Shark Bytes

I agree that the "unknown witness who kept his mouth shut for four years" gimmick was pretty clumsy. They should of come up with a more convincing reason for him to remain silent(like blackmail). I note that the show had the strange sort of poignancy common in '60s shows,something our jaded era seems unable to reproduce.

My father's Italian aunt (who was never a very attractive lady) was in Hollywood in the 1960's. She told me that one day David Jannsen (sp?) called out to her and called her "Beautiful". Was he drunk? Was she making this up years later? I don't know the answer to either but I have never trusted anything I saw Janssen in after that thinking he even possibly really said that to my great aunt! When I watched The Fugitive to think he could hang with so many hot northern European descended chicks and still find possibly find my great aunt attractive--ugggh! As for other aspects of this show---my father never took to it saying it bored him the way Kimball ran so much on the show. I found it (despite my attempts to become dedicated to the show as a viewer) hard to stay in tune after a few eps myself for the same reason!

I have just purchased the DVD for the entire series so I decided to read this site and check out what people feel about the show. I am old enough to remember the show when it was on originally and thought that it was the best show ever for the reasons mentioned previously by other posters. I do not recall thinking that the mood changed when color was added in the 4th year but I will look for that now when I watch the DVDs. As for the comments on changing the finale, I went to a Musuem of TV and Radio show honoring Roy Huggins. Even though there were stars there from Mr. Huggins' other shows, virtually every question was about "The Fugitive.' He said that ABC was wary about having a convicted criminal as the star of a show and made it clear that Kimble had to be clearly innocent. Mr. Huggins said that he protested the need for a witness in the finale, but, ABC insisted on it. He knew it was untrue to the audience to unveil an unknown character but had no choice. Did this show JTS- a resounding NO.

The shark reared its ugly head at the beginning of season four. The show was basically an existential mood piece and its film noir quality was lost when it switched to color. This moody element was really enhanced by the black-and-white cinematography, but unfortunately, color programming became the rule rather than the exception in late 1966. The series became a bit "too pretty" by the color and the situation wasn't helped by the fact that the first eight or nine episodes of year four were extremely sub-par, especially "Second Sight", which has been regarded as the worst story ever (a comedy more than a drama; the sequence in which Kimble blindly inched his way around the electric power plant barely avoiding electrocution seemed more pathetic than funny). Despite the lackluster quality of year four, "The Fugitive" was a pioneering series that is among my favorites. After all, four seasons and 120 episodes are quite formidable especially when viewed in the light that narrator William Conrad stated at the program's outset that it wouldn't last beyond 13 episodes.

i wish the fugitive series would have a rerun of the series and i hope one day that i can collect the entire series on dvd just like im doing with the original star trek series,starring william shatner.anyway take care whoever sees my txt.

It's wednesday August 29th, forty years later. I was thirteen in hospital with a room full of nurses watching that final last episode--'the day the running stopped." Kudos for Morse--He made the series more real. hard to believe he is really a Brit still going strong at 89--Wow!!

The subtle underlayers of David Janssen's portrayal of the title character was the key to the success of the show,add to this excellent filmmaking,and you have one of the best tv series ever. No, I do not believe The Fugitive ever jumped.

I am planning to show the final episodes to my teenage daughters this month, the 40th anniversary. The final episodes were satisfying because they did not twist all the premises of the show around; like Kimble's and his family's innocence. I agree that the deserted amusement park scene became a cliche in 1960's TV and didn't make sense. But it would have made watching the reruns unsatisfying if we later knew Kimble or a relative was the killer. Lt. Gerard was the element that made the series serious. He was not in the show too much, which was good.

One reason the last season seemed so downhill, for example, the one-armed man started appearing much more often, was probably that the producers knew they were wrapping up and needed to move it to the climax. And yes, it was great that they showed a conclusion and wrapped up when they did.

Actually, to the theory that the brother-in-law was originally supposed to be the actual killer, there is a clue. In the start of the finale, the one-armed man is asked by someone if he killed Kimble's wife, and his answer was "NO. But I know who did. I was robbing the house when it happened...". The stage was set for a real surprise ending. But by the end, apparently the producers decided to go with the original concept. Still, one wonders, what if the brother-in-law was lying about what he saw, what if the court was a little too willing to accept his accusation of a dead man who couldn't defend himself........

Perhaps the best thing about this show is that it had an ending.

The viewer did not feel cheated.

I've only seen The Fugitive a few times on USA about 20 years ago, but I found it to be one of the best shows of all time. I hope the DVD comes out soon.

IMHO, this show could never jump...ever. In regard to Lloyd Chandler keeping slient all those years, that was because he didn't want to ruin his "war hero" image.

This can be verified in the book "Fugitive Recaptured", by Ed Robertson.

It never jumped the shark, although ABC blew it by deflecting the Lloyd Chandler thread into a "witness of the murder", which made no sense. He would keep quiet all those years? I like the idea that Fred Johnson was being hunted by an obsessed man also innocent. It would have been a brilliant twist.

And the B&W episodes conveyed the small town, middle America so well..gas stations, diners, ports, ordinary jobs, strangers looking for something of value in their lives, etc.

The last season (in color) contained some clunkers but the chase did intensify with Johnson, which had to happen since the series was coming to a conclusion. But the first three years were excellent drama. Taut and tremendous.

The Fugitive made a small shark jump
when filmed in color. Although a series
finale was a good thing, having it end
by having the one-armed man chased atop
a water tower by Kimble when he had no
where to go was kind of a cop out to
a magnificent series.

This show never jumped!! It was always suspenseful, on-the-edge of your seat programming!!
And I liked the fact the Dr. Kimble was always kind and good-natured to the people he met while on the run.