Character page for Diagnosis: Murder.
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Mark
Dr. Mark Sloan
Played by: Dick Van Dyke
A kooky but brilliant doctor at Community General who is often brought in as a consultant with the LAPD, prone to enacting his own investigations separately of the police to catch the killers on his own.
- Amateur Sleuth
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Dr. Sloan has raised eccentricity to a high art (he's been known to make his rounds on roller skates), but his skills as a doctor and as a consultant to the police more than make up for that.
- The Chessmaster: Mark is a brilliant thinker and strategist who, when he needs to, can be many steps ahead of any killer or culprit. This gets particular focus in the Obsession / Retribution four-parter, where Mark goes up against a criminal mastermind obsessed with matching wits with him.
- Cool Old Guy: He's amiable, brilliant, always understanding, and has an easy time getting into any strange or crazy new interest that comes his way. Being played by Dick Van Dyke, a quintessential Cool Old Guy himself, helps.
- Nice Guy: Mark is extremely kind and easy to talk to, allowing him to get get close to suspects and even culprits who otherwise would've clammed up.
Steve
Steve Sloan
Played by: Barry Van Dyke
- Celibate Hero: He rarely dates individual women more than once, and is clearly single. Though his behavior is understandable, seeing as how some of his dates turn out to be unrepentant culprits, or initially rub him off the wrong way.
- Deadpan Snarker: He is as adept with sharp one-liners as he is with a gun, since he often makes snide comments for many situations and people he has to deal with (to his displeasure).
- Dating Catwoman: Steve has an unfortunate habit of dating women that turn out to be the culprit of the episode.
- Friend on the Force: He is Mark and the rest of the team's insight to the cases they solve. Sometimes he has to try and tell them to back off, but it never sticks and he always trusts their gut.
Amanda
Dr. Amanda Bentley
Played by: Victoria Rowell (Series), Cynthia Gibb (Pre-series TV Movies)
Mark's closest colleague and friend, Community General's medical examiner / pathologist with a habit of going off on her own to find clues her own way.
- Determinator: Almost as much as Mark himself. Getting Amanda to back down from anything is impossible - indeed, what eventually draws her to her second husband is that they're both Determinators who never back down, leading them to butt heads.
- Glamorous Single Mother / Struggling Single Mother: Depending on the episode. Amanda's son was born in the first couple seasons, and she spent the next few years taking care of him by herself. In most cases, she doesn't have any shown issue handling her taxing medical job and raising her son, save for episodes that focus on it.
- The Lancer: Where Mark will always take the gentle, amiable approach, Amanda can be counted on to butt heads, get up in faces, and take chances Mark might not.
- Lovable Rogue: A master of conning persons of interest into believing she's someone completely different in order to gain information, though just as often she will grill them as herself.
- Race Lift: Went from a White woman in the movies that predated the series to a Black woman in the series proper.
Jesse
Dr. Jesse Travis
Played by: Charlie Schlatter
A newcomer in Season 3 who stayed for the rest of the series - a precocious young ER doctor who becomes one of Mark's irregulars.
- Baby Of The Bunch: Jesse is played as more of a kid than the rest of the cast, though still clearly an capable adult doctor, and is generally less assured and confident than the others.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: More than the others, Jesse is prone to the occasional irresponsible flight of fancy.
- Jumped at the Call: Jesse won't hesitate to help with a case, when the opportunity arises.
- Lovable Rogue: While Jesse himself is nowhere near as roguish personality-wise as Jack before him, like Jack Jesse is often the first one Mark asks to con witnesses or difficult suspects.
Jack
Dr. Jack Stewart (Parker in the pre-series TV Movies}
Played by: Scott Baio (Series), Stephen McCafferey (Pre-series movies)
A young doctor (whose exact job shifts a bit throughout his episodes) who serves as Mark's second Watson in the first couple of seasons, known for his brash, street smart approach and general womanizing and failures with women. Departs the show after the second season.
- Lovable Rogue: Jack's a street smart doctor with a checkered past, and often uses his street smarts to find clues in unorthodox ways - but always for good cause.
- Mr. Fanservice: Much of Jack's role was being as dashing and handsome as Scott Baio in the 80's could be. To the point of it eventually becoming a plot point of an entire episode when Jack is, much to his chagrin, voted one of the most eligible bachelors in LA.
- Put on a Bus: Season 3 establishes that Jack has established his own plastic surgery clinic in Colorado.
Delores
Delores Mitchell
Played by: Delores Hall
Mark's personal nurse in the first two seasons. Was often involved in the B-plots about the hospitals' shenanigans until her departure after the second season.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: She disappears after season 2 with no clear explanation.
- Sassy Black Woman: A textbook example, as Mark's cheeky, hardnosed, take no guff assistant and nurse.
Norman
Norman Briggs
Played by: Michael Tucci
Community General's miserly Chief of Staff, who is often involved in Zany Schemes to bring the hospital more money - which usually blow up in his face.
- Butt-Monkey / Chew Toy: Is commonly mocked about behind his back by most of the staff - save Mark, who always treats him with respect - and if there's any character who is going to be the butt of a joke or the recipient of some misfortune it's usually going to be Norman.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: After surviving a bomb blast in season four, he is never mentioned again.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite appearances, Norman cares deeply for the hospital and its patients, and his miserly ways are actually just a means of ensuring that as many people can receive care as possible.
- Hopeless with Tech: He's decent in general, but foolish with the cut rate software and hardware he buys to save money - once accidentally infecting the entire hospital with a virus.
- The Scrooge: By appearances - Norman is constantly penny pinching, harping on the staff for anything as little as dipping mops in buckets wrong so as to not waste soap. However, he reveals that this is just the only way he can keep the hospital out of the red. Outside the hospital, he actually once joined a private non-profit medical organization specifically because they had tons of money to freely spend on patients without having to worry.
- Zany Scheme: Is constantly coming up with crazy ideas to get the hospital money and publicity, even once putting one of his doctors into an eligible bachelors competition because it would make the hospital's name more popular.
