A woman about to be autopsied is surprisingly found to be aliveA woman about to be autopsied is surprisingly found to be aliveA woman about to be autopsied is surprisingly found to be alive
Photos
Jack Klugman
- Dr. R. Quincy, M.E.
- (credit only)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaJack Klugman refused to appear in this episode because he disliked the script, so the episode was written around him. It was his first step in pushing producer Glen A. Larson and his company (including writer Michael Kozoll, later co-creator of Hill Street Blues (1981)) out the door and repeatedly holding out on new seasons until he got a production team to his liking (even then he frequently rewrote the scripts).
- GoofsTowards the end of the show, Wilson and his assistant arrive at the morgue to steal the casket and recover the diamonds. They approach from the right of the double doors in an open corridor. Wilson uses a waste basket to hold one door open on the inside. When they pick up the casket, the door is now open on the outside and as they walk through it, the open corridor they walked in from is now a closed double door.
- ConnectionsReferences Emergency! (1972)
Featured review
Klugman was right to boycott this one!
Jack Klugman, who had any number of run-ins with producers and writers during the run of "Quincy, M.E.," reportedly refused to appear in this episode because he hated the script. And seeing this cobbled-together mish-mash, who can blame him? His part in the show is instead covered by Dr. Hiro, a take-off on real life L.A. Coroner Dr. Thomas Noguchi. As played by Yuki Shimoda, though, he is Charlie Chan. He speaks in the same halting English as Sidney Toler, he dispenses aphorisms to one and all, and he even has a jivey, jokey black chauffeur! (It's just too bad Mantan Moreland was already dead by then; he at least would have injected some energy into it.) Dr. Hiro spends half the episode correcting people on the pronunciation of his name, and the other half mispronouncing it along with them. At times the show breaks into broad comedy for no reason (a medical examiner races through the crowded halls of the coroner's office yahooing like a cowboy when a "corpse" is discovered to be alive), and at other times it falls into unintentional comedy, mostly due to a totally inept performance by guest star Bob Crane. Crane plays a doctor who is trying to discover why a toddler is dying in front of him, but he does so with all the concern and urgency of a blade of grass. And that's just one subplot. There's also a body coming in from overseas containing hidden smuggled diamonds, which is to be delivered to a group of thugs who look like they came from a Three Stooge comedy; there's an actress who attempts suicide because she has no friends, even though a dozen or so show up at the hospital; and there's a surprise birthday party for Dr. Hiro, in which his staff and friends (well, actually Quincy's staff and friends) give him a Chinese dragon, even though he's Japanese. Oh, and could the constant lingering shots of the dying baby's parents lighting up cigarettes and leaving the butts everywhere, and a half-dozen closeups of "No Smoking" signs, possibly be clues to the kid's affliction? As over-the-top as Klugman could be in this show, and frequently was, this episode makes it painfully apparent that he was indeed the glue that held the whole thing together, and without him, you have a mess.
helpful•125
- m2mallory
- May 8, 2013
Details
- Runtime1 hour
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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