See Hollywood and Die

Made in an era where violent youth culture was certainly a thing in the media. If you were of a nervous disposition or just old. I doubt you set foot outside your house for a fortnight after watching this episode. In some ways this is a story that is ahead of its time.

Dr Kimble is working at a gas station in New Mexico. Two hoodlums rob the place, shoot the boss dead and get involved in a shootout with a passing police car.

Kimble finds himself hostage with a young woman Joanne Spencer (Brenda Vaccaro) who stopped at the gas station.

The unhinged villains are on the way to Hollywood where they dream of living the high life. Thinking on his feet to keep himself and Joanne alive. Kimble tells the two men that he was planning a job in LA. An extra twist is added when they later discover that Kimble is the escaped fugitive.

I thought this was more about youth culture of the period. The two thugs Miles (Chris Robinson) and Vinnie (Lou Antonio) seem to be without much thought or remorse. Even though they killed a man and shot at the police. Vinnie who is the calm one draws attention to himself at a diner where he is rude. Miles is constantly trying to rape Joanne and has acquired the taste for killing.

In a quieter moment Joanne confesses to Kimble that she was due to get married the day before. She ran out as she wanted to experience some excitement and ended up in this dangerous situation.

The doc is working at Wally's filling station when a couple of crazy punk hoods rob the place. Kimble just attracts trouble. They kill Wally and take Dick and a good looking woman who happens by with them when they high tail it outta there. Of course, if there's a woman involved she's good looking, and Brenda Vaccaro fits the bill. Kimble thinks on his feet and has the punks believing he's about to score 150 large in LA. The punks were content to see Hollywood and take a swim in someone's pool, so color them impressed. One of them, Miles, is a wide eyed psycho who thinks Kimble is his father and calls him daddy the whole show. He stays in Brenda's car with her and apparently rapes her while Kimble and the other punk are buying a used car, which they do without needing to show a license or insurance, or even ID. The punks are impressed with how Kimble handled the salesman, when the salesman was even dumber than they are. Anyways, the cops get fingerprints off of Brenda's car, which they ditched after getting the other car from Dopey Dave's Cars Are Us, and it's front page news that big money Al is really Richard Kimble. With more quick thinking, Kimble tells the punks he has a partner and needs to call him. The "partner" is a reporter whose name is on a sign that fortunately the punks, who might as well be named Bill and Ted, fail to notice. One of them waits for the police in a hotel room while the other, the nut bag, goes with Kimble and Brenda. He plans to kill Brenda, but Kimble uses his superior fighting skills to knock him cold, ironically at the very site of a future swimming pool. Dick shows compassion and wants to know that Brenda will be alright before he runs away. He also wants her to know that he really didn't kill his wife. In future seasons, he didn't seem to care as much if people believed he did it or not. She tells the cops he went thataway, when he really went the other way, and Richard Kimble remains......a fugitive.

After a bad experience on the crops, Doctor Kimble moves to small quiet Town working in a Gas station hoping has some peace time, when suddenly appears two young guys making an armed robbery, unfortunately the Town's Sheriff and a client arrives in that moment, the assault is halted, the shooting starts leaving the Gas station owner death, they running away taken two hostage, Dr. kimble and the young girl Joanne Spencer (Vaccaro), Kimble realizing that the two boys are dangerous and bad, recently released from a reformatory, the he settles a smart plain to misleading them, he presents himself as a professional thief and has a big job to do at Los Angeles, fine episode where the evil and malicious youngest guy Miles on a great acting (Chris Robinson) seemingly disconnected of the reality, strongly enhanced to violence as mere pleasure, Vinnie (Lou Antonio) the older is the chief is steadfast , Joanne is a girl running from her wedding day, she'll of utmost concernent on the plot, soon the police discover the real identify of Dr. Kimble as woman's killer, no Gerard this time!!

Resume:

First watch: 2020 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.5

This episode I can watch repeatedly without tiring of it. Mainly because of the excellent performances of the main characters, but most of all Chris Robinson as the homicidal dunderhead Miles. Love the scene where he get's jealous of Kimble pretending to seduce the female hostage, and then pantomimes shooting a poor little kid. This after he kisses the windshield twice. This episode also showed that Kimble didn't have to always play the persecuted righteous loner. Another difference in this episode is at the beginning where we see the fugitive not immediately freaking out when he see's policemen, and actually smiles and waves at two who are approaching in a squad car.

When the show begins, Richard Kimble (David Janssen) is posing as Al--a guy working at a gas station. Unfortunately, a couple dirt-bag armed robbers show up--killing the owner and taking a woman and Al hostage. Al is smart and keeps his wits...and then pretends to be the type of folks everyone thinks Richard Kimble is. He gets these crooks to slowly trust him and his hope is that will give him a chance to at least get the female hostage (Brenda Vaccaro) to safety. Later, they learn he's not Al the criminal but Richard Kimble the 'killer' and now they REALLY like their new hostage!

The title of the episode does not mean that the show is set in Hollywood. It actually begins in New Mexico and the criminals plan on eventually make it to Hollywood in their spree.

Overall, this is a very exciting and fast-paced episode. The actors playing the dirt-bags did a nice job in making the audience hate them!