QUINCY'S DESCENDANTS

Les and I relish the "medical examiners" on several different television shows because they are usually wacky, creepy, offbeat, weird, cranky, and darkly humorous. It all started with Quincy who was not especially strange, but it now seems de riguer for all of Quincy's descendants to be quirky!

What kind of person would choose a career dealing with naked, lifeless bodies?

Our favorites television coroners:

Kurt Fuller as Dr. Woody Strode on Psych. (It's practically enough that he's named Woody Strode!)
Jane Curtin as Dr. Joanne Webster on "Unforgettable"
David McCallum as Donald "Ducky" Mallard on "NCIS"
Tamara Tunie as Dr. Melinda Warner on "Law and Order SVU"
Khandi Alexander as Dr. Alexx Woods on "CSI Miami"
Michelle Forbes as Dr. Julianna Cox on "Homicide: Life On The Street"
Elizabeth Rogers as Dr. Leslie Hendrix on "Law and Order"
Dana Delaney as Dr. Megan Hunt on Body Of Proof
Jeri Ryan as Dr. Kate Murphy on Body Of Proof (hit the jackpot with two on the same show!)
Robert David Hall as Doc Robbins on CSI
Robert Joy as Dr. Sid Hammerback on CSI New York

I didn't think any of these could be topped until I watched the latest episode of Longmire. The Coroner, Dr. Bloomfield, is played by Kenneth Choi. The character is described on the website as being "half-Japanese and half-Jewish" and "ruggedly handsome." I believe that the name Choi is either Chinese or Korean, but of course that would not prevent his playing a half-Japanese person! The character chews tobacco and is constantly spitting tobacco juice into a cup, just like real tobacco-chewers!

I asked, "Is that KOSHER?" Les said, "As long as it doesn't contain MSG!" Oh, cross-ethic humor is so difficult to translate! My favorite cross-ethnic jokes are:

SAMMY DAVIS: The only Jew with Sickle-Cell Anemia.
SAMMY DAVIS: The only black with Tay-Sachs Disease.
CLICK HERE to see the article on TV Morticians.