The Death Challenge begins with Quincy (Jack Klugman) and his girlfriend, Maggie (Jo Ann Pflug), on his boat watching a magician perform live on TV. In the act, the magician attempts an escape trick where he is locked in handcuffs, placed in a box and submerged in water, but the trick goes horribly wrong and the magician drowns. Quincy conducts the autopsy and determines that the magician was murdered because someone substituted the normal tranquilizer medication he took prior to the trick to slow his breathing with an amphetamine that caused his breathing to rapidly increase as he was deprived oxygen. When the wife of the magician later attempts the same trick, she narrowly escapes the same fate and foul play is once again found to have occurred as Quincy tries to determine who is responsible.
This is a pretty entertaining episode with a good murder mystery featured along with several suspects played by top notch guest stars including Ann Blyth, Don Ameche and Ron Masak. My only criticisms are the set up of the plot being a tired one where Quincy is watching someone on TV and you know that person is going to die tragically, and I also found the live TV airing of the same magical trick twice after someone just died doing it to be pretty far-fetched.
Other than that, this is a quite enjoyable Season 4 episode with an interesting story that is well worth watching.
This is a pretty entertaining episode with a good murder mystery featured along with several suspects played by top notch guest stars including Ann Blyth, Don Ameche and Ron Masak. My only criticisms are the set up of the plot being a tired one where Quincy is watching someone on TV and you know that person is going to die tragically, and I also found the live TV airing of the same magical trick twice after someone just died doing it to be pretty far-fetched.
Other than that, this is a quite enjoyable Season 4 episode with an interesting story that is well worth watching.