"A Lion Walks Among Us"

On 3 December 1961, the episode "A Lion Walks Among Us" of the ABC television series "Bus Stop" was broadcast. With the resultant firestorm, this was the only time this episode was broadcast on commercial television and it is not available on DVD. ABC president Oliver Treyz, who insisted on broadcasting it despite many concerns, would later be fired, and Bus Stop was cancelled.

Roy Huggins, the executive producer, saw his career at 20th Century Fox derailed, and, separately, got into a war of words with Newton Minow of the FCC.

There is an interesting blog post on A Shroud of Thoughts. LINK: http://mercurie.blogspot.com/2008/09/bus-stop-lion-walks-among-us.html?m=1

Of legal interest, the deranged psychopath in the episode (played by Fabian, who actually seemed to benefit from the controversy) killed his defense attorney, who had gotten him off of another murder rap.

Of academic interest, while recovering from the fallout, Huggins resumed working on his PhD at UCLA, and was out of the entertainment business for a while. "The Fugitive" did get moved along. He did later work on the Rockford Files, re-uniting with James Garner.

Of IP interest, there is funny business on crediting of Huggins' work done by Warner.

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Most of the "bad acts" by Fabian's character appear in a short clip which precedes the title and credits at the beginning. There is a lengthy courtroom scene wherein the prosecutor's wife, who has relevant (time) evidence, is "destroyed" by the defense attorney. The prosecutor (played by Richard Anderson) is shown bowed down, hand on head.