Starring David Janssen as The Fugitive

Wow, didn't know that! If the series comes back on Me-TV or Decades soon I will be sure to watch that!

~Ben

 

Agreed -- great episode.

 

Ben, I'm not sure when you say you didn't know that if you were referring to "The Iron Maiden" being a top-flight episode, or whether you were unaware of the score-replacement debacle that plagued THE FUGITIVE on DVD.

The story of the music replacement is long and convoluted, but I'll try to be brief. When THE FUGITIVE DVD releases reached Season Two, the entire underscore was removed and replaced by a modern synthesizer score. THE FUGITIVE's underscore was a mix of original cues by Pete Rugolo mixed in with cues from the CBS library including cues from THE TWILIGHT ZONE, GUNSMOKE, etc. With the total replacement score, all heck broke loose among DVD aficionados and CBS ultimately offered a sort-of fix. They replaced the first half of the 2nd season with episodes that had much of the original score back in place, but other parts were still the synthesized stuff. CBS was fearful that whoever owned the music rights to this "Capitol library" stuff would sue if they used it and they couldn't locate the rights owners to that library. This is what affected "The Iron Maiden". This half-baked scoring attempt continued through Season Three. When Season Four came around, it was fine as it used a lot of OUTER LIMITS music for which they had the rights, along with the familiar Rugolo and Twilight Zone music.

Then CBS offered something called the MOST WANTED EDITION of the entire four seasons of THE FUGITIVE. The intention was to offer all episodes in night-of-broadcast condition, and it took a few "shakedown cruises" before it was finally right. However, as far as syndication goes, it is believed that the episodes on MeTV and/or DECADES, still use the half-baked episodes from S2 and S3. That's the way they entered syndication and until it changes, we fear that's he way it will remain.

So, in essence, there are three different iterations of "The Iron Maiden" out there. The first has a total underscore replacement. The second was the CBS effort to appease the fans by putting back some of the original score. The third version was the correct version put back to night-of-broadcast condition.

As I said, it's a convoluted story.

 

What I said was I did not know that it was one of the better episodes out there. Of course, that would be with its original background music intact.

The other mystery left to solve, besides this thing about music replacement, is this... I still want to know if, regarding season 1, if (regarding the original ABC broadcast run) only the pilot episode ("Fear in a Desert City") had the long version of William Conrad's pre-title narrative, which would also have included "A man he had never seen before" when he talks about the one-armed man, and that if all the other 29 episodes after this all originally had the shorter version of his narrative (which starts off with "The name: Dr. Richard Kimble").

~Ben

 

I didn't watch the series as it first aired on ABC in the first season. I caught up to it around the third season and followed it faithfully thereafter. So I have no firsthand knowledge of the opening narration's history. But I have some ideas.

I'm betting that the episodes we have on DVD now with that long opening, *always* had it. And that the first episode, "Fear In A Desert City" also had it originally, and that somehow in the move to syndication years ago, the opening got changed to the slightly shorter one.

My philosophy is that the producers and network would want a more complete opening narration for the earliest episodes to fill in the story for the viewers, all of whom were new at that point. And after a time, the opening was pared down to allow for more story time - or another promo somewhere.

 

Yes!! I loved "The Fugitive" as a kid growing up.
Watched whenever available on TV through the years, and the limited films.
Wonderful actor! Lifelong fave .. MeTV was playing the series on Sunday nights late- Then they
just abruptly did a shift change. Huge let down, but I remember the end.

 

I love this thread!
Come to think of it, it's probably the only one on SHMF that doesn't include mention of The.........oops! Almost did it!

 

The guest stars in tonight's story:

Robert Lansing

Whitney Blake

Jane Dulo

Special guest star, Arthur Hunnicutt

Tonight's episode:
FATE DOES NOT FORGET

 

I want an episode when he was in Mayberry and Barney got all revved up to capture him.

 

The guest stars in tonight's story:

Don Knotts

Aneta Corsaut

Howard Morris

Special guest star, Jack Burns

Tonight's episode:
THE NIPPING OF THE BUD

 

Very good.

 

Beatles! there! I did...

 

great episode...the large DVD box is a prized possession...I adore this show...but, what a trip it was getting a proper corrected box and the fiasco getting there...

 

Hear, hear! Got mine a couple of weeks ago, need to get a couple extra days off from work so I can binge my way thru it all!

 

It's not really meant to be a binge show. It was made at a time when an hour of television was all self-contained. The protagonist enters someones life and leaves by the end. There is, of course, the over-arching story of the series, but when you binge-watch, it might seem repetitive.

Just be aware of that as you start it and you'll be fine. I envy someone seeing it all for the first time.

 

Cool! what is the large DVD box going for these days?

 

I paid $45 at Amazon.

 

There are two different sets.

THE FUGITIVE - THE COMPLETE SERIES is the later, cheaper set that doesn't include the soundtrack CD. It's selling for $51 on Amazon.
THE FUGITIVE - THE MOST WANTED COLLECTION is the earlier, more expensive set with the soundtrack CD as an extra. It's going for $110 on Amazon.

Other differences are in packaging. The cheaper set, I believe has a giant keep case for the first three seasons and a separate one for the last season. The MOST WANTED has each individual season in its own keep case.

 

32 discs Complete?

 

Yes. 33 discs in Most Wanted ( the CD )

 

Double the price for one more disc.(cd)

 

The open was shortened after a few episodes, not exactly sure how many. The same thing happened with Outer Limits. Only the first 4 have the long open. The rest of season one has the shorter one and then the second season episodes the open was really truncated.

 

nice price!

 

Route 66
Worth getting ?

 

Great show. The first half of the first season some of the episodes had quality issues, which I don't believe were fixed for the box set. Another half season was put out in the wrong aspect ratio which I believe was fixed. As for the quality of the show, first season excellent, second very good, third pretty good and the fourth was very inconsistent.