The Rockford Files (TV Series)

Quickie Nirvana (1977)

James Garner: Jim Rockford

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Quotes 

• Jim Rockford : [Jim joins Sky, who's sitting in a taco restaurant. After being with Sky, for a couple of days, and listening to her, Jim's about had it, with Sky's pretentiosness]  You know, I've just about had it with you.

  Jane Patten : [Speaking in an innocent voice]  What's the matter?

  Jim Rockford : I'm tired of your philophisising, and moralising, and whining.

  Jane Patten : [Surprised]  'Whining'?

  Jim Rockford : [Angrily]  Yeah, you want to give me a sermon about the hamburger, and you've got gall enough to eat it.

  Jane Patten : [In a serious belief in her own shallowness]  Ordinarily, I wouldn't touch meat, but I am hungry, And even the Bhagavad-Gita says...

  Jim Rockford : [Brushing her droning off]  Oh, just stow it, okay? You know, if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be in this mess. The first place, your flaky attitude you and me problems at every turn you can't remember anything, now I am buying your meals, what can you do, lady? The first place, your flaky attitude, you-and-me problems, at every turn, you can't remember anything. Now, I'm buying your meals.

  [Jim's angrier, hearing the words coming out of his mouth, and his disgust with Sky's wilful disregard of responsibility] 

  Jim Rockford : What can you do, lady?

  Jane Patten : [Believing the idiocy she's still spouting]  My consciousness doesn't lend itself to problem-solving, like your does, okay? I'm into an alternative lifestyle.

  [Jim smugly grimaces, then looks away from Sky] 

  Jane Patten : I am a seeker after truth. What's so wrong with that?

  Jim Rockford : Your 'alternative lifestyle' comes out of somebody else's pocket. You mooch, you borrow, you hardly work. Anybody who doesn't go along with it, their 'fascists', they're 'unmellow', 'competitive'. All that money and freedom is just another way of saying 'me first'.

  Jane Patten : [Looking down]  It is not.

  Jim Rockford : Yes, it is. You just don't have a sense of responsibility. That's all there is to it.

  Jane Patten : [Smug and defiant]  What you mean is I'm not into structured living, or accumulated things i'm into my consciousness.

  Jim Rockford : 'Consciousness'? You're practically UN-conscious 24 hours a day! What you're 'into' is having somebody else to do your thinking for you. There's Gordon Borchers, Baba, the Bhagada-Gita. Next it's gonna be Sam Levinson, or Francis, the Talking Mule, for all I know. They have all the answers, right? Don't you have any answers of your own?

  Jane Patten : Those are pathways to bliss.

  Jim Rockford : MM-hmm, maybe. But you don't practise them. You just talk about them. You fled from ashram to water tank and back. Are you any happier for it, huh? And look around you; you see a lot of 'bliss' out there?

  Jane Patten : I've don't think I've done so bad for being 32 years old.

  Jim Rockford : You're 40. I've seen your drivers license.

  Jane Patten : I was 40, but I'm making positive affirmations. I am 32. I'm 'youthing' myself

  [Smugly smiles] 

  Jane Patten : .

  Jim Rockford : You're 40.

  Jane Patten : But I don't want to get old.

  Jim Rockford : Well neither do I

  Jane Patten : Oh, but, you see, we don't have to, not if...

  Jim Rockford : There's nothing you can do about it. That's the way it is. I'm sorry to be the bearer of the bad news. There is no easy answer, you know. There is no 'quickie nirvana'. You don't like it? Tough! Join the club.

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

  Anonymous Caller : [Beeep]  Hey, I saw your ad in the classified: three African goats for sale. I keep calling and all I get is the machine. Is that a typo in the paper or what?

• Pavarthi : [Jim's trying to track down Sky, and finds the Ashram West in the phone book, so he goes there. He arrives, and sees people sleeping in sleeping bags outside, and walks up to the door, and knocks. A young woman - Pavarthi - answers]  Yes?

  Jim Rockford : This is the ashram, isn't it?

  Pavarthi : Oh, yes, it is. Please lower you voice

  [Jim looks confused; he's been talking very quietly] 

  Jim Rockford : Well, I was looking for 'Jane Patten'

  [Pavarthi looks confused] 

  Jim Rockford : Uh, 'Sky Aquarius' - the same person.

  Pavarthi : I'm sorry, I don't know anyone by that name.

  Jim Rockford : [Jim looks befuddled]  She said she lived here. I understood she still had some friends here. She's medium height, sandy-coloured hair... uh, early 30's...

  Pavarthi : Oh you must mean 'Ghopi'.

  Jim Rockford : 'Ghopi'? Uh, yeah, well, yeah, I guess maybe I do. Uh, you know where I might find her?

  Pavarthi : Not here. Her consciousness never really developed to the level we all hoped for. Despite her lovely name.

  Jim Rockford : Yeah, well, which of her 3 'lovely' names are we talking about?

  Pavarthi : 'Ghopi'! It means; 'cow girl devoted to Krishna'. Baba, himself gave it to her. But then she turned her back on the way of truth, our holy family, here, our life of sharing. I don't even like to think about her. Oh; by the way; she tells everyone that she's in her early 30's, but she's really 40

  [Jim just looks at her, quizzically] 

  Pavarthi : . We don't tell un-truths like that, here.

  Jim Rockford : Well, she mentioned somebody by the name of Gordon Borchers... you know where I might find him?

  Pavarthi : No.

  Jim Rockford : [Jim thinks, and looks off for a few moments]  Well, I guess the load is just gonna have to rot on the truck.

  Pavarthi : [Pavarthi looks puzzled]  'Rot'?

  Jim Rockford : Yeah, I gotta whole load of organic vegetables, and bean sprouts, avocados. You see, I'm in the produce business, and I, uh, met Jane up in Big Sur, and I promised her if I ever had an overload, she could have it, at below cost, and I mean it's a shame, you know. I got hydroponic tomatoes, pak choi, 4-5 sacks of brown rice...

  Pavarthi : We'll buy it!

  Jim Rockford : Yeah, well, I guess I could let you have part of it. Of course I'd have to talk to her first - I did promise.

  Pavarthi : [Clicks her teeth, and quickly forgets her 'spiritualness', and sounds like a little spoilt kid]  She gets everything! She already got all my George Harrison albums.

  Jim Rockford : Well, that's between you and 'Ghopi'. All I know is a promise is a promise.

  Pavarthi : Okay, so call her. She's probably up at Sunfire Institute, hogging all the window seats.

  Jim Rockford : Pardon?

  Pavarthi : Oh, we all went up to Berkley, you know? For the spring solstice, to hear Baba speak. You'd think she'd let me have a seat by the window on the bus?

  [grits her teeth, and rolls her eyes] 

  Pavarthi : I was so angry, man, I had to get, like super-meditated that whole weekend, and I never did get my 'flow' back. Really ruined the trip for me.

  Jim Rockford : This Sunfire Institute, does Gordon Borchers' hang out there?

  Pavarthi : I don't know much about that scene, except it's really a joke. They bought this funky old dude ranch in Place Rita, they put in a couple of hot tubs, and think they got this really super-spiritual place.

  Jim Rockford : Well, thank you, very much.

  Pavarthi : Oh; when you see Ghopi, would you tell her that when she borrowed my hair dryer, the low-heat setting was busted. She's gonna pay me back.

  Jim Rockford : W-whatever happened to this life of sharing?

  Pavarthi : [Closes her eyes, and gets all... 'spiritual', and her soft voice returns]  Woooww...

  [Pavarthi smiles] 

  Pavarthi : Sure. Be judgmental. You know who you remind me of?

  Jim Rockford : Your father?

  [Jim smiles] 

  Pavarthi : [Looks surprised]  How did you know?

  [Jim wrinkles his nose, smiles and walks away] 

• Jim Rockford : [Jim and Sky are at Venice Beach - trying to get info about the person who Sky was supposed to have met. Jim's talking to a hot dog stand guy]  Well, this particular guy would kinda stand out; he wears a fur vest, erm, he woulda been here, oh... around 7 o'clock in the evening this past Monday, you know - kinda hanging' around, waiting.

  Cook : There's a lot of people hanging around here. Fur vest died out when Sonny Bono went network.

• Jim Rockford : [Jim and Sky find Mac Grunmer - the man she was to deliver the $30k to - hanging, dead, of an apparent suicide, at the Ritz On The Beach Hotel, and Jim thinks it was a murder set-up to appear like a suicide, but, Chapman - of course, disagrees]  I'm telling you, Chapman, the man hanging on the end of that rope could have been murdered.

  Lt. Doug Chapman : [Loudly, and angrily]  He's a suicide. The man's hands weren't even tied, not a sign of a struggle.

  Jim Rockford : Grunning was a pill-head. I give you a snoot-full of downers and some cheap Zinfandel, I could hoist you from the ceiling pretty easy.

  Lt. Doug Chapman : He's a loser, Rockford. He got tired of barbiturates, and took the big downer.

  [Chapman thrusts his finger towards Jim, for emphasis] 

  Lt. Doug Chapman : It happens every day!

• Jim Rockford : [Still sitting in a restaurant, and telling Sky how ridiculous, and immature she is, Sky retorts by saying Gordon - the phoney head of the Sunfire Institute - Sky goes to, and who ran away with the money has answers]  Good, good. You want to talk about good, old Gordo, huh? Well, I have a friend out at LAX, and she told me that there is nobody by the name of 'Gordon Borchers' who ever went to India, yesterday morning.

  Jane Patten : [Taken aback, by this, Sky quietly replies]  What?

  Jim Rockford : That's right. The 'guru' went south with the loot.

  Jane Patten : [Tense, and not wanting to believe what Jim's just said, Sky angrily snaps]  Shut up.

  Jim Rockford : A-ha! A little aggressiveness there, huh? Some 'negative energy'? Things aren't so mellow any more?

  Jane Patten : I said shut up.

  Jim Rockford : If we had the money, we might be able to see our way out of this mess, but we don't.

  [Sky begins to quietly cry, as Jim's talking, and looks downward] 

  Jim Rockford : Probably went out and bought a Dior prayer shawl, and some electric sandals.

  Jane Patten : [Not looking at Jim, Sky quietly says]  La Cuesta.

  Jim Rockford : W-whaaat!0? I couldn't hear you.

  Jane Patten : La Cuesta. It's this plastic beach and tennis club, near San Diego, you know?

  Jim Rockford : Yeah, I know. What about it?

  Jane Patten : Well, this really silicone cocktail waitress from La Cuesta showed-up one time at Sunfire, looking for Gordon. Later on, he denied he'd ever been there. I believed him.

  Jim Rockford : Well, of course he'd deny it. No self-respecting 'Buddha' would be caught dead in a place like that.

  Jane Patten : But, I believed him. I still do believe him.

  [Jim looks at Sky, and realises no matter what he'll say, and no matter what Sky sees with her own eyes, she is wilfully blind - and dumb] 

  Jane Patten : .

• Joseph 'Rocky' Rockford : [while Jim's using Rocky's phone, talking to Alan Bayliss, Sky's sitting in the Lotus position, on Rocky's coffee table, deep in discussion with Rocky. When Jim hangs up, Rocky walks up to Jim]  Say, sonny; I was just talking to Miss Aquarium, here, and she was telling me that she's got a good friend who is a professional golfer! Now, I know the way you want to improve your game, so, maybe you could talk to the guy!

  Jim Rockford : Dad, she didn't say 'professional golfer', she said 'professional Rolfer'.

  Joseph 'Rocky' Rockford : [Rocky looks utterly befuddled]  What's that?

  Jane Patten : You see, Mr Rockford, Rolfing is a technique for bringing the body's segments into realignment; the spine, the pelvis

  [Jim walks into the kitchen] 

  Jane Patten : the head. We have to get our segments back on the vertical axis. It's very important for our 'cosmic well-being, you know

  [Jim looks at them, and closes the kitchen's pass-through window's blinds] 

  Jane Patten : If we could...

• Jim Rockford : Dennis, gambling is a victimless crime. I'm sorry I can't say the same about my own murder.