Way cool: a website dedicated to my favorite Quincy episode, the one where the punk rock kid gets killed. Like this writer and her friends, my friends and I also mocked this episode relentlessly. At the time, of course, it was stilted and silly, even though many of the things featured in the episode were actually true (a lot of punkers really did slash their skin, most of punk was relentlessly negative, at least that segment of the punk scene that made the mistake of taking itself too seriously -- but even the sarcasm inherent in the Sex Pistols' shtick was a dark, nihilisitic sarcasm). What we didn't realize was how prescient it was -- but then, we couldn't have realized it, because some things you come to understand only through the passage of time. Now I am more likely to listen to the sort of music that ends the show than loud punk or goth stuff (though I still crank up the loudness on occasion), and I am not as sanguine about idiot kid movements as I was, even though ny "involvement" with the punk scene went no farther than listening to the music and going to concerts. (No self-mutilation for this girl, thank you very much.) So I would probably not be so inclined to laugh at the "naive" reactions of Quincy and the other squares in the show the way I used to.
I will say, though, I have never seen the CHIPs punk rock episode. There were just some things I refused to do, and watching CHIPs was one of those things.
(Via Fraterslibertas.)
Posted by Andrea Harris at April 21, 2003 12:50 AMAh, but did you ever catch the Dragnet "Blue Boy" LSD episode? A true classic.
Posted by: *** Dave at April 21, 2003 at 11:37 PMIs that the one where they go to the drug dealer's outasight pad and he's sitting around in bellbottoms and a Nehru jacket? Ah, childhood memories.
Posted by: Andrea Harris at April 22, 2003 at 01:28 AMMy friends and I used to howl with glee at that episode, too. It's been ages since I've seen it, so I don't remember it verbatim, but I seem to recall what most amused us was the fact that to justify the good doctor's involvement for the episode, Quincy -- the inveterate statistic-quoter -- was presenting punk rock like it was a syndrome or disease that had these specific symptoms and his handy-dandy way to cure those who'd been afflicted with it.
I mean, really, as he was a coroner, I'm sure they could have found hundreds of different examples of how a coroner could conceivably interact with a punk rocker in a more realistic plot.
But then. It wouldn't have been a proper Quincy episode.
That Blueboy Dragnet episode was a classic, too. Also as was another Dragnet episode where Sgt. Friday proved readers of Flaubert were prone to turn into cold-blooded murderers.
Ah, TV. It would never lie to you or distorts things, would it?
Posted by: m bat at April 22, 2003 at 02:52 AM