The Fugitive – Season Three, Volume Two (1966/CBS DVD)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: D     Episodes: C*

 

 

The CBS DVD releases of the original classic TV series The Fugitive continues with the controversy that some of the music (by their own admission; it is on the back of the bottom of the case in small print) replacing older music and only some of its original music in tact.  Fans were not happy with this and expert fans will likely be especially unhappy.  Season Three, Volume Two also continues CBS’ desire to issue half-seasons of hour-long shows so they all fit in cases the size of a single case, but fans would tolerate that if all the original music were still in all the shows.

 

Not that the shows are uninteresting.  This time, we get 15 episodes with guest stars including Lee Meriwether, Laurence Naismith, Kevin McCarthy, Janice Rule, Nita Talbot, Mickey Rooney, Naomi Stevens, Shirley Knight, Arch Johnson, Ford Rainey, Telly Savalas, Beau Bridges, Ellen Corby, George Savalas, Joanna Pettet, Andrew Duggan, Ken Lynch, Joanne Linville, Ned Glass, Wayne Rogers, Val Avery, Jeanette Nolan, Donald Pleasence, Jessica Walter, Steven Hill, Ted Knight, Robert Du Qui, Melvyn Douglas, Jason Wingreen, Fritz Weaver, Michael Constantine, Paul Sorensen, Lois Nettleton, Michael Strong, Kurt Russell, Murray Hamilton, Antoinette Bower, James Frawley and Dabney Coleman.

 

This was the next to last season, the show was starting to run out of ways to keep it going, the writing was just starting to become strained and this would be the last black & white season, so shooting the final season in color was a way to get one more good season out of this.  The teleplays remain intelligent, acting is still very good and the show still kept up its pace.  That helped it become one of the most imitated shows of all time.

 

The 1.33 X 1 black and white image is said to come from the original 35mm camera negatives and they do look that good, but there are still some minor detail issues here and there, but Video Black is really good for the DVD format and it will make you wish for Blu-ray ASAP.  *The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is odd since the new music sounds too clean and new, ruining more than a few scenes.  You can sense it, even when you don’t explicitly acknowledge it.  The older the sound, the more original it sadly is.  No extras are the other.

 

You can read more about the series starting at this link:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/5892/The+Fugitive+–+Season+One,+Volume

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo