This film was dedicated to Noah Beery Jr., who played Jim Rockford's father, Joseph 'Rocky' Rockford in the original series. He was asked to appear in this film, but he declined due to poor health. After production on this film was completed, but shortly before the film aired, he passed away.
Because James Garner's original production company, Cherokee Productions ceased operations after 1980, due to Garner's lawsuit with Universal Studios, Garner formed a new production company to produce the 1990's Rockford movies. The name of the new production company was MGB Productions. MGB was a British-made sports coupé, manufactured by MG, fitting in with Mr Garners love of automobile, and also fit in nicely with the names the initials stand for; "M" for Meta Rosenberg, "G" for James Garner,, and "B" for Juanita Bartlett. Meta Rosenberg was his long-time agent/producer, who also directed a few episodes of the original series. Juanita Bartlett was also a long time writer, producer during production of Deux cent dollars plus les frais (1974), who started writing for Garner shows all the way back during Nichols (1971).
The first of eight "Rockford Files" reunion TV movies.
Final film of Jean Bartel, who portrays Lila Lansing. It was also Bartel's first film role since 1966.
Although filmed and broadcast in 1994, the beginning of the film is set in 1992, beginning at the time of the 1992 "Rodney King Los Angeles Riots." The middle part of the film is set in 1993. This is notable because this is the first Rockford story set predominantly in the past, all previous Rockford stories were set predominantly in real time, real dates.