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Roy Huggins in the early days, 1960
David Janssen as Dr. Richard Kimble, The Fugitive .
Ben Gazzara as Paul Bryan, Run For Your Life |
Roy Huggins has died. You may not know the name or the face (left), but you know his work. He was a genius in his own way. Huggins was one of the most daring, prolific and thoughtful writers in the history of television. He created the series The Fugitive and was involved in the 1993 movie, based on the series, starring Harrison Ford. But he also created Maverick, Alias Smith and Jones, Run for Your Life, 77 Sunset Strip, and was producer for many other ground-breaking series, such as The Virginian and Bus Stop, and was co-creator of The Rockford Files and Baretta. Nobody did a better job putting together controversial TV shows; he spoke often of the blank looks and panicked expressions on the faces of TV executives when he proposed a series in which the hero would be a man convicted of murdering his wife who then escaped on the way to his execution. The execs hated it. But one of the higher-ups at ABC liked it, and he overruled his programmers. The Fugitive was born. Of course, the programmers' panic was unjustified. In the hands of a plot-and-character-oriented writer like Huggins, the lead character, Doctor Richard Kimble, became a human being viewers came to know, to love and to feel sorry for, every week. Huggins based the character on the novel, Les Miserables, with its tragic-but-everyman protagonist, then drew parallels with the 1950s case of Doctor Sam Shepard, who was accused and convicted of killing his wife, but who said a "bushy-haired" man was seen near his home while Shepard was away from his house at the time of his wife's murder. Shepard did serve years in prison; the "bushy-haired" man was never found. (Only recently, an author said he believes the man Shepard described was in actuality a serial killer who traveled from town to town and months after the Shepard murder was gunned down in a confrontation with New York police. That serial killer matched the description Shepard and other witnesses gave police.) But combine the Shepard case and Les Miserables, pan out the story arc with lots of human drama, thought-provoking storylines, insist on good acting and then hand the character of Doctor Kimble over to an actor as sympathetic and sensitive as David Janssen, and Huggins had a phenomenon on his hands. The final episode of The Fugitive, which wrapped up the storyline, was the most-watched episode of TV series in history. Huggins never topped The Fugitive in his writing and producing career in terms of popularity and prestige, but it made his reputation. Huggins had written novels -- one of which was adapted to become the TV series 77 Sunset Strip, which Huggins produced -- and was hired by Warner Brothers to produce their early forays into TV -- most notably the long-running popular western, Cheyenne. But Huggins had his own ideas. Cheyenne was among the top series in a crowded field of TV westerns, and Huggins believed it was time for a real anti-hero adult satire of westerns. He wrote a treatment for Maverick and cast a young James Garner and Jack Kelly in the lead roles as two shiftless-but-loveable gamblers. It became a quick success. The formula Huggins found captured viewers. The show wasn't a ratings blockbuster, but those who became fans of the show were hooked. Viewers especially identified Garner with his character as created by Huggins, and Garner found a character he could repeat endlessly and capture the hearts of fans. Huggins went on to produce 77 Sunset Strip, about a trio of private eyes and their friends, fashioning ingenious detective mysteries, in a loose format that led to Warner Brothers clones of the series, Hawaiian Eye, Surfside Six and Bourbon Street Beat. By 1962, Warner Brothers was becoming increasingly staid and creatively stifling. Huggins, after putting The Fugitive together for United Artists, signed on with Universal, where he stayed for more than 20 years. But first, Huggins helmed a thoughtful, groundbreaking series based on the Marilyn Monroe movie, Bus Stop. The Monroe character was put aside, as was her cowboy suitor from the film. What was left was the crew who worked at the bus stop (Marilyn Maxwell, Joan Freeman) in the little town of Sunrise, Colorado, and those who frequented the cafe there, including the DA (Richard Anderson) and the sheriff (Rhodes Reason). Like The Fugitive, Bus Stop was human drama and at its essence was an anthology, introducing and exploring characters unique to each episode while the series regulars came into their lives, then left. Any guest stars on Bus Stop had to stop into the cafe and talk with -- and maybe involve in their lives -- the series regulars, revealing their unique stories. By the end of each episode, their story was tied up, but the residents of Sunrise would return next week. Making the lead characters in a TV series peripheral to the spotlighted guest-character in each episode was pioneered in previous series such as Naked City and Route 66, but the characters on those series were cool and usually somewhat detached. In Bus Stop (and The Fugitive and Run For Your LIfe and The Rockford Files), the running characters were warm, engaged and concerned, if wary. That was Roy Huggins' contribution to the format. But Huggins also introduced a plot device that has since become a Hollywood obsession: the backstory. Perfected later on series such as MASH, All In the Family and Lou Grant, Huggins realized early that you can blend one important story with a second, usually character-based, story, weave them together carefully and give the audience the subliminal feeling they've gotten two shows for the price of one. With Maverick, The Fugitive and Bus Stop, Roy Huggins made the backstory a part of his style. He didn't always use the technique, certainly, but he was the first to use it consistently. Watch an episode of Maverick and see the two brothers' stories entertwined; view several Fugitive episodes and marvel at the structure of Dr. Kimble's encounters with the residents of yet another new town -- while we travel back to his hometown of Stafford, Indiana, and slowly get to know -- and like -- his antagonist, Lieutenant Philip Gerard and his family, his obsession and frustrations at being unable to capture Kimble and his strained, tenuous relationship with his boss and other law officers. Today, TV drama (and comedy) is largely made up of several backstories, so much so that they're no longer backstories. It's three or four or even five 7-minute stories weaved together to create a tapestry. It's still drama and it's still exciting and creative. But the depth of human emotion is no longer explored as deeply as TV once did (not by far), conflict is reduced to confrontation and story construction has evolved into a technique rather than a display of form, a craft rather than an art. Bus Stop was cancelled after one intriguing, exciting season because of pressure on the network, ABC, after an episode called "A Lion Walks Among Us" (directed by Robert Altman) featured the first cold, psychotic killer ever to be depicted on a popular TV series brought howls over the increasing levels of violence on TV. In this case, it was the casual, unconcerned nature of the multiple killings by the featured character (played, oddly enough, by early-'60s teen idol Fabian Forte) that roused the most concern, notably by members of Congress. And rightly so: the Fabian character would presage the casual, unconcerned violence of people who years later would be called "serial killers" -- true-life monsters who live among us even today. At Universal, Huggins created a variation on The Fugitive. It was again a warm, concerned character who wandered into people's lives one episode at a time, but this time it was a lawyer who found he had only two years to live. Paul Bryan (played brilliantly by Ben Gazarra) quit his job and wandered the world looking for fun, thrills and unusual people and places before he died. Run For Your Life proved popular enough in its Tuesday (later Thursday) night run on NBC to last three seasons -- a year longer than Bryan was supposed to live. It was Huggins' first venture into blatant cultural study: episodes featured Bryan with guest characters involved in murder, rape, abortion, political coups, crooked politics, social isolation, intellectual snobbery, perverted religion and drug addiction. It was a socially concerned decade, the 1960s, and Run For Your LIfe fit right in. But it was the very timeliness of the storylines that led to the show's unpopularity in rerun syndication. It's just too '60s in its point of view; you can't find it in reruns today. Huggins wrote a number of episodes of the series (and others) under his pen name, John Thomas James, which actually was the name of his three sons, Johnny, Tom and Jim. Huggins then, in 1969, went on create popular series like Alias Smith and Jones, about two Maverick-styled con artists traveling the old American west. Huggins hit pay dirt again later with Toma, a fictionalization of the real-life adventures of a New York City cop who worked his sources and researched murder cases to find criminals. Tony Musante intensely essayed the lead role, with Susan Strasberg (daughter of Actors Studio legend Lee Strasberg) as Toma's wife. Huggins brought along many of the producers and crew from Run For Your LIfe, but the series failed to catch viewers. Until, when the series was cancelled, it was decided to try the basic format again -- a conscientious, intense but eccentrically independent cop who has sources among the underworld -- but eliminating the wife, recasting and moving the location from New York. The retooled series was then called Baretta, which became a ratings success, lasting four years. By 1974, Huggins had been trying to find a new series for James Garner, who had found little TV success since Maverick (though he'd become a major movie star in the interim). At about the same time, Huggins agreed to team up with one of his protégés, a young writer who learned eccentric drama at the feet of the master, Jack Webb, working on Dragnet '67 (the late-'60s revival of the popular 1950s police series, Dragnet). Huggins and his new partner, Steven Cannell, set about to update the Maverick character for Garner, bringing Bret Maverick into the 1970s, giving him a steady job as a private detective, a close relationship with his dad (like Baretta had), gave him prison time for a crime he didn't commit (a la The Fugitive), underworld contacts (similar to Toma) and a good friend on the police force, then sent the character caringly into the lives of others (like Run For Your LIfe). The result was more pay dirt. The Rockford Files ran four years and reestablished Garner as one of the most popular TV actors in history. It established Cannell as a clever, commercial TV writer and series creator (he went on to a number of popular series, most notably The A Team). And it gave Huggins his unprecedented seventh hit series as a writer and producer. The show is still very popular, nearly 30 years after its inception. Huggins had long taken on proteges, among them Jo Swerling, Jr., son of the popular 1930s writer, and had been a large presence at the UCLA television and film department, teaching, contributing, writing and even going back to school himself to earn a masters degree. By the 1980s, Huggins had cut back on his work schedule and was devoting more time to his return to college, to writing and occasional producing -- but at the age of 62, Roy Huggins had already lived a brilliant career, and was slowing down, enjoying his success and leisure time. He emerged again in the popular press with the release of the movie version of his The Fugitive, this time starring Harrison Ford, which Huggins worked on in an active but advisory capacity. He was listed as a creator on the sequel to The Fugitive, US Marshals, and was writing right up until his death in early April, 2002. Television has produced few geniuses -- Jackie Gleason, Sid Caesar, Larry Gelbart, Rod Serling -- but there are almost none to be counted among producers who can also create who can also write exceedingly well. Roy Huggins is the only one I can think of. With wit, courage, ingenuity and a firm hand on nuance, character and style, insisting on quality and keeping his heart with the common man, Huggins gave TV what little cumulative personality it has had. Imagine TV history without Jim Rockford or Dr. Richard Kimble (once voted by TV Guide readers as one of the "most unforgettable characters" ever on television) or Stu Bailey (77 Sunset Strip, coolly played by Efrem Zimbalist Jr., dad of Remington Steele's Stephanie Zimbalist) or Bret Maverick or even Baretta or Cheyenne. These were characters with a life of their own, with a sense of humor and a depth that made us believe we knew them personally, that they were loyal, kind friends, the likes of which are very hard to find in real life. They didn't come to TV because a bunch of people got together and decided how to put together a drama assembly-line style, such as much of television has been assembled. They weren't there because someone purchased a novel and wanted to get their money's worth by turning it into a TV show. They didn't enter our homes and our hearts because some producer liked a British TV series and decided to Americanize it. They came from the mind of Roy Huggins. So help me. -- Mike Shiloh, April 21, 2002 |
