This show features Dick Van Dyke as Dr. Mark Sloan, Chief of Medicine at a hospital, who helps the city's police station, where his son Steve works as a homicide detective, solve crimes.
The show had its fine moments during the first few seasons with some good old fashion mystery suspense and detective fare. The opening scene was great and the music theme was haunting and catchy. The acting was mostly fine - Scott Biao, Victoria Rowell and Charlie Schalatter were pretty good, but Barry Van Dyke was wooden and mediocre and Dick Van Dyke just looked like the crime-solver know-it-all. As the show progressed after three seasons or so, I couldn't help but think the episodes concentrated more on how allegedly brilliant the characters think they look in analyzing the cases to the actual crime-solving tactics. Basically, the show was mostly all-talk and less action.
This series also had a habit of throwing in famous guest stars like Robert Stack and Dixie Carter as villains, and then making Dick Van Dyke look like the better star by solving the cases against them. The producers also made the show look like a family affair when they started throwing in Dick Van Dyke's grandsons to guest-star in the series. And, I absolutely disliked when the murderer is revealed in the very beginning of certain episodes, which takes away the suspense and turns the episodes into more of a "look what Dick Van Dyke and team can do" than a murder mystery.
Overall, this is one of the more very average and weaker mystery dramas.
Grade C-
11 out of 20 found this helpful