User Reviews

Kimble answers an ad looking for a driver for a trip across the country. Peggy Franklin, played by actress Suzanne Pleshette, hires him, and brings her young daughter.

Kimble becomes alarmed during the trip when he learns that the girl lives with her father, the parents are divorced, and the girl is supposed to start school on Monday. The police are soon on their trail.

Complications arise when the girl catches a deadly disease from her pet rabbit, actually stolen by her from her father's research lab. Kimble must make saving her life his top priority.

Actor R. G. Armstrong gives a fine performance as the marshall.

While my summary sounds like I am being facetious, I am NOT! In this installment of "The Fugitive", Dr. Kimble poses as Joe Taft...a guy who is hired to drive a woman (Suzanne Pleshette) and her daughter cross- country. But there are two HUGELY important things he doesn't realize. The mother is kidnapping the child from her ex-husband. And, the child has stolen a rabbit from her dad's research lab...and the rabbit is infected with Menningitis...a super-deadly illness to say the least. Kimble, of course, doesn't realize all this and only time will tell when he realizes what's going on...before it's too late.

All in all, a pretty good episode of "The Fugitive"...even if it is a bit tough to believe that a child could just walk in and take a virulent bunny like this!

Dick, wearing the name Joe Taft, answers an add to drive Suzanne Pleschette to California. Suzanne is a bit flighty, but not in the same way as Kimble. She is recovering from a nervous breakdown caused by the death of her father. They were very close and he was badly injured and eventually died from an accident when she was driving. So she has a phobia about driving, hence the add. She lost custody of her daughter to her X, a research scientist. She picks up her daughter for the weekend, which she can do, but she can't take her to California. So Dick, unknowingly a part of this, drives her old beater. Oh, and just before they leave, the girl takes a cute little bunny from daddy's lab. Unbeknownst to her, but knownst to us, the rabbit has been injected with meningitis. And the rabbit dies, which is news that Dick has heard before, but under different circumstances. Dick finds out about what is going on and takes the girl to a doctor, but the doc, who is the only doc within 100 miles, is out and won't be back for hours. And there's no medicine in the office. So Dick breaks into a nearby drugstore and is spotted by sheriff RG Armstrong and deputy Robert Sorrells, who would go on to be a murderer in real life. Anyways, they go to see the girl and Dick saves her life with penicillin. RG knows that Dick is a doctor on the run, but he lets Dick go because he saved the girl. And maybe because he remembers him from Corner of Hell and knows he's really a good guy. Dick kisses Suzanne goodbye, she gets over her phobia, and Richard Kimble remains..... a fugitive.

Suzanne Pleshette returns but in a different role than "Worlds End", (9/22/64). Here she's a woman who puts an ad in the paper for a man to drive her and her daughter to California. Kimble answers the ad. They get along fine and there are references to the family Kimble never had. They agree not ask too many questions but she does explain why she can't drive. She was at the wheel in an accident which resulted in her father's death and left her with a phobia of driving, (she seems rather relaxed in the car as long as she's a passenger).

Everybody in the car has a secret. Kimble's is that he's a fugitive from a murder charge. Suzanne's is that she's taken the child from her ex-husband, who won custody because of the nervous breakdown she had after the accident. She had visitation rights but she's illegally taking her daughter to live with her in California, meaning the police will be after them all the way. The little girl's secret is that the bunny she said her father gave her as a pet isn't a pet at all. He's a scientist studying meningitis and the bunny was stolen from his lab, where it had been injected with a particularly virulent form of the disease. Just another mundane day in the life of Dr. Richard Kimble.

Suzanne Pleshette on David Janssen, (from Ed Robertson's book on the series, "The Fugitive Recaptured"): As wonderful a performer as he was while he was starring in "The Fugitive", David became even better once he stopped trying to be what he thought was a conventional Hollywood leading man. Once he let go of that mentality and put forth his heart and his skills and allowed himself as an actor to be naked before the camera…that's when he began to be wonderful, just wonderful. He was doing really excellent work, particularly in movies for television, during the last 10 years of his life."

Her opinion of this episode,( from Mel Proctor's book, "The Official Fan's Guide to The Fugitive"): "I recently saw "All the Scared Rabbits" and I thought it was damned good. It holds up well. Usually, when I see material with that kind of age on it, it seems dated. The styles of acting and writing were more modern and I thought that the episode was intelligent and very well done."

Suzanne Pleshette and David Janssen are simply wonderful together in this episode. Their scenes are very easy and effortless; great pacing of the story, great timing in their dialogue. The sheriff and his deputy are very good too. We get to see a little humor in this one.

It's a fun episode whereas many Fugitive episodes are grim. For the most part, Kimble isn't on the run here. His job this week is to drive Peggy Franklyn and her daughter Nancy on a cross country road trip. The scene where Kimble meets Peggy is fun and fantastic. It sets the tone for the rest of the episode. After driving all afternoon, they stop for the night and have a drink at the hotel bar while Nancy is sleeping. That's when Peggy shares her life story with Kimble. Things get dangerous the following day when Nancy falls sick but it's always fun to hear Dr. Kimble pull out the medical jargon.

Suzanne Pleshette and David Janssen's last scene together is very touching. She even manages to get our hero to smile!