Quincy, M.E. (season 4)

In order to save a hospital's affirmative-action program, Quincy must prove that the death of a patient was the result of foul play, not the misdiagnosis of a young doctor. If he can't, a promising career will be ruined.

Fact and fiction blur in the bizarre case of a television newswoman who is seemingly both dead and alive. Jessica Walter guest stars as both victim and murderer.

Who killed the four ladies in the rickety boarding house, storing their mummified remains to cash in on their checks? Was it the silly scientist, the pompous professor, the high hippie, the saucy stripper or the creepy caretaker?

When the dead are raised during a torrential rainstorm, Quincy must hold back a killer tidal wave when an epidemic of typhoid is discovered, and a candidate for state senate uses his influence to block Quincy's investigation.

In an episode that explores the controversy of when death occurs, Quincy faces a multi-million-dollar lawsuit when he becomes embroiled in the transplant of live organs from a dead patient. He encounters an unscrupulous lawyer who (along with the donor's family) felt Quincy rushed the donor's death to obtain the organs.

When a patient at an institute for mentally-disordered criminals ends up beaten to death, Quincy goes undercover to investigate a wave of "human cockfights" at the hands of the administration and the guards.

A penicillin-resistant strain of gonorrhea is discovered in a deceased playboy football player's body, and it's a race to discover the victims before it becomes an epidemic.

Quincy's attempts to expose a plastic surgeon whose incompetence led to the death of two women and the disfigurement of a prominent actress is thwarted by government red tape, a reluctant district attorney and an injunction from the Federal Trade Commission.

Quincy's old friend loses his 19-year-old son to a drug overdose, and joins up with a young drug counselor (A Martinez) at the college the boy attended to track down the source of the drugs, a Los Angeles physician running a pill shop.

When a young man dies — apparently at the hands of the police — Quincy has to determine if the cause of death was police brutality or the use of Angel Dust.

A doctor (John Dehner) is under suspicion of performing an abortion while drunk, costing the life of the mother. Quincy rushes (while encountering political and professional red tape) to obtain an exhumation of an earlier stillborn baby and to stop another potential death.

When a Marine private dies during an unauthorized night march, Quincy is brought in by his Navy friend to see if a decorated Vietnam Vet Drill Instructor was responsible for his death.

James Luisi guest stars.

The death of a man performing Houdini's water escape leads Quincy to investigate his old magician friend (Don Ameche) to determine if he, or someone else, is responsible for the death.