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Diagnosis: Murder season 4

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Diagnosis: Murder
Season 4
No. of episodes26
Release
Original networkCBS
Original releaseSeptember 19, 1996 (1996-09-19) –
May 8, 1997 (1997-05-08)
Season chronology
← Previous
Season 3
Next →
Season 5
List of episodes

Diagnosis: Murder's fourth season originally aired Thursdays at 8:00–9:00 pm (EST).[1][2]

This season is notable for establishing Dr. Mark Sloan's friendships with two other popular TV characters: Ben Matlock and Joe Mannix.

The season was released on DVD Complete and in two parts by Visual Entertainment, Inc.

Cast

[edit]

Episodes

[edit]
No.
overall		No. in
season		TitleDirected byWritten byOriginal air dateU.S. viewers
(millions)
601"Murder by Friendly Fire"Christian I. Nyby IIGillian HorvathSeptember 19, 1996 (1996-09-19)11.5[3]

A cop colleague of Steve's winds up dead in a tragic friendly-fire incident involving a veteran cop. But could it be that the deadly shooting was premeditated all along? Kim Johnston Ulrich plays the conniving widow. Guest Star: Jonathan Banks.

Note: Michael Tucci does not appear in this episode.
612"Murder Can Be Contagious"Vincent McEveetyLee Goldberg & William RabkinSeptember 26, 1996 (1996-09-26)12.9[4]

At Dr Mark’s beach house, Jesse and Mark try to treat a man who has collapsed. Mark diagnoses the man’s illness as smallpox. So, Mark and Jesse must quarantine in place. While investigating, Steve and Dr Amanda discover that they are dealing with an incredibly fast acting genetically altered strain of smallpox. What’s more, the strain was developed by an LA based science lab for the Department of Defense, but every vial of the virus, and the antigen, have been stolen from the lab. Steve and Amanda only have hours to find the cure before it's too late. And then Jesse starts to get sick…
Guest Star: Ken Howard.

Note: Michael Tucci does not appear in this episode.
623"Murder on Thin Ice"Christopher HiblerRobin MaddenOctober 3, 1996 (1996-10-03)12.8[5]

After stage-managing an attack on herself just to win endorsements, a skater kills her accomplice and frames her rival.

Guest Stars: Julie Benz, Mark Derwin
634"X Marks the Murder"Christian I. Nyby IILindsay HarrisonOctober 10, 1996 (1996-10-10)12.3[6]
645

In Part 1: A serial killer, who marks his female victims by slicing a bloody ‘X’ into the sole of their foot, calls Community General and asks to speak to Dr Mark Sloan. The press are calling him the ‘Casanova Killer’ but the LAPD have not revealed his bloody signature of the carved ‘X’. Meanwhile, Norman is worried because the Board of Directors have requested his presence in New York and, despite Mark’s reassurances, he fears the worst.
The Casanova Killer, who sees Mark as a worthy adversary – and wants his professional ‘respect’ – starts calling Mark at home.
It is revealed that the killer, Michael Dern, works at a Gas Station on the Pacific Coast Highway, and Dr Mark is one of his regular customers. Dr Amanda visits the same Gas Station on her way to Mark’s beach house. She has forgotten her purse, but Dern lets her off when she reveals that she is a colleague of ‘Doc Sloan’s’. Norman explains that the Board are very impressed with his work at CGH and want him to become a global decision maker regarding their many charitable gifts.
Increasingly frustrated with Mark’s lack of respect for him, the killer decides that Amanda will be his next victim…
In Part 2: After Michael Dern’s statement that the supposed sixth victim of the Casanova Killer was a woman he’d never even heard of, he is found murdered in his prison cell. At first, Mark assumes that victim ‘No. 6’ may have been murdered by a copycat killer. But the sixth victim also had the bloody ‘X’ carved into the sole of her foot, a detail that was never released by the police. How could a copycat have known that crucial detail?
Steve pursues Bobby Scott, who shared the same cell with Dern – and is the only suspect in Dern’s murder. Steve finds Scott dead in an alley. Later we learn Scott died of an overdose of chemically pure heroin. Meanwhile, Norman’s new jet-setting role as a ruthless global decision maker for the Trust, starts to get too much for him.
Mark starts to realise that that the unique ‘M.O.’ of the Casanova Killer has been used to camouflage the unrelated murder of victim ‘No. 6’ by an individual who knew all the intimate details of the Casanova Killer’s case - right down to a forensic level…

Guest Stars: Gregory Itzin, Kurt Fuller and John Schneider.
656"A Model Murder"Vincent McEveetySam EganOctober 17, 1996 (1996-10-17)11.8[7]

Sloan and Steve investigate a fashion show when they suspect a modeling agent of being a serial killer who murdered a private eye that discovered her secret, and her next target is one of Jesse's college buddies.

Guest Stars: Lesley-Anne Down and Jessica Collins
667"Murder Can Be Murder"Christian I. Nyby IITom ChehakOctober 24, 1996 (1996-10-24)11.5[8]

A cardiologist (Alan Rachins) and two business partners concoct a devious insurance scam to murder a man and pass him off as one of them, but when the partner who was supposed to be dead gets cold feet, he is murdered for real. Meanwhile, Mark adopts a basset hound belonging to one of Jesse's deceased relatives, as the others try to find a home for it.

Guest Stars: Alan Rachins, Josh Taylor, and Stephen Lee.
678"An Explosive Murder"Steve MinerDean HargroveOctober 31, 1996 (1996-10-31)12.2[9]

An ambitious female cop goes undercover tracking a terrorist (Eric McCormack) who blew up a delivery truck and killed the driver, injuring Mark in the process. The terrorist then orders a hit on Mark.

Note: Michael Tucci does not appear in this episode.
689"Murder by the Busload"Christian I. Nyby IILee Goldberg & William RabkinNovember 7, 1996 (1996-11-07)13.0[10]

A bus crashes after T-boning a drunk driver. All of the passengers survive the accident, but one of them, an insurance adjuster and a rapist, is murdered in the aftermath, which is discovered by Mark when he is brought in to the hospital. The only suspects are the other passengers on the bus; a homeless ex-soldier with hallucinations of Vietnam, a college student who was the victim's next rape target, the widower of a cancer patient who fell into debt due to the victim scamming him into buying a phony policy, and a woman who is a master of insurance fraud. As Mark tries to make sense of what happened, the soldier is murdered as well, and now Mark is down to three suspects, none of whom seem to have been able to commit either murder. But a reexamination of the crime scene and an autopsy of the soldier reveals an unexpected culprit.
In a subplot, the accident and murder cause Mark and Steve to miss a Lakers game, and the coach arrives to give them free tickets to the next game - as a token of appreciation for their service. However, Dr Amanda, believing they're fakes, tears them up because the coach is a friend of the fraud-loving woman.

Guest Stars: Kathy Evison, Richard Riehle
6910"A Candidate for Murder"Christopher HiblerSteve HattmanNovember 14, 1996 (1996-11-14)14.4[11]

The drug-addicted daughter of a senator is killed during an argument, but a senior aide tries to make it look like an overdose. However when the autopsy reveals inconsistencies, Mark discovers just how far the aide will go to protect the Senator's career.

Guest Stars: Michael Cole, and John Rubinstein.
7011"The ABCs of Murder"Christian I. Nyby IISteve HattmanNovember 21, 1996 (1996-11-21)12.6[12]

Sloan helps a district attorney (Piper Laurie) probe a drive-by shooting at a high school which left a popular teacher dead. But her stubborn insistence that a Korean teen is responsible makes finding the real killer a challenge.

Note: Michael Tucci does not appear in this episode.
7112"Murder in the Family"Vincent McEveetyLindsay HarrisonDecember 12, 1996 (1996-12-12)12.5[13]

This is a ‘DM’ Christmas episode. Even though there are plenty of Christmas trees on display, the storyline, initially at least, seems rather sad and grim, and it takes a little while for the Christmas associated themes to emerge. After many years, Mark's daughter, Carol Hilton (Dick Van Dyke’s real-life daughter, Stacy Van Dyke) comes home for Christmas in an attempt to escape the wrath of her abusive trucker husband, Bruce. She plans to file for divorce and move out of state for a new job. But, before she can put her plan into action, Bruce is found murdered. Unbeknownst to Carol, Bruce's actual job was illegally dumping toxic waste and blackmail, and she's likely the next target of his crooked associates.
The first standout element in this story is the imperfect, but very believable, relationship between Carol and Steve, her brother. Steve has always been overly protective of Carol, and he detested Bruce. One gets the impression that Carol may even have married Bruce in an impulsive attempt to escape Steve’s rather suffocating over-protection. When Steve is seriously injured and brought into Community General as a patient, a very moving bedside rapprochement takes place between brother and sister. The themes of love and forgiveness here make perfect sense in the context of a Christmas episode.
But the epilog of this episode is the real joy. Stacy Van Dyke delivers a brilliant rendition of ‘Have yourself a merry little Christmas’ while the regular cast goof around and decorate the Christmas tree in Dr Mark’s beach house. At the end, the regular cast, plus Stacy, all break the fourth wall and look straight into the camera to wish the audience, at home, a very ‘Merry Christmas’.

Guest Stars: Stacy Van Dyke (plays Carol Sloan Hilton), Anne Lockhart, John Capodice and Wanda De Jesus.
7213"In Defense of Murder"Vincent McEveetyJoyce Burditt & Gerry ConwayJanuary 9, 1997 (1997-01-09)13.61[14]
The head pediatric nurse turns out to be an ex-prostitute whose former madam is murdered after declaring her intentions to publish a tell-all book. The suspect nurse is defended by the lawyer and murderer Darren Worthy (David Dukes), who is trying to exploit the case for his own personal gain.
7314"A History of Murder"Christian I. Nyby IIGerry ConwayJanuary 16, 1997 (1997-01-16)14.12[15]

Sloan looks for clues to solve the decades-old murder of his mentor (Nicholas Pryor), when his body is found during hospital renovations, but another murder in the present disrupts his attempts.

Guest Stars: Tricia O'Neil, Nicholas Pryor, and David Purdham.
7415"Murder Two: Part 1"Christopher HiblerGerald Sanoff & Joel SteigerJanuary 30, 1997 (1997-01-30)15.73[16]

Sloan enlists his friend Ben Matlock (Andy Griffith) to defend Jesse, who's accused of murdering a resident. Guest Star: Lee Chamberlin.

Note: Michael Tucci does not appear in this episode.
7516"Murder Two: Part 2"Christopher HiblerGerald Sanoff & Joel SteigerFebruary 6, 1997 (1997-02-06)15.63[17]

With Jesse falsely accused of murdering Eric Spindler, Ben Matlock (Andy Griffith) gathers all the evidence to find the real killer. Guest Star: H. Richard Greene. Note: This was Andy Griffith's final appearance as Ben Matlock.

Note: Michael Tucci does not appear in this episode.
7617"Hard-Boiled Murder"Christian I. Nyby IILee Goldberg & William RabkinFebruary 13, 1997 (1997-02-13)15.16[18]

Dr Sloan assists veteran Private Investigator Joe Mannix (Mike Connors) with an unsolved murder case from 1973.
Note: This episode serves as a sequel to the Mannix episode "Little Girl Lost".
Guest Stars: Richard Gant, Julie Adams, Pernell Roberts, and Beverly Garland.

Note: Michael Tucci does not appear in this episode.
7718"Murder, Country Style"Christopher HiblerStory by : Lee Goldberg & William Rabkin and Gerry Conway
Teleplay by : Gerry Conway		February 20, 1997 (1997-02-20)14.93[19]

The prime suspects in the murder of a country star are a driven TV producer and her timid songwriter daughter.
Guest Stars: Deanne Bray, Barbara Mandrell, Billy Ray Cyrus, Terri Clark, Linda Davis, Billy Dean, Joe Diffie, Eddie Rabbitt, and Reba McEntire.

Note: Michael Tucci does not appear in this episode.
7819"Delusions of Murder"Christopher HiblerMichael Berlin & Eric EstrinFebruary 27, 1997 (1997-02-27)14.10[20]

Psychiatrist Gavin Reed (Dwight Schultz) kills his estranged wife Claire (Teri Austin) and tries to frame a patient. But Mark and Amanda suspect otherwise and they soon learn Reed has sinister motives with his patients.
Guest Star: Dwight Schultz.

Note: Michael Tucci does not appear in this episode.
7920"A Passion for Murder"Christian I. Nyby IILee Goldberg & William RabkinApril 3, 1997 (1997-04-03)12.42[21]
A sexy, but sinister, pharmaceutical rep has every intention of winning Sloan's heart.
8021"Blood Brothers Murder"Christian I. Nyby IIBarry Van Dyke & Jeffrey GlasserApril 10, 1997 (1997-04-10)12.24[22]

A beach boy is suspected of killing his girlfriend's brother – a gang member.
Guest Stars: Carey Van Dyke, and Shane Van Dyke.

Note: Michael Tucci does not appear in this episode.
8122"Physician, Murder Thyself"Christian I. Nyby IIStory by : Gerry Conway and Lee Goldberg & William Rabkin
Teleplay by : Gerry Conway		April 24, 1997 (1997-04-24)13.33[23]

A surgeon drops dead while operating on another doctor.

Guest Stars: Jack Klugman (plays Dr. Jeff Everden), Chad Everett, Wayne Rogers, Bernie Kopell
8223"Murder in the Air"Tom ChehakTom ChehakApril 24, 1997 (1997-04-24)13.09[23]
The pilot of an airliner escorting Sloan and Amanda to a medical conference in Europe, is killed.
8324"The Merry Widow Murder"Oz ScottJoyce BurdittMay 1, 1997 (1997-05-01)12.20[24]

A wealthy woman, Claire Whitfield (Brynn Thayer) and her lover cook up an elaborate plot to bump off her husband, Elliott (Wayne Tippit) and frame Mark. Brynn Thayer plays Leanne Macintyre on Matlock.[citation needed]

Note: Charlie Schlatter and Michael Tucci do not appear in this episode.
8425"Comedy Is Murder"Christopher HiblerStory by : Dick Van Dyke & Lee Goldberg & William Rabkin
Teleplay by : Lee Goldberg & William Rabkin		May 8, 1997 (1997-05-08)12.62[25]

A washed up comedian stumbles in his attempts to murder his more successful partner, whose ex-wife ends up dead in the pool. But evidence soon suggests he might not be responsible.
Guest Stars: Harvey Korman, Tim Conway (plays Tim Conrad), and Tom Gallop (plays Phil Zarkin).

Note: Michael Tucci does not appear in this episode.
8526"The Murder of Mark Sloan"Christopher HiblerSteve HattmanMay 8, 1997 (1997-05-08)14.16[25]

A mad bomber whom Sloan helped put away breaks out of prison bent on revenge, but Mark discovers the bomber was not responsible for all attempts on his life.
Guest Stars: Carol Bruce, and Mary Kay Adams.

Note: This marks the final appearance of Michael Tucci as Norman Briggs.

References

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  1. ^ "TV Listings for – September 19, 1996". TV Tango. Retrieved September 25, 2017.
  2. ^ "TV Listings for – May 8, 1997". TV Tango. Retrieved September 25, 2017.
  3. ^ "Nielsen ratings". Life. USA Today. September 25, 1996. p. 3D.
  4. ^ "Nielsen ratings". Life. USA Today. October 2, 1996. p. 3D.
  5. ^ Graham, Jefferson (October 9, 1996). "Baseball on NBC helps CBS". Life. USA Today. p. 3D.
  6. ^ "Nielsen ratings". Life. USA Today. October 16, 1996. p. 3D.
  7. ^ "Nielsen ratings". Life. USA Today. October 23, 1996. p. 3D.
  8. ^ Bush, Alan (October 30, 1996). "World Series lineup gives Fox a major win". Life. USA Today. p. 3D.
  9. ^ "Nielsen ratings". Life. USA Today. November 6, 1996. p. 3D.
  10. ^ "Nielsen ratings". Life. USA Today. November 13, 1996. p. 3D.
  11. ^ "Nielsen ratings". Life. USA Today. November 20, 1996. p. 3D.
  12. ^ "Nielsen ratings". Life. USA Today. November 27, 1996. p. 3D.
  13. ^ "Nielsen ratings". Life. USA Today. December 18, 1996. p. 3D.
  14. ^ "National Nielsen Viewership (Jan. 6-12)". The Los Angeles Times. January 15, 1997. Retrieved June 30, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.Free access icon
  15. ^ "National Nielsen Viewership (Jan. 13-19)". The Los Angeles Times. January 22, 1997. Retrieved June 30, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.Free access icon
  16. ^ "National Nielsen Viewership (Jan. 27–Feb. 2)". The Los Angeles Times. February 3, 1997. Retrieved June 30, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.Free access icon
  17. ^ "National Nielsen Viewership (Feb. 3-9)". The Los Angeles Times. February 12, 1997. Retrieved June 30, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.Free access icon
  18. ^ "National Nielsen Viewership (Feb. 10-16)". The Los Angeles Times. February 20, 1997. Retrieved June 30, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.Free access icon
  19. ^ "National Nielsen Viewership (Feb. 17-23)". The Los Angeles Times. February 26, 1997. Retrieved June 30, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.Free access icon
  20. ^ "National Nielsen Viewership (Feb. 24–March 2)". Los Angeles Times. March 5, 1997. Retrieved June 30, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.Free access icon
  21. ^ "National Nielsen Viewership (March 31-April 6)". The Los Angeles Times. April 9, 1997. Retrieved June 30, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.Free access icon
  22. ^ "National Nielsen Viewership (April 7–13)". The Los Angeles Times. April 16, 1997. Retrieved June 30, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.Free access icon
  23. ^ a b "National Nielsen Viewership (April 21–27)". The Los Angeles Times. April 30, 1997. Retrieved June 30, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.Free access icon
  24. ^ "National Nielsen Viewership (April 28–May 4)". The Los Angeles Times. May 7, 1997. Retrieved June 30, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.Free access icon
  25. ^ a b "National Nielsen Viewership (May 5–11)". The Los Angeles Times. May 14, 1997. Retrieved June 30, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.Free access icon
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