Last Rights begins with a man finding his teenage son dead of a drug overdose and deciding to keep the cause of death secret by telling a cover story about him drowning in the pool. He has friends in local government that go along with the charade, but the local coroner, Dr. Charlie Volmer (William Daniels), begins asking questions as to why proper procedure was not followed with an autopsy. This case highlights larger problems in the community including drug abuse, unsafe working conditions, protocols not being followed by local officials and proper resources not being allocated to the office of the medical examiner. Quincy (Jack Klugman) is a friend of Dr. Volmer and intercedes to help him in trying to bring about necessary changes to the system.
The main thing I did not like about this episode is that Quincy plays a supporting role and the story focuses mainly on the Dr. Charlie Volmer character. Although William Daniels is a more than competent guest star, this episode just felt off balance with him in the lead and Quincy playing second fiddle. There also really isn't a crime or a mystery of any kind featured, just a lot of debating and battling against local government bureaucracy which just isn't my cup of tea. On a positive note, Quincy does give a powerful speech at the end describing the importance of medical examiner work and the need for making this a priority in terms of the budget, but this just wasn't enough to make up for his lack of presence in the rest of the episode.
Overall, this is a pretty tepid Season 6 premiere episode which any William Daniels fan would appreciate, but other than that it really doesn't have much else going for it.
