Quincy's first name was never revealed during the series. However, in one episode, one of his business cards was briefly seen and read "Dr. R. Quincy."
The regulations of the day prevented the producers from showing Quincy's autopsies on screen. The viewer had to rely on Quincy's description of what was going on. These regulations have now been lifted and corpses can be seen on screen in modern police procedurals.
A total of 148 episodes were made. Jack Klugman appeared in 147. In the episode Has Anybody Here Seen Quincy? (1977) (season 2, episode 7), Dr. Asten (John S. Ragin) talks to Quincy twice on the phone, but Quincy's voice is not heard and he is not seen on screen. The reason Klugman did not take part in the episode is because he disliked the script written by Michael Sloan and Glen A. Larson for the episode; a body brought into the morgue turns out to still be alive. Klugman thought it laughable that a medical examiner of Quincy's fastidiousness would fail to notice it.
The character of Quincy was based on the real-life Los Angeles County Medical Examiner Dr Thomas Noguchi, who became famous for his often controversial conclusions. He performed autopsies on many stars including Marilyn Monroe, Natalie Wood and John Belushi. In true Quincy-style, he raised doubts about the official account of Robert F. Kennedy's assassination by showing that Sirhan Sirhan could not have fired the fatal shot. He also acted as a technical advisor on the show. The show's concept was adapted from the Canadian series "Wojeck (1966)."