Saturday, February 18, 2012

The Rockford Files - Episode: Beamer's Last Case (1977) Starring James Whitmore Jr. as Beamer

James Whitmore Jr. plays the nerdy car mechanic who takes over Jim Rockford's identity while Jim is on vacation...Fred Beamer
James Whitmore Jr. has become one of Hollywood's most worked Director, Actor & Producer. His work credits go on forever.

Bibi Besch plays the cheating spouse, Monica Steel, in this episode. Sadly Bibi Besch passed away from breast cancer in 1996 at the young age of 56.



In the above image, Fred Beamer is walking back to his apartment building located at 10729 Acama Street in Los Angeles (North Hollywood).
Jim Rockford can be seen in Rocky's truck sitting behind what is now Motorville Tire Shop at 4165 Lankershim Blvd in Los Angeles, CA. The below image shows that not much has changed in the 35 years since this episode was filmed. Even the "Tires" sign is still there.


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Above Two Images: WOW... apartments with a FREEWAY VIEW! Not sure how much of a selling point that is.... But that was the apartment building that Fred Beamer was living at in this Rockford episode. The address of this apartment building is 10729 Acama Street, Los Angeles, CA.

Below Image: How the above building appears today,  now covered by trees and bushes.


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Above Image: It wouldn't be a Rockford Files episode if Jim didn't get into a car chase and smash up his car... but in this case Fred Beamer "borrowed" Jim's car and smashed it up for him. Jim takes his damaged vehicle in this episode to TONY'S GARAGE. This filming location is actually All Valley Auto Body, 4730 Lankershim Blvd, North Hollywood, CA 91602. The below image shows how it looks like today.
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Speaking of car chases, this episode closes with one. The chase circles around this area of Valleyheart Drive and Riverton Ave in Los Angeles. The last image shows what this intersection looks like today.

2 comments:

  1. The Beaner episodes kicked ass. I loved them!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jimbo should have beaten the crap out of Beamer. I would have!

    ReplyDelete