Randy Barnett at The Volokh Conspiracy:

Besides recommending the book to anyone who shares my interests in Maverick, Rockford, or Garner, however, I want to comment on an observation with which he concludes his memoir:

I’ve been asked again and again, “How do you want to be remembered?” I usually say I don’t care, but that’s not true. I want to have accomplished something, to have made a contribution to the world. It would be wonderful if just one person looked at my life and said, “If he could overcome that, maybe I can too.”

Beyond that, I think an actor can contribute by making people forget their troubles for an hour or two. Call it relief, escape, diversion . . . I think one of the greatest gifts is being able to make people happy. I like to make people happy.”

So, if anyone asks, “How do you want to be remembered?” I tell them: “With a smile.”

Fair enough, but I think this seriously sells short what a TV actor can contribute. …

Garner’s two most famous characters set an example of manliness at two stages of life. Smart, tough, funny, a little cynical and knowing but with a pinch of optimism and even naivete, respectful towards women, willing to stand up for himself or others when pushed, but only after first looking for a way out of conflict, a sense of justice.   Developing such a character that people think they “know” is something only an talented actor (along with talented writers) in a long-running TV show can accomplish. Two hours on the screen in a movie is not enough to make that connection, to provide that example, unless the actor plays the same character over and over, like John Wayne or Garner’s friends Steve McQueen or Clint Eastwood. But even their screen personas are not as particular as the Bret Maverick or Jim Rockford characters, who we get to observe in one situation after another. These characters are Garner’s most important “contribution” to others.

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JAMES GARNER’S DAUGHTER OPENS TRIBUTE SITE TO HER AWESOME FATHER

The Mighty James Garner’s daughter, Gigi Garner (a successful talent manager in her own right), has opened a tribute website to her father. She seems to be updating it fairly regularly with a number of terrific family photos and excerpts from Garners’ new memoir “The Garner Files,” which I loved and reviewed here.

Please check the site out.

Anyone who’s been reading me for any amount of time (or who has seen my Twitter wallpaper), knows of my all-consuming affection for all things James Garner, most especially “The Rockford Files.” You can imagine how much this tweet meant to me.

Tell me how it gets any better than that. You can’t, because it doesn’t.

The only bad news is that if this photo on Ms. Garner’s site displays the actor’s real signature, that means I got robbed on Ebay.

Cue my well-rehearsed of-course-I-got-swindled-again Rockford face.

FINALLY: AN HONEST ASSESSMENT OF HOLLYWOOD’S BOX OFFICE BLUES

With all of Hollywood and most of their sycophant entertainment media blaming box office and DVD woes on everything but bad product, this is the rare break from that absurd narrative:

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 YOUR GUIDE TO 88 THANKSGIVING MARATHONS AND SPECIALS

Why do people still watch television? I look at this list and all I see is the promise of endless commercials interrupted by the occasional non-commercial.

In the age of DVD and Streaming where you can program your own marathon, I wouldn’t even consider putting up with this. At best, I would DVR something so I could zip through the 13 minutes of ads found in every 30 minute program.

Today the entire “Wild Wild West” series arrives, all six seasons, and it cost me half what my cable bill used to be.

JEREMY RENNER UNVEILS KEY ‘BOURNE LEGACY’ DETAILS

I think Jeremy Renner is the best up and comer Hollywood has going right now. After “MI:4″ and this “Bourne” flick, my hope is that he breaks out as a genuine star.

Renner’s a very good actor, masculine, and has that indefinable star quality about him — intelligence and a sense of unpredictable danger. What makes a star a star is what they bring to a role without having to say a word, and Renner brings a lot.

BEST THANKSGIVING MOVIE OF ALL TIME IS….

Could not agree more.

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UNINTENTIONALLY FUNNY LINE OF THE DAY

MTV:

The world is still reeling from the news that Kim Kardashian has decided to end her 72-day-long marriage to Kris Humphries.

The entertainment media got taken in a big way with this marriage and I salute Kim Kardashian for taking them. She leveraged the celebrity she gained for, uhm, being a celebrity brilliantly:

She raked in $100,000 when she sold cute photos of her and Kris vacationing in Mexico. She made $15 million from E! for her two-part wedding special and another $3 million off wedding photos,” In Touch Weekly senior editor Dorothy Cascerceri told Fox411. “She could easily sell her first post-divorce interview for a half a million dollars or more.”

No, MTV, the world isn’t reeling, just your shallow, empty world. The rest of us are simply passing by for a quick chuckle.

JAMES GARNER’S ‘THE GARNER FILES’ HITS BOOKSHELVES TODAY

From Bret Maverick and Jim Rockford on TV — his two signature roles — to The Great Escape’s Hendley The Scrounger and The Americanization of Emily’s Charlie Madison, the hustler on the big screen, Garner has personified what he describes as “the reluctant hero.” He’s cool and calm on the outside, but deep down he’s a good-hearted maverick. When pushed, he will shove back. He’s particularly wary of bullies and bigots, and proudly recalls attending the March on Washington in the summer of 1963, and to this day remains “a bleeding-heart liberal.”

Just ordered this from Amazon. Garner is one of my all-time favorite actors (wallpaper proof), is far and away my favorite television actor, and you don’t ever want to get me started about my undying love for “The Rockford Files,” the best hour-long television series ever produced.

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Okay, that headline isn’t exactly accurate. But it’s Friday and you’ll see what I mean…

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This is Jim Rockford. At the tone, leave your name and message, I’ll get back to you.

Here’s the message: You can’t remake “The Rockford Files.” You can call a television show “The Rockford Files.” Hell, you can call your parakeet “The Rockford Files,” but that doesn’t mean it’s “The Rockford Files.”

That show was James Garner, and if you’ve recently watched any of the episodes you know that the thirty-years that have passed since the program went off the air in 1980 have only served to cement its timelessness and status as a true classic. Sure, the sports coats might be a little loud and the sideburns too long, but Mike Post’s iconic theme, that awesome gold Pontiac Firebird and some of the best writing ever seen on television have kept the series as entertaining, compelling and fresh as anything produced today. 

Nothing against Dermot Mulroney and Beau Bridges, both are fine actors but they aren’t James Garner and Noah Beery Jr. No one is. And no offense to anyone involved in the creation of the remake, but they aren’t Stephen J. Cannell, Roy Huggins, Chas. Floyd Johnson, David Chase, and Juanita Bartlett — the geniuses involved in creating and sustaining the best example of a television show built around an established star as I’ve ever seen. 

The original “Rockford Files,” which ran on NBC from 1974 to 1980, was not just another hour-long detective/crime/mystery show. It was lightning in a bottle, the perfect mix of smart producers and talented writers who understood the unique quality of their star, James Garner, a man who could take an off-beat line of dialogue and make magic from it like no other. (more…)