Quincy M.E. (TV Series) An Ounce of Prevention (1979) User Reviews

Pretty good except for the ridiculous coincidence near the end.

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 21 April 2013]

"An Ounce of Prevention" is an episode clearly inspired by Love Canal--a neighborhood near Niagara Falls that was closed in the 1970s due to it being discovered to have been a landfill for Hooker Chemicals. Because it posed such a huge danger, families were moved out and it made the national news in the mid-late 1970s. Birth defects, early deaths and the like made the place unlivable.

In this show, a construction worker begins acting bizarrely and falls to his death. It turns out that exposure to pesticides led to this death. Upon further investigation, it turns out the neighborhood where the guy lived is buried on a waste dump! At first, the company that was responsible hides behind their lawyers, however, when birth defects, liver damage and other problems are documented, they uncharacteristically agreed to clean up everything and cover the costs (this is no evil corporation in this episode). But, in a ridiculous coincidence, a bunch of barrels that SHOULD have been buried there are discovered to be leaking off shore. I say ridiculous because they were dumped decades before and began leaking and killing folks only just after the initial problem was discovered. Still, it's a decent episode--one that is unusual in that everyone seemed pretty nice--even the 'bad guys'.

Below average episode with a far-fetched resolution

[rayoflite24 · 6/10 · 1 October 2015]

An Ounce of Prevention begins with construction worker Frank Roselli (Gino Ardito) becoming suddenly ill and taking a fatal fall off a building scaffolding. Quincy (Jack Klugman) conducts the autopsy and affirms that he died as a result of injuries sustained from the fall, but he also finds additional evidence suggesting that Frank was exposed to toxic chemicals which weakened him and caused the fall. This prompts an investigation into how Frank was exposed to the toxic chemicals and it is discovered that his neighborhood rests upon an old landfill. As a result, the Health Department mandates an evacuation until the toxicity can be effectively treated and removed which leads to many angry residents. Quincy tries to help the people by lobbying the company responsible for the toxic waste while also trying to prevent another crisis by locating more chemicals that were irresponsibly dumped offshore.

I didn't find this to be a particularly good episode for several reasons. First of all, we learn very early on that the death was a result of gross negligence and there really isn't much of a mystery here besides Quincy trying to assign blame and find out where the offshore chemical waste is dumped. The manner in which he does this towards the end is so far-fetched and ridiculous that it just wiped out any credibility of the story for me. I also wasn't buying how the head of the company became so cooperative and helpful in the investigation even as it exposed the company to massive liability and litigation.

If you enjoy the episodes where Quincy is on a social crusade and trying to prevent a public health crisis than you will likely find this one entertaining, but this type of plot is just not my cup of tea. Combining that with the holes in the story and the far-fetched resolution, this makes for a below average Season 4 episode.

Decent moralistic Quincy episode that still works today.

[poolandrews · 6/10 · 27 February 2008]

Quincy M.E.: An Ounce of Prevention starts as lowly construction worker Frank Roselli (Gino Ardito) loses his grip while working on the building of a skyscraper, he falls to his death. Los Angeles coroner Quincy (Jack Klugman) performs the autopsy & while there is no doubt the fall killed him there are questions over what made him fall, after running several tests it turns out Frank's blood was loaded with some sort of oregano phosphates. Quincy traces the chemicals to tomato's he had eaten & back to his home town of Rosewood where he wife (Barbar Baldavin) grew them in their backyard, after testing the soil the health department find it is loaded with the dangerous chemicals & that it is contamination from a nearby disused landfill full of deadly waste organic pesticide chemicals. An entire community is under threat unless the waste can be cleaned up, the only problem is no-one wants to pay for it...

Episode 21 from season 4 this Quincy story was directed by Kenneth Gilbert & is one of those Quincy episodes which is split between a race against time to save lives & a moralistic message. The one thing that stands out in An Ounce of Prevention is that the message about dumping waste, the ever-growing problem of pollution & more importantly who is responsible for it is never more appropriate than today, in fact you could say the writers of this episode were pretty forward thinking as pollution & associated green issues are big news these days. It also foresees that the constant, unmonitored & unregulated dumping of waste will one day have an impact, even if it's not the day it's dumped but ten years down the line when it's had a chance to do some real damage. What I also liked about An Ounce of Prevention beside a very real & topical moral issue is that it doesn't forget that at heart it's a show designed to entertain & a such there's a pretty good sub-plot about leaking barrels of waste dumped at sea & it also has some trademark Quincy humour with Asten trying to get Quincy to talk to some Japanese tourists & Quincy picking a girl up no-one else could. A good episode then, maybe not the most original or intriguing but still relevant & entertaining.

An Ounce of Prevention is probably the only Quincy episode ever to feature a submarine, it also tries to claim that skyscraper construction workers only use bits of rope to attach themselves to high buildings they are working on which doesn't seem plausible to me. I mean what if they slipped or something? Surely they would wear a harness of some sort actually attached to the steel beams rather than a manky old rope tied around it? The acting is OK in this one, the Japanese tourists overdo it a bit though.

An Ounce of Prevention show's that we didn't really take these Quincy episodes that seriously back in 1979 since pollution is still a huge problem, it's an entertaining enough episode considering there's no murder mystery angle to it.