Valleyview

Valleyview begins with an elderly man dying following an injection by an unidentifiable staff member of the Valleyview nursing facility. The grandson of the deceased, David Phillips (Ed Begley, Jr.), later shows up at the coroner lab to request that Quincy (Jack Klugman) perform an autopsy as he does not believe the cause of death was a coronary as reported by the facility. Quincy determines that the cause of death listed was inaccurate, but he cannot pinpoint the exact cause of death and also learns that the deceased had pancreatic cancer. His suspicions are heightened when a young girl with mental health issues also dies very unexpectedly, leading him to believe there might be a mercy killer among the staff of Valleyview.

This is a decent Season 2 episode of Quincy which features an interesting murder mystery with multiple victims and several suspects. I was pleased to see that the producers made the focus of this episode a murder mystery where the crimes committed are mercy killings rather than making this solely an episode focused on the social issue with no crime or investigation component. This was the right way to do it in my opinion and I wish all of the episodes featuring a social problem were written in this manner. There are some good guest stars and the drama continues right up to the climactic conclusion.

I usually never comment on the appearances of the actors in these shows here, but I found Carolyn Jones' hairdo in this episode to be so bizarre and unflattering that I have to mention it as it was a constant distraction throughout which I could not stop staring at. It is cut so short that it makes her look more masculine than her male co-stars who were all sporting longer locks which were the style of the time (remember this was 1977). It also looked as if a child took a pair of scissors to her bangs which were all zig-zagged and crooked. I don't know if it was one of the hairstylists of the show that was responsible for this chopped mess or she had it done on her own, but whoever it was should have been fired and had their cosmetology license pulled!

At a local sanitarium, an old man dies unexpectedly from an apparent heart attack. The man's grandson (Ed Begley Jr.) requests an autopsy and Quincy determines that the death was NOT from a heart attack but he can't find an exact cause. A bit later, a young lady from the same sanitarium dies and it's called a heart attack as well--but Quincy sees this as way too coincidental but again he can't find a cause. Astin pushes Quincy to give up and stop making irresponsible allegations (which he had been doing). But, when a third death soon occurs, it's obvious to anyone that this is NOT a series of coincidences. But how are people dying and who is doing it?!

This episode was among the best of the second season. Part of it is that several 'angels of death' (such as Donald Harvey) have been caught killing patients in the places where they work. Part of it is because it's very intelligently written and interesting. In other words, Quincy comes off as a reasonable person--not a social worker/cop rolled up into one. His worries about the rash of unexplained deaths were reasonable and made for a very tight story. I also liked the final attempted murder--it was, in a very dark way, kind of funny. All in all, well worth your time.

... and that cast includes Jason Evers of "The Brain That Wouldn't Die", Robert Webber who was one of the Twelve Angry Men along with Jack Klugman, Carolyn Jones, and Ed Begley Jr. As he was just getting started at age 27.

An old man dies of what the hospital he is staying in says is a coronary, but his grandson (Ed Begley Jr) doesn't buy it. He pays the city the fee to do an autopsy and Quincy cannot determine cause of death, but can definitely say it was not a coronary. Then a few days later a very mentally ill patient in the same hospital dies suddenly in the night. Quincy's autopsy again cannot find the cause of death. Quincy thinks that he has a mercy killer on the loose when the exact same hospital reports a nurse found dead. Her autopsy turns out like the other two - cause of death unknown.

Things are made more complex when the doctor who runs the sanitarium admits that he is in favor of euthanasia. Could he be the perpetrator? Watch and find out.