Of the many television (see entry under 1940s—TV and Radio in volume 3) series that debuted in the 1960s and then became classics, one of the most popular was The Fugitive. This story of an innocent man on the run from the law while trying to find his wife's real killer fascinated the American people. In fact, the last episode of the series, "The Judgement," in which fugitive Richard Kimble finally catches up to the real killer, was the highest rated single episode of a TV series at the time and remained so until the final episode of M*A*S*H (see entry under 1970s—TV and Radio in volume 5) in 1983. When "The Judgement" aired in 1967, 72 percent of Americans watching TV that night were tuned to the show.

Legend has it that the show was based on the case of Dr. Sam Sheppard (1923–1970), convicted and...