8. The Big Ripoff

Complete story — includes the ending

A dead man’s mistress (Nedra Deen) has hired Rockford to prove that his wife murdered him by arranging for his private plane to crash. When Rockford reports that he does not believe the man is dead, the mistress does not accept his conclusion and does not pay him. Rockford thinks the husband may have contacted the mistress in the interim, and negotiates with the insurance company that paid out on the plane crash for a finder’s fee if he can prove the husband and wife staged it. He trails the ex-mistress to a small town. However she has friends who try to force Rockford to give up the search, and the missing husband is nowhere to be found. The episode features Jill Clayburgh in a supporting role, also with Norman Burton, Fred Beir, Bruce Kirby, Warren Vanders, Kelly Thordsen, Basil Hoffman, and Suzanne Somers in a non-speaking part.