The Official Fan Guide to The Fugitive by Mel Proctor

The Fugitive starring David Janssen was a TV series from the 1960's that had a huge fan base then and that interest  continues 40 years later. There have been years of re-runs on TV and recently, the DVD's of this series were finally released. This again has put this TV classic front and center for past and new fans, young and old.

I was just a kid when The Fugitive was first on the air but I remember it as being "the show" that everyone was watching. When the series wrapped in 1967, the final episode, The Judgement Part 1 and 2 had the highest rating of all time for viewers tuning in to see the exciting conclusion.  Stephen King has said that The Fugitive was the best TV series EVER made. I tend to agree. I don't watch a lot of TV but The Fugitive is still well worth the time. We are enjoying the DVD's now and the stories for the most part, still ring true. Riveting acting and full of suspense and emotion, all these years later.

I was very pleased to recently find this book about The Fugitive that was re-issued around the time of the DVD's being released. The Official Fan Guide to the Fugitive by Mel Proctor  is good in some respects, not so good for a number of reason too .

On the positive side, it is an engaging read, if you were ever a fan of this show or David Janssen. For me, that's a given. If I could ever consider myself star-struck, it was all about David Janssen! LOL I even wrote a post about this late, great actor at my poetry blog a couple of years ago, you can read it here.

Author, Mel Proctor provides many interesting stories about the stars of the show, guest actors and some of the behind the scenes happenings that make for interesting reading and a nostalgic trip down TV memory lane. That was all good.

What I didn't like about this book? First of all, the presentation is, in a word is CHEAP. What came to mind, looking through the pages initially was a grade school class report. Cheap paper, very poor quality photo images (copies of originals), page references that are incorrect....

This is the type of book that for fans should have been a collector's item to keep. If it had been produced in a smaller page format, with good-quality paper and photo inserts (even if that meant less images) and a quality cover, it would have been a lot more appealing. I don't know who edited this book (if it was) but it certainly could have been improved in many respects. The subject was a good one, the presentation unfortunately, left much to be desired.

For true, blue fans of all things relating to The Fugitive and David Janssen, this is a book that still may appeal in spite of it's short-comings. I'd look for a sale though, it's not worth the full price currently available at Amazon for almost $25. In my opinion, that's just too much $$$$.

Overall rating for this book: Fair. 2 out of 5.