6.6/1079 votes#1 - Baby Rattlesnakes
Season 8 Episode 1 - Aired 9/29/1982
When a young girl is killed in a drive by shooting a young 14 year-old boy is quickly arrested. The boy, Ethan, was part of a special program trying to get kids out of gangs and trouble. Ethan denies having had anything to do with the shooting, but if he doesn't tell who did do it or if Quincy and the probation people cannot find them then not only will he end up in prison but the special program will be closed down.
Director: Georg Fenady
Writer: Jeri Taylor
7.3/1083 votes#2 - A Ghost of a Chance
Season 8 Episode 2 - Aired 10/6/1982
After a life saving heart bypass operation Ted Markham's brother dies from complications. He is incensed that his brother died from what should have been a simple operation. He wants, and pays for, an autopsy from the Coroner's office and Quincy is given the job. When he has completed the autopsy Quincy believes that the eminent surgeon, Dr. Royce, who was supposed to have done the operation didn't really do it. He thinks that a practice known as ‘ghosting' took place and that a young resident did the operation in his place.
Director: Ray Danton
Writer: N/A
7.0/1085 votes#3 - Give Me Your Weak
Season 8 Episode 3 - Aired 10/27/1982
When a young mother suffers from a nerve disease, Quincy fights the drug companies and the government to get her the medication she needs.
Director: Georg Fenady
Writer: Sam Egan
6.7/1087 votes#4 - Dying for a Drink
Season 8 Episode 4 - Aired 11/3/1982
A medical examiner starts making basic mistakes, mistakes that are putting her job on the line and are caused by her alcohol binges. She is heading deeper and deeper into alcoholism and it may be that only Quincy can help her before she falls too far.
Director: Georg Fenady
Writer: N/A
6.5/1071 votes#5 - Unreasonable Doubt
Season 8 Episode 5 - Aired 11/10/1982
A new pathologist (Walter Ross) is working in the lab who is disabled. When he looks into a case of electrocution of a handicapped baby (Sturge – weber disease) he is convinced that the baby was murdered by its father, Quincy's friend, Gerald Preston. Quincy is alarmed at Walter's blinkered view and decides to investigate Walters findings for himself.
Director: Richard Benedict
Writer: Lee Sheldon
6.8/1083 votes#6 - Sleeping Dogs
Season 8 Episode 6 - Aired 11/17/1982
Quincy has to testify in the court of a small town. The witnesses in the case are pressurized into lying and Harry Muller, a bullying murderer, goes free. Within half an hour of the court case having been dismissed Harry Muller is found dead. The six men in the shop where he died all say they killed him, firing one shot each from his gun. The police chief is happy to call the death self defense but Quincy knows that it was murder and insists he will find out which one of them really killed him.
Director: Georg Fenady
Writer: N/A
6.6/1074 votes#7 - Science for Sale
Season 8 Episode 7 - Aired 11/24/1982
A sick woman with cancer leaves the hospital and dies. Those that have had physical contact with her die. Quincy soon discovers a new virus is the culprit of the deaths and hurries to find the cause.
Director: Ray Danton
Writer: N/A
6.2/10104 votes#8 - Next Stop, Nowhere
Season 8 Episode 8 - Aired 12/1/1982
Emily comes to see Quincy about a young 18 year-old boy he has just completed an autopsy on. He died while slamdancing at a punk rock club, killed while dancing to lyrics about death, lack of hope and violence. She had been counseling his girlfriend Abby and is worried about her. Quincy's report declares that the punk music Zack listened to was a part of the cause of his death but the main reason was an ice pick in his back. Punk music and its lyrics come under the spotlight as Quincy tries to find evidence to prove who killed Zack.
Director: Ray Danton
Writer: Sam Egan
7.6/1067 votes#9 - Across the Line
Season 8 Episode 9 - Aired 12/8/1982
During an attempted armed robbery a hostage is shot by a police officer by accident. The police immediately suspend him and threaten to kick him off the force. He wants Quincy to use his forensic skills to defend him and prove that the shooting was righteous.
Director: Georg Fenady
Writer: N/A
6.9/1069 votes#10 - Sword of Honor, Blade of Death
Season 8 Episode 10 - Aired 12/15/1982
Michael Moroshima, a cop working undercover with the Asian task force and Sam's best friend, is killed while listening in on a deal between the Yakuza and the Mafia. Sam explains to Quincy all about the Yakuza and the Japanese code of honor that means his friend's father will try to find his son's killer and exact revenge. Sam tries to prevent this from happening but finds himself getting into deeper trouble himself.
Director: Ray Danton
Writer: N/A
7.3/1076 votes#11 - The Law Is a Fool
Season 8 Episode 11 - Aired 1/5/1983
At the end of a school day a young girl gets into a cab for her daily ride home. She doesn't arrive there and a search is soon started. The real cab driver is soon found and he gives a description of the man who attacked him and the cab is soon found abandoned and examined for forensic evidence. Then all of a sudden a man who fits the description walks into a police station. He is alone and refuses to confirm or deny anything. All he will let the authorities know is that Quincy and Professor Hillman (the kidnapped girl's grandfather) are covering up a murder.
Director: Georg Fenady
Writer: David Karp
6.7/1070 votes#12 - Guilty Till Proven Innocent
Season 8 Episode 12 - Aired 1/12/1983
After his furniture warehouse is burnt down Ted Locke, a friend of Quincy's finds he is suspected of arson and murder. A lack of evidence makes the DA reluctant to press charges though. Enter Federal Prosecutor Philip St.John, he suggests avoiding a normal court trial and charges Locke with mail fraud, based on his claims for payment from his insurance company, which allows him to bring him before a Federal Grand Jury. When the ‘trial' starts Quincy discovers that there a literally no rules in a grand jury and the defendant can have no representation to help in defending himself. Quincy decides that he is not going to stand for this and tries to help his friend out.
Director: Ray Danton
Writer: N/A
7.3/1075 votes#13 - A Cry for Help
Season 8 Episode 13 - Aired 1/19/1983
The body of a young girl is found at the side of a highway. Quincy determines that the body was moved after she died. Monahan thinks that her boyfriend, Toby Kenyon, killed her but he tells the police that she killed herself. Quincy believes the boy and asks Emily to do a psychological autopsy on the dead girl. This involves talking to her friends, family and teachers about she acted and talked over the last few weeks of her life.
Director: Ray Austin
Writer: Jeri Taylor
7.0/1073 votes#14 - A Loss for Words
Season 8 Episode 14 - Aired 1/26/1983
A young boy, Tim, goes to do some welding at his workplace and ends up dying in an explosion. One of Asten's top field investigators, Arnold Chatham, thinks that it should not have happened. He discovers that Tim couldn't read and continues his investigation while Quincy tries to find out how someone who couldn't read managed to get through school.
Director: Georg Fenady
Writer: Sam Egan
6.2/1086 votes#15 - Beyond the Open Door
Season 8 Episode 15 - Aired 2/2/1983
A woman with psychic powers helps the police track down a serial killer.
Director: Georg Fenady
Writer: David Moessinger
6.3/1077 votes#16 - On Dying High
Season 8 Episode 16 - Aired 2/9/1983
An accident at a club leaves JJ Chandler, a top country singer, badly burned and in intensive care. Sgt, Wendell, a narcotics cop, believes Chandler freebasing cocaine caused the accident; the only problem is getting any proof, or a witness. While Wendell is trying to find someone who will testify Quincy begins to realize how many drug overdose victims he has dealt with during his time with the coroners office. He decides that there must be something he can do about it and means to do everything he can to stop the proliferation of drugs in Los Angeles.
Director: Ray Danton
Writer: N/A
6.7/1081 votes#17 - Quincy's Wedding (1)
Season 8 Episode 17 - Aired 2/16/1983
Quincy and Emily's wedding is fast approaching and there are many things that still need arranging. Emily has brought in Winslow, a wedding arranger to help. While the wedding arrangements are proceeding a body comes into the coroner's office, an old man who died of natural causes in a rest home, just after his 65th wedding anniversary. After the autopsy the wife of the deceased man, Edna, comes in to see Quincy and tells him that she killed her husband.
Director: N/A
Writer: Jeri Taylor
6.7/1079 votes#18 - Quincy's Wedding (2)
Season 8 Episode 18 - Aired 2/23/1983
Emily calls off the wedding when Quincy fails to make it to the rehearsal, the last straw as far as she is concerned. Quincy seems to be more interested in the tales Edna has to tell about her husbands' death. Was it murder as she claims or are her statements just the ravings of a mad woman?
Director: Jeri Taylor
Writer: Jeri Taylor
7.5/1094 votes#19 - Murder on Ice
Season 8 Episode 19 - Aired 3/9/1983
Quincy and Emily receive the use of a Judge friends' mountain cabin for their honeymoon. They picture a long romantic week alone, skiing and sitting in front of an open log fire. When they arrive they are disappointed to find that there are other guests as well. All the guests are involved in law enforcement of some form or other and all know each other. They soon realize that the last time they saw each other al together was on when they all worked on the same case, a year ago. The man they all helped convict escaped jail and has never been heard of or seen since. When the judge doesn't arrive they all decide to go out looking for him in case there has been an accident. When they find his car, caught up in a snowdrift blocking the only way down the mountain, and his body inside it they all begin to worry whether the missing criminal is planning his revenge.
Director: Mel Ferber
Writer: Lee Sheldon
6.3/1071 votes#20 - Women of Valor
Season 8 Episode 20 - Aired 3/16/1983
A midwife, Olivia, is approached in the street and asked to help deliver a baby. She knows that she should not get involved but can see that the mother's friend is desperate for help. She goes to their aid but the baby dies in childbirth. The hospital they rushed the baby to when it became apparent that she couldn't help decides that her negligence caused the baby's death. The next thing Olivia knows she is being arrested for murder! Dr. Reed, a friend of Olivia's, visits Quincy and asks him to do his own autopsy on the baby. She hopes that he will find something that will help clear her friend.
Director: Georg Fenady
Writer: N/A
5.7/1080 votes#21 - Suffer the Little Children
Season 8 Episode 21 - Aired 3/23/1983
Dr. Asten asks Quincy to stop of on his way to his fishing holiday to do an autopsy on a young boy. The coroner in the area wants back up evidence to help him close down the foster child home that was looking after the boy and other children. To help out one boy Emily and Quincy get the local authorities to try out a new scheme. The idea of this scheme is that a qualified therapist lives with the troubled family to try and stop any flashpoints from occurring, hoping that this will then enable the family to be able to live happily together.
Director: N/A
Writer: David Karp
7.7/1070 votes#22 - An Act of Violence
Season 8 Episode 22 - Aired 4/27/1983
An old lady is attacked and killed in her own apartment. Quincy is horrified that someone could so callously attack an old woman and is determined to find evidence that will convict the killer. Later, after an evening visit to her apartment looking for more evidence Quincy himself is attacked and mugged, leaving him scared to go out in the dark and making him jump at every sound.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
6.8/1080 votes#23 - Whatever Happened to Morris Perlmutter?
Season 8 Episode 23 - Aired 5/4/1983
An old lady is shot and killed by a burglar in her own home. When he arrives Quincy recognizes her as being one half of a couple of entertainers he saw in his youth. He remembers reading about their brilliance and wonders what happened to her old partner, Morris Perlmutter. He tries to find as much evidence as he can and then decides that he is going to find Morris. Meanwhile Morris is trying to get his big break in TV with the part of an old man in a play that is going to be broadcast live.
Director: N/A
Writer: Sam Egan
5.0/10114 votes#24 - The Cutting Edge
Season 8 Episode 24 - Aired 5/11/1983
Kenny Kelso, a young father, is seriously injured in a work accident and loses his arm. His arm is found and the paramedics take both him and his limb to a new place, Experiment Hope, where it may be possible to reattach them. The Doctor in charge, Gabriel McCracken, is the man behind the revolutionary new techniques and does everything he can to make sure that Kenny will be able to use his arm again.
Director: Georg Fenady
Writer: Jeri Taylor
The Best Episodes of Quincy, M.E. Season 8
Every episode of Quincy, M.E. Season 8 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Quincy, M.E. Season 8!
Los Angeles County medical examiner Quincy routinely engages in police investigations.
Genres:CrimeDramaMystery
Network:NBC
Season 8 Ratings Summary
"Baby Rattlesnakes" is the best rated episode of "Quincy, M.E." season 8. It scored 6.6/10 based on 79 votes. Directed by Georg Fenady and written by Jeri Taylor, it aired on 9/29/1982. This episode is rated 0.7 points higher than the second-best, "A Ghost of a Chance".