The Fugitive (TV series)

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The Fugitive was an American television series produced by QM Productions and United Artists Television that aired on ABC from 1963-1967. David Janssen starred as Dr. Richard Kimble, an innocent man from the fictional town of Stafford, Indiana, who was falsely convicted of his wife's murder and given the death penalty. En route to death row, Kimble's train derailed and crashed, allowing him to escape and begin a cross-country search for the real killer, a "one-armed man" (played by Bill Raisch). At the same time, Dr. Kimble was hounded by the authorities, most notably by Stafford Police lieutenant Philip Gerard (Barry Morse).

The Fugitive aired for four seasons, and a total of 120 episodes were produced. The first three seasons were filmed in black and white, while the final season was in color.

A total of 42 episodes have been released on home video (VHS) by NuVentures Video. Of these, 12 episodes were also released on laserdisc.

Currently, Republic Pictures and CBS Paramount Television own the rights to the series; CBS DVD (which now holds the video rights) has yet to announce any home video reissue.

Contents

[edit] Origins

The series was conceived by Roy Huggins and produced by Quinn Martin. It is generally believed that the series was inspired by the Sam Sheppard case of the 1950s, in which the wife of Cleveland osteopathic physician Sam Sheppard was brutally murdered in their home; Sheppard maintained she had been killed by an intruder, was found guilty, appealed against this judgment to the Supreme Court, and was finally acquitted, having by that point served years in prison. (Huggins, however, steadfastly denied that the Sheppard case had any role in his creation of the show).

The concept of a series focusing on a lead character who was constantly on the move, on the run for a crime he did not commit, proved to be perfect for television programming. While shows like Route 66 had employed the same anthology-like premise of wanderers finding adventure in each new place they came to, The Fugitive answered two questions that had bedeviled many similar series: "Why doesn't the protagonist settle down somewhere?" and "Why is the protagonist trying to solve these problems himself instead of calling in the police?" The Fugitive's premise answered these questions, and numerous other television series have imitated it, with the twists being mostly in the nature of the fugitives: a scientist with a monstrous alter ego (The Incredible Hulk,1978); a husband and wife (Hot Pursuit, 1984); a young man afflicted with lycanthropy (Werewolf, 1987); a group of ex-US Army Special Forces accused of a crime they didn't commit (The A-Team, 1983); and even a German shepherd (Run, Joe, Run, 1974).

In its debut season, The Fugitive was the 28th highest rated show in the US (with a 21.7 Rating), and it jumped to 5th in its second season (27.9). It fell out of the top 30 during the last two seasons,[1] however, the show's finale became the most watched TV episode ever to that time.

The show also came away with other honours. In 1965, Alan Armer, the producer and head writer of the series, received an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for his work. And in a 1993 ranking, TV Guide named The Fugitive the best dramatic series of the 1960s.

[edit] Characters

[edit] Dr. Richard Kimble

The series lead, and the only character seen in all 120 episodes, was Dr. Richard Kimble (played by David Janssen).

A respected small-town Indiana pediatrician, it was generally known around Stafford that Richard and his wife Helen had been having arguments prior to her death. Helen's pregnancy had ended in a miscarriage, and this event had also apparently rendered her infertile. The couple was devastated, but Helen refused to consider adopting children as Richard wanted. The night of Helen's murder, the Kimbles were heard arguing heatedly over this topic by their neighbours. Richard later went out for a drive to cool off; as he was returning home, he briefly glimpsed a one-armed man fleeing from his house. He then entered his home to find that Helen had been killed. No-one had seen or heard Dr. Kimble go out for his drive, and he was convicted of Helen's murder.

After his escape from custody, Kimble moved from town to town, always trying to remain unobtrusive and unnoticed as he searched for the one-armed man while also trying to evade police capture. He usually adopted a nondescript alias and toiled at low-paying menial jobs (i.e. jobs that required no ID or security checks) in order to survive. Though Kimble tried to keep a low profile, circumstances often conspired to place him in positions where he would be forced to risk capture in order to help a deserving person he had met in his travels.

[edit] The One-Armed Man

Like Kimble, the one-armed man used a variety of aliases while on the run, and in an early appearance, he used the name "Fred Johnson". While there is no reason to believe that this was the character's real name, the one-armed man is usually referred to as Fred Johnson by fans of the show. Rarely seen, the shadowy Johnson was a drifter who was both crafty and almost superhumanly strong.

[edit] Lt. Philip Gerard

While Johnson was being pursued by Kimble, Kimble was being pursued by the relentless police detective Lt. Philip Gerard (played by Barry Morse). A formidably intelligent family man and a dedicated public servant, Gerard made for an interesting anti-hero. While his utter devotion to tracking down someone he believed to be a cold-blooded murderer made him thoroughly admirable, his unrelenting pursuit of an innocent man made him equally detestable.

There are parallels to be seen between Gerard's pursuit of Kimble and the pursuit of Jean Valjean by Inspector Javert in Les Miserables, though Javert never let go of his obsession to follow the letter of the law and hunt down his fugitive, even killing himself when he could not reconcile the justice Valjean dishes out. Gerard, on the other hand, was portrayed externally as a man like Javert, willing to even risk his own loyal followers to catch his man, but internally was more of a thinking man who could balance justice and duty.

According to some of those who worked on the show, these parallels were not coincidental. Stanford Whitmore, who wrote the pilot episode "Fear in a Desert City", says that he deliberately gave Kimble's nemesis a similar-sounding name to see if anyone would recognize the similarity between 'Gerard' and 'Javert'.[2] One who recognized the similarity was Morse; he pointed out the connection to Quinn Martin, who admitted that The Fugitive was a "sort of modern rendition of the outline of Les Misérables".[2] Morse accordingly went back to the Victor Hugo novel and studied the portrayal of Javert, to find ways to make the character more complex than the "conventional 'Hollywood dick'" Gerard had originally been conceived as. "I've always thought that we in the arts ... are all 'shoplifters,'" Morse said. "Everybody, from Shakespeare onwards and downwards ... But once you've acknowledged that ... when you set out on a shoplifting expedition, you go always to Cartier's, and never to Woolworth's!"[2]

[edit] Others

William Conrad provided voice-over narration for each episode. Kimble's murdered wife Helen was portrayed in flashbacks in several episodes by an uncredited Diane Brewster. Also seen very occasionally was Kimble's married sister Donna Taft, played by Jacqueline Scott. Aside from the off-screen narrator, only the character of Richard Kimble is present in every episode. Gerard appears in fewer than half of the episodes, and the one-armed man is seen very infrequently, but at least twice in a season.

[edit] Musical score

The original music and theme used for the series were composed by Pete Rugolo. In fact, many episodes had Rugolo as the sole credited composer for the episode's scores. However, only a fraction of all the music heard throughout the series was original Rugolo music. As was the practice for the times, library music (either from other classic TV shows or from stock music libraries, as was the case with The Adventures of Superman) provided a majority of the episodes' scores. For example, a keen listener could find himself listening to a cue from the Outer Limits series during the climactic final episode of The Fugitive.

What little original music was actually written and recorded was built around a fast-paced tempo representing running music. Different variations, from sad to action-oriented, would be used according to what the music supervisor felt best suited each episode. There was also an original "Dragnet"-type theme for Lt. Gerard.

A soundtrack issue containing all the music Rugolo wrote and recorded for the series is now available on CD from Silva Screen Records.

[edit] Final episode

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The final episode of the series aired on Tuesday, August 29, 1967, with the conclusion of a two-part episode entitled, "The Judgment." In the episode, Dr. Kimble has been captured by Gerard in Los Angeles and is being transported back to Indiana. During the lengthy train trip, Kimble persuades the detective to provide him one final opportunity to catch Johnson.

The clue he follows is a bail bond slip allegedly signed by Kimble's brother-in-law, Leonard Taft. In fact, the bond was signed by a previously-unseen neighbor, Lloyd Chandler, a war hero who was at the house the night of the murder. Rather than stop the killer, Chandler had cowered in fear, and is now being blackmailed by the killer. Kimble and Gerard discover this and head to an abandoned amusement park, where Kimble has a dramatic confrontation on a carnival tower with Johnson. In the struggle, Johnson gains the upper hand and is about to kill Kimble, forcing Gerard to shoot him dead from long range with a rifle. Afterwards, Chandler finally admits what happened that night, thus allowing Kimble to finally be cleared of charges.

Until the November 21, 1980 "Who Shot J.R." episode of Dallas, this episode was the highest-rated series television program ever. In 1983, the final episode of M*A*S*H, "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen", topped both programs.[3]

[edit] 1993 film

Main article: The Fugitive (1993 film)

The Fugitive, a feature film based on the series, was released in 1993, starring Harrison Ford as Kimble, Tommy Lee Jones as Gerard (now named "Samuel" instead of "Philip" and a U.S. Marshal rather than a police lieutenant) and Andreas Katsulas as the one-armed man (now called Fred Sykes instead of Fred Johnson). While some believe this movie and its success may have started the Hollywood trend of the 1990s for remaking old television series as feature films, this movie eschews the campy approach generally taken by such remakes, and treats its source material with respect. In particular, the script portrays Kimble as a man so good that he chooses to help others even when it poses a danger to his liberty or to his physical safety. Barry Morse did have a cameo role in the film, (where he sees Harrison Ford and starts to chase him), but it was cut out of the theatrical release of the movie.

Gerard and his team of Marshals returned in the film U.S. Marshals, played by the same actors, but aside from a similar plotline with Gerard's team hunting a fugitive innocent of the charges against him, the events of that film had nothing to do with the events of The Fugitive.

[edit] 2000 TV remake

A short-lived TV series remake (CBS, 2000-2001) of the same name also aired, filmed in Everett, Washington starring Tim Daly as Kimble, Mykelti Williamson as Gerard, and Stephen Lang as the one-armed man. CBS cancelled the series after one season.

[edit] Spoofs and parodies

Spoofs and parodies of The Fugitive appeared in many TV shows and movies, including Alf, The Simpsons, Get Smart ("Don't Look Back")[2], It's Garry Shandling's Show[2] and the film Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. On Late Night With David Letterman, Chris Elliot played the eponymous character in a skit called "The Fugitive Guy."

In one episode of the 2000 TV series remakes, titled "DrRichardKimble.com", there is a scene that shows a series of wanted posters. One of the posters is a cameo of none other than Dr. Sam Sheppard, the man most people believe was the real life inspiration for the TV series.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Brooks, Tim; Marsh, Earle. The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946–Present. Eighth Edition. NY: Ballantine Books, 2003. Pp. 1459-60.
  2. ^ a b c d e Robertson, Ed (1993). The Fugitive Recaptured. Universal City, California: Pomegranate Press. ISBN 0-938817-34-5. 
  3. ^ Friedman, David; Andrew Edelstein (May 19 1989). "Yo, Tubbs, It's Over; As 'Miami Vice' slouches toward its close, we're all left to wonder whether the show was hip or hype / What TV Shows Do When the Fat Lady Sings". Newsday (New York): 02. 

[edit] External links

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