Quincy, M.E.-Seasons 1 and 2 (1976)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation
Rating	?
Year Of Production	1976
Running Time	923:45 (Case: 918)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Multi Disc Set (6)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4,5	Directed By	David Alexander Corey Allen Ray Austin Bob Bender
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Jack Klugman Garry Walberg Robert Ito Val Bisoglio John S. Ragin Joseph Roman Diane Markoff Anita Gillette
Case	?
RPI	$49.95	Music	Bob Alcivar Bruce Broughton William Broughton

    Truly the precursor to C.S.I. and all its various spin-offs, Quincy M.E. is a fairly remarkable show for its time, and still thoroughly enjoyable today. Part of its charm comes from its irascible central character, Quincy (Jack Klugman), who always has his back up about something, and is always willing to go that extra length, mostly in the name of pride, but also out of some intransigent inner sense of justice.

    For those unfamiliar with the show, it follows the exploits of a Los Angeles medical examiner in the Coroner’s Office, who rather fancies himself as a forensic investigator. Well before the time when DNA was established, Quincy was solving crimes with scientific knowledge applied to the evidence before him, rather than making vast leaps of logic to incriminate the wrong man.

    A full episode summary would spoil the fun, if not the mystery, and you can get a summary at TV.com. The following sets out the episodes as they appear in this set:

Season 1

Disc 1

• 1. Go Fight City Hall ... To the Death! (69:45)
• 2. Who’s Who In Neverland? (70:42)

Disc 2

• 3. A Star Is Dead (70:14)
• 4. Hot Ice, Cold Hearts (69:54)

Season 2

• 5. Snake Eyes: Part I (46:41)

Disc 3

• 6. Snake Eyes: Part II (46:41)
• 7. ...The Thigh Bone’s Connected To The Kneebone (71:12)
• 8. Visitors In Paradise (48:09)

Disc 4

• 9. The Two Sides Of Truth (47:45)
• 10. Hit And Run At Danny’s (48:00)
• 11. Has Anybody Here Seen Quincy? (48:09)

Disc 5

• 12. A Good Smack In The Mouth (48:11)
• 13. The Hot Dog Murder (48:07)
• 14. An Unfriendly Radiance (48:10)

Disc 6

• 15. Sullied Be Thy Name (47:10)
• 16. Valleyview (48:13)
• 17. Let Me Light The Way (48:09)

    I’m still undecided on this one. I used to watch it when it was on back in the day, and it was passable entertainment then. But although Quincy might have been an entertaining “loud” and larger-than-life character who got his kicks from bucking the system, he gets a bit tiresome after watching 3 or more episodes in a row, and I really had to stretch this out to make it bearable. Even then, his personality can really grate.

    For the most part, though, this show is still fun all these years on - it almost makes you wish for a crime thriller period piece set back in those days, perhaps something in the style of James Ellroy, where the odds were stacked against the police, and a cop had to rely on his wits and whatever evidence he had in his hands to make a case stick. Miami Vice, this isn’t – but as a family friendly crime show with a few surprises, it is still good entertainment even if it doesn’t really push the boundaries of conventional TV.

Video

    Presented in 1.33:1, Full Frame, this is the show's original broadcast aspect ratio.

    This is a fairly rudimentary transfer, lacking in extras or remastered audio. However, because the transfer appears to have been made from a film negative rather than videotape, it stands up reasonably well.

    Colour is a little muted, but reasonably well balanced.

    Shadow detail is a little patchy, and can sometimes bleed into blue.

    There is a touch of overall grain about the picture, though this is largely to do with the source material, I am sure.

    There is a fair amount of background aliasing and moire, and some dirt, but nothing too horrendous.

    No subtitles, though, which is a bit of an oversight.

    The dual layer pauses appear to fall between the episodes and are not visible.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The sound is a straightforward 2.0 Dolby Digital Mono.

    Dialogue is reasonably sharp and clear, but without stereo dynamics.

    The music is reasonably well rendered, but can sometimes be a touch heavy in respect of the dialogue track – a common fault with mono audio.

    There were no surrounds or subwoofer use unless I used one of my receiver’s Digital Signal Processing formats. But with format direct processing, there’s nothing.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menus

    All menus are in 1.33:1 Full Frame. The disc home menus have various clips from the credits with a 2.0 Dolby Stereo soundtrack. All other menus are static and silent.

Trailer: UK Market Only (0:59)

    Content wise, R1 and R4 are largely identical. Without an R1 copy I cannot do a direct video-to-video comparison for you, but I suspect that the version we have here is an NTSC conversion. Region coding and NTSC colour will be different.

    Quincy M.E. – Seasons 1 & 2 is an excellent set, with some real crime solving. It is not brilliant, in that it does not go to extremes in the way that Sopranos and Deadwood do. But considering the era, this is hardly surprising, and does not detract from this as excellent entertainment.

    A good if imperfect transfer.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall