The Museum of Television & Radio Salutes Roy Huggins

On March 10th, the Museum of Television & Radio, as part of its 10th Anniversary, saluted CAUCUS member Roy Huggins. Huggins, a novelist and screenwriter before turning to television, created and/or produced some of television's most successful series, movies and mini-series. In saluting Huggins, The Museum noted that "For over thirty years, creator/ producer/ director/writer Roy Huggins has infused a sense of comedy and light-heartedness into what had been the sober tone of television western and detective genres."

Huggins created Maverick (1957), 77 Sunset Strip (1958), The Fugitive (1962), Run For Your Life (1966 with Jo Swerling), The Outsider (1967), and The Rockford Files (1975 with Stephen Cannell). He produced all of the above, except The Fugitive, as well as Cheyenne (1955), Kraft Suspense Theatre (1964), Alias Smith and Jones (1971), Toma (1973), Baretta (1975) and Hunter (1985-88).

he Fugitive, which ran on ABC for five years (1963-1967) told the story of Dr. Richard Kimble's (David Jansen) search for the one-armed man (Bill Raisch) who killed his wife. Kimble himself was being pursued by Lt. Gerard (Barry Morse), who believed Kimble was the murderer.

In the final episode of The Fugitive (8/29/67), Lt. Gerard realized Kimble was innocent and shot the one-armed man to save the doctor's life. That episode was seen by more people than any single episode in a regular series in the history of television until that time (a 72 share). It wasn't until thirteen years later, when America learned who shot J.R., that Dallas surpassed The Fugitive's numbers.

Caucus member, Stephen J. Cannell, who was affiliated with Huggins on Toma, Maverick, The Rockford Files, City of Angels and Hunter has offered some thoughts about Huggins to the Caucus Quarterly.

Cannell article

The following excerpt is from Huggin's forthcoming memoirs, Tears From A Glass Eye.

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