Customer Reviews

Fugitive: Judgement [VHS]

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"August 29th, the day the running stopped." A day I'll always remember because it was the end of my favorite TV show, still is today. "The Judgment" by today's standards, was done somewhat poorly, sort of put together on a whim to end the show. But to me, it is cherished and sacred !

I didn't like how it ended. I would have liked for the one-armed man to have lived and been captured - and then have the courtroom proceedings that released Richard Kimble shown as a final episode.

Bill Raisch was incredible in the part he played as the one-armed man. Couldn't have found a more believable actor for the role - He didn't need acting ability - he was a natural. No one could have played a better derelict drifter, at least in my opinion no one couldn't.

David Janssen should have been a bigger star than he was. He should have been on the same level as Sean Connory - and today, would be a bigger star. He is the epitomy of "Cool."

In the last 30 years, the only show close to "The Fugitive" as a continuing Drama was "Hill Street Blues."

Some Fugitive fans refuse to watch this episode (the final one) because they don't want the closure. They want to imagine that Richard Kimble is still running. I understand how they feel -- but I say give the poor doctor a break!

Go ahead and watch this episode. It's not the best example of the show, but it's still pretty darn good. There are lots of twists. (I still wonder why the one-armed man climbed to the top of the water tower to escape Kimble. Where was he going to go from _there_?)

If you can, watch the other episodes, too. You get to see 1960s drama at its best. Back then, TV shows didn't have adult language, but they could still have adult plots.

David Janssen's work in this show was underrated. So was the work of Barry Morse. There were lots of great supporting actors, from Angie Dickinson to Telly Savalas to William Shatner.

This show had the highest ratings of any TV drama until the "Who Shot J.R." episode. I think this one far surpassed it. (The writers of "The Fugitive" respected their audience more -- they never had David Janssen come out of the shower and realize it was all a dream.)

Anne M. Marble Reviewer, All About Romance

THE FUGITIVE was the first drama that had a concluding episode that tied up the loose ends. For those who had watched the series faithfully for four years were generally satisfied with the closure, despite the several logical inconsistencies in the two-part finale. THE JUDGMENT allows Richard Kimble to regain his life by finally catching the man with one arm, but it is the manner that he did it that provides an emotionally satisfying end to a roller coaster of a series that millions of viewers religiously followed. The charm of THE JUDGMENT is that it encapsulates in one twin segment the very qualities that had stamped its high quality since the 1963-64 season. Many of the themes, ideas, character developments, and plot devices were combined with a surprise twist to justify the time America spent to get involved in the running triangle between Kimble, Lieutenant Gerard, and Fred Johnson, the one-armed man.
Director George Eckstein borrowed heavily from earlier episodes to frame a finale in a way that ties together a myriad of strands that had been left hanging from previous episodes. Gerard learns that a one-armed man has been arrested in Los Angeles and suspects that Kimble will read of it as well. His hope is that Kimble will try to see this man to verify his identity. This is exactly the same plot device that the show used in NEVER WAVE GOODBYE from the first season. It worked well then and works well now. Kimble does indeed read of this in a Tucson newspaper where he works. For viewers with long memories, Tucson was also the setting for the very first episode, FEAR IN A DESERT CITY. Gerard flies to Los Angeles and questions Fred Johnson in a manner that clearly shows the evolution of Gerard's certainty of Kimble's guilt to a doubt. Gerard shouts at him, 'Did you kill Helen Kimble?' From a dramatic standpoint, this doubt is required to make it plausible that Gerard would later believe in the possibility of Kimble's innocence long enough to give him twenty-four hours to find Johnson. Kimble arrives in Los Angeles where he is reunited with Jean Carlisle, played by Diane Baker, who was the court reporter at the trial and has long loved Kimble. She tips him off about the trap and hides him in her apartment. Gerard nevertheless suspects that she is hiding Kimble and tricks him into taking a taxi, where he arrests Kimble. While this is going on, the plot takes a surprise twist when Johnson is bailed out by a man who is later revealed as Lloyd Chandler, Kimble's next door neighbor in Stafford, who was right there in the living room when he saw Johnson kill Helen Kimble. But since he did not want to expose himself as a coward, he kept his mouth shut and left Kimble as the sacrificial lamb to his own shame. This surprise revelation of an eyewitness to Kimble's innocence was prefigured in an earlier episode, TRIAL BY FIRE, where an army captain also saw Johnson run out of the Kimble residence just moments before Kimble returns home in his car. Johnson seeks to blackmail Chandler, who intends to kill Johnson to insure his silence. At the closing reel. Johnson inextricably climbs a high tower with Kimble in pursuit. At the top, they battle, and in a scene of high tension, Johnson admits that he murdered Helen Kimble. Gerard saves Kimble's life by shooting Johnson dead. Using Chandler's account of Kimble's innocence, the case and the series close.
This last episode had the largest cast in the series' history. Besides the usual sterling acting of David Janssen and Barry Morse, Kimble's sister Donna, well played by Jacqueline Scott, reprises her continuing role as the emotional bedrock of support that she has provided for Kimble's entire run. Bill Raisch as Fred Johnson again radiates menace in every grimace of his brutal face. His lack of an arm in no way diminishes his aura of alarm. Diane Brewster, who plays Helen Kimble, is finally seen as more than just a corpse that lies on the floor with the opening scene that begins each episode. The flashbacks of THE JUDGEMENT portray her as a woman who loves her husband but has marital problems with him. Incidentally, her issues with Kimble are the only time in the show's four year run that show any woman as having relating problems at all with Kimble. In the show's last few minutes, when reporters swarm around Kimble and Jean Carlisle and ask him what he intends to do now that he is again a free man, Kimble replies, 'I want to start my life up again.' And part of this start is to shake the hand of the policeman who admits his part in putting an innocent man through four years of hell. Kimble and Jean walkoff into the sunset, ready to start their new life. Gerard walks off in the opposite direction, ready to do the same. And the viewer turns off his television, not quite ready to abandon the memories of watching one man seeking to reclaim a life that had been unfairly put on hold for that same four years.

This great series deserved a great ending. This great series did not have a good ending. The two part conclusion
of The Fugitive did not equal the excellent writing, attention to details or characterizations of its predecessors. There were too many inconsistencies, coincidences, and outright
absurdities to qualify Judgement as the penultimate Fugitive
finale. First off, Kimble sees a newspaper that happens to
have a picture of the one-armed man in an LA bar. Second,
Gerard, while grilling the one-armed man about a barfight,
loses his cool and suddenly questions him about Helen Kimble's murder. Gerard never wanted to believe in a one armed man, despite having confronted him in the past. Gerard wanted to believe that he wasn't wasting his time chasing the wrong man. Third, Gerard is seen walking through the police station by a Jean Carlisle whose father
happens to be a friend of Kimble's. Why did it take 119 episodes for her to pop up in Kimble's life? A better choice
of woman would've been either Susan Oliver or Suzanne
Pleshette since both had a past with Kimble. Fourth, Kimble goes to LA and is taken in by Gerard. Gerard then
agrees to give Kimble 24 hours to find the one-armed man.

Again, this is a man who had Kimble in his hand on numerous occasions. If saving the Gerard family didn't convince the lieutenant of Kimble's innocence, then neither
would a chance encounter with the one-armed man.

Fifth, Kimble confronts the one-armed man (Fred Johnson) at an amusement park. Kimble orders Johnson to hold. Johnson fires his gun and takes off running. Kimble was a onetime skeet shooter champion. A basic shot to Johnson's good arm or one of his legs keeps him from committing absurdity number six....
Running to and climbing up a tower unarmed! Why have
Johnson take this information atop a tower when Kimble needs him alive for exoneration? Even if Johnson confesses it would be his word against Kimble's.

For all of that madness, just have Johnson commit suicide
along the way and leave it at that.

So Johnson gets the gun from Kimble and as he takes aim, Gerard shoots him with a rifle from the man who witnessed Helen Kimble's murder. Again, why did it take
120 episodes for this so called friend of Kimble's to reluctantly admit to witnessing the Helen Kimble homicide?
He only let Kimble go through a private hell and a near execution.

Nevertheless, it was unprecedented for ANY series to
to conclude with a final episode. That concept deviated from
the norm. The Fugitive should be remembered for its well
casted lead and supporting cast, cutting edge issues, creative methods of escape for Kimble, and great visual
locales. These qualities helped the show to stand the test of time and STILL compare to and eclipse today's idea of
great programming. In my mind, The Fugitive ranks as the
best drama of all time, hands down.

For four years (1963-1967) "The Fugitive" ruled the world of television dramas. The show ended abruptly due to the fact that the show's star, furtive David Janssen, was worn out from the gruelling schedule. He was ready to call it quits by mid-1967, so the producers had to scramble to find a way to end the show. Janssen, as pediatrician Richard Kimble, remains on the run from Indiana Police Lt. Philip Gerard, intent on bringing in the man who escaped from his custody en route to the death house, where Kimble's sentence would be finalized. In this two-part series ender, Kimble is working as a truck driver in the Southwest, when he discovers that the man who killed his wife was arrested in a bloody bar altercation in Los Angeles. Immediately, Kimble is on his way to Southern California intent on finding a way to keep the killer in prison, yet also clear his name. Gerard, of course, knows that Kimble is coming, and waits in L.A. for his elusive quarry to fall in his lap. The LAPD sets a trap for Kimble, but he escapes with the help of a family friend, Jean (Diane Baker). All the elements for a great ending are here, but certain plot devices fail: the scenes from Kimble's hometown in Indiana look like Southern California, complete with real palm trees; Gerard actually allows Kimble to chase after the killer, Fred Johnson, after being convinced Johnson was Kimble's fantasy obsession for years; and the pacing seems considerably rushed. However, the action sequences involving Kimble and the menacing Johnson are top-notch. Barry Morse (as Gerard) does a wonderful job as usual. Before the "Who Shot J.R.?" episode on Eighties nighttime soap, "Dallas", this two-partner was the highest-rated television show. It is not the strongest season-ender, but was much better than "Seinfeld"'s. Sure, "The Fugitive" is a bit dated at times, but it is undeniably one of television's high points. But enjoy the older episodes (particularly those in black and white) if you can find them.

this was indeed, the best dramatic tv series ever made. everything about it was sheer perfection: writers, actors, music, plots, themes, all flawless in their depiction of a man on the run from injustice. we should count ourselves lucky, to live in a country where producers like Quinn Martin, made it possible, to enjoy such a wonderful series. kudos to Roy Huggins(creator), Quinn Martin(producer), Barry Morse(Lt. Gerard), and of course the late great David Jannsen(The Star), who made each and every episode come to life...FANTASTIC!

The 2-part final episode of The Fugitive is not nearly my favorite episode, even though Dr. Kimble (David Janssen) is finally cleared of the murder charge against his wife, which has haunted him from day 1 of this exceptionally entertaining television series.

Running from September 17, 1963 thru August 29, 1967, "The Fugitive" kept its star running too. I think Richard Kimble must have hit nearly every state in the union during the show's 4-year stint.

This final program (The Judgment) has a good ending, but overall I have always felt a bit disappointed with it. First off, it's one of the latter years' color episodes (which, to a degree, automatically makes it worse than earlier B&W programs). As is usually the case with most TV programs, the earlier black-and-white episodes seem to be the best. Secondly, I thought the re-capturing of Kimble by Lt. Gerard here was pretty weak (especially when compared to other exciting examples in the series). And third, I would have enjoyed it more if Gerard and Kimble had been kept apart during most of this final program, rather than "teaming up" together to try and solve the case. It would have been more dramatic to have Kimble on the run to the very end I believe.

But, despite the above complaints about "The Judgment", I still enjoy watching it. Even the worst of Fugitive episodes would still be a whole lot better than the best efforts of a lot of programs.

Two very good reasons for loving The Fugitive TV series: David Janssen and Barry Morse. Both actors are simply perfect in their parts. The BEST episodes, I'm sure any true Fugitive fan would agree, are the ones where we encounter Gerard chasing his prey. Nothing better on TV.

Gerard put it best at the very end of this program .... "For four years, we've kept an innocent man in hell!" ... But now "the running [has] stopped"!

without a doubt, the best tv drama ever made. unrelenting suspense. even though you knew he'd always get away, you had to keep watching. also, a master class in camera acting--david janssen was simply the best.

I watch over and over again as I do all of the many Fugitive (1963) episodes, I feel as if I missed something terribly by not watching this series the first time around. This two part video was a great ending and William Cannon, narrator was excellent. "Tuesday, August 29/67 (a real date) the day the running stopped".

This tv series is one the greatest tv shows ever, I only wish this last episode would be available not only in DVD but also with subtitles and/or audio in spanish.