The Assistant DA plans to launch an investigation into Clairemont Hospital with its administrator Russell Havilland. They plan to investigate claims of malfeasance against three doctors, one of whom is McCabe's own physician, Dr. Mark Sloan, which does not please the Fatman.
The claims appear to have credence when Havilland is found murdered in his office, and focus is quickly on Sloan when he finds the body. The good doctor takes it upon himself and some of his students to solve the case and clear his good name.
This was Season 4, Episode 19 of Jake and the Fatman, guest starring Dick Van Dyke, and from it soon became the show we love and know as Diagnosis: Murder.
"It Never Entered My Mind" displays symptoms of the following tropes:
- Amoral Attorney: Mr. Baker, the lawyer in on the baby selling scheme.
- Bludgeoned to Death: Havilland is killed when he is whacked on the head with the flashlight the killer was using to search his office.
- Bluffing the Murderer: Mark ends up calling Dr. Morgan, pretending he was paging Havilland instead of Morgan. This causes Morgan to rush back to Havilland's office to find the pager, only to find Mark waiting.
- The Corpse Stops Here: A security guard finds Mark leaning over Havilland's dead body.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: As this was another show far before Diagnosis: Murder got off the ground, there are elements of this episode that don't match up with the rest of the series:
- The setting is in a Clairemont Hospital instead of Community General.
- While Mark does have a deceased wife like in D:M, he mentions that he has no kids, when in the show proper, he of course has Steve and his daughter Carol.
- Establishing Character Moment: Mark is first seen after McCabe says the worst thing about the doctor is that he's "colorful". We first see him arriving at the hospital on roller skates and in his class, he puts a hat on the anatomy skeleton and sings "Dem Bones" while dancing with it, showing his clear eccentricity.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Mark accidentally picking up a pager that isn't his in Havilland's office allows him to figure out that Tyler Morgan is the one who killed Havilland.
- Sherlock Scan: Mark pulls one of these on Havilland and determines that the man lives alone. He has no wedding ring, no personal items in his office, and damaged clothes (his cuffs are frayed and his sleeve is missing a button). Havilland's reaction indicates that Mark is right.
