Quincy M.E.: Fight City Hall... To the Death! starts as LA coroner Quincy (Jack Klugman) examines the dead body of Diane Johnson (Martha Smith) on a beach, LAPD cop Lt. Monahan (Garry Walberg) sees it as a open & shut case of rape & that Peter Gordon (Rick Podell) who was shot by some of his men while in possession of Diane's handbag is guilty. Quincy is positive Peter isn't though, trying to use scientific methods to convince Monahan fails & he decides to investigate Diane's murder himself. He starts at city hall where Diane worked but before long more dead bodies turn up & Quincy feels the answer lies in city hall itself with corrupt counsellors...
Episode 1 from season 1 this is where it all started for Quincy, this is where we got our first glimpse of the much loved Los Angeles coroner & I have to say I didn't actually like this one that much. I first have to say I will be basing my comment on the cut down 45 minute version rather than the longer original one which is available in the DVD set, it seems the short one only gets played on TV to bring it & the other feature length episode down to the standard 45 minute duration. I must admit that if I had seen this back in '76 I probably wouldn't have bothered sticking with the show because this is one of the weaker murder mystery episodes. I found the way Monahan constantly dismissed Quincy's findings as stupid, sure if Quincy was going on a hunch I could understand it but Quincy presented solid medical facts especially regarding the guy who supposedly hanged himself & he would have been obliged to accept Quincy's findings. Then there's the fact Quincy, at least in this short version, isn't in the lab at all in this episode & flies off to Mexico to do some investigating & it just felt like a routine cop show rather than the interesting mystery show Quincy would become. The character's are nothing special, there's some humour here but not much & overall while it's still watchable I didn't think it ranked up there with the best Quincy stories.
This one looks OK, I'm not sure about some of the fashions but it was made in '76 which was before I was even born. In a way it's amazing to think episodes of Quincy are still being played even now. The end features some truly awful dubbing & some of the grunt noises Quincy comes out with are pretty funny because they so obviously are dubbed, badly dubbed too. This is the episode which features the two cars falling over a cliff seen in the opening titles for the rest of the show's entire run. The acting is good & Klugman just fits into the role perfectly from the word go.
Go Fight City Hall... To the Death! is an OK Quincy episode, it's probably more notable for being the very first one rather than for being a particularly good story. A must if your a fan otherwise there are better stories out there.
Episode 1 from season 1 this is where it all started for Quincy, this is where we got our first glimpse of the much loved Los Angeles coroner & I have to say I didn't actually like this one that much. I first have to say I will be basing my comment on the cut down 45 minute version rather than the longer original one which is available in the DVD set, it seems the short one only gets played on TV to bring it & the other feature length episode down to the standard 45 minute duration. I must admit that if I had seen this back in '76 I probably wouldn't have bothered sticking with the show because this is one of the weaker murder mystery episodes. I found the way Monahan constantly dismissed Quincy's findings as stupid, sure if Quincy was going on a hunch I could understand it but Quincy presented solid medical facts especially regarding the guy who supposedly hanged himself & he would have been obliged to accept Quincy's findings. Then there's the fact Quincy, at least in this short version, isn't in the lab at all in this episode & flies off to Mexico to do some investigating & it just felt like a routine cop show rather than the interesting mystery show Quincy would become. The character's are nothing special, there's some humour here but not much & overall while it's still watchable I didn't think it ranked up there with the best Quincy stories.
This one looks OK, I'm not sure about some of the fashions but it was made in '76 which was before I was even born. In a way it's amazing to think episodes of Quincy are still being played even now. The end features some truly awful dubbing & some of the grunt noises Quincy comes out with are pretty funny because they so obviously are dubbed, badly dubbed too. This is the episode which features the two cars falling over a cliff seen in the opening titles for the rest of the show's entire run. The acting is good & Klugman just fits into the role perfectly from the word go.
Go Fight City Hall... To the Death! is an OK Quincy episode, it's probably more notable for being the very first one rather than for being a particularly good story. A must if your a fan otherwise there are better stories out there.