I'm pretty sure I saw three discs on the computer for the US release. I guess they're double sided. Man, these people are cheap!

This may be offend many of the Columbo fans here (and I certainly list myself as a big fan) BUT,
James Garner is a far superior actor to Peter Falk.
Garner had to put out a weekly TV series for several
years (he also made other series besides Rockford) and he NEVER put in a poor performance, something I can't say about Peter Falk who at most put out one
episode per month (albeit longer, though), and in later years, far fewer than that.

Having said that, the stories of the Rockford Files are not as tightly constructed as Columbo, the emphasis is primarily on the interaction between Rockford and his clients and the bad guys. We see Columbo has to use his brain a lot and work for the clues, whereas they often just drop into Rockford's lap.
What I particularly like about Rockford is that there is a lot of social satire and commentary, particularly satirising the often whacky culture of Southern California of the 1970's where I was a college student at the time.

Not offended by the suggestion, but I don't think you can really equate quantity of performances to quality. I don't even see much sense in comparing actors at all, unless it's just a publicity thing like Oscars/Emmys. If JG is a superior actor for you, and PF is perhaps a better actor for me, neither of those opinions really amount to much. There's nothing definitive about any of this. It's not really about trying to be top dog, is it? It's just about trying to do good work, which they both have a long track record of striving for.

Although we could probably team up and go laugh at a Matt Houston fan.

rockford is a great show...i will definitely agree...and jimmy garner is a terrific actor...but somehow i find that the scripts were not as tightly written as the columbo ones were....yes, they may have been so because there were more "rockfords" per season versus "columbos"...............
another great show in the same genre is magnum...some of them are dumb..but some of them are quite inspired...the one where magnum spends the entire episode treading water in the middle of the ocean, having flashbacks about his father was unbelievable. it truly touched me..

Bite your tongue Cassa,
Magnum dumb??
Well maybe occasionally, but it was a fantastic series with characters that I really grew to love. If I could choose the life of any tv character it would have to have been Magnum's. The car, the estate(rent free), truly good friends,(one with a bar, the other with a helicopter),the girls, the job, getting up late every day, then playing tennis or swimming in your tidal pool,and the beautiful locales of Hawaii.
Just sublime.

By the way Cass, the name of the episode you refer to is "Home From The Sea", it was the fourth season opener and is one of the series best.
Apparently a very difficult ep to make as they actually did film it out at sea and had to keep a careful eye on Selleck as he was in danger of being lost in the rolling waves.

there were only a few episodes of magnum that were dumb or silly...on the whole i find the series really great....i never watched it when it originally aired..i am only newly aquainted to it....it is definitely well written. and as i said that episode with him in the water,(as you graciously pointed out.."home from the sea") recalling his dad, really blew me away... i just cried...it was really terrific...and there are many others that touched me too......good show..definitely... i love higgens...