The Fugitive - story lines - Page 2

I disagree, to some extent.  A bit more exposition perhaps, but that was not really the structure of this Quinn Martin production.  Recall that there were never any "live" courtroom scenes about Richard Kimble to start the series, so to bookend it properly, there shouldn't be any to conclude it.

The series wasn't a courtroom drama - it was essentially an anthology series with Kimble involving himself in the daily lives of the guest stars.  And the series concluded with at least one of the two episodes that fit that template.  In part one, he gets involved with Jean Carlisle (Diane Baker) who's helping him out of his currenr predicament.  Part two involves Kimble's attempts to convince Gerard to let him finish some business with the one-armed man that might vindicate him - it also involves how that story interweaves with the daily lives of Kimble's family and more importantly, the Chandlers.  

The fact that we'd never seen nor heard of the Chandler family before represents the "anthology" part of the episode that fit the Quinn Martin template.  That Kimble wasn't personally involved with that part of the story is what makes it a bit weak, I believe, to many who complain about the episode. 

As for Johnson's confession and death without Gerard's immediate presence, that just underscored the whole dramatic concept of the series. From day one, Kimble was unable to prove his claims of a one-armed man.  Now here he is, dead, confessed, and Kimble still only has his own word about it.

As for the concluding act, the Epilog, I found it perfect.  Since we weren't going to get a courtroom scene, just seeing Kimble walk down the street arm in arm with the lovely female guest star and not have to avoid the police for a change was a profound moment in the series that didn't need words.

Being the first series of its kind to have an ending like that, and with the fears of the show being devalued in syndication because of it, I can almost envision them discussing ways to have an alternate ending that would allow the series to continue.  Think of it - a couple of scenes of alternate action in the fourth act - Gerard WAS wounded, so Kimble manages to slip away again after the one-armed man falls from the tower - Chandler doesn't come clean, and Gerard continues his chase.  The changed Epilog could have been Kimble meeting Donna and Jean Carlisle in an undisclosed location to wrap things up for now with both of them.

Harry

I don't have any complaints with how the epilogue played out.    More exposition would have been I think impossible since to do it justice, you would have had to overload things with minutiae that in those days before VCRs when even diehard fans wouldn't have remembered all these details from past episodes, I think would have mostly gone over everyone's head.    Give them credit at least for doing some continuity in bringing back Diane Brewster as Helen Kimble for the flashback sequence, but I think that was necessitated mostly by the fact that since the image of her lying dead from "The Girl From Little Egypt" was part of the opening of every episode from S2 on, it would have been impossible to recast the part for that one scene (as opposed to how there was never consistency in casting for Len Taft; three appearances, three different actors).

And while I suppose William Conrad's final narration of a simple, "Tuesday, September 5th, the day the running stopped."  (My copy is the Canada broadcast version which is the September 5th date;  I understand the US audience would have heard August 29th) works artistically there is a part of me that would have liked to have heard a longer closing narration in the tradition of the longer closing narrations of many episodes.

The problem though is that you're describing a climax more suitable to a "Perry Mason" episode and I don't think that's the kind of ending that works for "The Fugitive".

I've always felt that it's the acting, especially by David Janssen, that makes The Fugitive. To me, the stories could have been better; often they are weak, contrived, implausible, and overly melodramatic. They're nothing really special; they're the type of stories you'd see on most of the anthology shows of the day, just reworked to include a fugitive angle. Janssen did an incredible job with the material though; no matter what he was given, he sold it with his restrained, humanistic style, and made the series great. 

Edited by jdee28 - 11/16/09 at 10:52pm