Quincy, M.E.

Quincy started life as the fourth wheel in the NBC Mystery Movie, alongside Columbo, McMillan and Wife, and McCloud. Those three were successful, but various tries at a fourth character always flopped -- until Quincy came along, in the Mystery Movie’s seventh season. Predictably, that was also the year they dropped the Mystery Movie, but Quincy had done well enough to get its own spot, where it thrived.

Quincy’s assistant was a Japanese-American named Sam Fujiyama, played by Robert Ito. Like Sulu, Sam was a rare case of a major Asian character who didn’t have an accent -- utterly thrilling to a J-A boy like me.

In hindsight, the show was melodramatic and overacted, but it felt more sincere and honest than most medical shows, and I enjoyed it immensely at the time. It got heavy-handed about certain messages, but overall the tone was light and often humorous. The dialogue was packed with technical terms contributed by a scientist-turned-consultant from the L.A. medical examiner’s office.

Typical plots went like this: Someone ends up on Quincy’s table after dying (duh) in what appears to be an open-and-shut case. But Quincy isn’t convinced -- “I don’t buy it, Sam!” was his catch phrase, later parodied on SCTV -- and in digging deeper he uncovers an underlying social ill that must be stopped, like drugs in school, or toxic waste in the water. Jack Klugman’s been quoted saying he’s very proud of how Quincy tackled social and environmental issues.

Other cast members: John S. Ragin played Quincy’s uptight boss who always forbade him from investigating further (about as effective as when James T. Kirk tells the Enterprise to abandon him and leave orbit). His buddies on the police force were played by Joseph Roman and Garry Walberg. A real M.E. named Marc Scott Taylor consulted with the show and got some screen time occasionally. He was there to make the show more realistic, but strawberry (the E2 user) notes that Taylor has admitted to strecthing the bounds of reality on occasion to accommodate the plot. There was also a really cute brunette waitress at the bar where they all hung out, named Diane, played by Diane Markoff. I was just entering high school during the show’s run, so I remember Diane better than I remember the cops.

As with Columbo, Quincy’s first name was never divulged. He lived on a boat in the Los Angeles marina, and I think they gave him a semi-regular love interest who eventually married him (and made him give up the boat).

Sources:
-- MysteryNet: http://www.mysterynet.com/tv/profiles/quincy/
-- The Quincy Examiner: http://www.inquire.net/quincy/index3.shtml

"There are no safety nets below trees! Kids are climbing and falling to their deaths! Something MUST be done! NOW!"

Quincy featured Jack Klugman as medical examiner Quincy who takes every case he is involved in personally. There never seemed to be any death by natural causes. There was always more digging to be done to discover foul play, drugs, cover-ups or toxic waste dumps in people's backyards. He annoyed everyone, from cops who wanted to wrap up cases quickly to his boss, who was always flipping out the moment Quincy told him he didn't believe the evidence presented. Even his assistant, Sam, would get nervous whenever Quincy slammed his fist down and demanded all kinds of intricate tests done on bodies and then would rush to the scene of the crime to yell at everyone involved and push around anyone who did not respond well to his questions.

He was, in many ways, the antithesis of Columbo, where Peter Falk played at being a bumbling cop with little skill or interest in the case in order to creep confessions and clues out of unsuspecting people. Quincy took on cases like an out of control locomotive. In all his years on television, Quincy never discovered a situation where he was wrong or where the person on his examining table died of wholly natural causes. Perhaps he did when the cameras weren't on.

The show always ended in the same way, with the gang heading down to the local bar and joking their way through an epilogue in which they often recapped the case. No matter how angry Quincy's boss was, or how annoyed the police were with him, as soon as they sat down in that magical bar, everyone was happy and everyone loved Quincy.

Before becoming an M.E Quincy was a fabulous brain surgeon. He was rich and contented and married to a fabulously beautiful woman. However all was not well in the Quincy household. Quincy loved his work as much as he loved his woman, perhaps more. Though they were rich in money terms they saw little of her and she was sad. He always promised her more time, but somehow work always got in the way (sniff).

One day it transpired that that Quincy's wife had a brain tumour.

Even the great Quincy couldn't save her.

When he lost her he realized that he had to choose between being a brilliant doctor or a fabulous husband. Hoping to never hurt a woman that he loved ever again, he vowed to never allow a woman to get close enough to him that he could hurt her.

He also knew that he could never work with the living now that the love of his life was dead.

So he became an M.E. and never married again.