Quincy M.E.: Crib Job starts late one Californian night as Los Angelese coroner Quincy (Jack Klugman) is called out to a suspected homicide, once there Quincy finds on old man known as Brownie (Boyd 'Red' Morgan) dead with bruising on his knuckles & around his neck. Back in the lab & Quincy performs an autopsy which confirms Brownie was murdered, Lt. Monahan (Garry Walberg) has a young boy called Victor Garn (Todd Davis) in custody as his number one suspect. Particltes of Victor's skin were found in Brownie's knuckle wounds, splashes of Brownie's blood was found on Victor while an eye witness places him at the scene of the crime. At first it looks like an open & shut case but a long time friend of Quincy named Rosey Grier (Roosevelt Grier) who runs a community scheme called Giant Step ask's Quincy to listen to Victor & his story that he killed Brownie in self defence because Victor's guilt could close his program designed to help both the young & old in the community down for good...
Episode 16 from season 3 this Quincy story was directed by Alex March & one has to say Crib Job has things going for it but at the same time has things going against it & it sort of finds an OK balance between the two to make a relatively enjoyable 50 odd minutes. This is one of those Quincy episodes which has a strong moral message at it's heart, a message about making the old feel wanted & needed by passing their skills & experience onto the young. Unfortunately it's pretty badly written & comes across as badly handled, the dialogue is simply hilarious at times as all these hip, young jive talking (anything but) cool kids interact with old age pensioners! I loved the scene at the end when a teenage girl asked an 80 plus year old man if he 'wanted to boogie'! I don't know if anyone took this seriously back in '78 when this was made but viewing it today it's surprising the amount of times I actually laughed out loud at this. Another priceless scene is when Quincy visit's the young black guy in prison & the way he talks to Quincy with all his attitude & contempt for authority is simply hilarious. Now one of the reasons I like Quincy is for it's humour but in the case of Crib Job it's mostly unintentional humour which can be fun at times if not what the makers intended. The actual mystery Quincy has to solve isn't much of a mystery at all, Victor admits to killing Brownie but in self defence you after that it becomes a relatively straight forward case for Quincy to use his skills to prove it & save his buddies community project group. This is an alright episode, it's quite funny for the wrong reasons at times & the mystery elements while OK aren't that great but at only 50 odd minutes in length it's worth a watch.
This one is as unremarkable as most Quincy episodes, I did notice though that when you first see Brownie's body one of his arms isn't in the white chalk outline drawn by the police! Either the police officer who drew the chalk outline was drunk or the actor playing Brownie had moved his arm before the cameras started shooting. Also I'm not happy about how Quincy in literally one afternoon just happens to find another railway worker who just happened to know Brownie & had just happened to have seen him recently, talk about a co-incidence. The cheesy comedy ending is even worse than usual in Crib Job, out of politeness Quincy ask's an old lady to dance with him if she can take it which she accepts & then proceeds to dance like she's on steroids which leaves Quincy rather embarrassed! The acting is alright & again like a lot of season 3 there's no Danny to be seen anywhere.
Crib Job, a term which refers to a youth stealing or preying upon someone much older than them, is an OK episode of Quincy although maybe not for the reasons the makers intended. It's pretty funny & has it's moments but isn't anything outstanding.
Episode 16 from season 3 this Quincy story was directed by Alex March & one has to say Crib Job has things going for it but at the same time has things going against it & it sort of finds an OK balance between the two to make a relatively enjoyable 50 odd minutes. This is one of those Quincy episodes which has a strong moral message at it's heart, a message about making the old feel wanted & needed by passing their skills & experience onto the young. Unfortunately it's pretty badly written & comes across as badly handled, the dialogue is simply hilarious at times as all these hip, young jive talking (anything but) cool kids interact with old age pensioners! I loved the scene at the end when a teenage girl asked an 80 plus year old man if he 'wanted to boogie'! I don't know if anyone took this seriously back in '78 when this was made but viewing it today it's surprising the amount of times I actually laughed out loud at this. Another priceless scene is when Quincy visit's the young black guy in prison & the way he talks to Quincy with all his attitude & contempt for authority is simply hilarious. Now one of the reasons I like Quincy is for it's humour but in the case of Crib Job it's mostly unintentional humour which can be fun at times if not what the makers intended. The actual mystery Quincy has to solve isn't much of a mystery at all, Victor admits to killing Brownie but in self defence you after that it becomes a relatively straight forward case for Quincy to use his skills to prove it & save his buddies community project group. This is an alright episode, it's quite funny for the wrong reasons at times & the mystery elements while OK aren't that great but at only 50 odd minutes in length it's worth a watch.
This one is as unremarkable as most Quincy episodes, I did notice though that when you first see Brownie's body one of his arms isn't in the white chalk outline drawn by the police! Either the police officer who drew the chalk outline was drunk or the actor playing Brownie had moved his arm before the cameras started shooting. Also I'm not happy about how Quincy in literally one afternoon just happens to find another railway worker who just happened to know Brownie & had just happened to have seen him recently, talk about a co-incidence. The cheesy comedy ending is even worse than usual in Crib Job, out of politeness Quincy ask's an old lady to dance with him if she can take it which she accepts & then proceeds to dance like she's on steroids which leaves Quincy rather embarrassed! The acting is alright & again like a lot of season 3 there's no Danny to be seen anywhere.
Crib Job, a term which refers to a youth stealing or preying upon someone much older than them, is an OK episode of Quincy although maybe not for the reasons the makers intended. It's pretty funny & has it's moments but isn't anything outstanding.
