Garry Walberg Movies

The emphasis in this episode is not on Jessica (Angela Lansbury) but on her old friend, indefatigable LA homicide detective Jake Ballinger (Barry Newman). Refusing to give up his own personal investigation of a "closed" murder case, Jake is forcibly relocated to a small college town, there to teach a course in criminology. Of course, Ballinger intends to continue pursuing his investigation, this time with help of his students--all two of them (he'd scared the rest of the class away on the first day of the semester!) ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This action movie chronicles the exciting exploits of a crack crime fighting force. They are notorious for their unusual tactics when dealing with criminals. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

The loquacious Dr. Quincy (Jack Klugman) continues to crusade against medical stupidity, thick-witted bureaucracy, and implicit and overt prejudice of all kinds in his capacity as medical examiner in the L.A. County Coroner's Office as Quincy, M.E. launches its seventh season on NBC. Noteworthy episodes this year include the season opener, "Memories of Allison," guest-starring Sharon Acker as a murder witness suffering from post-traumatic amnesia. A few weeks later, we are offered the two-part nail-biter "Slow Boat to Madness," in which Quincy and his lady friend Dr. Janet Carlisle (Diana Muldaur) are among the passengers and crew members trapped on a holiday cruise liner cursed with a deadly epidemic. In subsequent episodes, Quincy targets an habitual drunk driver who may get off with a slap on the wrist after committing vehicular homicide; he befriends a young boy with a malignant tumor, who leads him to formulate a plan to help terminal patients meet death with comfort and dignity; he tracks down a gun that had passed from hand to hand, leaving a trail of violence and death along the way (the devastating conclusion to this episode was clearly inspired by the 1974 TV movie The Gun); he attempts to prove that a so-called schizophrenic may be feigning insanity to beat a murder rap; and he goes out of his way save a woman who served as a nurse in Vietnam from falling into the abyss of alcoholism when she begins experiencing horrific flashbacks. The final episode of the season, "The Mourning After," puts Quincy in the problematic position of proving both involvement and complicity in the "accidental" killing of a fraternity pledge. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The sixth season of Quincy, M.E. features the familiar cast from the past several seasons, chief among them Jack Klugman as Dr. Quincy, the star medical examiner of the L.A. County Coroner's Office. By this time, Quincy's superior and frequent adversary Dr. Robert Astin (John S. Ragin) is no longer the pompous bureaucratic boob that he'd been in the earliest episodes, but instead one of Quincy's closest friends and biggest public supporters -- even when our hero rubs the powers that be the wrong way with his relentless crusade against medical stupidity, organized crime and social iniquities. Also prominently featured, as before, are Quincy's police contact, Lt. Monahan (Garry Walberg), his lab assistant, Sam (Robert Ito) and his restaurateur pal Danny (Val Bisoglio). New to the series this season is Diane Markoff in the recurring role of Danny's top waitress, Diane. Season six opens with a typically complex, multi-plotted entry, "Last Rights," in which Quincy tries to prove that a grieving father is covering up the facts of his son's death, while simultaneously doing battle with owner of a textile mill where several suspicious accidents have occurred. The issue of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome is probed in "The Night Killer," with Quincy trying to find out if a woman has killed her baby in a fit of rage, or if the child's death was a tragic accident; and a later episode, "Seldom Silent, Seldom Heard," tackles the issue of Tourette's Syndrome -- and a solution for the ailment that may be worse than the disease. In "Welcome to Paradise Palms," Quincy runs into a wall of bureaucratic silence surrounding a possible bubonic plague epidemic at an Arizona Indian reservation. "Stain of Guilt" largely takes place at a movie studio where Quincy is acting as technical director for a film in progress -- and where, while watching the re-enactment of a real-life murder, he arrives at the conclusion that the person convicted for the crime may be innocent. Similarly, Quincy can't keep quiet while listening to the gaffes in the prosecution's case as he does "Jury Duty" in the episode of the same name. The sixth season ends with "Vigil of Fear," wherein Quincy tries to clear a group of well-meaning urban vigilantes from a charge of killing an innocent bystander. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Dr. Quincy (Jack Klugman), star pathologist of the L.A. Coroner's Office, continues to use his vast knowledge of forensic medicine to solve baffling crimes and right a wide variety of social wrongs as Quincy, M.E. launches its fourth season on NBC. The season's first episode, "The Last Six Hours," proves anew that poor Quincy can never take a vacation without stumbling upon a mysterious death (in this case, apparently caused by an unidentified poison). In the later "A Test for the Living," Quincy battles bureaucracy to re-evaluate a supposedly retarded child as autistic (this episode guest stars Lloyd Nolan, in real life the father of an autistic son). Other top-rank episodes find Quincy investigating the murder of a prominent newswoman (played by Jessica Walter) who suddenly turns up alive and well; he inaugurates a police probe when his latest girlfriend uncovers a pair of mummified corpses in her new apartment; he tries to prove that a hospital has not prematurely terminated a man's life simply to harvest the dead man's organs; he probes the possibility that a magician has deliberately murdered his assistant in an on-stage "accident"; and he attempts to stem a gonorrhea epidemic by meticulously tracing it to its source. The season's highlight is the two-part "Walk Softly Through the Night," in which Quincy comes to the aid of his old friend, a big time children's TV star whose son has been killed as the result of recklessly administered drug prescriptions. In one prescient note, the episode "Promises to Keep" includes a lengthy flashback sequence featuring Anita Gillette in the role of Quincy's late wife, Helen. Gillette would return to the series four seasons later, this time in the recurring role of Quincy's fiancée, Dr. Emily Hanover. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Jack Klugman returns as the titular medical examiner in the third season of Quincy, M.E.. Also back on the job are Robert Ito as Quincy's lab assistant, Sam; John S. Ragin as Dr. Robert Astin, our hero's superior at the L.A. Coroner's Office (not as pompous and bureaucratic a character as in the previous two seasons); Val Bisoglio as Danny, owner of Quincy's favorite restaurant; and Garry Walberg as police lieutenant Monahan, who officially must resist Quincy's chronic habit of playing detective as well as pathologist, but who privately welcomes the good doctor's assistance in solving murders and other baffling crimes. Other recurring characters include Eddie Garrett as Eddie, Joseph Roman as Sgt. Brill, and a newcomer to the series, Marc Scott Taylor, as Marc. The season opener, "No Deadly Secret," finds Quincy perplexed over the fact that a body upon which he had been performing an autopsy -- and the results of that autopsy -- have completely vanished from the morgue. In subsequent episodes, Quincy proves that a boxer who supposedly died in a ring accident was actually murdered; he exposes the questionable and dangerous procedures at a fashionable health spa; he employs his forensic skills to locate a kidnap victim after the kidnapper dies in a car crash; he clears a man of murder, even after the man confesses to the crime without coercion; and he goes on a personal crusade to solve the suspicious death of his favorite western movie star (played by veteran stunt man Chuck Roberson). Perhaps the most fascinating episodes of season three are "Passing," which was obviously inspired by the 1976 disappearance of labor leader Jimmy Hoffa; and the year's final episode, "Requiem for the Living," a Quincy-fied variation on the 1950 film noir classic D.O.A.. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

First seen on October 3, 1976, as a component of the rotating crime anthology series The NBC Mystery Movie, Quincy, M.E. starred Jack Klugman as the title character, a one-time private medical practitioner who, after the death of his wife, gave up his profitable practice to become a medical examiner with the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office. Using his vast knowledge of forensic medicine, Quincy (whose first name was never revealed on the series) frequently came up against cases of normal or "accidental" death, or suicide, that he suspected to be murders. Whenever this happened, Quincy went into full detective mode, ruffling the feathers of everyone in any sort of authority, from the police to the D.A.'s office to the medical establishment itself. Contentious and persistent, Quincy never let up until he proved his theories or solved the case at hand, even when facing public censure, the loss of his license or a stiff prison term.

Once the series ceased its sporadic NBC Mystery Movie schedule and became a weekly, one-hour NBC offering in the spring of 1977, Quincy broadened his range of outrage to include suspected cases of child abuse, drug and/or alcohol addiction brought about by flaws in the bureaucracy, governmental red tape, incompetent doctors, corrupt politicians, shifty lawyers, gangland chieftains, and those who would prey on the helpless and infirm in all walks of life. While Quincy's intentions were honorable and his results were often laudatory, he proved to be a major pain in the neck to his superior in the coroner's office, Dr. Robert Astin (John S. Ragin). Originally a pompous, preening obstructionist bureaucrat, Dr. Astin mellowed into an intelligent and avuncular character as the series wore on, and became one of Quincy's closest friends. Another "friendly adversary" was police lieutenant Frank Monahan (Garry Walberg), who frequently found himself both resisting Quincy's intrusions into his territory and welcoming his meticulous detective work and razor sharp deductions. Others in the supporting cast included Robert Ito as Quincy's young and ambitious assistant, Sam Fujiyama; Val Bisoglio as restaurateur Danny Tovo (who owned Quincy's favorite watering hole, Danny's); and Joseph Roman as police sergeant Brill.

Although he lived alone on his personal boat which he kept docked at a marina, Quincy did not want for female companionship. His girlfriend during the series' first two seasons was Lee Potter (Lynnette Mettey); she was followed by a steady stream of lovely ladies, including Dr. Emily Hanover (Anita Gillette), who ended up marrying Quincy after innumerable delays and breakups in the series' final season. Created and produced by Glen A. Larson, Quincy, M.E. remained a popular NBC attraction until its cancellation on September 5, 1983. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Larry Peerce directed this tired disaster movie about a mad sniper loose in a football stadium. At the beginning, the sniper picks off a cyclist for practice and then takes roost in the top tower of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Sent in to stop the terror is Captain Peter Holly (Charlton Heston), who wants to get his hands on the sniper without endangering the lives of the people in the stadium. Unfortunately, there is a second group of law enforcement officers, a tactical commando group, who want to go into the stadium and rush the sniper -- regardless of the danger such an action would cause to the crowd watching the game. The sniper plans to start blasting at the two-minute warning signal of the football game. Holly has to find the sniper before the two-minute warning is given -- not merely to prevent the killings threatened by the sniper but to head off the tactical force before any other unnecessary deaths are incurred by the force's bulldog techniques. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Vacationing in a small town (actually Lake Arrowhead, California), a frantic James Franciscus shows up at the local police station, declaring that his wife has disappeared. Franciscus imperiously demands that easygoing police inspector Jack Klugman drop everything and find his missing spouse. Within a few days, a woman claiming to be the wife shows up-but Franciscus insists that he's never met the woman before. What's going on here, and why does Klugman seem so calm and collected. First telecast March 5, 1976, One of My Wives is Missing was based on the Robert Thomas novel Trap for a Single Man. The book had previously been filmed for TV in 1970 as Honeymoon with a Stranger, and would be remade in 1984 as Vanishing Act. One would think that, with three versions of the Thomas story floating about, virtually everyone in the audience would be privy to that clever twist ending. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Crossfire stars James Franciscus as police officer Rossi, who is thrown off the force for possession of narcotics. Disgraced in the eyes of everyone, including his own partner, Rossi descends into a life of crime. But--and this will come as a shock to anyone who's never seen a Humphrey Bogart picture--the drug bust was fabricated to allow Rossi to function as an undercover operative. His job: Locate and arrest the syndicate Big Boy. Adding fuel to the fire is the fact that Rossi's late brother was a mob functionary. Crossfire was yet another TV pilot film for yet another unsold James Franciscus weekly. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Laurence Luckinbill is cast as novice diamond smuggler James Danzer, who while eluding the FBI searches high and low for a buyer to take some stolen gems off his hands. In the course of events, Danzer kidnaps a blind woman named Claire (Elizabeth Ashley). Unless Inspector Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) can catch up with Danzer, both smuggler and captive may meet an untimely end at the hands of a none-too-ethical private eye. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Light-years removed from his comic escapades on Three's Company, John Ritter delivers a topnotch dramatic performance as Kenny Soames, a delivery boy who moonlights as a burglar. Accidentally killing one of his victims, Kenny plots a big-time heist in order to earn enough money to finance his getaway from New York. Meanwhile, Lt. Kojak (Telly Savalas) follows the trail of clues which lead inexorably to the too-clever-by-half Mr. Soames. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Fran (Elizabeth Baur) discovers that her cleaning lady Rosita (Maria-Elena Cordero) is an illegal alien, smuggled into the country by the minions of a shady "employment agency". Convinced that the smugglers have killed her sister, Rosita is prepared to turn herself in and reveal all. But those responsible for her sibling's death aren't about to let that happen--and unless Ironside (Raymond Burr) can save her, Rosita will be the next victim. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi