Sunday, May. 23, 2010

The Fugitive (1967)

What a great premise: A doctor is falsely convicted of his wife's murder and sentenced to death, but then he escapes and roams the country as a wanted man, searching for the true killer. And what an even greater conclusion: the series' two-part finale aired August 22 and 29, 1967; at the time, the second half was the the most watched TV episode in history (it was later surpassed by Dallas' "Who Shot J.R.?" episode in 1980). The doctor, Richard Kimble, tracks down his wife's murderer (the famous "one-armed man") but is then caught by the police detective who has been chasing him throughout the entire series. Kimble convinces the police to let him prove his innocence, which he does via the killers' last minute confession during a shootout at an abandoned amusement park. In the end, 25.7 million households watched Dr. Kimble go free.