TV and Movies

[Pearlee]

@Oznell Peopke took buses much more back then and we often see Kimble on a bus. Most families then were one car families (if thst) so a lot of people used public transportation.
Once in a while Kimble drives (he drove a jeep this past week) and sometimes he probably drove w/out a license.

Back in the early 60s there wasn't nearly the paperwork there is now for jobs, esp transient jobs nor the background checks. Yes we needed social security numbers but remember a recent episode when Kimble stalled getting his paperwork he hadn't provided? (Was it in the Jack Klugman episode?) Things were a lot looser back then. You could start a job before everything was in.

[Oznell]

Very true, @Pearlee -- things were a lot less formalized and rigid then.  The idea of assuming a whole new identity is a romantic one, but it must be a lot harder now than it was then...

[Pearlee]

This comment has nothing to do with this past week's show but every time we mention good writing on this show I think of it so I may as well get it off my chest.

There is one episode that begins with Kimble arriving in yet another town. It's night time and he goes onto a diner and sits down on a stool and starts reading the classified ads in a newspaper. The waitress comes to take his order and he responds: "Soup. Any kind."

Wow. Those three words (and his body language as an actor) convey his weariness from running, his loneliness, his despondency. That couple-of-minutes scene evokes so much sympathy from the viewers for Kimble. His "I don't care just give me anything hot of substance" and probably all he can afford -- soup, any kind.

@Oznell I think this is from the opening of the episode with Suzanne Pleshette where she placed a classified ad the the paper trying to get Kimble's attention because she needs to tell him something about the 1-armed man, but I'm not sure. I think this very brief scene is so powerful and makes me so sympathetic to Kimble, poor guy, and I never forget it.

[Oznell]

@Pearlee,  I remember that scene!  It is just as you describe--  powerfully suggesting the desolation he is feeling, when he's wearily not even up to a decision about soup...

I was so struck by it as well.  The writing was indeed fabulous.   On a more frivolous note, I remember thinking, imagine being so emotionally spent, that you can't even focus enough to choose your favorite.  (I say that as a lover of good soup-- it's one of my favorite things.  There aren't that many I don't like, but I don't particularly care for New England clam chowder, or anything with squid, (ick) or heaven forbid, duck soup.

But Kimble wasn't really risking getting one of those last two in that diner, ha.)

I even think it was in that Suzanne Pleshette episode, as you suggest.  Good job in conjuring up a scene that so well illustrates the many strengths of this series!

[Pearlee]

@Oznell So happy you remember the scene too.
It's amazing what just those three words conveyed. Well, those plus DJ's acting - his demeanor and how he said those words.