A New Run For `The Fugitive,' But It Just Isn't The Same

"The Fugitive" is still on the run - the A&E cable network will show the first episode at 4 p.m. tomorrow, followed by the final episode at 5 p.m. The finale will be repeated at 9 p.m. Reruns of other episodes are on A&E at 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. weekdays. -------------------------------------------------------------------

Hollywood and Harrison Ford are about to put a rock 'em, sock 'em superstar twist on the travails of Dr. Richard Kimble in "The Fugitive."

But wait. Without David Janssen and the memorable 1960s television series built around Kimble's harrowing crucible, without that first ABC prime-time incarnation of "The Fugitive" and Kimble's taut cross-country tango with Lt. Gerard, without - of course - the one-armed man, Harrison Ford wouldn't even be having his twist party.

So let us pause briefly for a salute to the real deal.

For it was creator and producer Roy Huggins' innovative, four-year saga about an innocent Chicago physician wrongly convicted of his wife's murder that started it all.

In creating the drama of Kimble, Huggins reportedly was influenced by both the classic chase form of Victor Hugo's "Les Miserables" and the then-hot murder case of Cleveland osteopath Dr. Samuel H. Sheppard. Sheppard was convicted of murdering his wife, largely on circumstantial evidence, in 1954. He was retried in 1966, found not guilty, and freed.

As "The Fugitive" unfurled across 120 hour-long episodes between 1963 and 1967, America was swept up in Kimble's dogged, obsessive crusade to clear his name and track down his wife's real killer, the infamous one-armed man. It was a crusade that eventually led to a stunning climax, the sort of TV series end-game that had never been done before.

When that final installment of "The Fugitive" aired Aug. 29, 1967, it was the highest-rated series episode in TV history, seen by 45 million people - an astonishing 72 percent share of the viewing audience that wasn't surpassed until the "Who Shot J.R.?" episode of "Dallas" in 1980.

Now, besides a hellzapoppin' movie rebirth, "The Fugitive" is being feted by "The Fugitive Recaptured" (Pomegranate Press, $17.75), a trivia-packed book commemorating the 30th anniversary of the TV show's premiere. Kimble-o-philes, rejoice.

Also, TV Guide recently named "The Fugitive" the best drama series of the 1960s. And last week, Entertainment Weekly listed "The Fuge" as No. 6 on its list of TV's 101 most important prime-time shows of the past. ("The Mary Tyler Moore Show" was No. 1.) That put "The Fugitive" in the top slot among drama series, just ahead of "Star Trek."

So what's the Kimble connection? Why does "The Fugitive" still strike such a strong emotional chord?

Stephen King, author and super jock of best-selling shock, writes in the introduction to "The Fugitive Recaptured": "Everybody who watched `The Fugitive' could identify with Richard Kimble. David Janssen spoke for a whole generation of people - kids like me, who grew up feeling slightly alienated from all the values of our parents. We felt like fugitives in a sense."

Whatever you say, Steve.

But it is the late Janssen's portrayal of Richard Kimble, of course, which still haunts "The Fugitive." Out there on his own psycho-emotional Route 66, the handsome Kimble, with his sad, anxious eyes, moved from town to town as he crisscrossed the country. He took different jobs, assumed new identities, all the while dodging Gerard and searching for the one-armed man and justice.

Harrison Ford may glom onto the role of Dr. Richard Kimble with bravura style, but ultimately "The Fugitive" belongs to Janssen, spirit in the sky. Kimble's just on loan for a while.

(Material from Gannett News Service is included in this story.)