"The Fugitive" (1963): Season 1; Volume 1 Rumored To Be In The Works! (1 Viewer)

[Hank Dearborn]

I just watched Never Wave Goodbye tonight and it just confirms what I've always felt.

BEST........SERIES........EVER!!!!

 

[Craig Beam]

Finished disc 4. "The Girl From Little Egypt" is a GREAT episode.

Here's hoping the next set is released sooner rather than later....

 

[Gary OS]

Welcome to our club.

Gary "Never Wave Goodbye gets 'em every time" O.

 

[Jeff Willis]

Hank, that's the way to describe this one....

Next up for me this weekend is "Smoke Screen".

Vets, don't put too many "spoilers" in here since there's a (very) few on the planet that are viewing this one for the first time

- Jeff "I'd have to rank this one in my top 5 shows all-time" W. Ranking subject to change

 

[Bob Hug]

Jeff, I won't spoil your viewing enjoyment on this one other than to say that it guest stars a personal favorite, Beverly Garland.

 

[Jeff Willis]

Bob, cool! "Small World" Dept. I'll be at her Holiday Inn in Burbank in a few weeks. There's some great pictures of Bev at her hotel. I remember her from the "My Three Sons" role among others. I didn't see her last year when I was out there, but if she drops in at her hotel as she occasionally does, I'll let her know she's got fans out there

Vets, a question about one my all-time golden-era TV stars, Richard Anderson: ("Asked and answered" as Perry Mason would say at IMDB) He was in 6 Fugitive episodes! As "Leonard Taft". Now all I have to do is wait for Paramount to release more of this one.

Richard is receiving a long-overdue star in Palm Springs on their "Star Walk". I'll be at the ceremony along with Lindsay Wagner, and others. I can't wait to talk with Richard about some of his many roles, among them, "The Rifleman" and "Big Valley", 2 of my all-time shows.

Martin Brooks will be at the main weekend event prior to the Monday ceremony in Palm Springs. I'm looking forward to talking with him about his role in that Combat! episode from S4. I see he was in 1 episode of the Fugitive in the last season, as a "Lt Gould".

This show is a "Who's Who" of the golden-age actors!

 

[Bob Hug]

While Richard Anderson guested six times in "The Fugitive," he only played "Leonard Taft" in the series' two-part closing episode "The Judgement." Several other actors, including James B. Sikking, played "Leonard Taft," but at least "Donna Taft" was consistently played by Jacqueline Scott for all of her appearances.

 

[Jeff Willis]

Bob, thanks again for the "Decoy" tip. It's in the "cart" waiting for a couple of other sets.

Well, I just finished watching "Never Wave Goodbye" Pt 2 for the 2nd time with a first-time viewer (Mom). She was on the edge of the chair with this one. Now she knows why Dad never missed this show back in the 60's. Mom was asking me about the guest actors in this episode. I was able to give her the background on all of them except for Will Kuluva (Lars). I knew I'd seen that guy in other series but couldn't place him at first view in this series.

 

[Harry-N]

Anyway, I guess I hoped it would lead to her wanting more, but no such luck.

Harry

 

[Jeff Willis]

Harry,

Well, that's the way it goes I watched it with my Mom who had never seen this show but knew that Dad was a Fuge Fanatic in its original airings. She loved the 2-pt'er. I had to tell her a couple of times that "there's an even better format out there (HD) than these xfrs". She is awed by the xfr quality of some of these 40+ yr shows on std DVD.

(thanks for the "spoiler" even though I've seen that one).

BTW, I know that this is not the "Invaders" thread but that review up at the UK site for this UK release might be of interest to Fugitive fans. The reviewer draws a lot of parallels/analagies to the Fugitive series in his review of the Invaders. The link is posted on the Invaders thread but I'll include in in this one for convenience if anyone's interested on this thread.

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=65953

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Don't Fret Harrry don't think my Wife is too thrilled with the show Either, she'll sit there and watch it , if she's got nothing else happenning, but she won't make a point to watch it. She'll wastch older comedies, but it's tougher with Genre Shows, especially if their Noir or Cop Drama's Like Streets of San Fran, or Land of the Giants etc

 

[michael_ks]

I've only been able to get my wife to watch "Smoke Screen", "Nightmare at Northoak" and the latter third of "The Witch". I thought she be as impressed as I am with the series considering all the B&W shows I've introduced her to coupled with her being employed with the U.S. Dept of Justice, but it seems that she can take it or leave it. I wanted her to watch "Glass Tightrope" with me the other night and she suggests "Alias Smith and Jones" instead (which she's never seen). Didn't like it, reads a magazine after 15 minutes, and I'm like, "thanks, dear...coulda been watching 'The Fugitive' at this precious hour when the boy's finally asleep". Maybe it's all a guy thing.

 

[Jeff Willis]

Let's see....I think I'll watch a couple of the Fugitive eps this weekend....I need to check with the "boss".....wait! I'm not married

Sorry, Dave, Harry, Mike....I just couldn't pass that up

"Smoke Screen" is next in the set for me, probably on Sat.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

I never have to "clear" anything, thanks god ! I'm about 3/4 of the way thru the set, but I gotta rip the last disk to my Apple TV before I watch the rest.

 

[michael_ks]

Don't get me wrong...most of the vintage stuff I watch by myself anyway, unless it's "Gomer Pyle" with my son who absolutely adores this show. Typically I'll watch shows like "Naked City", "Untouchables", "Mission: Impossible", and lamentably, "The Fugitive" by myself while the wife watches a Spanish soap. The best meeting ground we have for viewing my library of classics is for 1/2 hour B&W westerns.

 

[michael_ks]

I had high expectations with "Glass Tightrope" when I saw it Monday night, after Ida Lupino's superb directing work with "Fatso". But for some reason, in spite of Ms. Lupino helming the episode with a story in the capable hands of Robert C. Dennis, it didn't grab me like "Nightmare at Northoak" and "Fatso" did before it. Everyone seemed a bit off including Leslie Nielson and even David Janssen. Incidentally I thought this might very well be the first episode to not feature any music from "The Twilight Zone" when I suddenly recognized a brief figure from a jazz theme composed for that series at about the mid-point of the episode. The rest of the music may have been Pete Rugulo scored cues but I'm not sure.

 

[Jeff Willis]

Dave, all, that post was meant as a joke in fun and I apologize for posting that in this forum. Some here know me and knew it was in fun but after thought, those who don't know me via PM, e-mail, phone, may have taken offense and for that I sincerely apologize. That won't occur here again from me.

Back to the purpose of the thread, I haven't viewed this one with any other family member or friends but I do know that there were a lot of parents of those that I know who watched the Fugitive every week back in the 60's. I mentioned to someone at work that this show had finally begun a DVD release and he was interested in more information. It's a small world for TV/DVD collectors but for a lot out there, the information isn't well known about DVD releases of the older series.

 

[Gary OS]

Michael, this is so weird. On almost every point we see the same thing. I too have found "Glass Tightrope" to be a little under par. In fact it's my least favorite episode in this first set. Just strange that we seem to have the same thoughts on most of these episodes again and again.

Gary "I'm anxious to see what you think of 'Terror at High Point' - I think it's a solid episode along the sames lines as 'Fatso'" O.

 

[Harry-N]

Jeff, no problem - I get the humor, and find it amusing.

Personally, I have plenty of quality time in front of the tube to watch anything I'd like as my wife and I are on somewhat different schedules. Typically, I'll allocate an hour or two in the morning after she's gone to her job, and she gets home way before me, so she has time to watch her stuff too, if she wants to.

Then there's the evening and weekend time that we share, and I'd genuinely like her to like some of the series and movies that push my buttons, so that we can enjoy them together. There are many things we agree on, and do enjoy together. But there are just as many that we don't. I was hoping, that with the virtually perfect prints and full episodes that she'd finally enjoy THE FUGITIVE as I do.

So far, that's still an uphill battle, but not insurmountable. I've shown her "The Girl From Little Egypt", "Nightmare At Northoak" and "Never Wave Goodbye 1 and 2". I'm guessing that if those didn't grab her, there's not a lot else to hope for, except maybe the pilot and "Home Is The Hunted".

I'm beginning to wonder if perhaps it's the tension that bothers her. She tends not to like things that are extremely intense - like this past season's show JERICHO. Though she appreciated how good the show was, it was a chore to get her to want to succomb to its intensity week after week.

And yet one of her comments about THE FUGITIVE was about how slow-moving it seemed compared to current television fare. It IS true that drama shows of the sixties had time to develop characterization a little more, could dwell on a visual scene for a few minutes. Today's programs are frenetically paced with lightning-fast dissolves, wipes, and shaky camera work.

Watching an episode of a CSI, one might not recognize a well-known guest star just because the camera is never allowed to rest on an image for more than a couple of seconds. While watching "Never Wave Goodbye", I could almost count the freckles on Ms. Oliver's face (which I'd never noticed before!).

So that's another challenge, the pacing of the old shows is way slower than what we've gotten used to with today's attention-deficit-disorder types running the show.

Harry

 

[Dave Scarpa]

I did'nt mean anything by my post, wife will pretty much will watch anythng I do, but given her choice she's be on HGTV, DIY or the Discovery or History Channel all night