The Story Of The Real Fugitive

If you are over the age of 60 and revel in old television you'll appreciate the difference between good TV and bad TV. Today we have bad TV. In the '60's we had infancy TV; very simple in nature. Most every drama had a happy ending and one didn't have to understand Hannibal Lecter to appreciate it's message.

Harken back to August 29, 1967. That night saw the climax of television's, The Fugitive, starring David Janssen. That show saw the highest rating for any presentation up to that time*. And why not? The people had been following Dr. Kimble for four years as he traversed the countryside to escape the clutches of the dogged Lt. Phillip Gerard. As you might recall from the movie and TV show Kimble had been found guilty of murdering his wife. That's about as close to each other as the story gets.

We have one of those old time channel networks called Decades TV. They've been showing The Fugitive reruns and I caught the last two shows in the series called The Judgement. Folks, I laughed my kiester watching this final presetation. If you think today's sitcom writing is horrendous try digesting what was on in the 60's.

The final show played out this way. Dr. Kimble and his wife, Helen, were dear friends of their next door neighbors. On that fateful night when Helen met her demise she had called the male neighbor, Lloyd Chandler, to come over to their house. She and her doctor husband had had a fight and Dr. Kimble left the house in a huff. Helen had been drinking and spilled her guts. The fight had been over whether or not they should adopt a child. In today's market she would have told Mr. Chandler she was in love with him and they should run off together. It's horrible to say but that's what my mindset was as I attempted to anticipate what was coming. I was wrong. In the Sixties there was no adultery.

As Helen was crying and whaling both the neighbor and she heard a noise downstairs. She ran down the stair case and saw Fred Johnson, aka, the one-armed man stealing from a wall safe. He picked a candle stick and whopped her on the head thus causing her to become what is called dead.

The neighbor was a great WWII war hero and a pillar of their community, Stafford, Indiana. And what did Chandler do about Fred Johnson? He froze. The great war hero sat on the stairs and let Johnson escape and told no one about it. Of course, he didn't come to the aid of Kimble at the trial because he didn't want his reputation ruined. This writing, in itself, is too difficult to comprehend but, as I said, it was the Sixties and a lot of people were smoking dope then.

In retrospect this faux pas on Chandler's part turned out to be good. If he had gone to the authorities then Kimbel wouldn't have been found guilty of the murder and the series would have ended after one show.

The best(and worst) part of the last show took place in the final four minutes. Lt. Gerard caught up with Kimble in Stafford but gave him 24 hours to find the one armed man. It seems Johnson wanted some cash from the neighbor, $50 thousand to be exact, or he would spill the beans about the war hero and he would be the laughing stock of the city.

Finally, the neighbor has had enough. He promised to meet Fred Johnson at an abandoned amusement park. Instead of bringing cash he decided to bring his rifle, shoot him and end his own mental misery.

Gerard and Kimbel find out the entire story from the neighbor's wife and went to the amusement park. Fred Johnson saw them both, fired his weapon and wounded Gerard in the leg. Here's another difference between the 60's and now. Back then when people were shot there was no blood. If a guy was hit by .44 magnum ten times in the head, neck and upper torso there was no blood. People had invisible blood. Anyway, after this Gerard gave Kimble his pistol and said, "Go get him" This is when I started laughing. Kimble had a face off with Johnson. Fred fired at Kimble but was out of bullets. So what did he do? He did what any normal person would try from thirty feet. He threw his gun at him. And missed! Then Johnson turned and ran.

Can you imagine a cop giving a condemned killer, even an innocent one, his gun? So, the big chase was on. And Fred took off for his getaway car---no he didn't. He tried to escape by climbing the highest point in the park; an empty ride. What did he expect, a space ship to come down from the sky and rescue him? "Beam me up, Scotty".

Now, if I was Kimble I would have set up a picnic table, ordered sandwiches and a beer and waited for Johnson to have to go to the bathroom, the big #2. Then he would have climbed down into the waiting arms of every police officer in the county.

But not Dr. Kimble. He went up after him. A fight ensued, Johnson got the drop on Kimble and grabbed his gun. He was ready to shoot him when Lt. Gerard, who was now walking with a bullet in his thigh(still no blood) shot Johnson with Lloyd Chandler's rifle. The one armed man went flying over the railing from the top of the ride. The nifty thing was I could tell it was a dummy hitting the ground. Nobody goes to their death with arms and legs straight out like they're skydiving.

 At the time I thought, why would Kimble climb to the top of that stupid ride? Even in 1967 I remember saying, "Who didn't see this coming"?

In conclusion, Dr. Kimble was released and as he was walking down a sidewalk outside the courthouse with his new flame(Diane Baker). A police car stopped in front of him. He paused out of fear until he realized he was finally a free man. Life is good for all good people. And they lived happily ever after. THE END.

Guess what? I have for you the final show. It's a doozy.
* 72% of the viewing audience

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