Shark Bytes

DJ, you are all wrong in mistaking Janssen's silence for acting. In reallife he was really quiet and quite self-absorbed. He had very little acting talent even Mad magazine picked up on this fact about him in their Fugitive satire (like I already pointed out). But about all those beautiful women you mentioned, DJ. To think Janssen could look at them then my Italian aunt and think the latter was attractive? Terrible if true!

This was my alltime favorite prime-time network series. David Janssen was the first actor I ever saw who almost never smiled, yet who spoke volumes with his silence and body language.

I agree completely that color hurt the series. The extra light needed to film in color ruined the ominous shadows and suggestions of encroaching doom that made the series so gripping.

Because this was the era when the networks first broadcast most shows in color, every show went way overboard to exploit it, and many of the sets and backgrounds looked almost cartoonishly colorful....not a good thing for a melodrama.

The last two seasons of the series, the music score during each episode was sensational, especially in the "Act (One)" and "Epilog" returns from commercial breaks.

As much as I liked the Harrison Ford movie of the same title, I've always wondered why the film paralleled the series EXCEPT in naming the Tommy Lee Jones character, as Lt. SAM Gerard. Huhhhh????

Seeing reruns on Netflix rentals and in my own VHS collection, I'm reminded of the gorgeous starlets and established actresses who graced the screen for "The Fugitive".

I developed a massive boyhood crush on Joanna Pettet (a dead ringer for both my first great love, and for the woman I married); Brenda Scott (who portrayed a doe-eyed, hugely fake-eyelashed jailbait aboard a Greek fishing boat); and Lois Nettleton (startlingly beautiful eyes and smile), and found Janis Paige to be the gorgeous older woman, as Helen Kimble's doppelganger who enters Dr. Kimble's life as a troubled nightclub singer.

In my thousands of posts on forums in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, I have adopted the moniker "Clark Kimble", as a paean to my childhood heroes: Richard Kimble and Clark Kent, both of whom were decent, honorable men who, for reasons beyond their control, were forced to live double lives.

Jimbo, the end of your posting sounds like mine. Too much running on Kimball's part turned you off too!! Personally, its so good for me to have finally shared to all the world what bothered me deep down for years (about Janssen finding my unattractive great aunt beautiful!).
Sean, the original choice for Kimball was Bob Lansing (Gary Seven on the Assignment:Earth ep of Star Trek). Lansing indeed had appealing charisma and more talent than Janssen. Mad Magazine satirized The Fugitive and made sport of Janssen not having much talent as an actor.They were right! He really didn't! Lansing would have probabaly been really good in the lead and another good choice for Kimball would most likely have been Murray Hamilton (the mayor in Jaws)! But hey Sean--I'm glad you read my posting and learned of my aged, inner (formerly private) horror! Thanx!

I just browsed these comments because I have recently discovered this amazing show for the first time on DVD. I was born in '64 and do not remember this show being syndicated in our region. I feel cheated! I must take immediate exception to the earlier comment that David Janssen was "wooden" in this role. Balderdash! The man was the reason the show worked! An incredible actor who portrayed Kimble with the kind of subtlety that was critical to this character. You are mistaking "wooden" for a skillfully economic control of emotional boundaries. Kimble often seemed on the edge but had to restrain himself as not to draw attention. But when he did emote, WOW! Somebody usually got their ass kicked! The format of the show immediately brings to mind "Kung Fu" which was obviously inspired by it. I love discovering gems like this in an age when television is so reprehensible and unwatchable. Thank God for DVD sets and all those great shows from the sixties!

I don't think the show ever jumped, but there were ways in which it could've been a much better show. The guest stars
were an unbelievable collection of the finest actors & actresses of the time. Many that became big years later. Janssen was kinda wooden, but the supporting actors made the show great to watch. My problem was that Kimble never really tried very hard to disguise himself aside from dying his hair...(ever hear of sunglasses? baseball cap? moustache?) & as such the plots seemed to always involve someone recognizing him (well DUH!!! you look exactly the same!!). I just feel that they could've explored different plot lines where Kimble would get involved with someone but some other problem would arise & cause him to leave at the end other than the same old
cops-hot-on-his-tail every week.

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.