We watch The Fugitive most Sundays. It comes on at 11 p.m. It's reruns, of course, of a series that aired in the 1960s. I watched it then, too, and I remember how it comes out. Even people that have never seen it probably know how it comes out. That said, every episode is full of tension.
Frequently, but not always, Dr. Kimble is within a hair's breadth of being captured. The episode Sunday night "Wings of an Angel," actually took place within a prison, although the only people on the grounds who knew his real identity were a couple of convicts. Through a series of circumstances, Kimble ends up being taken to a prison hospital for treatment of a stab wound. He is only held for a few hours, but they're extremely busy hours. As this blogger notes, Kimble faces danger, avoids capture by seconds and does two good deeds. All in 51 minutes. (As of 2009, a prime-time, hour-long program is less than 39 minutes.)
Most episodes cover more than "a day in the life of a fugitive." Often Kimble has been working on a job for days or weeks, usually long enough to have established his employer's thorough trust. When I think about the unbearable tension fictionalized in 51 minutes one night a week, I wonder how someone could withstand such pressure in real life.
The narrator (William Conrad) said in "Wing's" epilogue that Kimble had been a fugitive for two years. He's not just avoiding capture and a date with the Electric Chair, he's trying to find the real killer. Most shows he even leaves his suitcase behind and he starts over again, possessing nothing but what he is wearing and pulling the lapels on his sport coat up to block the wind. All the while he keeps his humanity intact, doing "good deeds."
How long could a person really survive that way? And wasn't David Janssen lucky that producer-creator Quinn Martin had access to such terrific writers over the series' run. Truly some exceptional television that went on just long enough.
Frequently, but not always, Dr. Kimble is within a hair's breadth of being captured. The episode Sunday night "Wings of an Angel," actually took place within a prison, although the only people on the grounds who knew his real identity were a couple of convicts. Through a series of circumstances, Kimble ends up being taken to a prison hospital for treatment of a stab wound. He is only held for a few hours, but they're extremely busy hours. As this blogger notes, Kimble faces danger, avoids capture by seconds and does two good deeds. All in 51 minutes. (As of 2009, a prime-time, hour-long program is less than 39 minutes.)
Most episodes cover more than "a day in the life of a fugitive." Often Kimble has been working on a job for days or weeks, usually long enough to have established his employer's thorough trust. When I think about the unbearable tension fictionalized in 51 minutes one night a week, I wonder how someone could withstand such pressure in real life.
The narrator (William Conrad) said in "Wing's" epilogue that Kimble had been a fugitive for two years. He's not just avoiding capture and a date with the Electric Chair, he's trying to find the real killer. Most shows he even leaves his suitcase behind and he starts over again, possessing nothing but what he is wearing and pulling the lapels on his sport coat up to block the wind. All the while he keeps his humanity intact, doing "good deeds."
How long could a person really survive that way? And wasn't David Janssen lucky that producer-creator Quinn Martin had access to such terrific writers over the series' run. Truly some exceptional television that went on just long enough.