User Reviews

Seldom Silent, Never Heard begins with a young man with Tourette's syndrome having outbursts during a movie and another audience member chasing him from the theater. When the chase leads to the young man falling to his death from a building scaffolding, Lt. Monahan (Garry Walberg) initially believes he was struck on the head and murdered, but when Quincy (Jack Klugman) conducts the autopsy and analyzes other evidence he determines that the fall was accidental and caused in part by his condition. Quincy meets a fellow doctor, Arthur Ciotti (Michael Constantine), with a son, Tony Ciotti (Paul Clemens), who is also struggling with Tourette's and their concerns over the lack of drug development to assist those living with this condition leads them to lobby Congress and the FDA.

While this episode begins as a murder mystery, this part of the story resolves very quickly and the focus becomes on Tony and his struggles as well as the efforts to get the drug companies and government on board with developing the pharmaceuticals necessary to help those with Tourette's despite the effort being cost-prohibitive to the companies. I have to say that I was very impressed by the guest star performance of Paul Clemens here to the point where I was wondering if they had hired someone with Tourette's to play the role I found it so convincing. I also thought that Michael Constantine was good as the concerned father struggling between protecting his son and helping him achieve his potential. As someone who has gone toe to toe with big companies over putting the best health interests of the patient over the bottom line in my own career, I appreciated this part of the story as well.

My only criticism of this episode is that we just saw Quincy lobbying Congress on another issue a couple of episodes ago in "Scream to the Skies", so it seems a bit soon for him to be going back to Washington and doing this again. Other than that, this is a reasonably good episode which addresses an important issue and promotes awareness of a condition which there are still misconceptions of to this day.

Paul Clemens is sensational as a young man with a problem. The disorder he has is Turret's Syndrome. He makes the character very real.

Jack Klugman holds up his end as the driving force in this TV episode. He has some challenging scenes with medical terms that he has to rattle off like a veteran doctor.

This is one of the best prime time shows I have ever watched from a standpoint of acting and character development. The message is clear, but it is the fabulous performances that make it all worthwhile.

Most Quncy episodes do hold up well decades later. This one is even better than expected.

To my mind, this episode is one of the high points of the series, combining excellent acting with a purpose beyond entertainment.

After the death of a boy suffering from Tourette's Syndrome, Quincy is angered to discover how little medical help there is for people with rare disorders, due to the drugs companies simply not making enough money from them. This was an episode with a distinct political message, as the "Orphan Drugs Bill" was working its way through the US political system at the time, promising hope to thousands of sufferers of conditions like Tourette's. In fact the scene where Tourette's sufferer Tony gives a speech to a congressional hearing was echoed in real life when Klugman testified, and the show is credited as having helped the bill become law.

Whether you like your TV to achieve things which make real differences in the lives of real people, or prefer it sticks to the traditional realms of murder mysteries, this episode is also notable for featuring some award-worthy performances. As Tony, Paul Clemens avoids falling into any of the traps associated with playing a character with obvious physical differences, and elicits our emotional response by showing us what it really means to live with a condition like Tourette's. His delivery of the speech on the "Orphan Drugs Bill" never fails to make me cry.

While it's a bit hard to imagine a person with Tourette's that bad would go to movies in the first place, the show begins with a guy in a theater watching a film and making a severe disturbance. He not only is making lots of odd sounds but his grimaces and body movements are out of control. Some idiots, assuming he's deliberately bothering everyone, chase him from the place--and end up killing him in the process. It's a sad story and a compelling episode about a problem few knew about back in 1981.

The only problem is that although it is worth seeing, the show is MEGA-preachy. Yet, at times it's also quite touching as you see a young man struggle with the disorder--his story is quite compelling. On balance worth watching but far from subtle--a problem with quite a few of the social issue episodes of "Quincy". Having Quincy be less bombastic and a bit intense would have helped.