DVD Review: The Fugitive: Season One Volume One

The Fugitive: Season One Volume One

(Released: 2007 by CBS Paramount Home Entertainment)

Another Looong DVD Review by Joe Torcivia

It was perhaps the finest television drama of the early to mid 1960s – and one of the finest of all time. It was certainly one of the most popular. And, despite my fondness for all things sixties, I somehow managed to never see this program until turning to DVD in 2011.

It is THE FUGITIVE (1963-1967), and the first volume released to DVD is the subject of this review.
Giving credit where credit is due, it was the fine members of HTF (The Home Theatre Forum at THIS LINK) whose postings moved me to try THE FUGITIVE. Thanks, guys, if you’re reading this!

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Back in the day, THE FUGITIVE was run at my bedtime. I have vivid memories of the opening, but never got to see any of the episodes, because it was time to “hustle upstairs” for the night.

Still, I can remember the show’s narrator, William Conrad, speaking these lines in a more deliberate manner and with less humorous hyperbole than he employed on ROCKY AND HIS FRIENDS and THE BULLWINKLE SHOW:

WE OPEN WITH A PASSENGER TRAIN SPEEDING THROUGH A DARK NIGHT.
“The name: Doctor Richard Kimble.

“The destination: Death Row, State Prison.

“The irony: Richard Kimble is innocent.

“Proven guilty, what Richard Kimble could not prove is that, moments before discovering his murdered wife’s body, he saw a one-armed man running from the vicinity of his home.

“Richard Kimble ponders his fate, as he looks at the world for the last time – and sees only darkness.

“But, in that darkness, fate moves it huge hand…”
THIS IS FOLLOWED BY FOOTAGE OF THE TRAIN DERAILING, AND KIMBLE ESCAPING INTO A SWAMP.
…What more do you need to know? They sure knew how to efficiently set-up show premises in those days!

David Janssen is perfect as man-on-the-run Richard Kimble, who moves from town to town, becoming involved in various intrigues and narrow escapes from the law – both the local authorities and the omnipresent Lt. Philip Gerard (Barry Morse), from whose custody Kimble escaped.

With a drive and single-minded obsession to rival that of literature’s Captain Ahab, Gerard pursues Kimble across this great land of ours – with different settings and a new cast of characters introduced each week, to make things interesting.

Asked why he goes to such incredible lengths to apprehend this escaped prisoner, Gerard states: “The Law says he’s guilty. I enforce the Law.”

Complicating things is Kimble’s essential “goodness” (…perhaps, the result of his Hippocratic Oath) that compels him to “do the right thing” for the people he encounters, even at his own peril of discovery by the authorities. Sometimes, even I want to SHAKE HIM, and say “JUST GET OUTTA THERE!”

But, making things easier for our fugitive is that he existed in a time that predated the extensive identity checking and information exchange methodology of the present day. He could adopt an alias, accept a job “on a handshake”, and be paid in just enough cash, to finance his expedition to the next small town – to become another nameless face.

Only once, in these first 15 episodes, was the matter of his Social Security Number addressed – and then quickly forgotten. Perhaps the best quote on the subject is this:

“Mr. Tallman (Kimble’s alias of the week), it takes a unique talent to slither through the 20th Century without numbers. Now, I have to assume that you didn’t spring into life like Dionysus from the thigh of Zeus. A man with no past may be hiding one…”
Nevertheless, “slither” Kimble does, always one step ahead of the law, and through some of the best and most suspenseful dramas TV of the time had to offer.

As is our custom in these reviews, we’ll break it into CONS and PROS.


The CONS:
No Origin Story: The first episode, “Fear in a Desert City”, though a good story, was disappointing to me, because it did not tell the story of Richard Kimble’s trial and escape, the murder of his wife in Stafford, Indiana, the intrigue of the mysterious One-Armed Man, his “association” with Lt. Gerard, the train wreck that freed him, etc.

This episode could just as easily have been plucked from mid-season, for all the “origins” it gave us. Once again, however, the members of HTF came to the rescue, by advising me to watch Episode 14 “The Girl from Little Egypt” DIRECTLY AFTER the first episode. This one actually fills-in, in flashback, many of the details I felt the pilot episode should have presented.

Extra Features: The Fugitive: Season One Volume One has NO Extra Features. This is extremely disappointing for a series with as much historical significance as this one.

The Packaging: The hard plastic packaging for The Fugitive: Season One Volume One opens like a book. It is good, sturdy packaging, offering proper protection to the discs therein. The four discs reside within the package thusly: Disc One on the “inside front cover” of the package (if one were to view the package as a book). Discs Two and Three on a hinged holder in the center of the pack, and Disc Four on the “inside back cover”.

This is all fine and well… EXCEPT that the CONTENT NOTES (listing the individual episodes) are also on the “inside front cover” and the “inside back cover” – making the episode lists impossible to read without handling and removing Discs One and Four. In my view, the content notes should never be obscured by discs – and should always be easily available to read.


The PROS:
Robo-Promos: “Robo-Promos” is my term for advertisements that play automatically before you even reach the initial menu. They are unavoidably inflicted upon the viewer before “getting on with the show”. CBS Paramount is particularly good in this regard, as The Fugitive: Season One Volume One’s initial display on Disc One offers a CHOICE of “Previews” or “Main Menu”, thus avoiding the infliction of “Robo-Promos” on the viewer – unless he or she wishes to see them!


Music / Underscore: The unique “mood-inducing pieces” of THE FUGITIVE’S underscore for this first season was composed primarily by Peter Rugolo. Previously known for BORIS KARLOFF PRESENTS THRILLER (where Rugolo certainly induced his share of “mood”) and later for (among other things) the “Space-a-Delic” theme that punctuated the LOST IN SPACE episode “The Promised Planet” (uncredited). I can STILL hear that thing running through my head. It may NEVER leave me!

The reason I even mention this is because, in the Season Two and Three releases, Rugolo’s underscore will be removed and replaced – and this will cause its share of controversy. So, I say, enjoy it while you can.


The Players: A stellar list of guest players appear in The Fugitive: Season One Volume One. (In order of appearance)

Brian Keith, Vera Miles, Harry Townes, Patricia Crowley, Elisha Cook Jr., Sandy Dennis, Frank Sutton, R.G. Armstrong, Susan Oliver, Robert Duvall, James Edwards, Ruby Dee, Robert F. Simon, Brenda Vaccaro, Lou Antonio, Chris Robinson, Geraldine Brooks, Murray Matheson, David White, Tim O’ Connor, Gene Lyons, Jack Weston, Henry Beckman, Garry Walberg, Frank Overton, Paul Carr, Ian Wolfe, Leslie Nielsen, Edward Binns, Jack Klugman, Billy Halop, Ed Nelson, Pamela Tiffin, Diane Brewster, Bill Raisch (as The One-Armed Man), Andrew Prine, Jacqueline Scott, James B. Sikking, Billy Mumy, Clint Howard… and, throughout the season, Paul Birch as Lt. Gerard’s patient superior “Captain Carpenter”.

…Also, joining us each week, are William Conrad as the “in-episode narrator” and Hank Simms as the “title narrator”.
How’s THAT for a cast list!
The Episodes: 15 suspenseful episodes of THE FUGITIVE, from the first half of the 1963-1964 television season! Here are some highlights, rated up to four stars. ****

“Fear in a Desert City”: As a bartender, Richard Kimble becomes involved in the conflict between the establishment’s attractive piano player, and her estranged and abusive husband. Well done but, as noted, this premiere episode does little or nothing to set up the show’s premise, beyond William Conrad’s weekly opening narration. ***

“The Witch”: A disturbed little girl makes trouble for Kimble and her schoolteacher with her compulsive lying. As seen here, little girls can sometimes be scarier than gangsters and monsters combined! **

“Never Wave Goodbye: Parts One and Two”: Kimble finds happiness with the boss’ daughter while working in a New England sail factory. Oh, but here comes Gerard to spoil it all! The life-endangering lengths Gerard goes to in pursuit of Kimble at the end of Part Two is where I draw my parallels between the lieutenant and literature’s Captain Ahab. ***

“Decision in the Ring”: When Kimble applies his medical skills to assist “Joe Smith” an aspiring boxer who’s taken a beating in the ring, he is hired by the boxer’s manager to work as a “cut man”. Kimble soon realizes that Smith may have a potentially fatal brain injury, and urges that he quit the fight game. However, despite having studied medicine himself, Smith believes that boxing is the best ticket for a black man in those days. The episode features James Edwards, the mess steward who ate the “legendary strawberries” in the Humphrey Bogart classic “The Caine Mutiny” as “Joe Smith”. Written by Arthur Weiss, who was a major contributor to the 4th Season of VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA. ****

“See Hollywood and Die”: Kimble and a female motorist (Brenda Vaccaro) are taken hostage by a pair of young punk killers and endure a perilous ride from New Mexico to Los Angeles. “Old Friends” to fans of sixties sci-fi TV Lou Antonio (STAR TREK: “Let This Be Your Last Battlefield”) and Chris Robinson (VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA: “The Death Clock”) are superbly fear inducing as the killers! ****

“Ticket to Alaska”: Kimble travels from Washington to Alaska via a passenger boat, when the craft is boarded at sea by a police detective seeking an undisclosed suspect. When the lawman is murdered, suspicion falls over everyone aboard – especially Kimble, the one man without a verifiable past. ****

“Nightmare at Northoak”: A wandering Kimble saves a group of children and the unconscious driver from a wrecked and burning school bus. The unwanted publicity he receives for his Samaritan act attracts the attention of Lt. Gerard, who travels to the small town and places Kimble under arrest. This outstanding episode is notable for Kimble’s recurring nightmare sequence (where he is shot and captured by Gerard) and for a GREAT ending scene… no spoilers! ****

“Terror at High Point”: An earthmoving crew in Utah is Kimble’s latest refuge. That is until the crew-boss’ wife is attacked in what is clearly a sort of homage to “Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho” (…indelibly burned into our collective psyche just a few years prior!) and a mentally deficient “water-boy” is blamed for the crime. Jack Klugman gives one heck of a performance as the boss – and is the only one, thus far, to even broach the subject of our many-named fugitive’s social security number. ****

“The Girl from Little Egypt”: A stewardess, upset by her married “boyfriend”, drives off with emotions racing… and hits Kimble walking along the side of the highway! (He has the WORST LUCK, doesn’t he?). While injured and under sedation, Kimble inadvertently reveals many details of the murder of his wife, his trial, conviction, and flight as a fugitive. This is all nicely presented in flashback, giving us the ORIGIN STORY we should have had at the series’ beginning. ****

“Home is the Hunted”: Word of his father’s heart problems reaches Kimble, and he risks great jeopardy to reunite with his family – loyal sister “Donna” and her husband, resentful younger brother “Ray”, and Donna’s two kids played by consummate child actors Billy Mumy and Clint Howard. Needless to say, Gerard is also present – for once not even having to leave town to pursue his quarry. ****

We try to be as spoiler free as we can… but, if you plan to watch THE FUGITIVE all the way through to the climactic finale (in THE FUGITIVE: Season 4 Volume 2 DVD set), play close attention to at least TWO of the episodes described above. As a “favor” to you all, I’ll not say which two!


Overall:
As previously stated, THE FUGITIVE was (and remains) one of television’s most significant dramatic series. The impact of its historic series finale is still felt today.

THE FUGITIVE’S impact on subsequent series of the era is also apparent. Producer Quinn Martin “ported over” the “Man Alone and on the Run” concept to a Sci-Fi platform for his later THE INVADERS.

And, remaining within Sci-Fi, I get the same vibe from THE FUGITIVE that I get when watching LAND OF THE GIANTS! The “On the run from the authorities”, “Everyone’s out to get you!”, “Get outta there!” and “Stop helping those strangers!” feeling. …And GIANTS’ “Inspector Kobick” is just one great big, giant-sized version of Lt. Gerard – only with better hair!

Nevertheless, THE FUGITIVE remains unique in the history of television drama. And, thanks to DVD, you can experience the adventures of Richard Kimble and Lt. Gerard – whether they occurred “before you were born” or “after your bedtime”!

Highly recommended! Thanks, HTF-ers!