QUINCY, M.E.

'''Quincy, M.E.''' (or simply '''Quincy''') is the name of a United States television series from Universal Studios that aired from October 3, 1976, to September 5, 1983, on NBC (and can be seen in the UK on ITV3 and intermittently on the ITV Network, as well as in syndication on MeTV in Chicago, Illinois, on KDOC-TV in Orange County, California, on OMNI 2 in Ontario, Canada, and in Australia on cable channel TV1). It starred Jack Klugman as Dr. Quincy, a strong-willed Medical Examiner (forensic coroner) in Los Angeles County working to ascertain facts about suspicious deaths. In the process, he frequently comes into conflict with his boss and the police, each of whom have their own (often flawed) ideas about what's going on.
Many of the episodes follow this 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.

★ Quincy's boss gets upset, believing that Quincy is seeing evidence that doesn't exist and that Quincy should work on routine cases. The police get their feathers ruffled as he "shoulders-in" on their territory as well.

★ He argues quite loudly with some bureaucratic individual impeding the case.

★ Quincy solves the murder.
A quote from one episode gives a snapshot of a typical conflict. When Quincy is hospitalized, Sam Fujiyama (Robert Ito), Quincy's faithful co-worker, takes the reins and finds something fishy about Quincy's condition when everyone else sees no need for suspicion. Hearing this, homicide detective Lt. Frank Monahan (Garry Walberg) says, "You're pullin' a Quincy on me and you ain't Quincy!"
Early season 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 music, airline safety issues, dumping of hazardous waste, the proliferation of handguns, Tourette syndrome 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.
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.
A well-liked man, Quincy lived on a houseboat, frequents "Danny's" pub, and was popular with the ladies. He was married once before but lost his wife Helen to cancer. Near the end of the seventh season Quincy remarried (Dr. Emily Hanover) and sold the houseboat (Quincy's Wedding).
The show was based on a Canadian television series, ''Wojeck'', broadcast by CBC Television in the 1960s, but had more immediate local inspiration in the person of Thomas Noguchi, Los Angeles's "coroner to the stars". [1]
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 and Wife''). The series proved popular enough that midway through the 1976–77 season, ''Quincy'' was spun-off into its own weekly one-hour series. The ''Mystery Movie'' format was discontinued in the spring of 1977; ''Quincy'' was the only one of the rotating series to continue. 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).

Contents

Trivia

Famous Quotes

DVD Release

External links

Trivia

★ Quincy's first name was never verbally mentioned during the entire ''Quincy, M.E.'' TV show run. The only clue to what it was appeared in Episode #33, "Accomplice To Murder", where his business card is seen with his name written as "Doctor R. Quincy". Jack Klugman says that the question he's most often asked by fans is, "What is Quincy's first name?". He answers, "Doctor!".

★ Quincy had a highly successful surgical practice of his own before joining the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office after the death of his first wife from a brain tumour.

★ Quincy was a captain in the United States Navy Reserve.

★ There are various references to Quincy and Jack Klugman by Zorak in the cult cartoon talk show ''Space Ghost Coast to Coast''.

★ The phone number for "Danny's", the favorite hangout for the show's characters, was 213-555-3923.

★ Robert Ito previously appeared in an episode of Ironside as a SFPD medical examiner. Despite the similarites, his character was named "Harry" and not "Sam".

★ The pilot episode of ''The A-Team'' contains a car chase around the Universal Studios backlot. During this chase one of the cars crashes into a set which is supposed to be part of Quincy's house, the scene is repeated in the show's title sequence.

★ The series featured many actors who went on to find fame elsewhere, such as Jonathan Frakes, who appeared as a brash young doctor in the episode "Ghost of a Chance"; a young Jamie Lee Curtis in "Visitors in Paradise"; and Fred Ward, later of ''Southern Comfort'' and ''Tremors'' fame.

★ A number of Jack Klugman's co-stars in the highly regarded Sidney Lumet movie ''12 Angry Men'' guest starred in the show. These included: Martin Balsam (Juror #1), Jack Warden (Juror #7 with the baseball tickets) and John Fiedler (the squeaky voiced Juror #2) and of course Robert Webber (salesman Juror #12)

★ Anita Gillette, the actress who plays Quincy's wife in the final season of the series, also played Quincy's first wife in an earlier episode where we see her for the only time.

★ Daytime repeat showings of Quincy ME brought the show to the attention of an entirely new Student audience in the UK, from the late 90's onward. Such was its popularity that a number of humorous or apocryphal stories began to circulate through email and social contact. A popular Urban Legend tells that Klugman suffered a mental breakdown which resulted in tragedy; it alleges that he came to believe he WAS in fact Dr Quincy and that, under this delusion, he entered an operating theatre and begain to conduct surgery. Although this story is patently untrue (Klugman's personal life is well documented, with no mention of mental illness; further, no genuine medical professional would have allowed a lead surgeon to continue an operation about which they clearly had no knowledge, unless the doctors' code of silence were applied), its popularity amongst the UK student community persists.

★ Tom Green's character Gordon Brody in ''Freddy Got Fingered'' (2001) attempted to fudge his way into gaining an interview with the top executive of an animation firm by claiming "I'm Quincy. I'm with the Coroner's Office" with horrible news at hand.

★ The Arrogant Worms wrote a tribute song to the character Sam for their album ''C'est Cheese''.

Famous Quotes

★ "Gentlemen, you are about to enter the most fascinating sphere of police work, the world of forensic medicine" every time using these words in the opening credits throughout its entire series.

★ "That was no accident!....It was murder!", "Holy Mackerel!", "I'm Dr. Quincy with the Coroner's Office", "That's Asten-Proof".

DVD Release

On June 7, 2005, Universal Studios Home Entertainment released Seasons 1 & 2 on DVD for the very first time in a 3-disc box set. It is unknown if the remaining seasons will be released at some point.

DVD Name	Ep#	Region 1	Region 2
Seasons 1 & 2	16	June 7 2005	December 5 2005

External links

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★ The Quincy Examiner - Online Home to Fans of QME

★ Mystery.net - ''Quincy, M.E.''

★ Quincy ME at Stage 1