The character, played by James Garner, is a struggling private investigator operating in the greater Los Angeles area.

Unlike many other fictional "private eyes", Rockford is an ex-convict, albeit one who was falsely imprisoned (at San Quentin Prison) and later fully pardoned.

He is consistently shown to be short on money, or trying to keep creditors at bay; he typically wears sport coats and low-priced off-the-rack suits and his lone indulgences are an answering machine (the source of another running gag at the beginning of each episode) and the latest gold colored Pontiac Firebird Esprit automobile, traded in each year of the series for the newest model.

In addition to posing as insurance investigators and government officials (frequently using the pseudonym "Jim Taggart"), he sometimes invents preposterous characters and scenarios to confuse people, which usually gets them to reveal some valuable information.

His contact inside the police department is his friend, sergeant (later lieutenant) Dennis Becker, who will on occasion, albeit grudgingly, run car license plates and do criminal record checks for him.

Rockford was usually unarmed (he occasionally carried an unlicensed pistol – which he kept in a cookie jar in his home – but hardly ever used it) and, despite trying to avoid trouble and use reason and negotiation to solve problems, would sometimes be pressed into a fistfight as a last resort.

During the series, it is also revealed that Rockford was wounded in action and awarded a Silver Star while serving in the Korean War[2] with the 24th Infantry Division.

During the run of the original series, Jim lives in and works out of a single wide mobile home on the beach at Paradise Cove, Malibu; though its exterior is decidedly ramshackle and something of an eyesore, inside it is relatively comfortable and homey.

Though Jim is generally reluctant to engage in potentially dangerous situations and often describes himself as "chicken", when there is a need to act heroically, his actions often speak otherwise.

Later in the show's run, during 1978 and 1979, he had an open but still serious relationship with psychiatrist Megan Dougherty (Kathryn Harrold); Jim was quietly devastated when she announced she was marrying someone else.

[7] The detective story writer Stuart M. Kaminsky has written two books with Jim Rockford as the main character, entitled The Green Bottle and The Devil on My Doorstep.