“You Don’t Have to be Stogey. But You Don’t Have to be Charlie Chaplin Either.”
I have not watched the Diagnosis: Murder seasons in order since the show ended (I’ve caught random episodes in reruns) until I started watching the show on DVD several years ago. All of that is a long way of saying that I hadn’t watching season season all together since it originally aired in 1999 and 2000. I remembered not being that impressed by it, but overall, I enjoyed this season on my rewatch.
Not much has changed on the show this season. We are still following the adventures of Dr. Mark Sloan (Dick Van Dyke) a doctor with a talent for solving murders. As a result, he helps his son, LAPD officer Steve (Barry Van Dyke). He often brings coroner Dr. Amanda Bentley (Victoria Rowell) and Dr. Jesse Travis (Charlie Schlatter) into the investigations. All three of these doctors work at Community General, a teaching hospital. And this allows us to meet a couple of recurring characters this season. Joanna Cassidy recures as Madison Wesley, who comes in to run the school. Meanwhile, we also meet Alex (played by Barry’s son Shane Van Dyke), a medical student.
What kind of cases do they face this season? When Mark’s visiting brother Stacy (guest star Jerry Van Dyke) starts sleepwalking at the hospital, he comes under suspicion for a murder that happens. A friend of Steve’s from his days in the military shows up and dumps his daughter on Mark and Steve before vanishing again. A gangster moves into the neighborhood who just happens to be a dead ringer for Mark. A “free” cruise in exchange for working as the ship’s doctor turns out to be anything but relaxing when a guest vanishes at sea. Something’s heating up at a cooking channel besides the food. Is a security system going haywire or is someone behind the deadly accidents? And Steven’s appearance on a dating show ends with a dead date.
As you can see, there are lots of great cases here. In total, we get 24 episodes this season. I actually remembered more of these episodes than I thought I might. I definitely didn’t remember many of them in their entirety, but there would be scenes that stood out in my mind, and sometimes I’d remember the climax part way through.
And the cases are mostly good. We get the usual mix of cases where we know who did it and watch Mark figure it out and cases where we have no idea and have to solve it along with Mark.
I also really liked the addition of Madison and Alex, and I found myself happy when they’d show up in an episode. Sadly, Madison is only in this season, which is awkward given where they left things with her character. I’m trying to remember how they explained her absence in the final season.
Speaking of explaining absences, one strike I had against this season is that the new show runners wrote out Jesse’s girlfriend, Susan Hillard, this season. I loved her character, so this always bummed me.
Outside the first episode (where Mark is roasted by a group of comedians), the show has gotten away from the themed stunt casting episodes. That isn’t to say that there aren’t faces and names I recognized this season. I mean, we start off with Steve Allen, Ruth Buzzi, Tim Conway, Julia Duffy, Dick Martin, and Tom Poston is that first episode. As the season goes along, we get the already mentioned Jerry Van Dyke plus Michelle Phillips, Ray Wise, Donny and Marie Osmond (as themselves), Joyce Brothers, Scarlett Pomers, Charlotte Rae, and Helen Reddy.
As we neared the end of the season, I could see some of the things that I remembered being issues, but they weren’t as big an issue here as I remembered them being. One reason I loved this show was the ensemble cast and their friendships. The show begins to focus a bit more on certain characters each episode without nearly as much collaboration between them. I miss it when the characters aren’t sharing as much screen time together.
Also, the final three episodes are a bit off putting. “Swan Song” is more of an issue episode instead of the typical episode, and it is depressing and hard to watch. Then we get the two part season finale which doesn’t quite work the way the writers wanted it to work. It’s two cases that aired back to back with a little bit that connects them, but it just feels odd. The show has always had the odd episode, but they didn’t usually end the season, so these stand out a bit more.
But again, overall, this season continues the fun mysteries we’ve come to expect. You’ll smile and occasionally laugh as you watch.
And the four leads are still outstanding. They pull off the scripts they get and make it look easy. I have no idea how they got along in real life, but they certainly make the friendships seem very real. The guest stars always brings their characters to life as well.
Since there were twenty-four episodes this season, the DVD set I have contains six discs. They are all full frame picture and stereo sound, which was the norm for TV shows of the era. There are notes about the picture as the discs are loading, but I don’t remember seeing anything that didn’t look good for a show that is over 20 years old. There is nothing in the way of extras, but I’m just happy to have the show.
I’m glad I gave season seven of Diagnosis: Murder a second chance. While there are some flaws, the majority of the season is lots of fun for fans of the show.
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