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Diagnosis Murder Season 1 Episodes
Season 1 Episode Guide
19 Episodes 1993 - 1994
Episode 1
Miracle Cure
Fri, Oct 29, 199345 mins
When a man says in confessional he knows Father Morrissey has 'sinned', the priest takes a gun from a hollowed Bible, drives his car over him but finds the envelope he looks for gone, stolen seconds earlier by a girl. Father Morrissey even fakes stomach pain to be admitted in the same L.A. hospital, Community General, so he can administer a fatal injection, surprised only by bag lady Alice, who was just admitted for amnesia, however possibly still somewhat treatable. The physician in charge, Dr. Mark Sloane, smells a rat after Morrissey discharges himself and goes talk to Father Morrissey, coincidentally the parish priest of hospital administrator Norman Briggs. Sloane's son, LAPD Detective Steve Sloane, still only worries about his hair perhaps falling out, but the autopsy by Amanda Bentley-Livingston allows her witnessing friend, senior resident Dr. Jack Stewart, to trace a dragon tattoo to the Cobras, a gang of convicts a cousin of his belongs to...
Episode 2
Amnesia
Fri, Nov 5, 199345 mins
Mark is eager take some vacation; his son, Steve, isn't holding his breath to go fishing together as promised long since, sets off by himself and has a hellish time alone. For a change, Norman makes an awful fuss about security for mob-threatened senate transport committee, Chairman Basset, who is getting an operation in Community General. However, a woman in league with another assassin gets past the security by staging getting major amnesia and forgetting her identity after being hit by a car. When nurse Sue Marlowe recognizes 'Jane Doe,' she is given a fatal push down a staircase by 'Jane Doe' who then pretends to have found Sue's corpse. Amanda is suspicious of 'Jane Doe,' Mark finds the car hit probably was staged, while Jack is rather charmed. The Briggs-FBI security system proves cumbersome, but not for Jane's accomplice who smuggles in a detachable gun inside crutches. Mark sees the accomplice coming through security and notices he is not really limping but the accomplice escapes, returning later to pass the armed crutch to Jane. Mark looks into Jane Doe's identity and Nurse Marlowe's suspicious fall, gets to the mob link but is recognized and captured, while Jack realizes Jane only kissed him to get his security badge...
Episode 3
Murder at the Telethon
Fri, Nov 12, 199345 mins
Since the hospital board decided that the ER is to shut down unless $100,000 is raised, Norman decides to mount a telethon guaranteeing the full sum, and then leaves a while for a seminar which puts Mark in charge, who is relieved Jack kind of enjoys being the stage manager. Main star Buddy Blake, a faded TV comedy legend, comes with his son Michael Blake, who gave up medical studies (with Mark) to be his assistant and put up with the ingrate's abuse, even in public. While Mark is presenting the show, Buddy stumbles on scene with a fatal knife his back; to the Sloans' horror Michael is arrested as prime suspect, bloody hands and the last person seen in dad's dressing room. While Steve nearly dies as MC with stage-fright during the sleepless 24 hour show, Mark and Jack are determined to find the real killer, plausibly Buddy's wife Marcy, who would have divorced him earlier but couldn't part with his money, so Jack tails her to a hotel, without neglecting three colleagues on the telethon, all with mortal grudges.
Episode 4
Inheritance of Death
Fri, Nov 19, 199345 mins
Retired wine tycoon Jonathan Nash, Mark's 93-year-old second cousin, pledges his entire estate (about $15 million) to Community General Hospital. He then calls to tell Mark that his three adult children are trying to kill him. Mark arrives only to be hit by his electric wheelchair crashing down the mansion's staircase, which puts him into traction himself. However, he tells Steve that Jonathan looked dead already. Mark thinks of remote control and hopes to sleuth by remote Jack after briefing him about the family's closet full of 'skeletons' giving each kid a motive, while neither has a solid alibi: Dr. Julian Nash lost his medical license and was denied a private clinic; inventor J. Edison Nash claims his invention made the family fortune but didn't get ample research funds; Judith Nash is still wearing her wedding cloths for Italian lover Giancarlo who left her at the altar being bought off by Jonathan, her alibi is hunky Italian hairdresser Dante Reynaldo, but not just that.
Episode 5
The 13 Million Dollar Man
Fri, Dec 3, 199345 mins
Longtime patient and friend Dale Harlan stumbles into the E.R. and tells Mark to get something from his left shoe- it's a lottery ticket that he gives Mark 'to do some good with' before he dies from his gunshot wound. Amanda finds out it won $13,000,000 but fails to keep it a secret. Hospital administrator Norman Briggs, who just gave Mark grief for using surgical gloves to amuse child patients, desperately needs $6,200,000 for a new hospital wing he promised to name after Mr. Wainwright, the chairman of the board. The LAPD charges Jimmy Stevens with the murder, being found with Harlan's wallet and the murder weapon, but Jack knows the teenager as a harmless small thief, so he and Mark believe his claim to have simply found Harlan. At Harlan's funeral, they meet Dale's widow Monica and his gambling mentor Dr. Larry Wright, a dentist that Amanda infiltrates as his temporary secretary. Both claim the lottery ticket to settle debts and promises, but Mark stands firm on the deceased's charity dying wish. Crime boss Alex Ridlin claims $496,000 to settle Harlan's mundane debts, so Jack infiltrates his nightclub as a croupier. While his office is swamped in weird gifts and requests, mainly cons, Mark resists son Steve's suggestion to keep a bit and preferably buy a boat. He comes up with a plan, taking part in Ridlin's big poker night.
Episode 6
Vanishing Act: Part 1
Fri, Dec 10, 199345 mins
When Detective Steve Sloan reports to Internal Affairs agent Lloyd Schroeder his well-founded suspicions against LAPD 15th precinct colleagues Detectives Bob Cole, Eugene Vickers, Jim Michaels and Rick Hughes to be in cahoots with the fence who handled several burglaries they actually committed themselves, Schroeder checks out their excessive expenses and sets up his own pension plan: an equal share for his silence. Next someone from the criminal quartet sets up Steve for Schroeder's murder and plants stolen money in his locker, so he's suspended although his boss Lt. Ed Greenwood believes in his innocence. The Sloanes and Dr. Jack Stewart, whose mob expertise comes in handy as they find a link to 'family man' Tommy Rafonte, are determined to save the most honest cop in California, digging up the four traitors' past, personal motives to kill Schroeder and whereabouts. Meanwhile Dolores organizes nursing staff resistance against economies Norman Briggs has to carry out to prevent whole hospital activities being shut down by the board, Mark tries to mediate...
Episode 7
Vanishing Act: Part 2
Fri, Dec 17, 199345 mins
Mark Sloane was scared out of his wits when Tommy Rafonte and an armed goon took him without asking to an old patient, semi-retired mob boss Gus Benedict, but that went fine; he does get knocked down accidentally by Dolores' picketing board. Jack Stewart's investigations in the Italian quarter, including his ex Josie Swanson who is now Tommy's girl but knows nothing, and Steve's remaining police contacts allow them and Mark to work out the four bad cops are in cahoots with Tommy to plan a new crime- the ransom kidnapping of Gus. They work out their own ingenious plan...
Episode 8
Shanda's Song
Fri, Jan 7, 199445 mins
Rock vamp with a prima donna complex Shanda faints on stage when she receives a cut-up picture of herself in a box of roses. Her manager brings her, an almost identically looking back-up singer Claire and drummer Cinnamon to Community General for a check-up, but nothing wrong is found. Shanda tells Dr. Mark Sloan she has had a stalker for months, but the police can't do anything without any physical threat. After a truck tries to run them over the next minute, her fan Dr. Jack Stewart finds no actual fractures. Steve is incredulous, given Shanda's publicity stunt record, but Mark takes her to his home; Steve goes into her hospital bed, where 'nurse' Dolores practices her torturous injection technique on the healthy hunk's behind. Mark concentrates on the dynamics of the musical staff, Jack regrets sorely taking Amanda along looking into roadie Parick, who gets murdered.
Episode 9
The Restless Remains
Fri, Jan 14, 199445 mins
Mark tries rollerskating, even to work when his car won't start again. Then he tries a traditional Indian purification rite on an Ogala Sioux patient Clarke to relieve his sinusitis, in front of his med class. After a root canal, Mark gets a call and visit at home from TV investment guru Robin Westlin, who believes he's been poisoned and dies right there; but when the paramedics arrive both his car and corpse have disappeared. Steve thinks it's a laughing gas induced hallucination, but Mark finds Robin's dropped pocket diary. Westlin's chief deputy Tim Rutland, his secretary as well as his wife Meg, claim Robin is alive, but he's nowhere to be found. So the Sloans, Jack as 'psychiatric outpatient Mark's shrink' and 'reporter' Amanda snoop on at the Westlin Institute.
Episode 10
Murder with Mirrors
Fri, Jan 21, 199445 mins
Eddie Clark brings Mark Sloan tickets for his last show in the Magic Mansion with his traitorous partner Paul Madison, who intends to go solo and take all their tricks, leaving Clark stranded. Mark, Jack, Amanda, and Dolores witness their last duo show, but instead of escaping, Madison drowns, and the key to the cuffs Eddie handed him didn't fit. Mark, a gifted amateur illusionist himself, believes his former neighbor-boy Eddie's declaration of innocence, so he and Jack,'helped' by Amanda, investigate the other magicians performing in the Mansion and possible business or amorous motives and alibis. Alas, any contact with them and their props can have unforeseen consequences, even for Steve's undercover drug investigation. Mark looks into the tricks' timing too and works out a showy finale.
Episode 11
Flashdance with Death
Fri, Jan 28, 199445 mins
Shortly after he had a shouting match with his partner Sammy Garrett, who lacked the money to buy him out now that he had decided to sell and buy a ranch in Montana, Dimension dance studio partner Roland Spear dies when a short circuit in the lighting prop cane causes a fatal short circuit in his his pacemaker. Dr. Mark Sloan had taken Sammy's place as Roland's tap dance partner in the annual benefit for which the fatal cane act was being rehearsed, and snoops in the studio. Steve has no choice but to arrest Sammy, his basketball partner, who hurt his ankle at the game. While Mark snoops in the studio circles and some suspects' private lives, Jack examines the repair shop where Sammy picked up the cane, as Mark thinks the tampering was done there. So various persons' motives and opportunities are examined till he knows enough to set a trap.
Episode 12
Reunion with Murder
Fri, Feb 4, 199445 mins
Amanda and several of her wealthy, professionally successful college friends are invited to a reunion by Nancy Barlow, then the odd-one-out that they all frowned upon and humiliated when she was drunk in her underwear, which cost Nancy her scholarship; she's now an author and announces to Amanda, the only one to show up, she's about to publish a book on their college days, revealing embarrassing secrets. That evening Nancy calls Amanda in panic; after her apartment was ransacked, probably for the manuscript, she's she's later killed in Amanda's home. LAPD Detective Haggard is officially in charge, while Amanda is suspended on board's orders as the prime murder suspect. The Sloanes and Jack investigate the motives and alibis of the threatened women: politician Susan Levin, TV journalist Bobbie Burton, and socialite Mrs. Heather Winslow who runs a charity foundation. Jack finds Amanda knocked over by a masked burglar, probably after the manuscript again and guards her.
Episode 13
Lily
Fri, Mar 4, 199445 mins
At Community General Dr. Jack Stewart runs into Sandy Hoyle, whom he knew from high school, and sends her for examination to Dr. Mark Sloan; her bruises testify to repeated beatings. When Jack follows her, he finds out she's a call-girl and plans to 'retire' thanks to a tape she can blackmail prominent clients with, the details of which are also kept 'in Lily's head'. After she does so Mark, who came to check up on her, is found bent over her corpse by Steve's LAPD colleague Detective Andy Ruggio; although no arrest is made, the headline is enough for the hospital board to 'recommend' he take a vacation. Snooping in her house with Jack turns up the burned tape and black book, cigar traces, and the identity of presumed blackmail victims from her late phone-calls. Armed with this info Mark goes to check them out. First is new age guru Brother Charles Simmons; next is contractor Michael Davis, whose company is about to go public; then rancher politician Joseph Talbot. Through Sandy's ex-colleague Connie Stockwell, whose over-protective husband Max throws Jack into the pool just for talking to her, he and Amanda find out about 'madam' Elaine in whose brothel Bambi tells Mark about Sandy's mother Lily, which may (or may not) be the final clue in the case.
Episode 14
Guardian Angel
Fri, Apr 1, 199445 mins
When L.A. mayor George Ridgeway's wife Lauren recognizes Benjamin Strand in the audience at a fund raiser attended by Mark and Norman, she fakes a migraine that night to sneak out, makes an appointment with him and shoots her husband at close range. Benjamin Strand is arrested by Steve as the suspect based on previous crackpot death threats he had made to the mayor, and possession of a gun that matches the killer's caliber. Mark notices Lauren's pretended migraine is fake, while she gets a real one when already on treatment. When Jack and Amanda go look for tramp patient Lomax's bag, they find one with a small fortune in a dumpster in an alley behind the murder site, and traces of breaking in through a broken window, close to the Ridgeway home. The mayor's anemic step-daughter Melissa Ridgeway is hospitalized, possibly anorexic, but Lauren refuses that theory even being tested. Jack tails Lauren to Dr. John Harris's hotel room. Marc finds Lauren has a cut fitting the window break-in. Strand confesses, but suddenly Mark realizes the whole vile truth after studying Strand's police file...
Episode 15
Nirvana
Fri, Apr 8, 199445 mins
Chet Brooks, a born charmer, is bright, attractive, witty, and works at the Nirvana spa and has a girl on every finger, including colleague Sunshine, whose burly boyfriend is a masseur there. Chet looks up Jack, his med classmate until he dropped out without academic reason. He borrows his bright new sports car, and has a deadly accident driving it to an important appointment with Lori, another former girlfriend, who it seems turns out to be connected with a Detroit mobster's bookie racket. While Amanda gets furious when nobody takes her word, least of all Norman Briggs, who checks up on doctors covering for absent colleagues. She remembers two goons were looking for 'a friend' a day earlier after the thugs roughed up poor Jack, who gets several more utterly undeserved beatings in the valiant course of the investigation, which Mark starts at Nirvana and proves there was more to Chet then pleasingly met the eye.
Episode 16
Broadcast Blues
Fri, Apr 15, 199445 mins
When young prison doctor Dr. Tom Harvey gets his former mentor, Dr. Mark Sloan, to treat convict Paul Dunbar in Community General for a serious conduction, the criminal manages to grab a guard's gun and keeps the doctors hostage, demanding to speak to TV reporter Jordan Sanders, claiming he wants to clear his name to his kid son Nicky about the murder conviction for a security guard he claims got killed accidentally. Detective Sergeant Steve Sloan slips in too as sound man, only to see Sanders shot, Dunbar dies apparently after a suicide, saying something like 'doctor colecar' and Tom knocked unconscious; he feels guilty, as suggests nasty LAPD colleague Lt. Rick Valdez, who is investigating officially. Norman Briggs, who was briefly among the hostages, has a bad case of post-traumatic stress back in the hospital. Mark, Jack and Amanda gradually discover all about blackmail at Sanders' studio, dodgy P.I. Zimmer and the jewels which were never recovered...
Episode 17
Shaker
Fri, Apr 29, 199445 mins
A relatively severe earthquake causes a mess, including in Community General, where many people come given the state of their homes. Mark finds the crushing by a massive armoire of Martin Garfield - who had earlier mistrusted his much younger bride Ruth's fiancé - was staged after the quake, given the dust on his corpse. Mark finds Ruth with her studly 'jeweller' Henry in boxer-shorts, not aware of her prenuptial. At her advice he checks out Garfield's antiques business partner Stuart Westlake, who would be embezzling. He again points to Garfield's son-in-law, sculptor Rick Bennett, who is in gambling debt with a loan-shark and has a broken finger. Jack and Amanda tail a man who was snooping in Garfield's home, who goes to sell to dodgy Bobby Rebetta a lumpy gold bar, the reshaped murder weapon.
Episode 18
The Plague
Fri, May 6, 199445 mins
While staking mob hit man Bruno Crespi in his hotel room, Steve observes he has medical symptoms for which Bruno orders a refill from Spengler's pharmacy, which Mark diagnoses through the telescope as asthma, and receives epinephrine which he injects himself, not uncommon with patients who have a standard prescription. Shortly after he collapses, Steve gets Mark who orders a quarantine there and in the hospital to make sure nobody is contaminated: the crook has bubonic plague. CDC doctor Niven cares only for press conferences which spread panic on the theory he must have been infected through rats on a freighter he arrived on from Southeast Asia, ignoring the Sloanes' observations the epinephrine vial was full, so replaced by the maid, who wasn't actually on the hotel staff: murder by plague injection. Steve and Jack know about the crime families which include three women with a plausible motive to kill Bruno, so the snooping can start. Bruno's wife Charlene Baylor can now collect his life insurance, his stepmother Regina Baylor got control of the mob family business and his sister Jennifer 'Jenny' hated him for 'cheating' her (however legally) out of a fair share of their father's inheritance, and even pharmacist Spengler has mob connections as Jack finds- again at unnecessary peril thanks to 'helpful' Amanda. Then Mark and Jack find Spengler shot dead and the source of the plague injection, but the wrong cure and they're not alone on account of his contraband trade.
Episode 19
Sister Michael Wants You
Fri, May 13, 199445 mins
Greg Wilson, a professional cameraman who accepted to work pro bono for Saint Clair's nunnery's school, where he himself was actually expelled, calls to meet and hand a videotape to the young superior, sister Michael, but is shot dead and the tape isn't found. When the convent's gardener, non-violent ex-con Vic Chandler, is arrested, sister Michael, who is legendary late cop Charlie Donahue's daughter Maggie, gets LAPD Detective Steve Sloan to double the police investigation. Dr. Mark Sloan, himself a cop's kid (and Steve's dad), accepts to enter the convent, posing as missionary father McGuiness, temporarily assigned as chaplain, to snoop for the tape and check -helped by Jack and Amanda, who tail a fake exterminator to a country club- on suspicious persons looking for it, including the Strega crime family and rude sister Regina from the diocese...
