Decades before Harrison Ford was exciting audiences as Dr. Richard Kimble, The Fugitive was a thoughtful, adventurous and very different dramatic series on television. Starring David Janssen in the title role, the show broke new ground on TV by not presenting a sanitized version of life in America - only The Twilight Zone (with which it shares some music) did the same.Janssen looked part Sean Connery and part John Kennedy as he moved from town to town, trying to escape the lawman intent on tracking him down (Barry Morse, later of Space: 1999 fame) and trying to find the one-armed man whom he believes killed his wife, a crime for which the innocent Dr. Kimble has been sentenced to die. The show visited different places and characters every week, making it nearly as much of an anthology show as The Twilight Zone.
This first volume of the series covers 15 episodes from the initial 1963-1964 season. Many fans dislike these piecemeal releases of their favorite shows, but with so many shows abandoned by studios due to poor sales, whatever works. And as long as the episodes continue to look as good as they do in this set, fans should be pleased. The Fugitive was filmed in glorious black and white (until its fourth season when it switched to color), and the mood
it sets helps the storyline. The images are crisp and clear, especially for a program that is nearly 45 years old.The show had wonderful guest stars, such as Brian Keith and Vera Miles in the first episode and Robert Duvall and Susan Oliver in the two-part "Never Wave Goodbye." Janssen himself won a Golden Globe for his role in the series, and was nominated three times for an Emmy.
The show, with its JFK-inspired hero, premiered a short time before Kennedy's assassination. It was appropriate, however, that The Fugitive showed us the dark side of America, of a place where innocent, good men were kept away from their families, their callings and from the lives they should have been able to lead. In many ways, America is still running to return to that time. For those that haven't forgotten and who hold the promise of what could have been, The Fugitive is a landmark, and a document of the journey.
