There is no way to begin a review of the newest revival of THE FUGITIVE without first mentioning the original which was, erroneously, believed to be based on the real life case of Dr. Sam Sheppard. Me, personally, I always thought that it was a modern day version/variation of Victor Hugo’s novel Les Miserables.

It wasn’t the greatest show ever, not by a long shot but, when I was a kid, I thought David Janssen was one of the coolest mofos who ever lived and never was he cooler than when he was on the run as Dr. Richard Kimble. But he wasn’t the only thing that made the show go, the Narrator (William Conrad), who opened each show with the following:

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 he had never seen before. 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.

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.

Deep, wasn’t it? The mood was set right from the start and it never wavered during its entire ABC network series run (1963-1967) as Kimble, keeping one step ahead of the relentless Det. Gerard (Barry Morse) while trying to find, that low down dirty dog Fred Johnson, The One-Armed Man (Bill Raisch). In the final episode, on August 29, 1967, which was seen by more people than any single episode of a regular series in the history of television until that time, Kimble finally found The One Armed Man. In the climax scene, atop a tower, the One Armed Man plunged to his death before he could be captured, after being shot by Gerard, who realized that he had been wrong about Kimble (duh!)

33 years, numerous takes on the show (from Bill Bixby’s INCREDIBLE HULK to, my favorite, THE FUGITIVE GUY; Chris Elliot’s running spoof on THE LATE NIGHT WITH DAVID LETTERMAN SHOW back in 1985). A successful big screen movie with Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones as the leads (and a kind of successful sequel, U.S. MARSHALLS featuring the Det. Gerard character, for which Jones received an supporting actor Academy Award for his portrayal in the first film), THE FUGITIVE returns to network television, this time on CBS. WINGS Tim Daly (brother of JUDGING AMY and CAGNEY & Lacey’s Tyne and son of veteran actor James Daly, who appeared in two episodes of the original FUGITIVE series) reprises Dr. Kimble’s role, FORREST GUMP's Mykelti Williamson takes over as Det. Gerard and CRIME Story’s Stephen Lang is the latest One Armed Man.

Long time fans of the original series will notice that, besides the obvious changes, Gerard being a black man now, other changes abound. The Narrator has been silenced (boo!); Kimble’s home base has been changed from small Stafford, Indiana to big time Chicago (same as in the movie). Gone also is the train wreck that leads to Kimble’s escape. Now, a multi-car, expressway pileup sends a van transporting Kimble (and Gerard) to the State Prison careening off the road, setting Kimble free. However, other staples of the old show remain; the different locations across the country and the good old bus lines (a prominent figure in the original series) factor in the new show.

This version of THE FUGITIVE is an effective merging of both the series and the movie, a transition made easier by having the series creator (Roy Huggins), and the big screen movies producers (Arnold & Anne Kopelson) on board as executive producers. Daly is great as Kimble, while not as cool as Janssen; he’s not nearly as wooden as Harrison Ford was. The selection of Williamson adds a whole different, racial element and possible different angles to the show. He is also just as effective in the more difficult role of Gerard, a lawman, usually the hero element in most crime dramas, who is just doing his job; his concern is not guilt or innocence, in his mind, that’s for the courts to decide. As he says, in the early part of the episode, “I stay with a job until it’s finished”. Over the course of the original series, we saw Barry Morse’s Gerard became more and more obsessed with each nearly missed capture, it will be interesting to see how the new Gerard deals with the chase.

It also will be interesting to see how the writers (led by veteran scribe John McNamara) keep Kimble on the run in this age of the Internet, instant communication, cameras seemingly everywhere and John Walsh on television every Saturday night hunting down criminals (He even makes a cameo appearance in the first episode). It is highly unlikely that someone who refused to keep a low profile and one whose generous nature doubled with his own obsessive pursuit of the killer of his beloved wife as Kimble was would, nowadays, elude capture for four weeks, never mind the four years of the initial series. I plan to see how they make an almost 40-year-old show work today.












Recommended: Yes