Quincy, M.E. is a
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
television series from Universal Studios that aired from October 3, 1976, to September 5, 1983, on
NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices in Burbank,California...
. It stars
Jack KlugmanJacob Joachim "Jack" Klugman is an American stage, film and television actor, known for his roles in sitcoms, movies, television and on Broadway. He is best-known for his role as Tony Randall's sloppy roommate, Oscar Madison, in The Odd Couple shown on American television during the 1970s, and for...
in the
title roleThe title role in the performing arts is the performance part that gives the title to the piece, as in Aida, Giselle, Michael Collins or Othello. The actor, singer or dancer who performs that part is also said to have the title role....
, a
Los Angeles CountyLos Angeles County is a county in California and is by far the most populous county in the United States. Figures from the U.S. Census Bureau give an estimated 2008 population of 9,862,049 residents, while the California State government's population bureau lists a January 1, 2009, estimate of...
medical examinerA medical examiner is a medically qualified government officer whose duty is to investigate deaths and injuries that occur under unusual or suspicious circumstances, to perform post-mortem examinations, and in some jurisdictions to initiate inquests....
. The show was based on a
Canadian television seriesCanadian television may refer to:*Television in Canada - general information about the Canadian television industry*CTV Television Network - a specific Canadian TV network; CTV is sometimes interpreted as "Canadian Television"...
,
WojeckWojeck was a Canadian dramatic television series, which aired on the CBC from 1966 to 1968. It was the first successful drama series on English Canadian television....
, broadcast by
CBC TelevisionCBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.-Overview:CBC Television provides a complete 24-hour network schedule of news, sports, entertainment and children's programming, in most cases feeding the same programming at the same local times...
in the 1960s, but had more immediate local inspiration in
Thomas NoguchiThomas T. Noguchi is a former Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner for the County of Los Angeles, who served in that position from 1967 to 1982. Known as the "coroner to the stars", he determined the cause of death in many high profile cases. He is most famous for performing autopsies on Marilyn...
, Los Angeles' "coroner to the stars."
The first half of the first season of
Quincy was broadcast as 90-minute telefilms as part of the
NBC Sunday Mystery MovieThe NBC Mystery Movie is the umbrella title of an American television series, produced by Universal Studios, that aired on NBC from 1971-77. At times throughout its run, it split into several versions that ran concurrently on different nights of the week and were entitled The NBC Sunday Mystery...
rotation in the fall of 1976 alongside
Columbo,
McCloud and
McMillanMcMillan & Wife is a lighthearted American crime drama series that aired on NBC from September 17, 1971 to April 24, 1977. Starring Rock Hudson and Susan Saint James in the title roles, the series premiered in the fall of 1971 in 90-minute episodes as part of the wheel series NBC Mystery Movie, in...
(formerly
McMillan and Wife).
Quincy, M.E. is a
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
television series from Universal Studios that aired from October 3, 1976, to September 5, 1983, on
NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices in Burbank,California...
. It stars
Jack KlugmanJacob Joachim "Jack" Klugman is an American stage, film and television actor, known for his roles in sitcoms, movies, television and on Broadway. He is best-known for his role as Tony Randall's sloppy roommate, Oscar Madison, in The Odd Couple shown on American television during the 1970s, and for...
in the
title roleThe title role in the performing arts is the performance part that gives the title to the piece, as in Aida, Giselle, Michael Collins or Othello. The actor, singer or dancer who performs that part is also said to have the title role....
, a
Los Angeles CountyLos Angeles County is a county in California and is by far the most populous county in the United States. Figures from the U.S. Census Bureau give an estimated 2008 population of 9,862,049 residents, while the California State government's population bureau lists a January 1, 2009, estimate of...
medical examinerA medical examiner is a medically qualified government officer whose duty is to investigate deaths and injuries that occur under unusual or suspicious circumstances, to perform post-mortem examinations, and in some jurisdictions to initiate inquests....
. The show was based on a
Canadian television seriesCanadian television may refer to:*Television in Canada - general information about the Canadian television industry*CTV Television Network - a specific Canadian TV network; CTV is sometimes interpreted as "Canadian Television"...
,
WojeckWojeck was a Canadian dramatic television series, which aired on the CBC from 1966 to 1968. It was the first successful drama series on English Canadian television....
, broadcast by
CBC TelevisionCBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.-Overview:CBC Television provides a complete 24-hour network schedule of news, sports, entertainment and children's programming, in most cases feeding the same programming at the same local times...
in the 1960s, but had more immediate local inspiration in
Thomas NoguchiThomas T. Noguchi is a former Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner for the County of Los Angeles, who served in that position from 1967 to 1982. Known as the "coroner to the stars", he determined the cause of death in many high profile cases. He is most famous for performing autopsies on Marilyn...
, Los Angeles' "coroner to the stars."
The first half of the first season of
Quincy was broadcast as 90-minute telefilms as part of the
NBC Sunday Mystery MovieThe NBC Mystery Movie is the umbrella title of an American television series, produced by Universal Studios, that aired on NBC from 1971-77. At times throughout its run, it split into several versions that ran concurrently on different nights of the week and were entitled The NBC Sunday Mystery...
rotation in the fall of 1976 alongside
Columbo,
McCloud and
McMillanMcMillan & Wife is a lighthearted American crime drama series that aired on NBC from September 17, 1971 to April 24, 1977. Starring Rock Hudson and Susan Saint James in the title roles, the series premiered in the fall of 1971 in 90-minute episodes as part of the wheel series NBC Mystery Movie, in...
(formerly
McMillan and Wife). The series proved popular enough that midway through the 1976–77 season,
Quincy was
spun-offA spin-off is a new organization or entity formed by a split from a larger one, such as television series based on a pre-existing one, or a new company formed from a university research group or business incubator...
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 AwardThe Edgar Allan Poe Awards , named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America...
from the
Mystery Writers of AmericaMystery Writers of America is an organization for mystery writers, based in New York.The organization was founded in 1945 by Clayton Rawson, Anthony Boucher, Lawrence Treat, and Brett Halliday....
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 that 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 programmes.
The full series is currently being run daily on ITV3 in the UK and episodes are being run daily in the United States on affiliates of the
Retro Television NetworkThe Retro Television Network is a system of television stations primarily airing classic television programming from the 1950s through the 1980s, such as Leave it to Beaver, Kojak, McHale's Navy, Adam-12, Emergency!, and The Rockford Files, as well as the horror film showcase Midnight Monster Hop...
.
Synopsis
The series starred
Jack KlugmanJacob Joachim "Jack" Klugman is an American stage, film and television actor, known for his roles in sitcoms, movies, television and on Broadway. He is best-known for his role as Tony Randall's sloppy roommate, Oscar Madison, in The Odd Couple shown on American television during the 1970s, and for...
as Dr. Quincy, a strong-willed, very principled
Medical ExaminerA medical examiner is a medically qualified government officer whose duty is to investigate deaths and injuries that occur under unusual or suspicious circumstances, to perform post-mortem examinations, and in some jurisdictions to initiate inquests....
(
forensicForensic science is the application of a broad spectrum of sciences to answer questions of interest to a legal system. This may be in relation to a crime or a civil action...
coronerA coroner or forensics examiner is an official chiefly responsible for investigating deaths, particularly some of those happening under unusual circumstances, and determining the cause of death. Depending on the jurisdiction, the coroner may adjudge the cause himself, or act as the presiding...
) in Los Angeles County working to ascertain facts about suspicious deaths. (The character's first name was never given, although in the third-season episode "Accomplice to Murder" his name is shown on a business card as "R. Quincy".) In the process of his investigations, Quincy frequently comes into conflict with his boss and the police, each of whom have their own (often flawed) ideas about what's going on. It is later revealed in the episode "The Last of Leadbottom" that he is a Retired Captain in the US Navy, and remains in the Naval Reserve. In the episode "Crib Job", Quincy reveals that he originally wanted to be a railroad driver, after revealing a number of facts about the dangers of the occupation. A well-liked man, Quincy lives on a
houseboatA houseboat is a boat that has been designed or modified to be used primarily as a human dwelling. Some houseboats are not motorized, because they are usually moored, kept stationary at a fixed point and often tethered to land to provide utilities...
, frequents "Danny's" pub, and is popular with the ladies. He was married once before but lost his wife Helen to
cancerCancer is a class of diseases in which a group of cells display uncontrolled growth , invasion , and sometimes metastasis...
. Near the end of the seventh season Quincy remarries (Dr. Emily Hanover) and sells the houseboat ("Quincy's Wedding").
Many of the episodes follow a set formula:
- Somebody dies, seemingly by natural causes.
- Quincy notices something that causes him to suspect foul play
Foul play may refer to:*Foul play, a synonym for crime*Foul Play, a film*Foul , an unfair or illegal sports act*Foul Play , a novel*Foul Play , a 1981 album by Dennis Brown...
.
- He then changes roles from medical examiner to detective
A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators...
, by refusing to release the body and sign off on the cause of death.
- 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.
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 surgeonPlastic surgery is a medical specialty concerned with the correction or restoration of form and function. While famous for aesthetic surgery, plastic surgery also includes two main fields: body modification and reconstructive surgery...
and the reasons his poor surgeries are not stopped, flaws in drunk driving laws, problems caused by punk music,
airline safetyAir safety is a term encompassing the theory, investigation and categorization of flight failures, and the prevention of such failures through regulation, education and training. It can also be applied in the context of campaigns that inform the public as to the safety of air travel.-United...
issues, dumping of
hazardous wasteA hazardous waste is waste that poses substantial or potential threats to public health or the environment and generally exhibits one or more of these characteristics:* carcinogenic*ignitable *oxidant*corrosive*toxic*radioactive...
, the proliferation of
handgunA handgun is a firearm designed to be held and operated by one hand, with the other hand optionally supporting the shooting hand. This characteristic differentiates handguns as a general class of firearms from their larger counterparts: long guns such as rifles and shotguns , mounted weapons such...
s, Tourette syndrome, orphan drugs and
anorexiaAnorexia nervosa is a psychiatric illness that describes an eating disorder characterized by extremely low body weight and body image distortion with an obsessive fear of gaining weight...
among others.
Quincy, M.E. was one of the earlier dramatic series to use a format like this to further a social agenda. The actor Jack 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.
A quote from one episode gives a snapshot of a typical conflict. When Quincy is hospitalized, Sam Fujiyama (
Robert ItoRobert Ito is a voice, television, and movie actor.Of Japanese descent, Robert Ito was, for many years, a dancer with the National Ballet of Canada before turning to acting in the mid-1960s...
), 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!". 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
workaholicColloquially, a workaholic, is a person who is addicted to work .The phrase does not always imply that the person actually enjoys their work, but rather simply feels compelled to do it...
. 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 Klugman.
DVD releases
Universal Studios Home EntertainmentUniversal Studios Home Entertainment is a home video company founded in 1978 as MCA DiscoVision...
has released Seasons 1 and 2 of
Quincy, M.E. on DVD in Region 1 and Region 2. Season 3 was released in Region 1 on June 2, 2009, four years after the release of Seasons 1 and 2.
| DVD Name |
Ep# |
Region 1 |
Region 2 |
| Seasons 1 & 2 |
17 |
June 7, 2005 |
December 5, 2005 |
| Season 3 |
20 |
June 2, 2009 |
TBA |
| Season 4 |
23 |
TBA |
TBA |
| Season 5 |
22 |
TBA |
TBA |
| Season 6 |
18 |
TBA |
TBA |
| Season 7 |
24 |
TBA |
TBA |
| Season 8 |
24 |
TBA |
TBA |
External links