The Fugitive: Season 3 Vol.2

This is somewhat of a surprise, being so close to S3V1, which comes out in late October.  That's only about a six or seven week spread between half-seasons!

Harry

Well, the economy is not getting any stronger and smart money has the $dollar$ hitting new lows before the end of the year.

This theory will only hold water if CBS/P narrows the gap between other new split-season releases.

Then again, it could be as simple as their desire to catch as many holiday shoppers as possible.

Perhaps it was actually the first volume of Season 3 that is the cause of this strangely short release time between V.1 and V.2.  That's where my money is at.  I'm betting Season 3, Volume 1 was originally going to be released in either July or August but got pushed back for some reason.  But whatever the reason was, it didn't affect the release date for V. 2 being in December.  And all I will say is that I'm quite confident I have the right angle on this one.

The only mystery is why the first volume was pushed back.  One can only hope it has something to do with CBS/P fixing the backscore issues and returning us to a Season 1 template in that area.  If that wasn't the reason for the delay, then I have no idea what it would be. 

Gary "probably just hoping beyond hope we get a nice Season 3 release for this great show - i.e., all the music restored that can be legally restored based on CBS's ownership of their own music library" O.

Edited by Gary OS - 9/9/09 at 5:50am

Season 1...August '07 & February '08

Season 2...June '08 & March '09

Season 3...October '09 & December '09

...still odd to have three volumes in the same calendar year...but no complaints here. 

 this is the same release pattern as the two volumes of The Untouchables Season 3. Does seem like summer is a dry time for DVD shopping. So focus them to the Fall and pre-Christmas season so folks will be in a shopping mood - especially when looking for a present for grandpa or someone who complained when RTN no longer ran Paramount shows like The Untouchables and The Fugitive. You put them out in May and there's a chance to stores will ship them back to the warehouse before October.

Although it would be nice to have both series wrapped up without waiting till the end of 2010.

The entire problem with the release pattern started with Season 2, V. 1 back in June of last year.  Had there not been an eruption of mammoth proportions over the music track with that one, we would have seen Season 2, V. 2 by December of last year.  But the furor over the backscore caused them to halt their release schedule for that second volume until they could figure out how to proceed.  If nothing had gone wrong the pattern would have been something close to this:

Season 1 - August '07 & February '08
Season 2 - June '08 & December '08
Season 3 - June '09 & December '09

And I'm sure that would hold for the final season as well, and if they get things ironed out with Season 3 we'll surely see Season 4 completed by the end of next year.  But that's a big "IF".

Gary "I'll personally be waiting on some reviews of S3, V1 before I make any purchasing decisions" O.

Amen to that, Gary.  If vol. 1 is greenlighted by the fans, there'll be some nice viewing this fall and Christmas season.




Admittedly, I'm a bit too critical.  But what the heck is that structure, anyway? An overpass I suppose. Kimble meandering along a highway?   Never!

Call me gun shy, but I have a bad feeling about Season Three. Something is telling me both volumes will be similar to S2V2, i.e., loaded with Mark Heyes. I have a feeling many of us fans will be disappointed.

I can't wait to see some reviews on S3V1. Hopefully, I'm wrong, but after everything that has happened, I simply don't trust CBS. If I am right, I'll be finished with "The Fugitive," unfortunately.

I can't handle Mark Heyes. There are some episodes on S2V1, such as the "The Iron Maiden," that I will never, ever watch again because of too much Heyes music. Luckily I never bought S2V2 because, after watching my brother's copy, the amount of distracting Mark Heyes music was so much that I could barely get through most episodes. The Heyes stuff totally ruined my enjoyment.

I share your pessimism because I have the sinking feeling that the contract with Heyes called for his drivel that passes for music to be represented on the remaining volumes.  I hope I am wrong.

I doubt that I'll ever purchase S2V2 and will probably just Netflix it when I feel I can stomach sloppily composed/recorded/inserted synth chords.

I am doubtful that Mark Heyes has that kind of control over all future Fugitive releases...

Exactly. There's no way that Paramount would sign a contract where they HAD to use Heyes music even if they can clear the original music. Maybe if they had John Williams or James Horner doing it, they would have that kind of clout but the composer of already forgotten shows like Grace Under Fire and The Brian Benben Show absolutely does not have the clout to have his music contractually obligated to be used.

OK, Now that S3V1 has come out and is overall done very well, we can now turn our attention toward S3V2 and pray it is done just as well if not better !!

Yes, here's hoping S3v2 turns out as well as S3v1. Same goes for season 4, BTW. If this release schedule holds, we might see the show completed by mid-year 2010.

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Or even better! 

In all seriousness, I'm looking more forward to this upcoming second volume than the first one for S3 because there are more top notch episodes in this second half of this season, IMHO.  For starters the best episode of Season 3 will be included, namely "Wife Killer".  It's the premiere episode of this season as far as I'm concerned.  And there are many more that I absolutely love.  So here's to hoping that at a minimum I'm fortunate enough to see the episodes I really enjoy untouched music-wise. 

Gary "keeping my fingers crossed that 'Wife Killer' is Heyes-free" O.

You really got me going Gary :)  As much as I have liked the S1V1 shows, can't wait.

Having never previously seen this show, I've read the posts about the S1V1 episodes and for me, I haven't seen a dropoff with them.  I only remember a couple of minor "duds" so far in the series up to this point.  I'm early into S3 viewing so far.

According to the Ed Robertson book, THE FUGITIVE RECAPTURED, the show's episode quality fell off after the two-parter, "Landscape With Running Figures".  I've never fully agreed with that assessment, but by the same token, I've not before heard that the quality got *better* in the second half of Season Three, though there are some superlative episodes to come in next week's release.

A lot of critical types will also mention the first part of Season Four as having a lesser quality than the great bulk of the series, and again, I'm not sold on that idea either.  There are certainly some differences to Season Four, with the switch to color.  It's almost distracting eye-candy for a couple of the episodes, but I've always found most episodes of the series to be rather consistent in terms of quality.  Quinn Martin's productions generally told their stories pretty well and we could usually count on superior acting talent available from both the leads and the guest stars.

Harry

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I'm more than willing to admit my assessment that the second half of Season 3 is better than the first half is certainly a minority view amongst Fugitive fans, but I think a lot of that has to do with my less than stellar opinion of "Landscape."  Since most Fugitive fans think of that two-parter as one of the Top 5 episodes of the entire series it's understandable that most would rate the first half of the season higher than the second.  Since I'm one of those weird guys that doesn't rate those 2 episodes nearly that high I have always enjoyed the second half of the season better.  But I know it's a minority view.


Gary "hope you are completely over your cold, Harry" O.

All I can say is, as a 1st-time viewer, I haven't seen any dropoff of this show and I'm into the early part of S3 right now.  "Landscape" Pt 1 is the next one that I'll watch soon.

"All the Scared Rabbits" was great.  Seeing Suzanne Pleshette again in the show was cool.  It seemed to me that those 2 (Janssen/Suzanne) had some kind of a screen rapport.  I remember seeing that in the earlier episode "World's End".

"An Apple A Day": Another jem.  Mom will like that one in a few weeks.

Jeff, I don't think you'll notice any drop off at all until you get to Season 4, and even then I don't think it's as huge a drop off as some people make it out to be.  And my comments about thinking the second half of Season 3 is a bit better than the first half should not be construed to mean I believe the first half wasn't great.  It was!  I just think that pound for pound (or episode for episode) there are a couple more I really, really like in the second half of the season.  The entirety of S3 is fantastic as far as I'm concerned.


Gary "keeping my fingers crossed that most of S3, V2 come unscathed" O.

There are six or seven very good episodes in the last half of season 3.  The problem is there are seven or eight mediocre ones.  Cora Lee, Not With A Whimper, Shadow Of The Swan, White Knight, With Strings Attached, and several others leave the impression you've seen it before and it was better before.

For the record, I love Ill Wind, Wife Killer, The 2130, Echo of a Nightmare, Running Scared, and for its light comedic touch, The Chinese Sunset.

I'm one of those who thinks Season 4 drops off a lot in quality.  We'll debate that one when Season 4 is released.

Thanks....

Steve L.

Paul Mavis's review is now up at DVDTalk for anyone interested.  As always, he does a great job!

Gary "busy day for me so I doubt I'll be posting much until late tonight" O.

I've always enjoyed The Fugitive, but I do feel that the S4 episodes don't have the same quality of the first three years. Maybe it's the jarring switch to colour--I feel much atmosphere is lost when Kimble runs in colour--but there are many episodes in S4 that just don't hold up for me. Of course the QM repertory of actors continue to do great work, as does Janssen (except for that episode where he's temporarily blind--ugh) and the final two-part episode is fantastic (I love the final scene). Regardless of the quality drop, there are still many good episodes and I look forward to their eventual release on DVD. 

Funny, one of the season 4 episodes I do like is the blind episode.  I know Ed Robertson didn't like it, but it seems more like a Fugitive episode than many of the others.

For now, I'm looking forward to S3V2 and hope the music's no worse than V1.  It will be interesting to see how they handle Ill Wind.

Steve L.

Other S4 highlights for me are "The Ivy Maze" (I love William Windom) and "Dossier on a Diplomat"--diplomatic bureaucracy prevents Gerard from arresting Kimble! I look forward to the S3 V2 release this Tuesday and have no doubt we'll see S4 released next year on DVD!

 I always enjoy getting these releases a bit early - I've had S3 Vol.2 since Friday but was finishing Vol.1 before going into it. Since I obviously cannot readily differentiate  between what is original vs non original regarding the music best not to try! Hopefully I will start watching it by Monday.

Looking forward to hearing how S3v2 fares in the music department. My copy isn't likely to arrive for a week or so, which is fine as I am backed up and making my way through the previous volumes.

Music info from a poster (Robert Dahl) on Amazon: (not mentioned below since he hadn't watched Ill Wind yet, but a couple of people have reported that the song in Ill Wind is intact):