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Kimble and Gerard:
The Next Generation
On
Saturday, July 22, 2000, over 500 members of the media crowded their way
into the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Pasadena, California for an event that
marked the beginning of the latest chapter in the phenomenal history of
one of the most enduring TV series of all time. The lavish affair,
hosted by CBS at the reported cost of over $50,000, was the official
promotional launch of the most anticipated new series of the Fall 2000
season: the revival of The Fugitive, the groundbreaking
Emmy-winning drama of the 1960s that set a prime-time ratings record for
a single episode (the climactic finale of August 29, 1967), inspired an
Academy Award-winning movie starring Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones,
and made David Janssen an international icon.
The highlight of the CBS gathering was a question-and-answer session
with the creative team behind the new Fugitive. Gathered on stage
were Tim Daly, the actor who was about to assume Janssen's role as Dr. Kimble; Oscar
winners Arnold and Anne Kopelson (Platoon), producers of the 1993
Fugitive movie, and co-executive producers of the CBS series; and
Emmy-winning writer/producer Roy Huggins, co-executive producer of the
movie, and co-executive producer of the new series.
The first question was directed to Huggins: "How does it feel to be
sitting here, on the eve of The Fugitive going into production,
talking about a TV series you created 40 years ago returning to prime
time?"
Huggins reflected for a few moments before his response: "You know,
I find it so absolutely incredible, I still can't believe it."
Incredible, because in 1960, when Huggins first developed his concept
about an "innocent victim of blind justice," he was met with
such repulsion and disgust throughout the TV industry that he was forced to
shelve the idea for nearly three years. Fortunately for Huggins,
one man finally did believe in The Fugitive: Leonard
Goldenson, the pioneering executive who transformed ABC from a failing
network into a prime time powerhouse. Goldenson thought The
Fugitive was absolutely "the best idea for a television
series" he had ever heard, and the rest is history.
Forty years later, The Fugitive is still captivating audiences
across the globe. Reruns of the original series continue to air in
TV markets worldwide, while select episodes are available on VHS and DVD.
The series also has inspired three fan clubs (including one in France);
annual fan conventions; various newsletters, web sites, and internet
newsgroups; the blockbuster movie starring Ford and Jones (and its
equally riveting sequel, U.S. Marshals); and, of course, the
highly-anticipated CBS series starring Tim Daly as the Fugitive and Mykelti
Williamson as Lt. Philip Gerard. Not since Star Trek returned to television in
1987 had one series caused such a stir throughout the industry.
Every network bid on it; the pilot alone cost over $6,000,000 to
produce.
The new Fugitive debuted on October 6, 2000, and for the most
part, lived up to the hype.
Daly was absolutely believable as the persecuted Richard Kimble. Williamson,
after discussing his character with Tommy Lee Jones (who won an Oscar as
Gerard in the 1993 movie), brought a fresh new dimension to the relentless
police lieutenant obsessed with capturing the Fugitive. Stephen Lang,
formerly David Abrams on
Crime Story, was an inspired choice
to play
Ben Charnquist, a.k.a. Fred Johnson, a.k.a. the elusive one-armed
man. The series was well-written overall, blending the fast-paced
action of the movie with the homespun, character-driven drama of the
original series. Production values were high (a reported
$3,000,000 per episode).
The
ratings, however, were another story. Despite favorable reviews,
and an onslaught of promotion throughout the summer and early fall, The
Fugitive faced an obstacle even more daunting than its Friday 8:00
p.m. time slot: an audience reluctant to judge it on its own
merits. For most older
viewers, it was impossible to watch the show without thinking of the
original and David Janssen. For
most younger viewers, it was impossible to watch without thinking of the
movie and Harrison Ford. In
both cases, it was impossible to watch without thinking, “Been there,
done that.”
So why go ahead with a new series? Because a good tale, if done well, is
always worth retelling.
And
besides, added Arnold Kopelson, just because the original
and the movie had a particular ending "doesn't necessarily mean the
new series will turn out the same.”
Indeed, the producer reminded the
skeptics, “in the movie, the one-armed man didn’t kill
Kimble’s wife at all—he was a red herring.
So while the setup for the new series is the same,
it also allows for the possibility of telling an entirely different story.”
The new show certainly looked
different. Just as Kimble moved from town to town each
week, so did the series--literally. Each episode was filmed on
location in a major city across the country, adding an element of realism
to the chase. Among the stops: Chicago,
New York, Philadelphia, Seattle, New Orleans, Savannah, and San Francisco. Though show runner John McNamara lifted liberally from many episodes of
the original series, he also introduced new twists to the plot, including
a deranged bounty hunter, a conspiracy against Kimble between his own father-in-law and
the chief of police, and a computer geek who helps the Fugitive by way of
the web site
dr.richardkimble.com.
Despite the low ratings (The Fugitive consistently finished third
in its time slot throughout the first half of the season), CBS did order a
full 22-episode run and continued to plug the show feverishly throughout the November and
February sweeps. Nothing, however, could liberate Kimble from
the bottom of the Nielsens. With cancellation a
foregone conclusion, The Fugitive virtually disappeared in April,
returning only to burn off its final two episodes on May 25, 2001: one day after the season
officially ended, and two days after the show was officially axed.
The new Fugitive did go out with a
bang. In
“Götterdämmerung,”
the first hour of the two-part series finale, Kimble has been driven so
far to the edge, he injects Charnquist with a lethal drug and threatens
not to
administer the antidote unless the one-armed man agrees to clear the doctor's good
name. Then, upon surviving a harrowing train ride to
Chicago in the second hour (“Thanatos“),
Kimble is about to hand Charnquist over
to Gerard when the lieutenant
is
shot at point blank range by a duplicitous FBI
agent. After the fed follows our hero inside an abandoned warehouse,
the screen goes black, another shot rings out--and the episode suddenly
ends.
Has the G-man killed the Fugitive? Did Gerard somehow recover from the assassin's bullet and rescue
Dr. Kimble, just as he had done in the final moments of the original
series? We may never
know. McNamara reportedly left in the cliffhanger ending as a
last-ditch effort to save the series, but he would ultimately
fall short. Though fans from across the country did besiege CBS with
emails and phone calls in the days following the final episode, it was too
little, too
late. The Fugitive's latest run was over.
Text © 2001 by Ed Robertson.
Photos from CBS.com and
WarnerBros.com.
)
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On
September 15, 2000,
I was invited to attend a special preview
of the pilot
episode at the Museum of Television History in Beverly Hills.
After the screening, I had the opportunity
to discuss the series
with
executive producers John McNamara, Arnold and Anne Kopelson,
and Roy
Huggins.
Here are a few notes and nuggets
pertaining to the
show.
*
* *
I
knew John McNamara
had a lot of respect for Roy Huggins
and
his concept.
What I didn't know
is that he also thought highly of my
book
The Fugitive Recaptured.
"When
we sat down to plan stories
for the show,"
McNamara told me,
"we used
your book religiously."
"When
it comes to the original show,"
added Roy,
"your book is like
the Koran."
*
* *
The
pilot, of course, ends with a sequence straight out of the original--only instead of
Kimble bending down to feed a stray kitten, he bends down to feed a stray
dog. “I stole that from the
original,” McNamara admitted. “You
and I are the only ones who’ll ever remember that.”
*
* *
Tim
Daly suggested casting his old friend
Stephen Lang for the one-armed man.
Lang not only got a kick out of playing
with his prosthetic arm, he
became quite proficient at doing one-armed push-ups,
and often challenged
Daly to push-up contests between takes.
*
* *
Like
Daly, Mykelti Williamson is also very athletic . . .and very
competitive. Indeed, when he learned how fast Daly could run the
100-yard dash, he told him he "would train day and night" until
he beat him.
“And I will catch you, Dr. Kimble,” he said—
at which point,
McNamara, who had overhead
the conversation, chimed in:
“If you do, Ti,
that’s the end of the show.”
*
* *
When
the conversation turned to the 1993 Fugitive movie, Roy Huggins
credited Tommy Lee Jones
for coming up with
“the best line in the entire
movie.”
Referring to the famous scene at the falls (in which Kimble tells
Gerard “I didn’t kill my wife!” before desperately plunging into
the deep), Roy said that Gerard’s next line in the script originally
read, “That isn’t my problem.”
Jones, however, asked if he could change the line to “I don’t care.”
With those three words, Jones not only added to one
of the best moments of the movie, he would forever
put his own stamp
on
what is arguably the most interesting character
of the series.
Fuge
facts
Tim
Daly is the son of Emmy-winning character actor James Daly, and the
brother of Emmy-winning actress Tyne Daly. James Daly, of course,
starred in two episodes of the original Fugitive, "Running
Scared" and "The Evil Men Do."
Shirley Knight, a guest star in three episodes of the Janssen series
("The Homecoming," "A.P.B.," "Echo of a
Nightmare") , played an ally to the new Dr. Kimble in "Past
Perfect."
Lou Antonio, who played a biker dude in the "Devil's
Disciples" episode of the original series, directed the flavorful New
Orleans episode, "Lagniappe."
Related
links
Dr.-Richard-Kimble.com
Episode
Guide at TVTome.com
LSFugitive.iwarp.com
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