If Jackie had died, the chldren would have been raised differently. The Kennedys would have swooped down and raised them their way. I guess you could figure they would have ended up OD’ing as teenagers or something.
Exactly.
an episode called Leap Year. Sam leaps into someone’s 5th birthday party. “Oh boy, I’m five” It’s 12.01 am on Feb 29th (so he’s really 20, after all). Something Bad will happen shortly before midnight, and Sam has just 24 hours to stop it.
Wasn’t the idea of saving Jackie that the murder of her along with JFK would have resulted in a vengeful USA populace virtually demanding war against Russia? Or was that just what a friend figured when I said of the episode “Yeah, because the world really needs another book editor”?
If you’re serious about re-doing QL, have a series finale planned that is not an upraised middle finger to the network AND the fans. Just flip off the network, OK? A lot of the appeal of the show was the happy ending in every episode. Where was the happy ending for Sam?
I want to second the idea that “leaping into ordinary people’s lives” is a better concept than fixing historical wrongs. I think people can relate better to the “Oh boy, I’m the Mommy!” kind of episode than the “I’m Oswald” episode.
I also liked the episodes where Sam leaped into people on the edge of social trends. The one where he leaped into a secretary at a big 3 automaker in the early 1960s was good. He started wearing sneakers to work instead of pumps, started working for pay equity, tried to keep his room mate from sleeping with their married boss, and took said boss down a peg or three. Good times! The “Japanese War Bride” one was good also.
OTOH, I loved the Oswald episode. Creator/producer Don Bellisaro served with Oswald in the Marines, and that experience informed the episode wonderfully. After watching that episode I can see that Oswald was bat-poop crazy enough to shoot the president.
The line at the end about Jackie being shot in the “original” time line had a lot of emotional impact. Even for me, the oldest person I know who does not remember JFK getting shot. JFK’s assassination was a terrible blow for the US. If Jackie had been killed also, well, it’s too much to contemplate.
I’d support that last part, and not just because I’d want to see Jewel in just about ANYTHING… 
But her usual brand of earnestness with a bit of ‘slightly nervous’ mixed in would be good for the person talkin’ to Ziggy. And she could flip around the ‘lecherous hologram’ shtick from the original, always trying to spy on attractive guys without being seen. 
Sam was an angel. Part of accepting angels* is accepting that, from whatever standpoint they may have started from, they’re already dead and not getting better. In the final timeline we’re left with, we pretty much have to presume that Sam’s original experiment failed and he died in the acceleration chamber. But the point is all the lives Sam has touched since then.
*Not that I do, necessarily. But it’s plain from the finale that that’s what Sam was, so it’s the material we have to deal with. It dawns on me that now two of my favorite TV shows of all time have angels in them.
An interesting scenario would be that he leaps into a life so cool and fulfilling that he doesn’t WANT to leap.
In the season finale, Sam appeared as himself to Al’s wife and told her to wait, that he was a POW but would be coming home. She waits for him and they end up having lots of kids and grandkids.
In QLII, Sam leaps into one of the children, now grown, who is planning a school shooting at his university.
Two things on follow-up.
One: Given my assignation to Sam of the job title “angel,” I really regret using the word “touched.”
Two: I meant to make clear that Sam’s “happy ending” consisted of deciding to go on doing the Angel thing.
FWIW, I believe myself to be one of the only QL fans who did not go into a raging fury over the finale. I thought it was perfect.
You misunderstand. I’m not suggesting Scott Bakula star, but that the leaper leaps into actor Scott Bakula. Lots of recursive and ironic potential there.
Of course, if you think he chews scenery too much, this wouldn’t stop him.
I didn’t hate it, either. I thought it was interesting. Although, a friend of mine (who was a bigger fan of the show than I was) wasn’t happy that God was a bartender – she thought that was a huge cliche.
How about leaping into a whistle-blower who is torn whether to shut down an economically depressed town’s only factory or watch as said factory continues to spew out birth defects alongside the paychecks.
I remember watching that when it was first shown and thinking “Wow, what a hugely pointless waste of time that was.”
I remember being a little disappointed with the Marilyn Monroe episode. Sam’s mission was nothing more than to make sure she stayed alive long enough to make her last movie. But it does hammer the point home that repairing the timeline doesn’t always involve things that we might think are worth it.
Sam leapt into a Death Row inmate in the episode “Last Dance Before An Execution” aired May 1, 1991. Leap Date May 12, 1971.
I loved it. Especially given that it worked even if the show was not cancelled (they made that one knowing they were on the bubble).
I figured that one was most likely to have been used. I may have even seen it.
I would still liked to have seen the long rumored/promised Magnum PI crossover.
I know it’s completely ridiculous but I heard a rumor that if the show had continued they were planning to have Sam leap into a cartoon character. It’d be interesting to see them do it just to see what kind of explanation they come up with for this.
The leaper should jump into the role of Scott Bakula’s friend, and dissuade him from doing “Major League 3: Back to the Minors.” 
How about Sam leaping into Mary Queen of Scots the night before her execution? Fun times! :eek: