Quincy M.E. (TV Series) Hit and Run at Danny's (1977) User Reviews

Pretty far-fetched

[rayoflite24 · 6/10 · 8 August 2015]

Hit and Run at Danny's begins with Quincy (Jack Klugman) and his flight attendant girlfriend, Ginny (Jan Shutan), at Danny's in a large group cheering on a turtle race. Ginny's friend and fellow flight attendant, Robbi Parker (Elizabeth Robinson), is with them and pulled aside when another woman enters the bar and cautions her about being there as she could be identified. When Robbi later leaves the bar, two men forcibly enter her vehicle and restrain her. They then speed off through the parking lot striking a man about to enter Danny's. Robbi attempts to fend off her attackers causing a struggle, and the vehicle crashes through a barrier ending up in the marina. Only her body is found when the vehicle is pulled from the water the next morning, and the police incorrectly assume she was intoxicated which caused the hit and run and the crash resulting her own death, but Quincy suspects foul play.

Another plot involves the attorney for the man who was hit in the parking lot bringing a lawsuit against Danny (Val Bisoglio) for over-serving Robbi which may shut down the restaurant and cause him financial ruin. This makes Quincy even more determined to prove she was not intoxicated and also not the only person in the car when it crashed.

This episode has A LOT going on right from the beginning, and if you're not paying close attention you'll fall behind or become confused quickly. While we know who caused the victim's death and that she wasn't drunk right from the start, there is a mystery as to her real identity and why she was killed which is pretty complex and far-fetched in my opinion. Even with plastic surgery, the fact that nobody even recognized her as a former worker at Danny's just months later seemed pretty silly to me. Definitely not one of the better episodes of Season 2.

Decent Quincy episode.

[poolandrews · 6/10 · 28 February 2008]

Quincy M.E.: Hit and Run at Danny's starts in Danny's (Val Bisoglio) bar as Quincy (Jack Klugman) & his latest girlfriend Jenny are enjoying some tortoise racing along with the other punters, then Jenny's friend Robbi Parker (Elizabeth Robinson) is called away by her friend Janet Martin (Renne Jarrett). After talking in the corner for a few minutes Robbi leaves only to be attacked at gunpoint in the parking lot by two men, they drive off in her car but she grabs the steering wheel & the car hits a football player named Mark Berkich (Bob Minor) before it takes a dive off the pier & into the sea. The next morning & the car is recovered with only the body of Robbi inside, since Danny served her & let her leave drunk he is as much responsible for the accident as she is under Californian law. If that wasn't enough during the autopsy Quincy finds out that Robbi had extensive plastic surgery & that three months ago Robbi Parker never existed...

Episode 6 from season 2 this Quincy story was directed by Alvin Ganzer & one has to say that there is perhaps too much going on here to satisfactorily squeeze into fifty minutes. When I saw the title Hit and Run at Danny's I understandably thought that it would be about a hit and run at Danny's but that's just a small sub plot as the whole episode is very fragmented & bitty. There's the hit and run, there's the injured football player (who we never find out if he is seriously injured), there's the mysterious Robbi Parker who never existed three months ago who turns out to be Danny's ex waitress, there's plastic surgeons, there's the legal situation Danny finds himself in, the slightly odd law that states he is responsible, there's mob hit men, seat belt burns, unidentified dead men, Governmet agencies, lies, cover-ups, there's a terrified woman who thinks she is going to be killed next & if all that wasn't enough there's some tortoise racing. It's all very random & I just didn't think it worked that well, I mean it's alright & there's plenty going on but I don't think it's good enough to be called classic Quincy. Also there's an odd sequence that might be down to poor editing but Sam clearly is seen phoning around hospitals looking for people admitted with seat belt burns on the request of Quincy, but then a few scenes later it show's Quincy realising that must have been a second man after talking to Asten through his car window & he makes a big point of suddenly realising it so how/why did Quincy tell Sam to phone around the hospitals before he figured out there must have been a second man? You see what I'm trying say?

In this episode we see that Dr. Asten the boss owns a black Mercedes. There's a reasonable car stunt at the start as one drives of a pier but otherwise there's nothing overly memorable here except that Quincy, Monahan & Danny like to hold tortoise races & bet on them. It seems Quincy's tortoise is called Winston & is rubbish. The acting is alright although since this is an early episode the performances aren't quite as natural or assured as in later seasons as they were still probably working out how to play the character's.

Hit and Run at Danny's has plenty going on & it could have made for a great episode but at the end of the day I felt there was just too much going on & too many average sub plots which failed to totally grab me. It's a good episode but a little messy & unsatisfying.

I seem to have liked this more than most...

[AlsExGal · 8/10 · 4 February 2024]

...Perhaps because I've just recently subjected myself to season eight of Quincy and therefore thirst for episodes where there is an actual mystery involving forensics rather than the latter episodes where Quincy is screeching about the government needing to do something pertaining to some social issue or worse, he's absent almost altogether as this show was often a launching pad for series pilots that never made the grade. But I digress.

Quincy and his friends are having fun at Danny's when two women meet at the bar, away from the fun, and talk clandestinely as though they are escapees from human trafficking. Their conversation is vague, so it really isn't clear what they are afraid of, but when one woman leaves the scene, she is taken prisoner by two tough guys and they all seem to know each other. Once in the car she fights to the point that she causes the driver to lose control, the car hits a pedestrian and then the car crashes into the bay. The woman is found alone, dead in the car.

During the autopsy, Quincy ascertains the woman was at the legal limit as far as blood alcohol content, and everybody assumes that she was driving the car and alone - nobody saw the abduction. There apparently was a new law just passed in California at the time that holds the proprietor liable if a customer drinks too much and then has an automobile accident, and Danny is facing the loss of his business because of it. Not to mention that the pedestrian who was struck by the car is a professional football player and is suing Danny because of his career ending injuries.

Quincy is on the case because the woman has had extensive facial plastic surgery and, more importantly, he also notices she has no bruises from the seat belt when she crashed. Might she not have been wearing hers? Apparently not, since her model of car would not engage the ignition unless the driver was wearing one. Weird to see so much government control even 47 years ago, but again I digress.

This was a good mystery. Far-fetched? Sure, but it was also far-fetched when Quincy logged time on his timecard in the later seasons for all of his crusades and didn't get fired for timecard fraud. At least THIS was entertaining.

Also, note that Quincy has dumped Lee and already has a new girlfriend he is again disingenuously calling "Honey". Quincy - You dog you.

Weak.

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 5 March 2013]

funny scene at plastic surgeon when lady looks at Quincy This is a particularly weak episode--mostly because Quincy comes off as a bigger sanctimonious jerk than usual. After all, we have come to expect him to be a dogged guy about his cases--but this time there doesn't seem to be a good reason for his behaviors.

The show begins at Danny's and everyone is enjoying turtle races (really). A couple of the patrons apparently share some secret--and the one lady is upset that the other is at Danny's. Why? Who knows. But only moments later, the one woman is taken prisoner and is taken on a last ride. On the way to her death, a person is struck by the car. So, now you have a lawyer looking to sue SOMEONE--most likely Danny's because everyone thinks that the dead woman in the car was at the bar. And, the insurance company refuses to allow Danny's to stay open since they MIGHT have gotten this dead lady drunk. No one knows that at this point she was murdered and that there were other people in the vehicle. Later, it becomes apparent that the dead lady is NOT who she claimed to be but was a woman whose identity had been altered. Who was she? And why are folks in the government trying to tie everything together so fast? They tell Quincy to drop the case--but he naturally won't.

"Hit and Run at Danny's" is both a bit confusing as well as irritating. Once the federal government came in and tried to help everyone (including Danny), Quincy kept fighting just for the sake of fighting. It's as if he's ALWAYS angry and doesn't know when to let go of a case--even when it's of no benefit to anyone to keep fighting. As a result, it is an episode that just isn't particularly engaging. I did, however, liked the funny scene at the plastic surgeon's where Quincy was talking to a patient in the waiting room--that was pretty cute.

Hit and Run at Danny's

[Prismark10 · 5/10 · 13 February 2020]

Danny's Bar has turtle racing. A friend of Quincy's girlfriend quickly leaves the bar and is abducted in her car by two men. The car crashes into the sea and the woman is dead, believed to be intoxicated at the time.

This causes a problem for Danny. The villains ran over an ex footballer during the getaway, there was no other body in the car when it was recovered. Under a new California law, Danny is responsible for letting the woman leave and drive a car in a drunken state.

Quincy has difficulties in identifying the dead woman as she had extensive plastic surgery and Federal agents are hanging around.

There is a lot happening in this episode and there maybe even a conspiracy. It is the beginnings of Quincy the crusader as the episode highlights a new law aimed to prevent people being injured by intoxicated drivers. The liability could rest on the bar owners. Quincy's friendship with Danny is tested.

It was rather far fetched as you wonder how did the two men escape from the water after a serious accident that left a woman dead. Also why would a woman turn up in a bar that she once worked in despite her facial reconstruction.