Tuesday 20 September 2016

498 Quincy


First  viewed : Summer   1981

This   U.S.  series  had  been  running  on  ITV   since  1977  as  a  late  night  item  but  its  popularity  eventually  convinced  programme  chiefs  that  it  could  work  in  a  prime  time  slot.

Quincy  did  have  some  things  going  for  it, an  above -average  lead  in  Jack  Klugman , previously  best  known  for  the  TV  series  The  Odd  Couple  and  a  memorable  title  sequence with  its  row  of  fainting  police  cadets  going  down  like  dominoes  as  Dr  Quincy  set  to  work  on  an  autopsy. However,  it  is  unfortunately  best  remembered   for  being  extremely  formulaic  and  running  what  seemed  like  the  same  story  every  week.

Your  average  Quincy  episode   went  like  this. The  good  doctor  received  a  corpse  to  examine  and  an  explanation  from  either  his  boss  or  a  police  chief  as  to  the  circumstances  but,  Holmes-like,  Quincy  usually always  smelled  a  rat. For  the next  half-hour,  Quincy  sniffed  around  the  case  without  getting  anywhere,  then,  at  exactly  the  same  point  in  each  episode,  he'd  have  a  lightbulb  moment, usually  prompted  by  some  mundane  remark  from  his  Watson  , Japanese-American  lab  assistant  Sam  ( Robert  Ito )  which  enabled  Quincy to  prove  he  was  right  all  along. Episode  after  episode  stuck  to  this  template  rigidly. My  friend  Francis  assured  me  that  this  was  only  the  second  most  predictable  show  on  TV  behind  Hart  to  Hart.  I  never  watched  that  but  found  his  assertion  hard  to  believe.

Despite  that, the  series  was  undoubtedly  popular  and  there  was  a  lot  of  it,  with  nearly  150  episodes  made   over  seven  years  between  1976  and  1983. Klugman  died  in  2012  aged  90.

3 comments:

  1. I see you've used a screengrab from the legendary "Punk Rock" episode... this was a regular daytime treat in my student days (alongside Ironside. I couldn't take Diagnosis: Murder seriously on any level). My favourites were the two bumbling detective mates if Quincy, constantly on the verge of fucking up yet another case. They made Commissioner Gordon and Chief O'Hara look clued up.

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  2. I used to love Quincy as a kid and whenever they scheduled an episode primetime, which they seemed to do fairly regularly on Granada right up until the early 90s, we as a family always enjoyed watching them. By the end of the 90s though the BBC repeated it to death in the afternoon slot, rotating it with Diagnosis Murder, Petrocelli and Murder She Wrote, that it became a real bugbear. of mine. Have you seen the last episode where Quincy marries? He doesn't even have a first name! The registrar says 'do you, Quincy, take blah blah blah to be your lawful wedded wife?' haha!

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  3. DC - Indeed it is. Good spot. A shame he didn't do a version of the Pistols "Bodies" to win them over.
    Mark - Unfortunately not although that line would have cracked me up too !

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