Quincy, M.E.

Quincy, M.E.
Title card
Format	Drama
Created by	Glen A. Larson Lou Shaw
Starring	Jack Klugman Robert Ito Garry Walberg John S. Ragin Val Bisoglio Joseph Roman
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	8
No. of episodes	148 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time	60 to 90 minutes 60 minutes (syndication)
Production company(s)	Glen A. Larson Productions Universal Television
Broadcast
Original channel	NBC
Picture format	35mm film 4:3 aspect ratio
Original run	October 3, 1976 – September 4, 1983

Quincy, M.E., also called Quincy, is a United States television series from Universal Studios that aired from October 3, 1976, to September 5, 1983, on NBC. It stars Jack Klugman in the title role, a Los Angeles County medical examiner.

The show resembled the earlier Canadian television series Wojeck, broadcast by CBC Television, and took some inspiration from Los Angeles coroner Thomas Noguchi. John Vernon, who played the Wojeck title role, later guest starred in the third-season episode "Requiem For The Living".

The first half of the first season of Quincy was broadcast as 90-minute telefilms as part of the NBC Sunday Mystery Movie rotation in the fall of 1976 alongside Columbo, McCloud, and McMillan (formerly McMillan & Wife). The series proved popular enough that midway through the 1976–1977 season, Quincy was spun off into its own weekly one-hour series. The Mystery Movie format was discontinued in the spring of 1977.

In 1978, writers Tony Lawrence and Lou Shaw received an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for the second-season episode "...The Thighbone's Connected to the Knee Bone..." (originally aired February 11, 1977). Many of the episodes used the same actors for different roles in various episodes. For example, an actor who plays a crooked Navy captain also plays a ballistics expert in several of the later episodes. Using a small "pool" of actors was a common production trait of many Glen A. Larson TV programs. Before becoming a regular cast member as Quincy's girlfriend-wife Dr. Emily Hanover in the 1982-1983 season, Anita Gillette had portrayed Quincy's deceased first wife Helen Quincy in a flashback in a 1979 episode "Promises to Keep".

Synopsis

The series starred Jack Klugman as Dr. Quincy, a strong-willed, very principled Medical Examiner (forensic pathologist) for the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office, working to ascertain facts about and reasons for possible suspicious deaths. His colleagues, friends and wife all address him by his surname or the shortened "Quince". (The character's first name was never fully given, although in the third-season episode "Accomplice to Murder" his name is shown on a business card as "R. Quincy" and in early episodes the name "Dr R. Quincy" appears on his door.)

In his investigations, Quincy frequently comes into conflict with his boss, Dr. Robert Asten (John S. Ragin), and the police, in particular, LAPD Homicide Lieutenant Frank Monahan (Garry Walberg). Each have their own (often flawed) ideas about what's going on and about Quincy's deductions. Quincy is assisted by his faithful lab assistant, Sam Fujiyama (Robert Ito).

It is revealed in the episode "The Last of Leadbottom" Quincy is a retired Captain in the US Navy and remains in the Naval Reserve. In the episode "Crib Job", Quincy notes he originally wanted to be a railroad engineer, after revealing a number of facts about the dangers of the occupation. A well-liked man, Quincy lives on a sailboat in Marina Del Rey, California and frequents "Danny's", a restaurant at the marina, owned by his friend Danny Tovo (Val Bisoglio).

Quincy is very popular with women. He was married once before but lost his wife Helen to cancer. In the Mystery Movie installments and earliest "regular" episodes, Quincy has a regular girlfriend called Lee (Lynette Mettey) who sometimes accompanies him on his cases (such as in "...The Thighbone's Connected to the Knee Bone..."). This is his only steady relationship until near the end of the seventh season, when Quincy remarries (Dr. Emily Hanover, played by Anita Gillette who had previously portrayed Helen in a flashback^[1]) and sells the sailboat in the episode "Quincy's Wedding". Quincy occasionally drives an antique car (which is shown in Season 4, Episode 1 to be an antique hearse), but friends sometimes ask why he drives his "work vehicle" (the county coroner's hearse, an AMC Matador Station Wagon (reg plate: 999853)) on his day off. Quincy claims that his car is off being repaired.

Many of the episodes follow a set formula:

• Somebody dies, seemingly by natural causes.
• Quincy notices something that causes him to suspect foul play.
• He then changes roles from medical examiner to detective, by refusing to release the body and sign off on the cause of death, to Dr. Asten's disapproval.
• Asten gets upset, believing Quincy is seeing evidence that doesn't exist, and urges the doctor to speedily conclude his investigations and accept the obvious. Lt. Monahan's feathers are ruffled too as Quincy "shoulders-in" on police territory.
• Quincy argues quite loudly with some bureaucratic individual impeding the case.
• Quincy asks Sam to "cover for me" while the coroner continues his detective work. This often involves asking his assistant to carry out some laborious and time-consuming tests that take him all night. Sam, who often has to cancel his social activities as a result, grumbles but relents.
• Quincy solves the murder, with even the most stubborn bureaucratic officials now also convinced.
• All main characters meet at Danny's restaurant at the episode's end to celebrate.

Early seasons' episodes focused on criminal investigation; a typical episode would find Quincy determining the real murderer in a crime or the real cause of an unusual poisoning case. Later seasons' episodes began to introduce themes of social responsibility; Quincy would find himself involved with a police investigation that reveals situations such as a disreputable plastic surgeon and the reasons his poor surgeries are not stopped, flaws in drunk driving laws, problems caused by punk rock, airline safety issues, dumping of hazardous waste, the proliferation of handguns, Tourette's syndrome, orphan drugs and anorexia among others.

Quincy, M.E. was one of the earlier dramatic series to use a format like this to further a social agenda. Klugman himself even came to testify before the US Congress about some of these issues, (such as orphan drugs in 1982) describing what he had learned about a difficult or complex social concern as a result of its use in one of the show's episodes.^[2]

A quote from one episode gives a snapshot of a typical conflict. When Quincy is hospitalized, Sam takes the reins and finds something fishy about Quincy's condition when everyone else sees no need for suspicion. Hearing this, Lt. Monahan says, "You're pullin' a Quincy on me, and you ain't Quincy!" Although Quincy studies bodies in-depth at his laboratory, he also does plenty of police investigation work technically outside the role of a coroner for the purposes of the show. He could be considered a workaholic. In every episode where he goes on vacation, it is always interrupted by an intrigue that requires his skills. He then provides copious hours of free work to solve the case. He insists on being intensely thorough in all his work.

In 2008, Klugman sued NBC, asserting that the network had concealed profits from the show which were owed to him.^[3]

While many detective series had depicted rudimentary physical evidence analysis such as fingerprints and bullet comparisons, Quincy M.E. was the first to regularly present the in-depth forensic investigations which would be the hallmark of later detective shows such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and its spin-offs, NCIS, Diagnosis Murder, Crossing Jordan, inter alia. Klugman himself made guest appearances on the latter two series as, respectively, Dr. Jeff Everden & Det. Harry Trumble, and Dr. Leo Gelber.

Cast

Actor Eddie Garrett portrayed a photographer for the Los Angeles coroner's office in approximately 100 episodes of the series.^[4]

A total of 148 episodes were made, however Jack Klugman appeared in 147. In the episode "Has Anybody Here Seen Quincy?", Quincy is heard talking on the phone several times to Dr. Astin, however he is not seen on screen.^[5] The reason Klugman did not take part in the episode is because he disliked the script written by Michael Sloan and Glen A. Larson for the episode; a body brought into the morgue turns out to still be alive.^[6] Although these cases do happen in real life, Klugman thought it laughable that a medical examiner of Quincy's expertise would fail to notice it.

Conversely, Klugman is the only regular cast member who does appear in the final episode: "The Cutting Edge" was a backdoor pilot for a proposed series about a revolutionary new clinic (it didn't sell).

DVD releases

Universal Studios Home Entertainment has released Seasons 1 and 2 of Quincy, M.E. on DVD in Region 1, 2^[7] and 4. Season 3 was released in Region 1 on June 2, 2009, four years after the release of Seasons 1 and 2.^[8]

In June 2011, Madman Entertainment announced that it had acquired the distribution rights to the series in Region 4. They subsequently released seasons 3 and 4 on DVD in 2011. Season 5 was released on March 21 2012.

International broadcasts

Australia

Quincy, M.E. currently airs on the Seven Network's digital-only channel 7mate daily at 11am and 3am.

United Kingdom

The series was first broadcast nationally in the United Kingdom in 1977 on the ITV network (albeit at differing times due to the then federal structure of the network). Repeats of the full series were initially shown on BBC1 on afternoons in the early 1990's and it has frequently been running daily since the late 1990s on ITV and more recently ITV3 until early 2010, in various time slots (usually 8am, 2pm, and early morning). The show is currently showing on Universal Channel, with three episodes on Sunday morning, and one episode at 8am (repeating at 4pm) through the week.^[16]

Japan

Quincy M.E. has aired on the TV Asahi network since 1979. Tsuneyuki Serizawa, who supervised the Japanese edition, was a friend of Thomas Noguchi.^{[citation needed]} Doctor Detective Quincy was the Japanese title.

Germany

13 episodes were first aired from 1981 through 1983 by the public broadcaster ARD. Then in the early 1990s, 133 episodes were aired by the commercial television station RTL. Since April 2010 kabel eins has aired the first five seasons on weekdays. All episodes shown on German TV are dubbed into German.

Notes

External links

• The Quincy Examiner - Online Home to Fans of QME
• Quincy, M.E. at the Internet Movie Database
• Quincy, M.E. at TV.com
• Mystery.net - Quincy, M.E.