Diagnosis Murder

''Diagnosis: Murder'' is an American action-comedy-mystery-medical crime drama television series starring Dick Van Dyke as Dr. Mark Sloan, a medical doctor who solves crimes with the help of his son Steve, a homicide detective played by Van Dyke's real-life son Barry. The series began as a spin-off of ''Jake and the Fatman'' (Dr. Mark Sloan made his first appearance in episode 4.19 "It Never Entered My Mind"), became a series of three television films, and then a weekly television series that debuted on CBS on October 29, 1993. Joyce Burditt wrote the episode in ''Jake and the Fatman'' and is listed here as the creator of the spin off series.

The series struggled at first and was almost cancelled at the end of the second season, but it returned as a midseason replacement in the third season, and was regularly renewed thereafter. 178 episodes were made and aired in the show's eight seasons on the CBS network in the United States and two more TV movies aired after the series' cancellation on May 11, 2001. The show is currently distributed by CBS Television Distribution.

In the ''Jake and the Fatman'' episode, Dr. Mark Sloan was a widower with no sons. Dr. Amanda Bentley is played by Cynthia Gibb in the TV movies and, finally, by Victoria Rowell in the TV series. Stephen Caffrey played Dr. Jack Parker in the movies, a role that went to Scott Baio as Dr. Jack Stewart in the weekly series (first two seasons).

The first two TV movies were shot in Vancouver, British Columbia, and the third was shot in Denver, Colorado. The first 8 episodes of the series were also shot (and set) in Denver, before quickly (and without explanation) shifting to Los Angeles for the remainder of the show's run. Since 1997, reruns of the show have been shown in syndication and on Freeform (formerly ABC Family and originally CBN Satellite Service), Ion Television (formerly PAX-TV), Hallmark Channel, 10 Bold, CBS Action and MeTV.

Plot

The plot centered around Dr. Mark Sloan (Dick Van Dyke), a former United States Army doctor who served in a MASH unit. After his service ended, Dr. Sloan became a renowned physician and consults with the local police, and can't resist a good mystery or a friend in need. Cases often involved his son, Detective Steve Sloan ( Barry Van Dyke), and Norman Briggs (Michael Tucci in seasons 1–4), a hospital administrator and a close friend of his. Also assisting Dr. Sloan are his colleagues, medical examiner/pathology Dr. Amanda Bentley (Victoria Rowell) and Dr. Jack Stewart (Scott Baio in the first two seasons), who is later replaced by a new resident, Dr. Jesse Travis ( Charlie Schlatter from season 3 onward).

Episodes

''Diagnosis: Murder'' had a total of eight seasons and 178 episodes which were broadcast on CBS between 1993 and 2001.

Cast

Main

* Dr. Mark Sloan (played by Dick Van Dyke), Former army doctor and Chief of Internal Medicine at Community General Hospital, and protagonist of the series. Son of a police officer and father of another, in whose cases he often gets involved. He is a medical consultant to the LAPD. Dick Van Dyke was considered for the lead role after the positive reviews he received from his dramatic role in the 1990 movie ''Dick Tracy'' (although the character he played in the movie was villain and very different from the role of Mark Sloan). In the pilot the character had interests in tap dance and clarinet playing; however, these were considered distracting and were toned down and eventually removed from the character as the series developed.
* Lieutenant Detective Steve Sloan (played by Barry Van Dyke), a detective sergeant (later lieutenant from season 2 onward) in the Robbery/Homicide Division of the LAPD and Dr. Mark Sloan's son. After an earthquake destroyed his apartment, he lived in a separate apartment in his father's beach house in Malibu, California. Steve often uses his "patented" dive to apprehend criminals.
*Dr. Amanda Bentley (played by Cynthia Gibb in the TV Movies set before the series), later Bentley-Livingston (played there by Victoria Rowell), resident Pathology at Community General Hospital and assistant County Medical Examiner, who is also Dr. Mark Sloan's double act and medical partner, involving in each of Mark's & Steve's cases, after the accident. As a favorable character of the show, she also dated Jack and was later Jesse's best friend. During the series, she married a military man, and had a son named C.J. Depending on the episode, she divorced him or he was killed in an airplane crash. Later in the series, she adopted another boy, Deon.
* Dr. Jack Stewart (played by Stephen Caffrey in the TV movies, Scott Baio in the series from 1993 to 1995, seasons 1–2), a doctor at Community General Hospital and Steve's best friend, whom he often helped in his cases. He left to open his own family medicine in Colorado. Jack Stewart does reappear in a couple of Lee Goldberg's Diagnosis Murder books, "The Silent Partner" and "The Last Word". In the first three TV Movies his name was Jack Parker.
* Dr. Jesse Travis (played by Charlie Schlatter, 1995–2001, seasons 3–8), a residency and handsome student at Community General Hospital who Mark took under his wing and who became best friends with Amanda. He later went into business with Steve as partners in a barbecue restaurant. Another favorable/list of breakout characters of the series, he often got involved in Mark and Steve's cases, with good intentions but not always good results. In the crossover double episode "Murder Two", he himself became the prime suspect of a rival doctor's killing, hence he badgered Mark to call his old friend Ben Matlock (played by Dick's real-life best friend Andy Griffith) for help. The hospital staff thought he wrote the tell-all book "Big City Hospital" as Dr. Anonymous but later found out it was written by someone else. Jason Tucker was a character in the book who sounded exactly like Jesse, which is why the hospital staff thought it was him.
* Norman Briggs (played by Michael Tucci, 1993–1997, seasons 1–4), business administration at Community General Hospital and a close friend of Dr. Mark Sloan, even though he is often exasperated by him.
* Delores Mitchell (played by Delores Hall, 1993–1995, seasons 1–2), Dr. Sloan's lively secretary.

Notable guest stars

One unique aspect of the series was that it frequently appropriated characters from various classic television series, or featured veteran actors playing characters inspired by or similar to their classic roles.
* Rob Petrie (played by Van Dyke himself in ''The Dick Van Dyke Show'') features in a cameo in the episode "Obsession, Part 2" where Dr. Sloan is in a radio station, and walks past a studio where (through use of CGI), Rob is trying his hand at radio Disc jockey. The footage of Rob as a DJ is taken from the ''Dick Van Dyke Show'' episode "One Hundred Terrible Hours". This scene moves ''Diagnosis: Murder'' into the realm of fantasy as Petrie is shown in black and white (with Sloan visible in a color insert behind him), after which Sloan breaks the fourth wall and looks at the audience before the story continues.
* Mike Connors reprised his titular character of ''Mannix'' in the season 4 episode "Hard-Boiled Murder." The episode's story was a sequel to the ''Mannix'' episode "Little Girl Lost."
* Andy Griffith reprised his titular role of Ben Matlock from Dean Hargrove's '' Matlock'' series in Season 4 two-parter "Murder Two" (1997). In a sense, this brought ''Diagnosis: Murder'' full circle, as its parent series, ''Jake and the Fatman'', was inspired by a Season 1 episode of ''Matlock'' in 1986.
* Barbara Bain reprised her role of Cinnamon Carter of '' Mission: Impossible'' in season 5 episode "Discards."
* Peter Graves, who starred alongside Barbara Bain on ''Mission: Impossible'' as Jim Phelps did not return as his character, but did make a very brief cameo in "Must Kill TV" and the same scene is seen in part 1 of the Series 6 episode ''Trash TV'' Part 1 as "Dr. Sloane" icin a ''Mission: Impossible''-style illusion of his first TV pilot of "Doctor Danger," later replaced during the show.
* Robert Culp also guest starred in the episode "Discards" as Dane Travis, a retired espionage, tennis professional, and Dr. Travis' father. The character was similar to his Kelly Robinson character from ''I Spy'', though Travis was said to have worked with the Impossible Missions Force (also seen on '' Mission: Impossible'').
* "Discards" also featured appearances by former TV spies Patrick Macnee ('' The Avengers''), Robert Vaughn ('' The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'') and Phil Morris (the 1988 version of '' Mission: Impossible''), though they did not play their original characters.
* Jack Klugman also guest starred in season 4 episode "Physician, Murder Thyself," as a character very similar to his famous role on '' Quincy, M.E.''. He guest-starred again, in season 6 episode "Voices Carry" as police detective Harry Trumble, the former fiance of Dr. Mark Sloan's late wife. Trumble reappeared in Lee Goldberg's ''Diagnosis Murder'' novel "The Past Tense."
* George Takei, Walter Koenig, Majel Barrett

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