The climate under which these topics are discussed is remarkable.

There’s also an episode involving performance-enhancing drugs (“The Winning Edge”) and one that tackles incest (“Nowhere to Run”). Along the way there are episodes that tackle drunk driving (“Unhappy Hour”), elder abuse (“Honor Thy Elders”), and a hospital that turns away patients who lack insurance (“For the Benefit of My Patients”). Quincy, as is noted in more than a few of episodes included here, is as much a cop as he is a medical examiner, and whether that blurring of roles be right or wrong, he consistently gets the job done.īesides, what choice does he––or the series itself––have?Įpisode One: “No Way to Treat a Flower” (original airdate September 20, 1979) involves a teenager who dies after smoking some chemically treated marijuana and ends with the story of a young physician––A Martinez of Santa Barbara, LA Law and Profiler fame––who may have mishandled the treatment of an gunshot victim. Because of that he must convince others––his peers, his supervisor, the Los Angeles Police Department––to dig deeper or accept that he needs to dig deeper. Watching the 1979-1980 season more than 30 years after its first airing, it’s remarkable how many of the issues tackled in these 22 episodes are still relevant today and how well the series has aged.īecause it’s an episodic drama designed for network television the formula becomes apparent within the first episode: there’s a death, Quincy has to perform the autopsy only to discover that the actual cause of death was more complex or convoluted than he initially thought. In that time the writers and cast turned out a high number of episodes that have dated rather well. The series premiered in late 1975 the final credits rolled in early 1983. Quincy, M.E.’s fifth season finds Jack Klugman (in the title role) and friends doing what they do best––using science to help solve crimes.

Melora hardin quincy me