A better ending for the series?

Kimble slugging Gerard was just a gag... however, Kimble does knock SEVERAL policemen unconscious in the course of making his escapes, at least in the first DVD package; once he was exonearted, Kimble probably had several assault charges waiting for him around the country.

A Fugitive series today? I gave up on the '90s remake about 15 minutes into the first episode - Tim Daly was just boring, not an iota of the empathy that made Janssen's performance so compelling.

FUGITIVE REMAKE SPOILER BELOW:






Talking about Gerard taking a bullet, in the last episode of the remake (according to a friend who followed it) during a showdown between Kimble and Gerard someone unseen shoots Gerard; cliffhanger to never be continued...

I liked the ending ... from the moment Kimble and Gerrard head to the amusement park, it's fantastic, and everything I'd hoped it would be.

The rest of the episode was a bit of a letdown. (Not too much -- just a bit.) I never liked J.D. Cannon as Chandler, and I didn't like the actress who played his wife. They just seemed to wimpy and dippy.

If I had to change anything, it would have been neat if Kimble's brother-in-law turned out to be the real killer, and Johnson only witnessed it. That would have been one heck of a surprise. But it may have been unsatisfying -- I think everyone wanted to see that final showdown with the One Armed Man.

From a TV Guide article written just before The Judgement aired, David Janssen had his own idea of an ending:

From TV Guide, August 19, 1967
Actually, the best ending--one that will never go before any camera--was improvised by Janssen himself a year or so ago. Constantly plagued by interviewers wanting to know if the One-Armed Man did it, David retaliated in kind. "Yes, but don't tell a soul", he replied.

"It goes like this: Kimble, cleared of the murder, retires to a desert island to recuperate from his ordeal. At sunset he takes a swim. Just before plunging into the surf, he pauses, unscrews his wooden arm, and tosses it on the sand. Fade-out."

I disagree. The ending was a real let-down for a number of reasons.

1) Kimble's brother, played by Andrew Prine in "Home Is The Hunted", is never seen again. What happened to him? Did he die? Wouldn't (given his feelings for Kimble having been repaired at the end of "Home Is The Hunted") he be there for his brother's acquittal? I mean, c'mon now!

2) There would have been TONS of media vehicles outside the courtroom building and lots of people outside who couldn't get into the (we have to assume) crowded courtroom.

3) NONE of the court visitors coming out with Kimble--save for his sister, nephew Billy and brother-in-law--were is any of the previous episodes. Can't we assume that Helen's father (played by Lloyd Gough), Helen's sister (played by Louise Sorrel) and possibly even Helen's mother (played by Ruth White) would just possibly be there to apologize (Ruth White, esp.) to him for wanting him dead? And how about a trail of lovely women--starting with Vera Miles (first episode), Susan Oliver ("Never Wave Goodbye"), Suzanne Pleshette (loved him in both episodes she was in), Lois Nettleton, Elizabeth Allen (well, she loved him in ONE episode we're told in the end), Mexican Carol Lawrence (who definitely loved him and would have had Arthur Hill's money to fly to the states to be there as Hill died in "Death Of A Very Small Killer"), Diana Hyland (who most definitely loved him in "Dossier On A Diplomat"), Ruta Lee ("Angels Travel On Lonely Roads") and many others. You'd think that at least SOME of these would have made the effort to come to the hearing which we assume was days later after Morse shoots the one-armed man. And how about all the great friends he made along the way...like the father and kids in the walnut fields of CA in "The 2130", Charles Aidman and son Tommy Rettig and bus passenger who warns him not to go back to Stafford, Jim Nolan all from "Trial By Fire", Pat Hingle as the gossip columnist in "Search In A Windy City", Steve McNally and the Apache co-workers along with Nan Martin as Congresswoman Snell from "The Iron Maiden", R.G. Armstrong as the Sheriff and the little girl in "All The Scared Rabbits", teens Donald Losby and Diane Ramey and maybe even Edward Binns from "Cry Uncle", Dean Jagger from "Right In The Middle Of The Season", Barbara Baxley from "Nobody Ever Loses All The Time" who owes Kimble an apology for not believing him about her lover, the one-armed man along with nurse Joanna Moore (who loved him), Telly Savalas' wife Carol Rossen from "God Have Mercy", James Daly (who prosecuted Kimble) and wife Joanne Linville, Betty Garrett from "Escape Into Black", Melvyn Douglas (whose character certainly could have afforded to fly in) and daughter from "The 2130", John Fiedler from "The End Game", the entire townof Northoak including Sheriff Frank Overton and wife Nancy Wickwire, Barbara Barrie from "The End Is But The Beginning" whose life he saved, Janice Rule, the aggressive reporter who helped him catch the one-armed man in "Wife Killer", Ed Begley from "Man In A Chariot", Lyn McCarthy as the Warden in "Wings Of An Angel" along with Lane Brandbury whose life he saved, his college buddy William Windom and wife Geraldine Brooks from "The Ivy Maze" and probably Howard de Sylva from "Death Is The Door Prize" along with plenty of others whose lives he saved or changed for the better. Granted, some of these actors played other characters in other episodes, often as antagonists so it might seem strange to have them at the hearing--but in what capacity? And yes, it would have cost a lot to have these many actors at Kimble's hearing/release but a bunch of nobodies from Stafford was a real letdown for me. Of all these characters, I can't imagine that reporter Janice Rule wouldn't have been there.

4) Did any of you wonder "why" the police weren't called to the closed amusement park after so many shots--including loud rifle shots--were fired? The police would have swarmed over the place! Granted, Morse had to be the one to kill the one-armed man but still...

No, a better ending would have been Gerard being so haunted by what he's done to Kimble that he resigns from the police force, gets a law degree, and spends the rest of his life defending those who have been falsely accused.

Not to mention that it would have made a great spinoff.

Of course, Donna's husband turned out to be three different actors during the run of the show: in season one, it was James B. Sikking (Hill Street Blues); in season three, it was Lin McCarthy; and in the finale, it was Richard Anderson (Six Million Dollar Man).

I think at least 4 different actors played Kimble's brother-in-law over the course of the series, one of whom was James Sikking who later played the gung-ho SWAT team commander on Hill Street Blues.

Sorry for the delayed reply - I had no idea my thread was still active 4+ years later!

A terrific post!

HAHAHAHA!! A terrific reply!

An earlier poster said that by the time of the finale, Gerard knew Kimble was innocent but wouldn't act any differently until he heard the witness officially say so.

The point in the episode was, Gerard by this time DID know Kimble was innocent. However, he was legally unable to do anything about it. He may have now believed Kimble's story but it wasn't anything he could take to the DA or a judge to try and reverse the conviction. If no witness had come forward, the best he could have done for Kimble was to let his escape again, if Kimble wanted to do that. (One got the sense that Kimble was tired of the pursuit as well, and wanted it to end one way or the other.)

In what he said, that he and the witness had put an innocent man through hell for four years was his admitting that he felt guilt about it. The difference between him and Javert, of course, was that Javert hounded a man who had already paid his debt to society (for the theft of a loaf of bread) over minor infractions. Gerard was pursuing a fugitive from justice who was believed to have committed murder (and thus was considered highly dangerous).

Old joke, old joke! (But still funny :-)) )