The Fugitive: Season Four, Volume 1 (1 Viewer)

[stevelecher]

Just watched some Season one episodes after viewing S4,V1. The music is excellent and Janssen is much more intense. You can just sense everyone was tired in Season 4.


Like many here, I never thought about how much the music matters until it was changed. That is when it became apparent how wonderfully the original score suited and augmented the tension and mood of the series. It's all so well done: ironic moments, sentimental moments, running scenes, tension... it's all so seamless and effective. Rugolo's library is nothing short of amazing and the other non Rugolo cues really worked well alongside Rugolo's.


Besides the switch to color and the poorer scripts, the huge change in the music is a factor in the different and less effective feel the series has in Season 4. The music is still good but, to me, it works less well than the classic earlier Fugitive score.


"Approach With Care" is rather poor.

Again, a major interstate fugitive is cornered and all he has to do is go out the rear window after the cops shoot the mentally challenged oaf he's befriended this week. Oh well, it is a season 4 episode.

The Ivy Maze is a better S4 episode


but I find it infuriating when Kimble shoves Johnson at Gerard and runs. This is when he would have surrendered himself and Johnson to Gerard, holding on to him for Gerard with all his might. He, at that moment, accomplished what he had been trying to do for all his time on the run, to hand over the real killer to Gerard. It makes no sense.

Thanks to all for great Fugitive discussion.


Steve Lecher

 

[shadyguy]

The Fugitive - Tuesday, February 15th: The Day The Running Stopped!
The final episodes come home on DVD with 'Season 4, Volume 2'! Posted by David Lambert

12/06/2010

• The critically acclaimed, riveting crime drama series The Fugitive: The Fourth and Final Season Volume Two arrives on DVD February 15th, featuring one of the most watched television finales of all time! New to DVD, this 4-disc set features the most dramatic 15 episodes of this incredible series, and also includes a featurette focusing on composer Dominic Frontier.
  
  In a 1993 ranking, TV Guide named The Fugitive the best dramatic series of the 1960s. Nominated for 5 Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actor in a Series (Lead) David Janssen (1964, 1967). The Fugitive lasted for four seasons (1963-1967), with a total of 120 episodes aired. Narrated by acclaimed actor William Conrad , Executive Produced by Quinn Martin (Streets of San Francisco, The Untouchables). Inspired the Blockbuster 1993 movie The Fugitive starring Harrison Ford as Kimble and Tommy Lee Jones as Gerard in a role that catapulted Jones' career and earned him an Oscar.

The running comes to an end on Tuesday, February 15th when CBS DVD and Paramount Home Entertainment releases The Fugitive - Season 4, Volume 2! This 4-DVD set brings home the final episodes of the classic series, with a - ahem! - RUNNING time of 772 minutes. Video is full frame, audio is English mono, and - as mentioned in the studio description above - the bonus material consists of a Featurette about Dominic Frontier (composer). Here's the packaging for this long-awaited conclusion to the series:

Taken from: http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Fugitive-Season-4-Volume-2/14774#ixzz17OHcCrHt

 

[Rick Thompson]

ANOTHER featurette on Frontiere? And nothing on Rugolo or Wilhoit, either of whom had much greater impact on the series music than Frontiere?


Really now! Enough on a guy whose music was tracked in from somewhere else!

 

[Tina_H_V]

I shall not wait for my birthday nor XMAS 2011 for this one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I shall make this a post Valentine's Day purchase!!!!!! If February 15, 2011 is, indeed the day the running stops on DVD...then that shall be the day I bring The Fugitive on home to captured completion as well!!!!!

 

[younger1968]

It is good to see another classic series will be complete in February 2011. I may look at purchasing this set, but, i am not big on volumes. I may wait to see if they package the set as complete package down the road. There are a couple of 1960s shows i like to get including Man from UNCLE and Mission Impossible.

 

[smithb]

Originally Posted by younger1968

It is good to see another classic series will be complete in February 2011. I may look at purchasing this set, but, i am not big on volumes. I may wait to see if they package the set as complete package down the road. There are a couple of 1960s shows i like to get including Man from UNCLE and Mission Impossible.

I just received my set of "Man from UNCLE" from BN last week. It is a nice set and has been on my wanted list for a while so I finally broke down and got it for $89 shipped.

 

[Jack P]

Well it's great to have a finish date locked in. I suppose the redundancy of another Frontiere feature is another way of offering us reassurance there's no music replacement in these episodes either!


So knowing "The Judgment" will be intact makes me feel more good about the series as a whole on DVD even warts and all. Naturally, I'd upgrade to a reissue of S2 and S3 that was totally unmolested but knowing the last episode is okay gives me more of a "glass half full" sense.

 

[Sam Favate]

Glad to see a date scheduled for the final volume of the show. It's been a long haul, and I wasn't always sure we'd get there, but the end is in sight.

 

[Harry-N]

It'll be good to have both VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA and THE FUGITIVE completed within 5 and 10 weeks, respectively.


I too am have a head-scratching moment about another Dominic Frontiere featurette. OK, the guy's good, and his music fit well in the fourth season, but in reality, none of his work was actually done *for* THE FUGITIVE. It was just stuff that was tracked from his work on OUTER LIMITS, so one would have expected to find such featurettes on those sets.


But, hey - I'm all about the actual episodes. Extras are just that - extras - and I can take or leave them. The only DVD I ever bought for extras was the "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen" episode of M*A*S*H, since it was the only way for people who'd faithfully bought all eleven season sets to get the extras made for the full-series set.


Anyway, it's great that THE FUGITIVE is finishing up its run on a high note, rather than the quagmire that developed in seasons two and three.


Harry

 

[Gary OS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jack P

Naturally, I'd upgrade to a reissue of S2 and S3 that was totally unmolested but knowing the last episode is okay gives me more of a "glass half full" sense.

That's undoubtedly the best way to look at it, Jack. I'm trying my best to embrace that attitude, but it's not at all easy. For me Seasons 2 & 3 don't just have warts, they have cancers. But I get your point nonetheless.

Originally Posted by Harry-N

It'll be good to have both VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA and THE FUGITIVE completed within 5 and 10 weeks, respectively.

As I mentioned to Jack above, I agree with what your saying Harry but in my heart of hearts I'll only be able to say 10 weeks from now that one of those two shows has been completed. Obviously you know which one I'm referring to and why. I honestly don't believe I'll ever get over what CBS did to those magnificent middle seasons of my favorite series of all time. I'll N-E-V-E-R get over it.


Gary "thank the good Lord for alt sets though" O.

 

[Jack P]

Well Gary, I do know how this applies for those who are real experts on the show. For me though, my counterpart to you with "Fugitive" remains "The Odd Couple" which was grievously ruined beyond belief its last three seasons on DVD and sadly that never seemed to provoke any kind of broader outrage at all. There are about 12 episodes at least I can never watch the "official" version of thanks to so many great moments of actual program *content* being lost.

 

[jdee28]

I hope the next step is that CBS/Paramount announces plans to redo the audio for Seasons 2 and 3. They really need to go back and do this series right. An unmolested Season 4 does not make up for the travesty of Seasons 2 and 3.

 

[Jack P]

I also have to say this regarding my "glass half full" mentality. It's also easier for me to do this in the context of S1 and S4 being the two that are okay because to me there's something a lot easier to take when the "bookends" of the series that include the first episode, and key early episodes like "Girl From Little Egypt" are among those that are intact whereas I think I'd be a lot more annoyed if say, S1 had the changes but S3 and S4 were the two intact ones. It's the same reason why I find myself not buying a title at all if S1 is mucked up with syndicated prints (I have never bought "Rhoda" for instance) because I feel more self-conscious about it if the beginning of the run is fouled up. OTOH, you had "Happy Days" which was an intact first season, a screwed up second season and then an intact third season and I was more charitable.


It also I have to admit helped that a lot of what I call the "key" episodes of S2 and S3 either had little to no changes such as the two-part "Landscape" episode.

 

[stevelecher]

I can't abide the glass half full stuff. They completely screwed up two seasons of the four. Yes, some episodes like "Landscapes" are watchable but many are unbearable, "Wings Of An Angel," "Nicest Fella You'ld Ever Want To Meet," and "Escape Into Black," for three classics. Don't forget "Brass Ring."


I'm glad they treated the least exciting season better but for me, the glass is way less than half full. I can't let them off the hook that kindly for what they did to this series.


Steve Lecher

 

[Harry-N]

I find life is a lot happier if I just look on the bright side. If 50% of episodes in Seasons 2 and 3 are screwed up (and I think the actual figure is lower), that means that 50% of those two seasons are OK. Given a 100% OK for seasons 1 and 4, that works out to 75% to the good for the series as a whole. Do I wish it were 100%? Sure, but at this stage of the game, I'll take what I can get and overlook the faults. I'm not getting any younger, and I'm happy to be able to revisit this great series from my youth, even in a less-than-perfect form.


I was plenty upset at Season 2 Volume 1, that's for sure, and I was angry enough to join the angry chorus here and elsewhere. But I feel that CBS/P made good with their re-do. It wasn't perfect, but it was miles better - enough to put it into the acceptable category at that point. It remained at that acceptable level to me throughout Seasons 2 and 3, and I've been loving the nearly-untouched nature of Season 4 so far.


Getting back the Rugulo cues was like getting back the soul of the series. The cues that were tracked from other libraries were just that - cues from other libraries, not specifically designed for THE FUGITIVE in the first place. I enjoyed hearing TWILIGHT ZONE cues in the episodes, but to me, they are not as essential as the Rugulo cues. And I'm enjoying the OUTER LIMITS cues usage in S4. The last time I watched THE FUGITIVE, I probably wasn't even aware of which OUTER LIMITS cue came from where. Now with CDs and the Internet, I've learned a great deal about these cues.


But I also respect the feelings of those of you (like Gary OS) who can't look past the replacements. I fully understand what you go through and count my blessings that I AM able to look past some of this stuff. I have my own quirks - like not being able to tolerate PAL speed-up. And that's part of the beauty of places like this, where folks can express their likes and dislikes in a civililzed manner, and exchange some great information in the process.


Harry

 

[stevelecher]

Harry N.


If only S2,V2 and S3,V2 were as good as the re-done S2,V1, I'ld perhaps be a little more in your camp. They were hack jobs and they wrecked my favorite series of all time. Glad you're happy with it, though.


Steve L.

 

[Harry-N]

Originally Posted by stevelecher

Harry N.


If only S2,V2 and S3,V2 were as good as the re-done S2,V1, I'ld perhaps be a little more in your camp. They were hack jobs and they wrecked my favorite series of all time. Glad you're happy with it, though.


Steve L.

Steve, I didn't say I was "happy." I said I found them acceptable - and perhaps a better term would be "reluctantly acceptable". My philosophy is to not let this kind of crap get me down. What they did is done. We already whined and the powers that be did *something* to alleviate our misery. I said above, it's not perfect - and it's not, but I can (and have) learned to live with it - to look on the bright side. The picture's all cleaned up and looking better than ever. The Rugolo cues are there for the most part, and those are the heart and soul the episodes to me.


Harry

 

[LeoA]

I tend to prefer the middle seasons to most programs. Sometimes shows start out pretty slow and it takes sometime to become an excellent show, and many slowly sputter out with the late seasons being the weakest of the run (Such as is the case with the final season of this program).


Can't say that I find it more acceptable if the middle seasons of a program are the ones butchered. Often, those are the best episodes of a program once the actors and writers hit their stride and before they start to run out of ideas.

 

[Sam Favate]

Originally Posted by LeoAmes

I tend to prefer the middle seasons to most programs. Sometimes shows start out pretty slow and it takes sometime to become an excellent show, and many slowly sputter out with the late seasons being the weakest of the run (Such as is the case with the final season of this program).


Can't say that I find it more acceptable if the middle seasons of a program are the ones butchered. Often, those are the best episodes of a program once the actors and writers hit their stride and before they start to run out of ideas.

That's a theory I've heard a lot about TV shows, and in many cases it is true. Not always.


The Fugitive on DVD is a hard case. On the one hand, I hate to see a show butchered (and needlessly, as it turns out), and it's really inexcusable. On the other hand, if the choice was what we got or nothing (and for plenty of other unreleased or stalled shows, it is nothing), I'll take what we got.

 

[shadyguy]

I just got my S4V1 in this week and watched only the first two episodes, but really noticed that David Janssen looks really really tired and can barely make it thru the first episode.