The Fugitive aired on the  ABC television network from 1963 to 1967 with 120 episodes being shot, yet it was the final episode that made the greatest mark in American television history.  Although The Fugitive only aired four seasons, with the first three seasons being produced in black and white, it was the only television show of its time to garner a whopping 72% of all viewers that owned a television set to watch its final episode.

The show centered around Dr. Richard Kimble, played by David Janssen, who who is falsely convicted of his wife’s murder and given the death penalty.  As fate would have it, en-route to death row the train derails and crashes, making it possible for him to escape.

Thus begins his quest to track down the one armed man, played by Bill Raisch, the man he saw running from his home on the night his wife was killed.

While Dr. Kimble is pursuing the one armed man in an attempt to clear his name, a  Stafford Police Lieutenant named Philip Gerard, played by Barry Morse, is doggedly on on his trail along with various authorities from coast to coast.

Though Dr. Kimble tried to keep a low profile in his search for his wife’s killer, circumstances seemed to always force him to put himself in a position to be recognized.  He risked capture many times in order to help a person he’d befriended, which also forced him to uproot his new life and move on.

A strange twist to the series is that the writers picked up the story six months after Kimble had been on the run. It wasn’t until the 14th episode, entitled “The Girl From Egypt,” that they offered up full details about his plight. The events were revealed in a series of flashbacks that explained the fateful night his wife was murdered and for the first time gave viewers a glimpse at the notorious one armed man.

In its first season The Fugitive was ranked the 28th most watched show in the US, but by its second season it jumped to fifth overall.  Unfortunately, in its third and fourth seasons the series fell out of the top 30.  That didn’t prevent its final episode from making television history, with nearly three out of every four US homes with a television set watching the finale. The Fugitive is one of the rare classics that seemed to capture an entire nation’s imagination.