garner Animal Rescue Fund, a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising funds to help rescue organizations, shelters, individuals, fosters, and veterans with emergencies, evacuations, medical care, adoptions, training, pet supplies, shelter, rehabilitation, boarding, transportation, food, and other pressing needs. JGARF is one way for Garner fans to honor Jim’s memory and extend his legacy. Plus… if you order 45 YEARS OF THE ROCKFORD FILES directly from Black Pawn Press, you will receive an exclusive bonus gift. Go to Rockford45.com for more details
Synopsis. Maverick settle into his new home of Sweetwater, Arizona, only to face an immediate fight: a railroad company plans to build right in the middle of his land.
