![]() It was really into the fourth year, when Aston began to try to work with Quincy, that the shine of the show began to fade. And Aston’s character did his work, and well, for the first couple years. Aston was the hard hand of bureaucracy that our hero doctor/detective, our perhaps our slightly wounded white knight hero/doctor, would butt up against. Aston played a character that was the necessary part in any detective story or series. I have no idea if they got along off camera, but man? On camera? It works.Īnd then there was Aston, played by John S. Robert Ito ended up being the perfect foil for Jack Klugman. He goes off on his own, formulating his own answers and ideas, giving them to Quincy whether Quincy likes it or not. One of the differences between the two sidekicks is that unlike Watson, Sam is more active. He plays Q’s caretaker, his Sancho Panza. The character of Sam is akin to Sherlock Holmes’ Watson, but on cerebral steroids. Ito is an actor who’d really paid his dues through the years, playing any role out there that would suit him: Soylent Green. Quincy was about brains and knowledge.Īnd this brings us of course to Quincy’s assistant, Sam Fujiyama, played by Robert Ito. I didn’t even look through my discs of Baretta, Starsky and Hutch, SWAT, and Vegas. Columbo came close, naturally, because Columbo was cerebral. I went through my vault of cop shows from the 60’s and 70’s and I could not find one that really put that forensics aspect anywhere near the forefront of the case. One of the things I really love about Quincy is the influence of what were considered at the time to be “modern forensics method of police work”. Every episode was filled with words you cannot pronounce words that represent very private parts of the human body, along with the damage that had been inflicted on them. Frank Monahan (Gerry Walberg)No television show had gone this in-depth regarding the forensics side of police work. Quincy provided the forensic horsepower for the LAPD’s cases and Lt. was spun off only about halfway through that show’s first year.ĭr. The Klug did such a great job (as did the writers) that Quincy M.E. began with 90 minute episodes back in 1976, as part of the NBC Mystery Movie rotation that included Columbo, McCloud, and McMillan (patience please… I’m working on the McMillan & Wife post). That conversation would be one for the ages, I’m sure.Īnyway… I’m off topic here. playing poker out on the back deck of Quincy’s boat during some late summer evening. ![]() Part of me would love to see Quincy, Columbo, and Harry O. Quincy would work it straight from the bomb crater. Columbo would work the case from the outside in. ![]() Raising his voice was pretty much all that Quincy did. Columbo never raised his voice, maybe two times. These were two very different sorts of detectives. As much as Peter Falk was Columbo, Klugman was Quincy. Just watch him chew the scenery when he played Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple. The Klug was an actor who never, ever called it in. One of his Twilight Zone episodes, from 1963, called “ In Praise of Pip ” is carved into the Mount Rushmore of my favorite T.Z. ran for seven years, 1976-1983, and starred The Great One, Jack Klugman. No medical windmill too tall, no killer too tough… whether a corporate monster, or an evil plastic surgeon… or even a corrupt, mob-backed, union leader. ( Had to be an Aries, right?) He was the police forensics version of Don Quixote. If someone came across this man’s metal slab and it didn’t seem kosher? That something might be amiss? This man would bull his way forward to the truth, until that truth had been uncovered. Way before there were shows like CSI or Diagnosis Murder, there was the man, the one man who refused to be denied.
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