Rockford's Firebird Spotted in Arizona?

TUCSON, Arizona — Inside Line reader Paul Birmingham (the news director at KNST 790 AM in Tucson) caught this rig steaming westward on the I-10 freeway toward Los Angeles on March 9. The fact that there's someone towing a tan 1974 Pontiac Firebird Esprit through Arizona is no big deal. But Birmingham reports that the truck doing the towing was marked as belonging to Universal Studios. At Inside Line the crack team of researchers in our Department of Obsessive/Compulsive Interests immediately speculated that this car was on its way to becoming a television star: Jim Rockford's car in the upcoming revival of The Rockford Files.

As part of its frantic development schedule (hyped by the failure of The Jay Leno Show at 10 p.m. on weekdays), NBC Universal has ordered up a remake of The Rockford Files. For those of us who loved Rockford either way back in the '70s when it was new, or learned to love it in the ensuing 31 years of reruns, it's near criminal to suggest that there is anyone who can replace James Garner as Jim Rockford. But actor Dermot Mulroney, who was almost memorable in several films no one recalls, will attempt to do just that. The pilot episode should begin filming soon in order for the network to decide about its fall schedule by the middle of May.

But would Faux Rockford be back in Genuine Jimbo's iconic tan Firebird? Inside Line called NBC Universal and, in an initial conversation with publicist Joanne Park, was told that according to the script, the car "could be" the original Firebird and that she would talk with the producers. So this photo was sent on to her and we waited patiently for a reply.

This morning Ms. Park e-mailed IL back with the non-news that "(u)nfortunately we can't release that info right now." So we don't know if this '74 Firebird Esprit, coincidentally the same year, make, model, color and trim of the car driven by Genuine Jimbo during The Rockford Files first season, will in fact show up as Faux Rockford's mount in the remake. But we're pretty sure it will...more or less.

Ms. Park suggested that we should "Let (our) readers know they should tune in to see!" And we know she means that, because publicists only use exclamation points when they're being super-emphatic.

Inside Line says: Stay tuned to IL for more fan-boy fascinations and ridiculously detailed reports on what's going on in the world of Hollywood movie cars. — John Pearley Huffman, Correspondent