"Quincy M.E." Baby Rattlesnakes (1982)

User Rating:

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Director:

Georg Fenady

Writers:

Jeri Taylor (writer)
Glen A. Larson (creator) ...

TV Series:

"Quincy M.E." (1976)

Original Air Date:

29 September 1982 (Season 8, Episode 1)

Genre:

Drama | Mystery | Crime

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Coroner | Murder | Cult Favorite | Courtroom | Amateur Detective

Cast

Jack Klugman	...	Dr. R. Quincy, M.E.
Garry Walberg	...	Lt. Frank Monahan
John S. Ragin	...	Dr. Robert Asten
Val Bisoglio	...	Danny Tovo
Robert Ito	...	Sam Fujiyama
Joseph Roman	...	Sgt. Brill
Gregory Sierra	...	Rick Durado
John Randolph	...	Arthur Degauss
Ronald G. Joseph	...	Prosecutor Simonetti (as Ronald Joseph)
Arthur Batanides	...	Firearms Examiner John Cole
Lynn Hamilton	...	Mrs. Kellogg
Brendon Boone	...	District Attorney
J.A. Preston	...	Judge Saunder MacMillan
Anita Gillette	...	Dr. Emily Hanover
De'voreaux White	...	Ethan Kellough (as DeVoreaux White)

"As far as I'm concerned your a hot-dog." Disappointing start to season 8.

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Quincy M.E.: Baby Rattlesnakes starts as a 9 year old girl Maddy Billingsley is 'accidently' shot & killed in a gang related drive-by shooting, L.A. coroner Quincy (Jack Klugman) performs the autopsy & is upset by what he sees. He learns that a 14 year old boy named Ethan Kellog (De'vereaux White) has been arrested, he was out on probation & wasn't supposed to be associating with his old gang 'The Ravens'. Ethan claims he was just in the car & didn't fire the shot but with an angry press & Californian public wanting blood justice has to be seen to be done. This one incident could affect the lives of many young men who are being helped by a radical program run by Rick Durado (Gregory Sierra) which aims to straighten out young gang members, but is it working & is it worth saving? Quincy decides to find out...

Episode 1 from season 8 this Quincy story was directed by Georg Fenady & was a pretty lousy way to kick off Quincy's final season. The script deals with the still very relevant issue of juvenile & gang related crime which is fine but time hasn't been kind to it & in the 25 years since Baby Rattlesnakes was made it has become clear that dealing with youth crime using social workers, Government based schemes & giving them astonishingly light sentences because they are 'children' simply doesn't work, personally I think Quincy is sitting on the wrong side of the fence on this one. One of the reasons why juvenile crime is such a problem, certainly here in the UK, is because of these namby pamby schemes & programs & because there is simply no deterrent for offenders. If a kid commits a serious crime & they are ordered to report to a social worker for six months where's the deterrent in that? These people just use the system to their advantage & they know how to get the lightest possible sentence. I know for a 100% fact youth crime is a big problem here & those committing it are literally laughing at our justice system because to them it feels like they can 'get away' with anything totally Scott free except maybe a fine & a slap on the wrist. It's pathetic & I don't care if I sound like a Neanderthal but I firmly believe we, as a society, should come down hard on these people & send them to prison regardless of age because otherwise it becomes a way of life for them, I'm sorry but that's the way I feel. Take New York for instance & the zero tolerance campaign against crime they had, it bloody worked didn't it? It certainly worked a lot better than sending these people to social workers & giving them umpteen chances like we do here. God I'm starting to sound like Quincy going off on another impassioned speech! This Quincy episode focuses on Ethan & the moral issues surrounding his case, the killing of Maddy is given very little screen time, just like in reality all the rights are given to the criminals & the victims are totally forgotten about. This is a poor episode, a misjudged episode & one which won't go down as one of my favourites.

This one sees the introduction of Dr. Emily Hanover & the beginnings of a relation between her & Quincy which will lead to bigger things. Here she asks Quincy his first name & he won't even tell her! A new season also brings with it a slightly revamped & beefier opening theme tune although the actual opening sequence stays exactly the same. Am I the only one who found that Ethan kid extremely annoying?

Baby Rattlesnakes might have had some relevance 25 years ago when it was made but the procedures & schemes which Quincy fights to save in this episode have, in my opinion, been proved not to work & in the long run have ended up doing more harm than good. An extremely dated & for a change a morally wrong episode, a poor start to season 8.