We all know the story and how it goes… but we still love it just the same. Creator Roy Huggins and television producer Quinn Martin really struck gold with the compelling ongoing drama of Dr. Richard Kimble, a respected physician who, one night, discovered his own wife dead… murdered.  Despite his attempts to convince the law that he saw a one-armed man running away from the crime scene, he was nevertheless convicted of his wife’s murder and subsequently sentenced to death.  However when fate interrupted his journey to prison, Dr. Kimble found himself on the run from the law.  As he searched for the mysterious one-armed man, Kimble is mercilessly hounded by Lt. Philip Gerard, the man determined to catch “The Fugitive”.

In case you were born after 1982 and/or never watched a whole lot of TV as a kid, you may not be aware that, before the dynamic big screen pairing of Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones (or Tim Daly and Mykelti Williamson to those of you who actually saw the short-lived television series from 2000), there was David Janssen (whose love or both working and drinking would bring about his untimely demise… not to mention those ears) as the man on the run and Barry Morse (a wonderful actor who passed away less than a month before this DVD set was released) as the obsessed detective.  For fans of famous voice actors, the great William Conrad can be heard in almost every episode as the Narrator.

As with certain seasons of “Perry Mason” and “Gunsmoke”, CBS/Paramount has split Season One of “The Fugitive” into two separate releases.  This second volume features episodes 16-30, aired in their original broadcast order.

Disc One:
Episode Sixteen: “Garden House” - The great Robert Webber guest stars as Mr. Guthrie.  Guthrie is married to Mrs. Guthrie (Peggy McCay) and carrying on a torrid affair with her sister, Carol Willard (Pippa Scott).  Kimble is employed as a hand at the Guthrie estate and discovers that Mr. Guthrie is planning to kill his beloved wife along with Carol’s help.  What he doesn’t know is that the diabolical adulterers have figured out who he really is and are planning to frame him for the murder!
Luigi’s Useless Information: As Mrs. Guthrie is carried away by her horse, Kimble hops into a jeep, drives about twenty-feet and then jumps out before going to look for her on foot (!).  No wonder it took the guy four years to find the one-armed man.

Episode Seventeen: “Come Watch Me Die” - Not even in his wildest dreams did Kimble ever imagine this kind of irony: our hero is appointed deputy in a Black Moccasin, Nebraska and handcuffed to a prisoner that’s being transported to jail for the murder of a man and wife!

Luigi’s Useless Information: Robert Doyle plays Bellows, the accused man.  Future Oscar Nominates Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd co-star.  Enjoy the scene where the deputy is driving a makeshift transport bus and drinking moonshine at the same time.

Episode Eighteen: “Where The Action Is” - A big casino tycoon (Telly Savalas!) has always been at war with his own daughter (Joanna Frank - woof!), but when she starts making the move on the casino pool’s new lifeguard (our hero, naturally), dad puts his foot down and starts to create problems.  Look for Beverly Powers (aka Beverly Hills) as an over-attired stripper (and enjoy it, too).

Luigi’s Useless Information: Having been to Reno, NV many times, it’s so fascinating to see what the Biggest Little City in the World looked like several decades earlier (even if most of it was filmed in Hollywood).

Episode Nineteen: “Search In A Windy City” - Thinking that the one-armed man is in Chicago, Kimble befriends journalist Mike Decker (Pat Hingle) and his wife (Nan Martin) to organize a search for the killer.  Sounds fine and dandy and all, but when Decker’s editor starts hinting at turning Kimble in and Lt. Gerard finally decides to show up (no doubt for some deep dish pizza or a hotdog), well…

Luigi’s Useless Information: Both cult fave Angelo Rossitto and western/serial regular I. Stanford Jolley make an appearance in this episode.

Disc Two:
Episode Twenty: “Bloodline” - Kimble finds himself getting involved with a repressed family of dog breeders that are in some serious need of therapy.  George Vaskovec, John Considine, and Nancy Malone guest star as the family.

Luigi’s Useless Information: “Good dags.  D’ya like dags?”

Episode Twenty-One: “Rat In A Corner” - Kimble’s ever-growing desire to aid other fugitives (guilty or not) finds him coming to the medical assistance of an injured robber (Warren Oates).  The thug’s sister (Virginia Vincent) helps Kimble out - even when she finds out who he really is.  Malachi Throne plays a police lieutenant.

Luigi’s Useless Information: If there’s one character actor that deserves a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, it’s Warren Oates.  Hey, Hollywood!  You reading’ this?

Episode Twenty-Two: “Angels Travel On Lonely Roads: Parts 1 & 2” - After a collective brain transplant, the Nevada police come up with enough intelligence to organize a massive statewide manhunt for Kimble.  While on the run, Kimble stumbles across a nun (Eileen Heckart) with an attitude and her run-down automobile.  Seeing that the both of them can help each other out, they team up.  Along the way, they run into a sheriff (Sandy Kenyon) and a very shady, beer guzzling Albert Salmi.

Luigi’s Useless Information: Was this the story that inspired Two Mules For Sister Sara?

Disc Three:
Episode Twenty-Four: “Flight From The Final Demon” - Desperate for money, our hero finds himself working at a health spa massaging beefy white guys like Carroll O’Connor (as a sheriff - and no, Tibbs isn’t his deputy).  When the sheriff (like everyone else Kimble comes across) figures out who the good doc really is, his spa co-worker Steve (Ed Nelson) helps him escape… and winds up getting shot in the process.  The two of them head for the hills… and Steve’s guilty conscious (he killed his girlfriend’s brother) makes for a real bummer of a road trip.

Luigi’s Useless Information: I never really figured out the fascination with “All In The Family”.  It was like the official white trash sitcom or something.  Then there was “In The Heat Of The Night” which would bore me to tears… it’s no wonder I wasn’t Carroll O’Connor’s biggest fan.

Episode Twenty-Five: “Taps For A Dead War” - Another O’Connor - Tim, the American television equivalent to James Mason - portrays a vet who was in the Korean War with Kimble.  He saved Kimble’s life (naturally, Kimble was unconscious at the time and has no idea who O’Connor is).  Normally, this wouldn’t be a bad thing… except O’Connor was disfigured while saving Kimble all those years back and holds him responsible.  Crazy-ass Tim…

Luigi’s Useless Information: Everyone remembers Tim O’Connor for his role in “Peyton Place”.  Personally, I will always think of “Buck Rogers In The 25th Century” when I see him.  Why, even when I was a younger lad, I would see Tim’s face at the beginning of Buck Rogers and say, “Hey, it’s that one guy!”

Episode Twenty-Six: “Somebody To Remember” - Kimble forms a bond with his employer-of-the-week, an old Greek immigrant named Gus Priamos (Gilbert Roland), so when Priamos learns he only has a few months to live, he comes up with a plan to return to Greece under Kimble’s persona (leaving the real Kimble free).  It doesn’t work.  Madlyn Rhue plays Priamos’ young, cheating wife.  Paul Birch returns (from the first half of Season One) as Captain Carpenter.

Luigi’s Useless Information: Peter Coe guest stars in this one, too.  Coe starred in two of Universal’s Classic Horror films (The Mummy’s Curse and House Of Frankenstein) as well as a number of westerns, war films (including Sands Of Iwo Jima with John Wayne) and a lot of television work, too.  In 1978, a close friend of his was evicted from his Hollywood apartment and Coe was kind enough to take him in.  The same man died a few days later - his name was Edward D. Wood Jr.

Episode Twenty-Seven: “Never Stop Running” - Departing from a seasonal job, Kimble (or “Doc” as they’re calling him) is persuaded by a young couple to come look at their sick child.  More than a bit reluctant, Kimble agrees but soon learns the truth: the ‘couple’ is actually a woman (Joanna Moore) and her brother-in-law (Wright King) and the ‘sick child’ is actually a hemophiliac hostage (Michel Petit).  The whole ruse is the brainchild of the woman’s real hubby (Claude Akins), an ex-football-player who has turned to kidnapping.

Luigi’s Useless Information: No wonder the whole ransom plan sucks: it was conceived by a former pro-athlete.  I wouldn’t trust a professional football player to change a light bulb… unless it was the bulb of a street light - then I could kick the ladder out from under him just to test the bigger-they-are/harder-they-fall theory.  I hate athletes.  Can you tell?  It’s bad enough that a once honorable sport has become a breeding ground for criminals, but when the crooks are making millions of dollars more than you per year just so they can take steroids and molest coeds, well… I’m sure you get the point.

Disc Four:
Episode Twenty-Eight: “The Homecoming” - A few years back, Janice Pruitt (Shirley Knight) was attacked by a pack of vicious dogs and mentally scarred by the incident.  When she returns home after a stay in the sanitarium, she discovers that her widowed father (a very baggy-eyed Richard Carlson) is married to a very bitchy, younger woman (Gloria Grahame).  Somehow, Kimble is involved in all of this.

Luigi’s Useless Information: Shirley Knight was in the very first episode of “The Outer Limits” I ever saw: The Man Who Was Never Born.  She would also be one of the few (if not the only) people to guest star in both television incarnations of “The Fugitive”.

Episode Twenty-Nine: “Storm Center” - ‘Bout damn time Kimble got a little nookie!  Marcie King (Bethel Leslie) and her wealthy boyfriend Harry (Dennis Patrick) are on the run from the police over a stock swindle.  When a hurricane washes Harry overboard, she is left alone with Kimble on an island in the Florida Keys.  Marcie (Bethel Leslie) remembers Kimble from her past (she tried to get him to perform an abortion, but Kimble refused… what, is he Catholic all of the sudden?) and hates him for it.  Somehow though, like all man-and-woman-stranded-on-island stories, things get hot and heavy for the fugitives.

Luigi’s Useless Information: “Dark Shadows” fans will no doubt recognize a slightly younger Dennis Patrick in this episode.  Patrick played several parts in the famous gothic soap opera during its long run and later landed a recurring role on “Dallas” (which reminds me, I still don’t know who shot JR).

Episode Thirty: “The End Game” - By the mere act of walking past a couple, Kimble’s face gets caught on film and the picture winds up in the hands of Lt. Gerard (a great scene, actually).  Gerard begins spreading officers around the city to hunt Kimble down, and when Kimble senses something’s up and is soon on the move again… eventually winding up hiding out with two old coots that sit and argue about his case with the whole police force and media gathered outside… waiting.

Luigi’s Useless Information: John McGiver, John Fiedler, Joseph Campanella, Christopher Connelly, and Stuart Margolin guest-star in this Season Finale.

Presentation
“The Fugitive” has been transferred from the original negative: the picture looks exceptionally nice and the restored 2-Channel English Mono sounds wonderful (I’m sure Quinn Martin would be proud). The episodes are presented in their Standard television format of 1.33:1.  There are no Subtitles, but Closed Captioning is available.

Extras
Sadly, there are no extras.

The Bottom Line
David Janssen was once quoted as saying “TV is my sleeping pill.”  Personally, I think “The Fugitive” is an exception.