"Just Another Polish Wedding" brings back two of the series most popular guest stars, Lou Gossett Jr. as Marcus Hayes, Jim's old parole officer turned private investigator and Issac Hayes as Gandy, the "Hammer of C Block". Gandy calls Jim to bail him out of jail after he loses his job by assaulting a customer at a club. Gandy suggests he and Jim become partners in the P.I. game. Jim steers Gandy to Marcus Hayes instead. He soon comes to regret it as Hayes quickly sniffs out the case Jim is working on for the county (trying to find Finn O'Herlihy, the heir to a will) and moves in on his action.
This one is all about the characters, and they are all strong, from Garner on down. Gossett is once again the epitome of slick as he runs his little cons and Issac Hayes is great, especially when he sits back and eyes Gossett as he goes into one of his various pitches. Hayes' eyes say a LOT while he says nothing.
The action takes Gandy and Gabby into a Nazi bar where they encounter "Sanford" regular Dennis Burkley (who mostly played bikers back in the 1970's) and to a wedding at a San Diego Yachy Club (actually Marina Del Rey!). Gabby even cons Rocky at one point, who doesn't know Hayes is no longer a parole agent.
Even though this script is really character driven with a lot of comic moments, it also has elements of a nice mystery as we see both Rockford's and Haye's methods for trying to track down the missing heir, and there is a great twist at the end when they find O'Herlihy and let him know he's about to inherit $600,000.
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