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

[Harry-N]

I guess they saved a lot of the tension for some second-half episodes, my favorite of which is "The Ivy Maze". That one had me on the edge of my seat back in 1967, and it still packs a punch today.


Harry

 

[disctrip]

I have just started watching season 4 and I am having a hard time with the color episodes. Something is missing compared with the black & white episodes of the first 3 seasons. I'm not quite sure what it is. It's kinda like a mood is gone. A quality that is lost now that the series switched to color. I can't really describe the feeling, but something good is gone. I know that most people in their 20's & 30's will not understand. Alot of the "Generation Y" crowd won't watch anything that is not in color. I've tried to get some of my nephews to watch "Psycho"(original)and they won't because it is in black & white. It's sad, really sad. They are missing so much, so many great films. Anyway, I will go on watching the 4th season but it won't be the same. Sure the color is great and all that. Shows HAD to go to color at that time because "color TV" was the most important thing in most households at the time, so The Fugitive had to switch to color. Too bad, because I would be enjoying the 4th season more if it was in black & white...Something is lost..I can't say it any other way.

 

[Sam Favate]

Originally Posted by disctrip

Too bad, because I would be enjoying the 4th season more if it was in black & white...Something is lost..I can't say it any other way.

It's a mood. Black and white presents a more grim mood, and it is Kimble's dire circumstances that keep us interested. The fourth season episodes look fantastic, but they lack the feeling of the earlier seasons that comes from the starkness of black and white photography.

 

[Ockeghem]

^^^


Well said. I think it was Ebert(?) who said that b&w films have a 'timeless quality' about them. I wish a couple of my favorite television series had never gone to color as well (e.g., Dark Shadows).

 

[HenryDuBrow]

I agree the b&w film makes it timeless and maybe it's a minority feeling about the unsuitable color here but I don't think it looks very good to be honest, if anything it's now become a bit ugly looking because of it. I'm tempted as I know some people are, to switch to 'b&w' just like most folks probably would've been seeing it at the time anyway...tempted, anyway.

 

[Sam Favate]

I don't think just switching the monitor to black and white will do the trick. Color shows are filmed differently - lit differently, framed, etc. It's not a matter of just bleeding out the color.

 

[HenryDuBrow]

I know, today it makes no sense that way but most people at the time would have had b&w sets to view it on surely.

 

[smithb]

I seem to recall hearing that season 3 and on of Superman was broadcast in b/w even thought it was shot in color. So either it isn't a bit deal dialing the color out or they made provisions for the fact it would be viewed in b/w.

 

[HenryDuBrow]

I was just thinking, Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea's first season is in b&w and looks kinda dull in comparison to The Fugitive's monochrome anyway, I heard it was actually shot in color is that true or was that only the pilot?

 

[smithb]

Originally Posted by HenryDuBrow

I was just thinking, Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea's first season is in b&w and looks kinda dull in comparison to The Fugitive's monochrome anyway, I heard it was actually shot in color is that true or was that only the pilot?

I believe I heard that was only true of the pilot.

 

[Corey3rd]

You do make provisions when it comes to the colors used on sets and wardrobes to make sure the gray scales work right. The difference if you're shooting in color for a black and white transfer, you can't completely cheat on the colors like using red to register black

Originally Posted by smithb

I seem to recall hearing that season 3 and on of Superman was broadcast in b/w even thought it was shot in color. So either it isn't a bit deal dialing the color out or they made provisions for the fact it would be viewed in b/w.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

Why is the music on this show so revered? I'm not being cynical, I'm just asking from a layman's point of view. And I'm not talking about Frontiere; I love his cues being used for this season, but I far preferred them in the context of their original use on The Outer Limits.


But I've also been screening the Thriller set over the past few weeks and the music on that jumps out at me so much more and strikes me as so much more interesting and alive. I love the latin flourishes used on "The Bride Who Died Twice." And the stings are always so vibrant they jump out at you. The music is really the best part of the show. The scripts are pedestrian, the actors second-tier at best. But the music is great (and sounds great on the DVD). I am NOT a musician and am just reacting as a listener, but I just think the music on Thriller blows The Fugitive away. I just wondered why The Fugitive gets so much fanfare for Rugulo's work.


And on a true cynical note, the episode "Approach with Care," was goddawful; hinging on a truly cringeworthy performance by the actor (I don't even want to know his name, but I've seen him bad in just normal roles) playing the mentally-handicapped featured character.



And then he dies with a shot to his right shoulder. I'm watching this is asking myself, "Really? You're actually going there?" And you don't feel anything because his performance all along was just unbelievable in every way. Where is Robert Walker Jr. when you need him?

 

[Walsh61]

Originally Posted by Hollywoodaholic

Why is the music on this show so revered? I'm not being cynical, I'm just asking from a layman's point of view.

I am NOT a musician and am just reacting as a listener, but I just think the music on Thriller blows The Fugitive away. I just wondered why The Fugitive gets so much fanfare for Rugulo's work.

Well if you go back and look at the reviews for "The Fugitive" the music really didn't become an issue until it was massacred by CBS with the release of Season Two. The fans reacted with outrage that a show of this caliber would be handled so badly by a major studio whose motto boasted about "putting classic television on a pedestal".


So it's not so much a contest about Rugolo's work on this particular series being better than every other show he worked on, but rather about how his work on "The Fugitive" was needlessly hacked up with goddawful synthesizer "music" that completely ruined the feel of this beloved series for many of it's devoted fans - myself included.

 

[Jack P]

Exactly, this was a question of altering the original content of the program. Personally, I think Quinn Martin should have spared the expense decades ago to commission some fresh original scores over the course of the run from the likes of Goldsmith, Steiner etc. instead of taking the cheap way out by using library music the whole run of the show. That said, what they used became in time the sound of the show and that's what we'd like to hear.


Even though I'm not an expert who automatically knows what an episode is supposed to specifically sound like even I could spot a music replacement cue and its effect could be just as bad on my ear (though in the end, I was one of those who took more of a glass half full approach when I took the long view of things).

 

[John DeAngelis]

Wayne's comments are specifically about Season 4--isn't that when the music changed a great deal? If so, it's not fair to judge the music of The Fugitive from just that season.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

I was talking about the music throughout the series from the start, but as it's been pointed out, the focus shifted from the merits of the score itself to the fact that the original cues had been replaced by synthesizer music and essentially changed the experience of watching the show to those who remembered it. So maybe my question about revering the music was beside the point. I assumed it was the Rugulo music that was so revered, and it was more just the 'original' music tied to the scene that was the issue.

 

[Gary OS]

I basically agree with Jack that the Rugulo score plus the library cues that were used became the music of the show, even if those library cues were not created for The Fugitive. So yes, the point you raised was somewhat moot. Having said that, I'd also argue that the CBS Library cues, along with the few Capitol Music Library cues used, were perfect for the show. Somehow they always seemed to fit just right in each and every scene they were inserted into. And that's why many of us hated the substitutions. It wasn't just a matter of principle. It was because the show really did lose something when those Library cues were taken out. At least that's how I view the situation. And that's why I balked at the notion that it was only the Rugulo score that really mattered. I'll never accept that. The library cues were just as important.


Gary "it's a testament to the composers that their backscores and cues fit in so well with many of the CBS shows at the time" O.

 

[Sam Favate]

I don't claim to know every piece of music that belongs in each of these episodes as originally broadcast. But I do know that the Heyes music in so many of them was so out-of-place that as I was watching, the episode(s) just felt wrong. Perhaps the worst example is season 2's Brass Ring. You don't have to know the original music selections when watching it to know that the episode seems very off.

 

[Ockeghem]

"Why is the music on this show so revered? I'm not being cynical, I'm just asking from a layman's point of view. And I'm not talking about Frontiere; I love his cues being used for this season, but I far preferred them in the context of their original use on The Outer Limits."


Hollywood,


For my own part, I don't think it's a question of the quality of the music, as some have written above. But if TOS had been butchered the same way that this series had, I would not take kindly to it regardless of the quality of the work itself. For me it's just something about the original music that gives some shows an excellence and an overall 'feel' that is a bit difficult to describe adequately. I think it's tied up in part to the period piece (both visually and aurally) in general, although I'm just speculating.


BTW, I agree with you regarding Frontiere and The Outer Limits, and I would also include that I like his work on The Outer Limits far more than I do his work on The Invaders.

 

[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