"Quincy M.E." D.U.I. (1981)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Georg Fenady

Writers:

Glen A. Larson (creator)
Lou Shaw (creator)

TV Series:

"Quincy M.E." (1976)

Original Air Date:

2 December 1981 (Season 7, Episode 5)

Genre:

Drama | Mystery | Crime

Plot:

Quincy gets involved in an anti drunk driving campaign after a tough case involving a pedestrian being killed by a prominent lawyer-with a surprising twist. |

Plot Keywords:

Coroner | Murder | Cult Favorite | Courtroom | Amateur Detective

Cast

Jack Klugman	...	Dr. R. Quincy, M.E.
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Charles Aidman	...	Preston Arthur Claymore
Teri Beckerman	...	Nurse Wilson
Ivan Bonar	...	Dr. Morrow
Frank Campanella
James Cord	...	Dan
Emilio Delgado	...	Officer Garcia
Filip Field	...	Lab Technician
Ben Frommer	...	Man at Accident
Eddie Garrett	...	Ed
Lyla Graham	...	Woman Passerby
Randee Heller	...	Iris
Ruth Manning	...	Marjorie
Diane Markoff	...	Waitress
Dan Moody	...	Officer Biondi
Bret Nighman	...	Lab Assistant
John Nolan	...	John the Bartender
Terrence O'Connor	...	Cheryl Claymore
James A. Watson Jr.	...	Deputy DA Jim Barnes

Filming Locations:

600 S Ogden & W 6th Street, Los Angeles, California, USA

Was Once Seared In To My Memory But My Memory Cheated

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

DUI was without any doubt my all time favourite episode of QUINCY . It's a story I first saw in 1982 or 83 and even a few years later when someone mentioned the show this would be the episode that they'd remember , the one where a man commits murder with a car then gulps down lots of vodka before the police arrive to breathalyse him . What a clever piece of writing and what a great episode of a very good American show . I felt a sudden surge of anticipation earlier today when I was channel hopping and found that this was being shown . I made a cup of tea and sat back to watch a very memorable piece of television . As the end titles came up I felt cheated . Was this the same episode I remembered from more than 25 years ago ?

Perhaps it's because I knew how the episode would end that made it very disappointing but it's hardly a great piece of television . Whilst DUI does show the show's strengths , especially clever plotting , it fails to disguise the show's weaknesses . It's painfully obvious that the audience are being lectured to rather than entertained . Enter a victim of a drunk driver who lost he infant daughter and is now confined to a wheelchair whose dialouge is mainly composed of running of statistics of people killed and maimed by drunk driver on American roads . Drunk driving is a terrible crime but the message here is painfully over done , as is perhaps the lack of amenities for wheelchair users in bars . There's also some contrivance to the plot where Quincy bumps in to a couple of cops who witnessed the accident and they casually mention that it's they who drove the drunk driver to hospital for " A haemo something or another " hence setting up the shock revelation that it wasn't drunk driving misadventure but pre-mediated murder

It's certainly an episode that will stick out in your memory . The unfortunate thing is when you rewatch it again then all the surprises are gone . For someone like myself who has remembered this particular episode there's more and that is a cherished memory has also disappeared never to come back . Such is life