The Girl from Little Egypt

I came to IMDB to refresh my memory. Pamela Tiffin is a name I have heard before, but can't say as I know what work she had done. After I got the name I looked at the description for this episode and see it starts with "An average looking airline stewardess". Pamela Tiffin has to be the best looking actress to ever appear on this show, "average" is not the best way to describe her. What I liked about this episode is that Kimble is not discovered by law enforcement. I grew up in the 60's and know that killings were happening all the time. The idea that one man accused of one murder would get so much attention nationwide is ridiculous.

This episode ranks on the "all-time best list", filling in the details of Kimble's story.

Pamela Tiffin and Ed Nelson give solid performances. It will keep you interested as well as appreciating Kimble's moral character. The courtroom scenes are outstanding.

When the show begins, a total dirt-bag reveals to his long-time girlfriend that he's already married!! Ruth (Pamela Tiffin) is naturally heartbroken and leaves. She should NOT be driving, as she's hysterical and crying and before you know it, she's run over poor Richard Kimble (David Janssen) who is just happens to be standing in the wrong spot at the time!

When Kimble awakens, he does something odd. While he clearly was hit by Ruth, he lies to the police and tells them he stepped in front of her car. She appreciates him lying to save her from jail but soon comes to realize why he lied. While he's in his hospital bed, he is asleep and starts having a nightmare...and begins talking out in his sleep! She now knows that he's a wanted murderer...but she takes pity on him and agrees to keep that a secret between them. Later, when he's able to be discharged, she brings Kimble home to recuperate.

The style of this particular episode is very unusual in many ways. There is no opening montage like usual and Kimbel's backstory is completely fleshed out here. You learn about his wife's miscarriage and hysterectomy and you learn that try as he might to make the marriage work, his wife was so depressed and angry that the marriage was a nightmare for him. And, you see the events unfold during the night his wife was murdered...including him seeing the one-armed man. At least half of the episode is just these flashback scenes. It's also a different episode because there isn't the usual threat to Kimble during the episode or at the end. So, instead of this conflict, they insert the backstory.

While I am not a sexist sort of guy, I was absolutely struck by Pamela Tiffin. She was mesmerizingly gorgeous and I never saw her made up so beautifully in films I've seen her in, such as "One, Two, Three". You REALLY want to see him stay with her at the end...especially since she is a fundamentally decent lady despite her troubles.

So is the episode any good? Well, that's hard to say. While I hate flashbacks, this is a novel way of telling Kimble's story...and it does fill in a lot of gaps. I would have preferred just a straight retelling of the past and a separate episode involving Tiffin...but it's still pretty good. I especially like the scene where Kimble takes Ruth to a surprise party...it's very poignant and well played.

The fans had written in demanding a show that showed them the Fugitive's back-story. Stanford Whitmore wrote a script where Kimble, racked with hunger and fever, is taken in by a Puerto Rican hooker who learns about his back-story from his delirious ravings, which became flashbacks to the events of Helen Kimble's murder. Producer Quinn Martin took one look at it and said "A Puerto Rican hooker?" It was changed to a San Francisco airline stewardess who, upset with her boyfriend, is driving while crying and accidentally hits Kimble, thus causing the delirium.

We find out that Helen Kimble wanted to have a baby but not only was their first attempt stillborn but he was so damaged she could not have babies in the future. At home afterwords, Kimble suggested adoption but she was against it, refusing to accept that she couldn't have babies. The argument got so heated Kimble left to clear his mind. He paused by a river and saw a young boy fishing. Then he drove back, almost running over a one-armed man running for him house and went in to find his wife dead. The young fisherman never saw him and neither did anyone else, although they heard the argument. Nobody saw a one-armed man except Kimble.

When the fever breaks and Kimble regains consciousness, he finds the stewardess, (played by the stunningly beautiful Pamela Tiffin), knows his history but won't turn him in because she's guilty about the accident and she believes him. But they still have to deal with her boyfriend, played by Ed Nelson, (he'll will be back in another role in episode 24), who doesn't want Kimble around.

When the movie "The Fugitive" came out in 1993, ABC decided to rebroadcast the final episode, "The Judgement". But they wanted to broadcast an episode that showed the back-story so they showed "The Girl From Little Egypt" rather than the actual premiere, "Fear in a Desert City", which referred to the events of Helen Kimble's death but did not show them.

Although this is perhaps not the best episode in the series, and Kimble does not face as much danger from the law as he usually does, this is a good episode, and certainly the most important one in terms of giving background information about Kimble and his case. Outside the final episode, this is the only one that has a significant appearance by Helen Kimble, played by actress Diane Brewster.

Ruth Norton (actress Pamela Tiffin) has just learned her boyfriend, Paul Clements (actor Ed Nelson), is a married man. Upset and crying while driving home, she hits Kimble (first George Browning, later George Norton), who is standing near the road. He is taken to the hospital, and Ruth comes along. As he goes in and out of consciousness, in flashbacks we see snippets of the life of Mr. and Mrs. Kimble in Stafford, Indiana, incidents from his trial, and the details of Kimble's first escape.

In these flashbacks, we learn Helen is an unpleasant drunk, unhappy about her stillborn child and subsequent inability to have children. Helen and Kimble argue about her drinking, and also about his desire for adoption, and her insistence that would be living a lie. Kimble storms off, and returns to find a one armed man running from the scene. He goes in the house and finds Helen dead.

Ruth hears Kimble say things while delirious, and believes he is innocent, since people in a delirium normally do not lie. Kimble protects Ruth (and defeats further police inquiry) by falsely claiming the accident is his fault. Ruth decides to keep Kimble's statements a secret, and takes Kimble home to help him recuperate.

Paul Clements keeps chasing after Ruth. Kimble, realizing how unhappy Ruth is, develops a plan to help her to a happier future without Paul. However, Paul is doing his own scheming.

This episode contains an interesting scene at a party where guests call upon Kimble to settle an argument by giving his view of capital punishment.

This episode shows Kimble's prosecutor as being Mr. Rand, played by actor Bernard Kates. In "Running Scared," Kimble's prosecutor was Mike Ballinger, played by actor James Daly. The judge who sentences Kimble to death, not identified by name, is played by actor William Newell.

Actress Diane Brewster, who plays Helen Kimble, is frequently seen in reruns of Leave It To Beaver, where she plays his teacher, Miss Canfield.