"Have I Ever Visited This House that I Haven't Fallen Over That Dog?" "Yeah, One Time,
and You Tripped Over My Ottoman."
I remember thinking that season six of Diagnosis: Murder was the sweet spot of the show, so when I sat down to watch it this summer, I was looking forward to a lot of fun episodes. And, there certainly were some fun episodes. But overall, the season was more uneven than I remembered.
The overall premise of the show hasn’t changed. Dr. Mark Sloan (Dick van Dyke) is a doctor at Community General hospital in Los Angeles who has a knack of solving murders. As a result, he often helps his son, Steve (played by Dick’s real life son Barry van Dyke), who is a homicide detective for the LAPD. Round out the regular cast, we have medical examiner Amanda Bentley (Victoria Rowell) and new doctor Jesse Travis (Charlie Schlatter).
The episode starts out exactly where season five ended, which makes sense given the cliffhanger we left off with. Community General has just been bombed, and we have to rescue all our characters. The season opener was a two parter, and, honestly, it shows some of the issues with the season. While the first hour was decent, the second hour just drags things out needlessly, and takes the plot in another, almost random direction.
Then then we settle into a string of good episodes. The bride and groom plot to kill her father in the middle of their wedding and frame her step-mother for the crime. If only they hadn’t invited Dr. Sloan. Dr. Sloan gets a phone call about a ransom drop for a kidnapping. Jesse is abducted by aliens. Or is he? Jesse and his girlfriend, Susan (recurring guest star Kim Little) get stuck in a small town where Susan sees an ex that she thought was dead. Late in the season, we get the hilarious two-part episode “Trash TV” which takes a very pointed look at how TV stations operate. I’m sure if I were more involved in the industry, I’d find it even funnier than I do.
And we haven’t even discussed my favorite episode of the entire series yet. “Write, She Murdered” features Shelley Long as a mystery novelist who figures that the best way to get over writer’s block is to kill her agent and then follow Mark around as he solves the murder. Among the guest cast in this episode is Adam West, playing the star of a 60’s cult favorite TV show. But Shelley Long is a pure delight in this episode. She hams it up without ever being over the top, and the result is hilarious.
The problem comes when the show tries to be more serious. The show worked best when they were playing into the comedy. When they try to be seriously, the results come across cheesier than they intended. That isn’t always the case, but it seriously hampers episodes such as “Rear Window ‘98” which finds Amanda logging onto a web camera only to see the owner get murdered. Or the episode where someone is trying to provoke Steve into killing him.
As the season winds down, we get a couple of off episodes. One, written by Barry van Dyke, features all four of his kids as guest stars. It’s cool, but at the same time, it feels off for the series. Likewise, the penultimate episode was written to introduce a couple of characters who were going to be the leads for a potential spin off. The problem with both of these episodes is that the regulars are pretty much abandoned.
Then comes “Today is the Last Day of the Rest of My Life,” quite possibly my least favorite episode ever. This season finale finds Mark Sloan dealing with issues surrounding physician assisted suicide. TV shows lecturing us are nothing new, and that’s what we get here. Even worse, it is the last time we see Kim Little’s Susan. I always loved Susan’s relationship with Jesse and was sorry when she didn’t come back in season seven.
The acting is mostly good, although there are moments that are over the top, leading to some of the poorer quality episodes I mentioned above. And there are still some stunt guest cast episodes. Like the episode where Jesse thinks he was kidnapped by aliens, which mostly features actors from Star Trek and another couple TV science fiction shows. The stars of old TV shows appear in the “Trash TV” episodes, and former TV cops feature in an episode that revolves around Steve and other LAPD officers. Other guest stars I recognized include Patrick Duffy and Staci Keenan (as father and daughter), Eva LaRue, Bryan Cranston, Greg Grunberg and Richard Biggs.
I should also mention that the season opener includes Steve and Jesse (with Mark as a silent partner) buying BBQ Bob’s, a restaurant that becomes a regular hangout for the characters the rest of the series. To me, this also cemented Jesse and Steve’s friendship in my mind. I always loved seeing that restaurant on the show. Meanwhile, outside an occasional reference, Amanda’s personal life pretty much disappears from the series by this point.
I also had to laugh at how dated some of the technology is. These episodes originally aired in 1998 and 1999. They aren’t heavy on the computers or cell phones, but when they do show up, it is a reminder how much things have changed in the last twenty years. There’s also an episode that shows us gas prices at a gas station, and it was amazing how cheap it was. We’re talking prices we haven’t seen in California probably since the episodes first aired. Of course, as long as you remember when these shows first aired, you’ll be fine.
There is more good than bad in season six of Diagnosis: Murder. Fans of the show will definitely be glad they rewatched it.
Nice review, Mark. I used to love this show, I 'm glad season six mostly worked out for you
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