Because James Garner's original production company, Cherokee Productions, did not produce any movies or television shows after 1980 due to Garner's disputes and lawsuits with Universal Studios, Garner formed a new production company to produce the Rockford movies in the 1990s. The name of the new production company was MGB Productions, with the "M" standing for Meta Rosenberg, the "G" standing for James Garner, and the "B" standing for Juanita Bartlett. Meta Rosenberg was his long time agent and producer, who also directed a few episodes of the original series. Juanita Bartlett was a long time writer and also a producer on the original Rockford series, who started writing for Garner shows all the way back to Nichols (1971).