Borrowing elements from the thriller and film noir genres, The Fugitive started out with a modest audience but grew into an enduring fan favorite that eventually spawned a feature film and a revamped series in the 90s.

Dr. Richard Kimble, played by David Janssen, is a well-liked pediatrician from Indiana who has been accused, convicted and sentenced of his wife’s brutal murder. Kimble maintains his innocence throughout the trial—though the evidence points to his guilt—and faces the death penalty. The train Kimble is on derails, allowing the prisoner to escape and go on the run. Kimble is keen on proving his innocence by exposing the real murderer, a one-armed man he saw fleeing the Kimbles’ home on the night of the murder. Pursuing the fugitive is Lt. Philip Gerard, a clever and determined police officer, who makes Kimble’s re-capture a priority.

Kimble uses his wits and skills to stay on the trail of the one-armed man, catching up with him in several episodes but always losing him again. Bringing up the rear is Lt. Gerard who is torn between his sense of duty to bring a convicted murderer to justice and his personal doubts as to Kimble’s guilt. Over many episodes, Gerard grudgingly accepts that Kimble is a decent man and helps the fugitive confront the one-armed in the series finale.

The show was at its most popular during the second season but its appeal declined during the third and fourth seasons. Regardless, it drew a massive audience for the time when the two-part finale aired in 1967. Viewers had watched Kimble narrowly missing the real killer and evading his own arrest for years, so they tuned in for some much needed closure.

A feature film released in 1993 had Harrison Ford as Dr. Kimble and Tommy Lee Jones as Gerard, bringing the cat-and-mouse game to new audiences 30 years after the original series. The movie was very popular in its own right and rekindled interest in the 60s version of the story, which is still alive and well in syndication.