Richie Brockelman
Created by Stephen J. Cannell & Steven Bochco

RICHIE BROCKELMAN can best be described as a younger, less cynical version of Jim Rockford. Played by Dennis Dugan, he comes across as being rather young and naive, which works to his advantage. Richie is a natural conman and can fling out BS in a way that would make his mentor, Jim Rockford proud. Richie first appeared in 1976 in a made for TV movie called "Richie Brockleman: Missing 24 Hours". It was scripted by Stephen J. Cannell and had Richie helping an amnesiac Suzanne Pleshette. The movie was intended as a pilot but wasn't picked up.

But Richie's producers/creators must have had a lot of faith in the kid. In 1978, Richie popped up in a special two hour episode of The Rockford Files entitled "The House On Willis Avenue". In the episode Rockford and Brockelman join forces to solve the murder of a veteran PI who taught both of them the ropes. That was the last "Rockford" of the season and was followed by a limted run of episodes of "Richie Brockelman, Private
Eye". In addition to Dugan, the show also featured Robert Hogan as Sgt. Ted Coopersmith, his police contact and Barbara Bosson as his loyal secretary Sharon Deterson.

A total of five episodes aired. They include:

• "The Framing of the Perfect Sydney"-Richie clears his older brother of embezzlement charges.
  
  
• "A Pigeon Ripe for the Plucking"- Richie goes to Las Vegas to find a woman's missing boyfriend.
  
  
• "A Title on the Door, A Carpet on the Floor"-written by Bochco & Cannell, Richie is bought out and hired by a big time detective agency. Then he learns the only reason they hired him was to pull him off a case he had been working on. A case of murder and industrial espionage that the agency was involved in.
  
  
• "Escape from Cain Abel"-written by Peter S. Fischer. Richie brings a car crash victim to the hospital then goes to fetch the victim's wife. She claims he's been dead for ten days! When he goes back to the hospital, none of the doctors or nurses act like they even recognize Richie. When ther wife disappears the following day, he joins up with her daughter to figure out what's going on.

After the five episodes aired, NBC decided against bringing Richie back for a a full season, but that isn't quite the end of his story. In 1979, Richie returned to The Rockford Files in a two-hour episode entitled "Never Send a Boy King to do a Man's Job". Scripted by Cannell, it had Richie enlisting Jim to help him pull an elaborate scam on the wealthy, corrupted businessman who forced his father to sell his business to him.

TELEVISION

• THE MISSING 24 HOURS
  (October 27, 1976, NBC)
  90 minutes
  Created by Stephen J. Cannell & Steven Bochco
  Starring Dennis Dugan as RICHIE BROCKELMAN
  Also starring Barbara Bosson as Sharon Deterson
  and Robert Hogan as Sgt. Ted Coopersmith
  .
• RICHIE BROCKELMAN, PRIVATE EYE
  (March 1978-April 1978, NBC)
  5 60-minute episodes
  Created by Stephen J. Cannell, Steven Bochco, Peter S. Fischer
  Writers: Stephen J. Cannell, Steven Bochco
  Starring Dennis Dugan as RICHIE BROCKELMAN
  Also starring Barbara Bosson as Sharon Deterson
  and Robert Hogan as Sgt. Ted Coopersmith
  

• "The Framing of Perfect Sydney" (March 17, 1978)
• "Junk it to Me Baby" (March 24, 1978)
• "A Title on the Door and a Carpet on the Floor" (March 31, 1978)*
• "A Pigeon Ripe for Plucking" (April 7, 1978)
• "Escape From Caine Abel" (April 14, 1978)*.

* These episodes were combined into a TV movie called "The Diary of Richie Brockelman".

• THE ROCKFORD FILES
  (1974-80, NBC)
  60-minute episodes
  Created by: Stephen J. Cannell and Roy Huggins
  For a complete listing of episodes, check out OUR Rockford files.
  

• "The House on Willis Avenue" (February 24, 1978)
• "Never Send a Boy King To Do a Man's Job" (March 3, 1979).

Respectfully submitted by Mark Geldmeyer.