The Fugitive (TV Series) Nicest Fella You'd Ever Want to Meet (1965) User Reviews

That good 'ol boy ain't so good after all!

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 4 April 2017]

When the episode begins, you see a good 'old boy lawman, Marshall Joe Bob Sims (Pat Hingle), with a group of kids. He seems really swell...at first. Soon, however, he shows who he really is...a jerk drunk with power. He arrests Kimble on a trumped up charge and Kimble sees what the Marshall does next--he gets angry and kills a prisoner (Tom Skeritt)! Now the Marshall didn't PLAN on doing it...but he did indeed kill a prisoner he particularly disliked. The question is....does the Marshall know about Kimble seeing the killing? And, what can Kimble do about this? He isn't exactly in a position to raise a stink about the murder...considering he is himself a fugitive. Plus, the Marshall is well loved and respected.

This is a VERY tense episode and Hingle is very good playing the two-faced and sadistic Marshall who loves toying with the lives of his prisoners. It's also well written and entertaining. Some Southerners, on the other hand, might object to the stereotypes and how negatively it portrays them...though it isn't like Hingle is the first mega- jerk you've seen on the show...and they have come from all parts of the States! Well worth seeing...and very brutal compared to the average episode.

Plot summary

[ynot-16 · 8/10 · 18 December 2006]

Kimble is arrested for hitchhiking by small town sheriff Joe Bob Simms, played by actor Pat Hingle. Simms, who has his eye on higher political office, is building Apache Park, which will contain a statue of the next governor, Simms. Simms uses labor from his jail to work on this private project.

Although the sheriff appears to many to be a great guy, and good with children, in reality he is a sadistic taskmaster. Kimble, gathering trees left for planting at Lookout Point in Apache Park, sees below him the sheriff tormenting prisoner Neely Hollister (actor Tom Skerritt) with the police car. When Hollister finally gets mad and throws a rock at the car, Simms chases down and kills Hollister with the car, but falsely reports it as an unavoidable accident.

Sheriff Simms tells Kimble the judge gave him time served, drives him to the outskirts of town, and orders him to keep going. But before leaving, Kimble returns to town, looks up the Hollister family, and tells them what he saw. Kimble's life is in jeopardy when the outraged sheriff learns that Kimble has been squealing on him. With a coroner's inquest scheduled in a few days on Neely Hollister's death, Sheriff Simms swings into action to make sure that Kimble will not be alive to tell his story to the court.

The nicest psycho you'd ever want to meet

[jsinger-58969 · 9/10 · 4 February 2023]

Dick is trying to thumb a ride in a small Arizona town when his troubles begin. Old Burt Mustin, looking oddly like Freddy Kruger, alerts Sheriff Joe Bob Sims of the stranger and his thumb, and Joe Bob locks up the doc, with the intention of putting him to work in his park. Dick shares a cell with Tom Skerritt, and later witnesses Joe Bob fatally running down Tom at the park. Dick gets released and is given a ride to the town limit by Joe Bob, who tells him to not come back. But Dick has witnessed a murder, so he can't just leave. He comes back to tell Tom's sister what he saw, and then disappears. Now, Dick had called her to say he was coming to see her, and it seems like he should have just told her about what he saw then, as he wasn't going to stick around to testify anyway. And he undoubtedly would have done that if this were a 30 minute show. But it's not. So Dick has put himself in an unnecessarily perilous position, and has to sneak out of town. He hitches a ride at a gas station, but the guy hilariously wants an 18 point inspection of his car before he leaves. Dick wants to just kill the guy, but can't bring himself to do it before Joe Bob gets there. JB somehow knows exactly where to find to find Kimble, unfortunately. Dick tells deputy Dabney Coleman about the killing of Tom, but JB tells Dabney about the killing of Helen Kimble, which he found out about. Anyways, JB and Dick are alone at the park where JB is planning to shut RK up once and for all. He allows Dick to knock him out and escape, kind of risky since JB has left his gun where Dick could pick it up and shoot him. Well, maybe JB took the bullets out off camera. But even if he had, there were plenty of rocks that Kimble could have used to bash his head in, if he were the killer that JB thought he was. So, more than one character can act illogically. Dabney shows up and suspects that JB may be a killer after all. JB could just take Dick in since he is a convicted killer, but he wants to kill him instead. The quick thinking Dick convinces Dabney that he needs to stop JB, leading to a shootout that leaves JB dead and Dabney wounded. Dick surveys the carnage and leaves.

Good episode

[searchanddestroy-1 · 14 July 2017]

Yes, that's one more so interesting episode talking about a rotten sheriff, in the line of Gene Hackman's performance in UNFORGIVEN, a sheriff who seems at first sight to be a good man, but who happens to be a real nasty fellow whilst still being a true sheriff, so real sheriff, that the lead - here Janssen instead of Eastwood - can only be seen as a heavy... It may be hard to get, but I ma sure you have already done it. Haven't you?

This is a truly amazing TV show where you have a deep character study at each episode, and not necessarily around the fact that Janssen is on the run.

Underappreciated Masterpiece

[tavasiloff · 10/10 · 30 November 2020]

I didn't appreciate this episode when I first saw it 55 years ago. Seeing it again, the story line, characters and acting underscore the quality of the best dramatic series ever on TV. I would rank it in the top 10 episodes.

Fugitive: First Blood

[feargal-91558 · 8/10 · 3 March 2021]

This clearly inspired Rambo First Blood . Brian Dennehy took on the Pat Hingle role and even brings our hero to the town border albeit for different reasons . Sylvester Stallone played , of course, the ultimate Vietnam vet fugitive.

Explosive! The original Rambo First Blood is right here!

[joey_isham · 9/10 · 3 March 2024]

As I'm watching this storyline develop, it hits me. This is just like First Blood with Rambo starring Sylvester Stallone and Brian Dennehy. A sheriff trying to push a vagrant out of his beloved town - even driving him and dropping him off at the city limits. This is what Pat Hingle's Marshall Joe Bob character does for Richard Clarke (David Jannsen) And just like the sheriff in First Blood, Jim Bob wants him he doesn't wanna see him again. But Richard Clarke of course defies the Marshall and heads back into town... but only because he wants to report what he witnessed seeing the Marshall do. And it's bad. And when Clarke's (Kimble's) own secret gets out, it just adds fuel to the fire. This is an explosive suspenseful episode with a big dramatic ending. It's probably the best Fugitive I've ever seen!

Kimble's smarter than this

[Christopher370 · 3/10 · 13 July 2023]

One thing I couldn't get past in this episode was Kimble returning to the town and to the sister's home to tell her what happened. By this point in the series I think he's had enough experience being a fugitive on the run to know better than this, and would have called her safely from the distance of the next town or state.

Especially seeing first hand what a deranged psycho the Marshall was, I just can't see Kimble taking such a giant and foolish risk like this just to tell the sister what he saw. And since he couldn't stick around to be a legal witness for her anyway, there's really no sense in him going back there.

I do realize it was a plot device needed to happen in order for the story to unfold, but I don't think it should happen at the expense of the main character, because Kimble's not this foolish.

When he was getting nervous at the gas station afterwards, hoping for the ride he hitched to take off quickly before psycho cop came, it's hard to feel sorry for him when he put himself into such a dangerous position in the first place.

I think it would've been better had the Marshall saw Kimble looking down from the lookout point after the murder happened and then knew he was a witness his crime and have Kimble tell the Deputy and sister while he was inside the jail.

I think the rest of the story could have still unfolded in the same way without having Kimble make such an unbelievable mistake like turning back to the town and to the sister's house.

This is my second viewing of this episode and I rated it a 3 the first time and upon second viewing i'm still leaving it at that. I love this series a lot but I just don't care for this particular one.

To end my review on a positive note, I thought it was refreshing to see the woman at the end of the episode admonish Kimble with such hate. When he says the Deputy will be all right after being shot she angrily hisses at him "What difference could it make to a man like you?" which seems to hurt Kimble who we've seen so far feels that it's important for others to believe his innocence. He looked so dejected before he turned away to leave.

I thought it was a nice departure from the usual woman of the week falling head over heels in love with him at first sight. But still it was also uncalled for since Kimble really went out of his way to give her information about her brother's death so you'd think she'd at least be grateful to him, wife killer or not.

1/19/65 "Nicest Fella You'd Ever Want to Meet"

[schappe1 · 28 May 2015]

Pat Hingle is back in a tour de force as the title character, a Sheriff, (Joe Bob Sims), of a small Arizona town who on the surface seems like an Andy Taylor, being polite to everyone, telling folksy stories, etc. He's Andy Taylor if Andy Taylor is a corrupt psychopath. He has his eye on Mary Murphy, (Marlon Brando's girl in "The Wild One"), whose brother, (Tom Skerritt) is in jail for petty theft. He puts his prisoners to work on a park that is a sort of monument to himself, so he wants as many prisoners as he could get, including Richard Kimble whom he picks up on a charge of hitchhiking, which is somehow illegal in his town, (as are a lot of other things you wouldn't think of as unlawful). He puts Kimble, Skerritt and a drunk who was sleeping it off in jail to work on his park. He also has a deal with the mayor, (Dabbs Greer) that the mayor's son will get the Sheriff's job when Hingle gets an anticipated appointment to the state police, which will been a surprise to his deputy, (Dabney Coleman), who expects to get the job.

Hingle arranges for Skerritt to perish in an 'accident' that Kimble witnesses. He then releases Kimble outside the city limits, with instruction to never come back. However, Kimble's compassion and sense of justice causes him to return to tell Murphy what happened to her brother. He explains he can't stay to testify but she and her father charge him with theft to keep him here to do just that, which puts him back in Hingle's jail. Nobody could have played this folksy bad guy as well as Pat Hingle- except maybe Andy Griffith, (if you've ever seen "A Face in the Crowd").