Match contre la vie

Ah the adventure this presented when viewed at the tender age of 3 or 4.

My classmates always called me "Austin" and other impolite variations of the bionic man, yet they did not know back then about the TV i watched before i met them. Now it is of little consequence; and so this is a show that i regard fondly. As seen through the experience of a 4 yr old this tv show was very exciting for it's day. Long before i knew of politics and history this show was fun to watch and get involved with. After 40yrs TV is and may never be so fun to watch as the shows of my childhood, the media may operate the same but my perception as influenced by education simply makes todays TV mundane and "directed"; Oh how advanced communication techniques jaded this boy to whom days of the week passed like an eternity unto themselves. Now I am sketchy as to the star.... I am thinking Ben Gazara, but I think it might have been Christopher George... I am very glad for IMDB: It provides me the access to my early memories, that 100 years ago would not have been possible. Here is another example I implore those who read these words and have the resources to make this show available, to do so in a historical style, with accuracy and full preservation of the original broadcast and even perhaps the "extra" perks we can in todays tech employ and excavate the treasures of a generation who were so filled with joy at these daily events.

This was a very clever concept. A lawyer, Paul Bryan, has been diagnosed with an incurable disease and has been told he has just two to three years to live. The idea put this lead character in the position of living life to the fullest and the most responsible. There is a message in that for all of us somewhere, isn't there?

While somewhat morbid straight off the top, the concept made for interesting viewing from my perspective. Ben Gazzara played the main character and each week he would resolve other people's problems, but at the end of the show he would still be facing the anguish of a limited time on this earth. One of an unnamed genre of shows like "The Fugitive" and "The Incredible Hulk", "Run for Your Life" was set in locales all over the world, but probably filmed on studio back-lots, renovated to look like the French Riviera, Hawaii and Rio. The idea was that Bryan was seeing the world with what little time and resources he had left. Each episode he would engage in new relationships, involving himself in new circumstances, resulting in high action and adventure.

This wasn't a great show, but was certainly a product of its time. Always reminded us of our own mortality, which all of us need occasional reminders of in life.

At one time, TV shows occasionally had an interesting premise. This one's a variant on the question of what you'd do if you had the means and perhaps the time. Time, though, this character doesn't have, and the threat of death is probably what gives the series its focus and urgency. "To cram thirty years of living into one or two" is the voiced-over premise at the start of an episode; we would all do well to remember it at the start of a day, and live as though it's the last one, not recklessly but deliberately.

Grace Lee Whitney appeared briefly in the 1965 TV series "Run for Your Life," the story of the terminally ill Paul Bryan (Ben Gazarra). The fourth episode of the series is titled "Never Pick Up a Stranger" and begins in a small town on a Sunday morning. Whitney plays the character Millie, a fast-talking diner waitress, who serves a cup of coffee. The story revolves around Bryan's encounter with a runaway Kathy (Brenda Scott) and his decisions after returning her to that small town. Barry Sullivan portrays the hardass local sheriff, who is aggressive in his attempts to get Bryan back on the road. Grace makes another appearance in the middle of when the sheriff arrives to present Bryan with a warrant for his arrest. There are several twists until we find out why the Sheriff is after our innocent hero. Grace was on the cusp of joining the cast of "Star Trek" and would film several of the first few episodes but be written off the show before the first installment aired. This part is a perfect example of her underutilization as an actor despite a decade of dues being paid in good performances on a range of shows.

...that of not just the adventures of a dying man with only a year or two to live, but also make him rich and playboy handsome, and even though he's doomed by illness, bless him with otherwise relative good health so as to be symptom-free until the very end, and with that, set him free upon the world to basically go wherever he wants and do there whatever he wants. Okay. I'll bite.

I watched this show without fail during its first season, each and every episode-- 30 in all. It had everything a teenage boy of that era might like, hot women, hot cars and exotic places; every week the dying hero falls in love with a beautiful babe, while living life to the fullest possible extent. That it's all being enjoyed by a dying man, Paul, played by Ben Gazzara, at first only subtly and slightly puts a damper on all the fun. Hey, there's a lot to experience! But, to me, eventually, i.e., by the second season, the maudlin aspect of it all began to seriously undermine the enjoyability of the show. Who wants to be constantly reminded of the unrelenting imminence of death? By season 2 something had changed, maybe it was me, but for some reason I no longer liked the show.

Thinking back on it, in a way, the show is a lot like another 60s show, Route 66. If you take out the Corvette and the buddy, and inject the dying man conceit.

8 Stars for the inspired idea and for the 60s nostalgia