Search - The Fugitive: Season Three, Vol. 1 on DVD


The Fugitive: Season Three, Vol. 1
The Fugitive Season Three Vol 1
Actors: David Janssen, Barry Morse, William Conrad, Bill Raisch
Genres: Drama, Television
NR     2009     12hr 0min

Dr. Richard Kimble is accused to be the murder of his wife. The night before his execution, he escapes. The only chance to prove his innocence is to find the man who killed hi wife. Kimble, persecuted by the Lt. Gerard, ri...  more »

     
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Movie Details

Actors: David Janssen, Barry Morse, William Conrad, Bill Raisch
Genres: Drama, Television
Sub-Genres: Drama, Drama
Studio: CBS/Paramount
Format: DVD - Black and White,Full Screen
DVD Release Date: 10/27/2009
Release Year: 2009
Run Time: 12hr 0min
Screens: Black and White,Full Screen
Number of Discs: 4
SwapaDVD Credits: 4
Total Copies: 0
Members Wishing: 2
MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Languages: English

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Movie Reviews

Good, but not great
Robert Dahl | Phoenix, Arizona USA | 09/16/2009
(3 out of 5 stars)

"In my opinion, CBS has done a pretty good job of leaving the original music mostly intact. Here is my review of each episode.

"Wings Of An Angel" has a great deal of Heyes synth music, and only a handful of original Rugolo cues. It's the worst of the set, in terms of replaced music.

"Trial By Fire" has several instances of Heyes music that actually blend rather well, as they seem to have been reduced in volume. There are a few noticeable Heyes cues in Act 4.

"Conspiracy of Silence" has more Heyes than "Trial By Fire", some of which are pretty loud.

"Landscape With Running Figures part 1" has Heyes cues at 4:31 and 44:12.

"Landscape With Running Figures part 2" has no Heyes cues that I could hear, but there are stretches of silence where original music has been removed, e.g., background radio music in the first scene with the juvenile delinquents.

"Set Fire To A Straw Man" has loud Heyes cues at 2:26 and 4:00, with softer Heyes at 29:20 and 37:40. The background music in the bar scenes has also been replaced.

"The Good Guys And The Bad Guys" has no Heyes music that I could hear, but the Vigilante-Roundup carnival music that you hear in the background has been replaced.

The music playing in the background in the tropical-bar scene in "Crack In A Crystal Ball" has also been replaced.

The following episodes have no replacement music that I could detect -

"Middle Of A Heat Wave"
"Three Cheers For Little Boy Blue"
"All The Scared Rabbits"
"An Apple A Day"
"Stranger In The Mirror"
"End Of The Line"
"When The Wind Blows"

In my opinion, this set is a good deal better than S2V2. Many episodes are Heyes-free, and other eps like "Landscape" and "Trial" get off lightly with just a few instances of Heyes.

The real puzzler is "Wings Of An Angel", which runneth over with Heyes. CBS obviously was trying to please the fans with this release -- somehow "Wings Of An Angel" slipped through the cracks.

These videos look a little "flat" to me, without the strong contrast of the first two seasons. The phrase "remastered from the original negatives" also seems to be missing from the label. Is CBS giving us video that has not been remastered from the original negatives?"
15 TOP-FLIGHT "FUGITIVE" ENTRIES, INCLUDING THE MAGNIFICENT
David Von Pein | Mooresville, Indiana; USA | 10/31/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)

"This CBS/Paramount DVD set, "THE FUGITIVE: SEASON 3, VOLUME 1", was made available on October 27, 2009, and it's a 4-Disc collection of 15 episodes that mirrors the other DVD sets in this series (in both packaging and image quality).

These fifteen black-and-white shows look absolutely beautiful on Digital Disc, thanks to the care and remastering effort put into these "Fugitive" releases by CBS/Paramount Home Entertainment. The clarity and crispness of the video we find on these discs is virtually perfect. And the Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono audio is quite good as well.

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ABOUT THE MUSIC:

I was very pleased to find that the vast majority of Pete Rugolo's and CBS' original background music from 1965 has been left untouched and is intact throughout this 15-episode DVD collection.

A little bit of "replacement" music can be heard in this set (which is never a good thing, in my view), but for the most part I'm quite satisfied with the way this first half of Season 3 sounds on these DVDs. Overall, there is very little of the Mark Heyes replacement music incorporated into these Season-Three episodes.

And from what I could tell, the original 1965 background score for the exemplary episode "Landscape With Running Figures" is almost all intact on Disc #3 of this set, which pleases me very much.

I didn't perform a note-by-note evaluation of all the music in "Landscape", but I did do a few random comparisons between the DVD and a VHS version of the episode that I recorded myself off of the A&E cable-TV network in 1995, and I only noticed one very small change in any of the music in either of the two parts, and that was when some low-key substitute music can be heard in Act I of Part 1, near the beginning of the episode as Kimble is coming out of the restroom.

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ABOUT SEASON 3:

The third, and next-to-last, season of "The Fugitive" (starring the late David Janssen as the forever-on-the-run Dr. Richard Kimble) was originally seen on network television back in 1965 and 1966.

Executive producer Quinn Martin and producer Alan Armer knew they had a truly great TV series on their hands with "The Fugitive", a series that resulted in many viewers rearranging their lives and personal schedules in order to make sure they would be able to be in front of a television screen at 10:00 PM each Tuesday night to watch the latest installment involving the soft-spoken and wrongly-convicted physician from Indiana.

This third season of the show was watched by an average of 40% of all TV-owning households in the United States throughout the 1965-'66 television season. And it's a season that earned the series the Emmy Award for "Best Dramatic Series" of the year. David Janssen also received an Emmy nomination for his always-solid work during this third year of "The Fugitive".

While looking over the list of episodes that make up this four-disc volume of "Fugitive" programs, it becomes a little bit difficult (for me anyway) to come up with a "Best Of" type of list for this particular DVD set....because I think they're ALL very good shows.

But, I do have my favorites from this batch of shows that shine a little brighter than some of the others. And those favorites from this volume would be:

"All The Scared Rabbits" (which rekindles the great on-screen chemistry between David Janssen and the wonderful Suzanne Pleshette), "Trial By Fire", "Crack In A Crystal Ball", "Conspiracy Of Silence", "An Apple A Day", and (saving the best for last) the remarkable two-parter, "Landscape With Running Figures".

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A LITTLE ABOUT "LANDSCAPE":

The two-part episode "Landscape With Running Figures" first aired in November of 1965, and it represents two of the very best hours of television viewing anyone had during the '65-'66 season (whether it be while watching "The Fugitive" or any other TV show that season).

The deeply-layered script for "Landscape" was written by just a single man -- Anthony Wilson. And it's a script that brings out just about everything that makes this television series so great -- plus a few things that we don't see too often during the course of Richard Kimble's travels, such as delving into the mindset of Lt. Philip Gerard (Barry Morse) and his wife (wonderfully portrayed by Barbara Rush), plus a glimpse into Dr. Kimble's inner feelings as he reminisces about his life before he was turned into the man everyone wants to slap handcuffs on.

"Landscape With Running Figures", which has Kimble (using the alias "Steve Carver") inadvertently and unknowingly becoming travelling companions with Lt. Gerard's wife, also gives us a look at a deeply-depressed Richard Kimble, which is a side of Kimble we don't see very much during the four years he's on the run from the law.

Some of the things that occur in this two-part episode might seem a tad bit far-fetched or contrived, but when you think about these things from a different perspective, the events that unfold on the screen don't really seem overly contrived or "convenient". And this is due to the presence of the man who is forever chasing and shadowing Dr. Kimble--Lt. Philip Gerard.

In addition, there's also the realistic way the plot elements come together and are presented on the television screen by writer Wilson and Director Walter Grauman.

"Landscape" is a "landmark" 102 minutes of American television, in my opinion. These two episodes provide a large amount of depth to the characters we have been watching for the previous two-plus seasons, along with empathy, compassion, fear, anger, and desperation.

The gamut of greatness (and of emotions) is pretty much run from goal line to goal line in "Landscape With Running Figures". This is a two-parter that deserves to be viewed again and again.

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THE EPISODES:

The 15 episodes in this DVD collection are:

Disc 1:
Wings Of An Angel
Middle Of A Heat Wave
Crack In A Crystal Ball
Trial By Fire

Disc 2:
Conspiracy Of Silence
Three Cheers For Little Boy Blue
All The Scared Rabbits
An Apple A Day

Disc 3:
Landscape With Running Figures (Part 1)
Landscape With Running Figures (Part 2)
Set Fire To A Straw Man
Stranger In The Mirror

Disc 4:
The Good Guys And The Bad Guys
End Of The Line
When The Wind Blows

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TRIVIA:

>> "Landscape With Running Figures" was originally written as a one-part episode, instead of the immensely-entertaining two-part installment it ended up being. Producer Alan Armer said: "Tony Wilson came in with 84 pages, and they were beautiful. It was a gorgeous script. [Associate Producer] George [Eckstein] and I decided, rather than try to lop out 25 pages, to add another 30 pages and make it into a two-parter."

>> Barbara Rush, who is simply outstanding as Marie Gerard in "Landscape With Running Figures", was not the first choice for the role. Nor was she the second. She was the third choice, behind Julie Harris and Hope Lange, but neither of those actresses was available to play the part. David Janssen did some lobbying on behalf of his good friend Barbara Rush, and Barbara ultimately ended up landing the part.

>> The episode "All The Scared Rabbits" was initially going to be called "Wanted: Someone To Drive".

>> The original title of the episode "End Of The Line" was "Never Take The Milk Train".

[Trivia Source: Ed Robertson's 1993 book, "The Fugitive Recaptured".]

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CLOSING KUDOS:

The fifteen episodes contained in this DVD set are most certainly worth owning, and represent some of the very best efforts of David Janssen and the "Fugitive" production team.

"The Fugitive: Season Three, Volume One" gets a big "Thumbs Up" from this writer.

David Von Pein
October 2009
"
The Music Issue
hsvreader | 10/27/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)

"---Updated November 2, 2009---
**I've changed my 4-star rating to a 5-star based on more extensive viewing of the episodes in which the music has not been an issue....as well as after reading the very extensive comments made by other reviewers that most original music is retained, or that the new music is unobtrusive and well-blended with the old. And, of course, the nonmusical elements of S3V1 are excellent, as always. Great plots, great acting, wonderful guest stars, and great atmospheric feel to the episodes.**
I just got this latest volume in the series of The Fugitive DVDs that CBS is selling. Although I've only watched the first episode, I want to make a comment to help those folks waiting to see if they wish to buy this disc, pending information about whether or not it has the original Pete Rugolo score. Well, I'm not sure! When I got the DVD, the back of the case has a statement, "Music has been changed for this home entertainment version." So, I went into my viewing of the disc with dread. But the opening & closing credits begin with the original Fuge music that we all know and love, plus the first musical cues of most "chapters" is original. Also, within each chapter original Rugolo musical themes are definitely heard. But there is also other music that sounds a bit bland, which I suspect is the new music created for the re-release of this series. Yet, I'm not sure just when exactly it occurs.....which, I guess, is a good thing. For those of us that want the original series, yet who never watched it with the original music score back in the 60s or when A&E reran it, it's hard to discern which is definitely replacement score. Unlike some of the other episodes in previous discs....such as the intrusive carousel music in Season 2 with Angie Dickinson....nothing stands out as glaringly inappropriate. And it's heartening to hear the familiar Rugolo music in so many places. I would love for the musical experts...such as Robert Dahl....to weigh in on this issue for this latest disc to be released."
Still has music issues but better than Season Two Volume Two
John L. Kinser | Anderson, Indiana United States | 11/20/2009
(4 out of 5 stars)

"The Fugitive Season Three Volume One
On October 27th, CBS/Paramount continued their release of the greatest TV series ever made: The Fugitive!
This release was a much anticipated release for Fugitive fans all over. For months we sat and waited to see if Paramount/CBS would continue their previous mistakes from the Season Two release or if they really did put classic TV on a pedestal and gave Fugitive fans what they wanted and what this classic show deserved: a night of broadcast release with all of its original music intact.
The answer for the most part is actually no, they did not. But, as others have noted and I confer, this release was a much better attempt of making the replacement music at least sound like the original. I must admit that there were many places where music had been replaced that I did not even catch the first time I watched this release. This release actually feels like The Fugitive release from Season One. (For a more complete list of music replacements please see the excellent review posted by Mr. Dahl.)
One part that I found annoying is that in some episodes, when the actors are in a garage or a building, it seems Paramount/CBS added an echo effect to the audio. I don't recall this echo on my old VHS tapes or on the A&E showings of the show. If this was an added effect added by Paramount/CBS, it was unnecessary. Paramount/CBS, if you are reading this, The Fugitive is one show that does not need any modern day improvements. It is the only show that I know of that was absolutely perfect the way it was originally made and modern day effects to "make it better" or "more lifelike" are not necessary.
As noted in other reviews, there are places in the two part episode "Landscape ...." where the music was removed and replaced with nothing. In my opinion, this is a better decision than adding new music that does not fit. Season Two would have been better had they taken this approach instead of adding fake music by Mark Heyes and/or whoever else destroyed the season two episodes.
The picture on these are like the previous releases, EXCELLENT! As Mr. Dahl noted, the disclaimer that these episodes were transferred from the original negatives is missing on the back of the box. Were these transferred from the original negative? I don't know but they look excellent none the less. I am very pleased with the picture quality and the care and effort Paramount/CBS has been putting into the release of The Fugitive on DVD.
I haven't had any issues with the audio dropping in and out as was noted in another review. I have played mine with my surround on and with it off. To me, they sound excellent both ways with the exception of the echo effect I noted above. If anyone else knows if the echo effect was added to these DVD's or if it is original and is more noticeable due to Paramount/CBS cleaning the audio up please let me know. I am interested to know if it was added or original.
It may be trivial to most, but I was very pleased with the art on the cover of this volumes release. I was somewhat disappointed with Season Two Volume Ones cover and Season Two Volume Twos cover was just plain awful. But this first volume of Season Three has an excellent cover and was very nicely done. Whoever designed this cover at Paramount/CBS, my hat goes off to you!
I have debated on what I am going to give this release in terms of star rating. I would like to give it a 5 star rating because this series deserves nothing less. And for the series, I give it a 5 as it was originally produced. So my rating goes only on Paramount/CBS production release of the series.
In my opinion, Paramount/CBS at least TRIED to please Fugitive fans with this release in terms of music replacement. Outside a few instances, unless you know this series really well, the replacement material is hard to detect in most instances. It is not like Season Two where the music was loud and obtrusive and took away the feel of The Fugitive that the original musical release gave this show. Paramount /CBS went the extra mile with Season Three. But, with that said, I have to still be upset to the point that music has nonetheless been replaced and the question remains why? Is it because of the Capitol music rights? If so, that is understandable but Paramount/CBS could least give the fans some type of explanation in writing instead silence. The silence makes one wonder if it is a rights issue or a money issue and the studio just does not want to pay royalties. To me, if the title has "Star Trek" or "The Beverly Hillbillies", or "I Love Lucy"( or anything to do with Lucy to be matter of fact), Paramount/CBS bends over backward to obtain the musical rights and numbers. Fugitive fans deserve the same respect. To me, it is funny that CBS/Paramount replaces a musical number written specifically for a Season Two episode but can release musical numbers written for "Star Trek" (the episode "Charley") and all of the Desi Arnaz musical numbers in "I Love Lucy". So again, is it a rights issue or a financial issue and the studio just don't want to pay the money out? My fear is in the next volume of Season Three of "The Fugitive", Paramount/CBS will destroy the episode "ILL Wind". There is a song written for this episode and played throughout the episode and plays a big part in this episode. Much like the song written for Season Two's episode "Ballad for a Ghost". Paramount/CBS removed the original song entirely and destroyed that episode. If they do the same with "ILL Wind" they might as well not even include it on the volume two release.
With all of that said, I will go on good faith and applaud Paramount/CBS for their continued release of "The Fugitive" and their excellent work or restoring the picture and audio, and making the replaced music on this release at least sound like the originals and maintaining it at the same level. I will only remove one star from a five star review for the musical changes.
If you are pondering on buying this Volume of Season Three, please do not ponder no more. CBS/Paramount did not disappoint this time! You will not regret buying this volume! It is VERY close to Season One Volume One and Twos release of "The Fugitive".

"