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The Fugitive

The Fugitive: Unreleased Pilot ‘Fear in a Desert City’

Serious Fugitive fans will appreciate this rare find. It is the full episode prior to”Pete” Rugolo’s musical score being added. Several alternative scenes such as Gerald’s famous standing by the map sequence that was re shot because Quinn Martin thought it was a bit to over the top. The quality of the video is fair but doesn’t detract from the historical value of this great find. Be sure to also see the trailer I posted for the show that was shown a week before it’s premiere on September 17, 1963, enjoy!

The_Futgitive_title_screenThe Fugitive is an American drama series created by Roy Huggins inspired by On the Road written by Jack Kerouac,[citation needed] with elements by Les Misérables. It was produced by QM Productions and United Artists Television. It aired on ABC from 1963 to 1967. David Janssen stars as Richard Kimble, a physician who is falsely convicted of his wife’s murder and sentenced to receive the death penalty. En route to death row, Kimble’s train derails over a switch, 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 is hounded by the authorities, most notably by Police Lieutenant Philip Gerard (Barry Morse).

The Fugitive aired for four seasons, and a total of 120 51-minute episodes were produced. The first three seasons were filmed in black and white; the final season was in color.

In 2002, The Fugitive was ranked No. 36 on TV Guide’s 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time. TV Guide named the one-armed man #5 in their 2013 list of The 60 Nastiest Villains of All Time.

Premise

The series premise was set up in the opening narration, but the full details about the crime were not offered in the pilot episode, which started with Kimble having been on the run for six months. In the series’ first season, the premise (heard over footage of Kimble handcuffed to Gerard on a train) was summarized in the opening title sequence of the pilot episode as follows:

Name: “Richard Kimble. Profession: Doctor of Medicine. Destination: Death Row, state prison. Richard Kimble has been tried and convicted for the murder of his wife. But laws are made by men, carried out by men, and men are imperfect. Richard Kimble is innocent. Proved guilty, what Richard Kimble could not prove, was that moments before discovering his wife’s body, he encountered a man running from the vicinity of his home. A man with one arm. A man who has not yet been found. 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 its huge hand.”

Fugitive_wanterPosterThis title sequence was shortened for the remainder of the first season as follows:

The Name: “Dr. Richard Kimble. The destination: Death Row, state prison. The irony: Richard Kimble is innocent. Proved guilty, what Richard Kimble could not prove, was 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 its huge hand.”

The main title narration, as read by William Conrad, was changed for the first episode of the second season on through the last episode of the series:

The Fugitive, a QM Production—starring David Janssen as Dr. Richard Kimble: an innocent victim of blind justice, falsely convicted for the murder of his wife … reprieved by fate when a train wreck freed him en route to the death house … freed him to hide in lonely desperation, to change his identity, to toil at many jobs … freed him to search for a one-armed man he saw leave the scene of the crime … freed him to run before the relentless pursuit of the police lieutenant obsessed with his capture.

It was not until episode 14, “The Girl from Little Egypt”, that viewers were offered the full details of Richard Kimble’s plight. A series of flashbacks reveals the fateful night of Helen Kimble’s death, and for the first time offers a glimpse of the “one-armed man”.

Inspirations and Influence

640px-David_Janssen_Richard_Kimble_1963David Janssen as The Fugitive

The series was conceived by Roy Huggins and produced by Quinn Martin. It is popularly believed that the series was based in part on the real-life story of Sam Sheppard, an Ohio doctor accused of murdering his wife. Although convicted and imprisoned, Sheppard claimed that his wife had been murdered by a “bushy-haired man”. Sheppard’s brothers hired F. Lee Bailey to appeal the conviction. Bailey defended Sheppard and won an acquittal in the second trial. Huggins denied basing the series on Sheppard, though the show’s film editor, Ken Wilhoit, was married to Susan Hayes, who had had an intimate relationship with Sheppard prior to the murder and testified during the first trial in 1954.

The show presents a popular plot device of an innocent man on the run from the police for a murder he did not commit while simultaneously pursuing the real killer. It had its antecedents in the Alfred Hitchcock movies The 39 Steps, Saboteur, and North by Northwest. The theme of a doctor in hiding for committing a major crime had also been depicted by James Stewart as the mysterious Buttons the Clown in The Greatest Show on Earth. Writer David Goodis claimed that the series was inspired by his 1946 novel Dark Passage, about a man who escapes from prison after being wrongfully convicted of killing his wife. Goodis’ litigation over the issue continued for some time after his 1967 death.

It has also been speculated[by whom?] that another part of the plot device of a fugitive living a life on the run from the authorities was loosely inspired by Victor Hugo’s 1862 novel Les Misérables, and that the Richard Kimble character was inspired by the novel’s protagonist, Jean Valjean, an ex-convict living a life as a fugitive and having numerous aliases as well as helping people around him. The character of Lt. Gerard, who hounds Kimble throughout the series, is also loosely inspired by a character from the same novel, a relentless police inspector named Javert, who is obsessed with capturing the fugitive.

Other shows, such as Route 66, had employed the same anthology-like premise of wanderers finding adventure in each new place they came to. The Fugitive, however, 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?” Casting a doctor as the protagonist also provided the series a wider “range of entry” into local stories, as Kimble’s medical knowledge would allow him alone to recognize essential elements of the episode (e.g., subtle medical symptoms or an abused medicine), and the commonplace doctor’s ethic (e.g., to provide aid in emergencies) would naturally lead him into dangerous situations. Several television series have imitated the formula of characters on the run being chased by the authorities who wanted to capture him and compelled to help others along the way, with the twists being mostly in the nature of the fugitives: a German Shepherd dog (Run, Joe, Run, 1974); a scientist with a monstrous alter ego (The Incredible Hulk, 1978); a group of ex-US Army Special Forces accused of a war crime they committed under orders (The A-Team, 1983); a husband and wife (Hot Pursuit, 1984); a boy afflicted with lycanthropy (Werewolf, 1987); a former police officer (Renegade, 1992); and a reinstated detective (Life, 2007).

The show also came away with other honors. 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 1960’s.

Characters – Dr. Richard Kimble

The series’ lead and the only character seen in all 120 episodes was Dr. Richard David Kimble (Janssen), based in part on the story of Sam Sheppard.

The_Fugitive_David_Janssen_1965Janssen as Richard Kimble with Clint Howard, 1965.

Though Kimble was a respected pediatrician in the fictional small town of Stafford, Indiana, it was generally known that he and his wife Helen had been having arguments prior to her death. Helen’s pregnancy had ended in a stillborn birth of a son, and surgery to save her life had also 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 neighbors. Richard later went out for a drive to cool off; as he was returning home, he nearly struck with his car a one-armed man who was fleeing from the house. Richard then found that Helen had been killed. No one had seen or heard Richard go out for his drive, or seen him while he was out, and he was convicted of Helen’s murder.

After his escape from custody, Kimble moves from town to town, always trying to remain unobtrusive and unnoticed as he evades capture and hopes to find the one-armed man. He adopts a nondescript alias, toils at low-paying menial jobs (i.e. those that require no identification or security checks, and bring about little social attention), and has a romance with a damsel in distress. He then chooses to put his anonymity at risk by aiding a deserving person, usually a woman or child.

Richard is smart and resourceful, and is usually able to perform well at any job he takes. He also displays considerable prowess in hand-to-hand combat. In the episode “Nemesis”, he distracts and then knocks out a forest ranger (played by Kurt Russell’s real-life dad Bing), then quickly unloads the man’s rifle to ensure he cannot shoot him if pursued.

Lt. Philip Gerard

Barry_Morse_Girard_The_Fugitive_1964Barry Morse as Gerard in the pilot episode, 1963.

Kimble is pursued by the relentless police detective Lt. Philip Gerard (Morse), a formidably intelligent family man and dedicated public servant. Gerard appears in 37 episodes.

Morse portrayed Gerard as a man duty-bound to capture Kimble. Guilt or innocence was of no consequence to Gerard, whose own beliefs have been stated as:

“I enforce the law. The law pronounced him guilty… I enforce the law. Whether the law was right or wrong of convicting him is not my concern. Let others debate and conclude… I obey. But when I begin to doubt, to question… I can’t permit it. Others found him guilty, others were about to execute him. I was merely an instrument of the law… and I am.” (“Fear in a Desert City”, 1963)

In “Never Wave Goodbye Pt. I”, he states again, “The law pronounced him guilty, not me.” In “Nightmare at Northoak” and “Wife Killer” he states with certainty that the one-armed man does not exist and that Kimble is guilty; in “Corner of Hell’, even after his own Kimble-like experience, he still scoffs at the existence of the one-armed man (“Still the same fairy tale”) and tells Kimble, “The truth is, you’re still guilty before the law.”

Over time, Gerard also appeared to have gained some doubts as to Kimble’s guilt (in the penultimate episode “The Judgement Pt. I”, he states, “I’ve lost a lot of things these past four years … beginning with a prisoner the state told me to guard.”). In one episode, when a woman witness remarks that Kimble killed his wife, Gerard simply replies, “The law says he did,” with a tone of doubt in his voice; in the episode “Nemesis,” the local sheriff (John Doucette) states, “You said he’s a killer,” to which Gerard sharply replies, “The jury said that!” Gerard’s doubts are augmented after Kimble rescues Gerard in episodes such as “Never Wave Goodbye,” “Corner of Hell”, “Ill Wind,” “The Evil Men Do,” and “Stroke of Genius.” “The Evil Men Do” in particular played on the respect that develops between the two men when Gerard is pursued by former Mob hitman Arthur Brame (James Daly), who is rescued from a runaway horse by Kimble; Kimble rescues Gerard from Brame. When Kimble escapes from Gerard, the lieutenant doesn’t pursue Kimble, but instead goes after and kills Brame. In the epilogue, Gerard explains to Brame’s wife Sharon (Elizabeth Allen) that he wanted both men, but Arthur was a career killer while “Kimble, he’s done the one murder he’ll probably ever do.” Gerard comes close to acknowledging Kimble’s innocence when he concludes, “Until I find him, and I will, he’s no menace to anyone but himself.”

the_fugitive_david_janssen_a_lIn the course of the series, Gerard’s family becomes entangled in Gerard’s obsession with finding Kimble. In “Nemesis,” Kimble unintentionally kidnaps Gerard’s young son Philip Junior (played by 12-year-old Kurt Russell). Though as concerned as any father should be, Gerard is confident that Kimble will not do his boy any real harm. After his experience with Kimble, Philip Junior questions whether he is guilty and his father openly admits that he could be wrong, though it does not change his duty. It is this almost inhuman dedication to his duty that strains his relationship with his wife Marie (Barbara Rush) almost to the breaking point and causes her to leave him in season three’s two-part episode “Landscape with Running Figures”; her actually coming into contact with Kimble (unknowingly at first) causes an emotional collapse when she realises who he is, with her screaming at Kimble, “It began with you … it’ll end with you!” It is clear that Gerard does indeed love his wife when he finally chooses to come find her over chasing Kimble (although he admits to her that he will go again when the next time comes: “He’s stuck in my throat and I can’t swallow him.”).

There are parallels to be seen between Gerard’s pursuit of Kimble and the pursuit of Jean Valjean by Inspector Javert in Les Misérables, though Javert never lets go of his obsession to follow the letter of the law and hunts down his fugitive, even killing himself when he could not reconcile his tenets with the mercy Valjean shows him. Gerard, on the other hand, was portrayed externally as a man like Javert, but internally as 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’. 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.” 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!”

The One-armed Man

640px-Bill_Raisch_one_armed_man_The_Fugitive_1965Bill Raisch as the one-armed man

The one-armed man (Bill Raisch) is a shadowy figure, seen fleeing Kimble’s house by Kimble after the murder of Helen. In the series, not much is revealed about the man’s personal life, and how or when he lost his right arm.

The one-armed man was rarely seen in the series, appearing in person in only ten episodes. (He also appears in the opening credits beginning with season two, and in a photograph in the episode “The Breaking of the Habit”.) He is seen extremely infrequently in the first three seasons, and has almost no actual dialogue until season four, when his character begins to take a more prominent part in the plotline.

The one-armed man is aware that Kimble is after him, and frequently tips off the police as to Kimble’s whereabouts, most notably in “Nobody Loses All The Time,” when he telephones his girlfriend (Barbara Baxley) at a hospital and orders her to call the police—even though Kimble risked arrest to save her life.

Like Kimble, he uses a variety of aliases and holds down various jobs while on the run. In the episode “A Clean And Quiet Town”, he is credited as “Steve Cramer” and works as a mob-employed numbers runner. In the episode “The Ivy Maze,” he poses as a college janitor and groundskeeper named “Carl Stoker.” He goes by the name “Fred Johnson” in several episodes; first in the season-two episode “Escape Into Black,” where he works as a dishwasher using this name. In the season-three episode “Wife Killer,” a reporter discovers that the one-armed man carries a wide range of identification using various names. As “Fred Johnson,” he has a membership in an athletic club, and a receipt for the sale of a pint of blood—this particular receipt shows that his blood type is B negative, and that he claims his age as 47. (Raisch himself was 60 when this episode was filmed.) The other identities used by the one-armed man are not revealed in the episode, although as the reporter flips through a wallet full of I.D., she notes that he is “a man of many identities, not one of them the same.”

The one-armed man is identified as Fred Johnson in the two-part series finale “The Judgement”. He is also referred to as Johnson in “The Ivy Maze” (where he is posing as “Carl Stoker”) and at one point Fritz Simpson (William Windom) addresses him as “Fred” (in that episode, Kimble, Gerard, and the one-armed man all appear in the same scene for the first time). This is the only consistent name that they have to go by, and both Gerard and Kimble refer to the one-armed man as “Fred Johnson” in a few later episodes. However, when interrogated by Lt. Gerard in “The Judgement,” the one-armed man denies that Fred Johnson is his real name.

The one-armed man’s real name is never definitely established, but a case could be made for his actual name being “Gus Evans,” as revealed in “The Judgement.” That was the name that the one-armed man used before he killed Helen Kimble, when he would presumably have had no need to adopt an alias.

Bill Raisch played a bitter war veteran who starts a bar fight with Kirk Douglas’ John W. Burns in the 1962 film Lonely are the Brave. The role was a natural lead-in to his part in The Fugitive.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fugitive_(TV_series)

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