101 Best Written TV Series

Aired: ABC, 1963-1967

The series finale set a ratings record with a 72 percent share, and went down as history-making for the way it gave audiences a climax to all the tension it had built up over four seasons. Structurally, the show captured the imagination both as an ongoing saga (wrongfully accused man escapes custody, goes on quixotic quest to clear name by searching for the illusive One-Armed Man) and an episodic one, given the various characters and situations Dr. Richard Kimble encountered along the way. The executive producer was Quinn Martin of The Streets of San Francisco fame. The Fugitive and its good-guy outlaw themes are still oft-imitated, not just literally (a feature film and recent big-budget Fox remake of the series), but metaphorically as well.

Credited Writers

J.T. Gollard
Mario Alcalde
Robert Guy Barrows
William Best
John D.F. Black
Don Brinkley
Peter Brooke
Walter Brough
Howard Browne
Alan Caillou
Steven Carabatsos
Larry Cohen
Oliver Crawford
Arthur Dales
Robert C. Dennis
Joy Dexter
Robert Dillon
John Eastman
George Eckstein
Sid Ellis
Jeri Emmett
George Fass
Fred Freiberger
Merwin Gerard
Peter Germano
Jackson Gillis
Lawrence Louis Goldman
Ralph Goodman
William D. Gordon
James Griffith
Francis Irby Gwaltney
Robert Hamner
John Hawkins
Jo Heims
Roy Huggins
Edward Hume
Stuart Jerome
Leonard Kantor
E. Arthur Kean
Otto King
John Kneubuhl
Harry Kronman
Betty Langdon
Glen A. Larson
Anthony Lawrence
Norman Lessing
Richard Levinson
Robert Lewin
William Link
Lee Loeb
John Meredyth Lucas
Paul Lucey
Zahrini Machadah
James C. Menzies
Barbara Merlin
Milton Merlin
William G. Morwood
Barry Oringer
Robert Pirosh
Jerome Ross
Sam Ross
Mann Rubin
Philip Saltzman
Wilton Schiller
Hank Searls
Sheldon Stark
Barry Trivers
Jack Turley
Dan Ullman
Al C. Ward
Arthur Weiss
Stanford Whitmore
Anthony Wilson
William Wood
Michael Zagor
Chester Krumholz