“The Night of the Fugitives is just so-so episode as far as the plot is concerned. Jim and Artie are pursuing the nebbish bookkeeper for a crime syndicate. Jim nearly nabs him in san Francisco, but the crooked accountant esapes to epitaph, Colorado, where Jim tracks him down. Unfortunately, Epitaph is a racket owned entirely by the crime syndicate boss. Jim and Artie, posing as an Elmer Gantry, have to snuggle the bookkeeper out of te town populated by gunmen.If the plot I just described sounds more like a third than fourth season episode, that is because it was intended to be. Filming had to be stopped for the entire season because of one notorious scene. “The Night of the Fugitives” is most famous for featuring Robert Conrad’s failed stunt which resorted in a skull fracture. The morbid part is the footage of the accident was still used in the episode. Geek that I am, I have it all screen capped for you.
Conrad is supposed to jump from the top of the staircase, grab the chandelier, swing on it, and kick a stuntman playing a thug.
He successfully makes the jump and grab.
He also successfully makes the kick, but his hands slip off the chandelier.
This one is blurry because the accident happened quickly, but Conrad goes down head first onto the floor with his legs flailing in the air. His actual landing is fast and mostly obscured by the staircase, but he hits hard.
There is an abrupt cut right after this moment. Filming ended for the third season ended because of Conrad's injury. When filming resumed months later, the scene was more or less picked up here with the fight continuing. But the above scene is genuine. While later filming made this out to be the thug grabbing Jim to continue the fight, it is the stuntman checking on Conrad's well-being. He was slow to get up and clearly already in distress.This was the first serious injury Conrad sustained. Surprising, considering the daredevil stunts he had performed over the last three seasons eventually earned him a spot in the Stuntman’s Hall of Fame. Afterwards, the studio put a restriction on the type of stunts Conrad would be allowed to do. The accident contributed to the notion The Wild Wild West was too violent for prime time television and, along wit Ross Martin’s heart attack in the fourth season, lead to its cancellation.
I hae to point out the irony of claiming the series is too violent when they used the actual, nearly fatal accident Conrad suffered, treated it as part of the fight, and kept going with it as though he never got hurt. Is not one of the complaint violence on television is senseless because the consequences are not dealt with maturely?
“The Night of the Fugitives” is decent, but not great. I cannot in good conscience give it a bad score, though, can I?
Rating: *** (out of 5)
