This has always been a puzzlement to me

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He didn't leave the country because he was still looking for the one-armed man and wanted to be ready to go after him at a moment's notice. He didn't want to escape and have to spend the rest of his life looking over his shoulder and knowing that people hated him. He wanted to prove his innocence and return to having a real life.

Remember also that this took place in the early and mid '60s. Beards were much less common then than they are now, and were mostly associated with hippies, etc. Internal to the show, Kimble would want to blend into the crowd and not attract even a second glance, so being clean-shaven would help with that. As an external consideration, I think that, at the time, a beard would have been something of a turn-off to viewers.

And there was an episode where he tried to fake leaving the country. Have you seen that one? (I don't recall the title.) The idea was to get Gerard to believe he skipped out to Europe so he'd quit chasing him, but Kimble could remain in the U.S. to continue hunting down the one-armed man.

Funny you mention a mustache and beard. In the movie, Kimble had one then shaved it off. Looking at his mustache and beard before all his troubles, he looked too scraggly to be a doctor and looked more like a panhandler.

As for the beard. This was pre-slob America, when every man shaved, and having a bearded leading man was unacceptable. Ever notice how Kimble wears a business suit when he's not working at one of his dirty day labor jobs? Same premise. That was what the viewing public expected. It was a more formal era, then that of today.

Yeah, it would've made sense for Kimble, but it wouldn't have made sense for the show's producers, who needed a good-looking leading man to help sell the show. And the way they did it does make for a more appealing look.

According to Ed Robertson the author of "The Fugitive Recaptured" when David Janssen and Quinn Martin were preparing for the series they spent alot of time in various small towns and police stations checking into (among other things) the best manner of disguise to use on the show. Janssen told Newsweek in 1965 "The police told us that nearly 99% of all men on the run rarely do more to delude their pursuers than change their hair color."

In trying to blend in with his surroundings having alot of facial hair might have actually made Richard Kimble look more suspicious at a time when most men were clean cut and clean shaven. Also someone who has to move around alot and is almost constantly looking for a job needs to look presentable in order to get hired.

Or why wasn't it called 'The Smoker'?