DIAGNOSIS MURDER: SLEEPING MURDER (TV)
Summary
One in this series of mystery programs about Dr. Mark Sloan, a physician at Community General Hospital who enjoys solving murder cases with the help of his son, Steve, a homicide detective. In this episode, a man is chased through the streets and shot by another man, while elsewhere Mark is surprised by a visit from his eccentric and hypochondriac brother, soda jerk Stacy. Mark then meets the attractive Dr. Madison Wesley, dean of the medical school, who requests to drop by a few of his classes. The shooter is revealed to be Terry Shaefer, a fugitive wanted for white-collar financial crimes, though he refuses to explain his actions. The victim, Brian Mitchell, denies knowing Terry and declares that it was a random shooting. Young Dr. Daniel Richards then realizes that he has made an error and mistaken Brian for a bypass recipient, and his classmates tease him for the gaffe.
Shaefer's lawyer questions him about the shooting, though he hints only that Mitchell cannot incriminate him, as Mitchell himself has knowledge about some missing money, and Mark is alarmed to find that Stacy has resumed his long-ago habit of sleepwalking, crashing into a priest, Father Connelly, in the hallway. The doctors then find that John Martin, the real bypass patient, has been murdered via unplugged ventilator, and Steve immediately begins to worry that Stacy is the unwitting culprit. Elsewhere, an unseen figure breaks into a drawer and retrieves a safe-deposit box card. Stacy is diagnosed with kidney stones, though is alarmed by the treatment, and when Wesley shows Mark Dr. Richards' "dismal" record for the semester, Mark defends him, suggesting that he is merely overwhelmed by his studies and role as a new husband and father. Mark tells Steve about his disagreement with Wesley as Steve continues investigating Martin's strange death, wondering why he cannot track down the money stolen by Shaefer. Later, Mark catches Stacy seemingly in the act of smothering Mitchell with a pillow, and Travis, who has been attempting to tutor a frazzled Richards, begins assembling information about somnambulism to be used in Stacy's defense, sure that he will soon be arrested.
Steve discovers that Mitchell's safety deposit box has been emptied by his lawyer, and Wesley suspends Richards when he admits that he never saw Martin prior to his death, due to his error with the charts. Learning of the suspension, Mark finally realizes that Martin and Mitchell were placed in one another's rooms, meaning that Richards did not make a mistake after all and that the killer murdered Martin by accidentally, believing him to be Mitchell. Mitchell quickly blames Stacy, but Mark discovers that Mitchell assumed a fake name after stealing the money from the financial scam, into which he entered with former schoolmate Shaefer and a third man – revealed to be the fake "Father Connelly" and also Mitchell's so-called lawyer. The third conspirator attempts to kill Richards when he discovers him in Mitchell's room, but Steve arrives just in time to rescue him and arrest the culprit. Later, Wesley praises Mark's quick thinking and assures him that Richards has been un-suspended, though Mark is annoyed to find that Stacy's sleepwalking has not yet been solved as efficiently as the crime. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: CBS
- DATE: September 30, 1999 8:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:45:18
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:81342
- GENRE: Drama, medical
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, medical; Drama, mystery/suspense; Drama, police/detective
- SERIES RUN: CBS - TV series, 1993-2001
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Dean Hargrove … Executive Producer
- Fred Silverman … Executive Producer
- Dick Van Dyke … Executive Producer
- Chris Abbott … Executive Producer, Writer
- Steve Brown … Supervising Producer
- Donald L. Gold … Producer
- Craig Yahata … Associate Producer
- Ron Satlof … Director
- Joyce Burditt … Created by
- Lou Forestieri … Music by
- Dick DeBenedictis … Theme Music by
- Dick Van Dyke … Cast, Dr. Mark Sloan
- Victoria Rowell … Cast, Amanda Bentley-Livingston
- Charlie Schlatter … Cast, Dr. Jesse Travis
- Barry Van Dyke … Cast, Steve Sloan
- Jerry Van Dyke … Cast, Stacy Sloan
- Jeremy Garrett … Cast, Dr. Daniel Richards
- Charmin Lee … Cast, Det. Cheryl Banks
- Christopher Grove … Cast, Brian Mitchell
- Daniel Hagen … Cast, Father Connelly
- Shane Van Dyke … Cast, Alex Smith
- Joanna Cassidy … Cast, Dr. Madison Wesley
- John J. Dalesandro … Cast, Terry Shaefer
- Victoria Fang … Cast, Employee
- Cheryl Francis Harrington … Cast, Night Duty Nurse
- Kevin McNally … Cast, EMT
- Rob Leo Roy … Cast, Robert Holmes
- Mark Daniel Cade … Cast, Det. Randy Walker