QL was chock full of walk-on roles of historical characters. They don’t usually give full names, but it’s pretty obvious who they are:
In one, Sam teaches a young Michael (Jackson) some dance moves (in a bathroom of all places).
In another, Sam gives a young Buddy Holly a title to go along with his song, which he then changes to “Peggy Sue.”
In an episode about sexual harrassment, one of the people listening intently to what is going in is Anita (Hill).
In another, he helps save a choking Dr Heimlich by getting behind him and pulling upward to dislodge the offending food.
Well, I found another recently that I missed the first couple of times I had seen it:
In one of the last episodes, Sam leaps into Elvis (just before his fame). At a nightclub, Elvis (Sam, that is) and Al are waiting for the next performer to go on. Off camera, the current performer is just blowin’ away on his sax–and quite poorly, too.
When he finished his performance, the emcee says, “Now everybody give a big hand for little Billy C from Hope, Arkansas.” A 10-or-so-year-old kid with sunglasses and sax then strides offstage, gives a look at Sam and Al, then exits, leaving Sam and Al with quizzical looks.
Yeah, I heard that when the Sci-Fi channel did a special about QL. I think it was part of their “Sci-ography” series or something. Bellisario was [one of] the creator[s] of Magnum P.I. so he really wanted to do that. I think it would have been hilarious. CBS had to go and ruin the fun.
And while it’s not a “factual historical reference,” don’t forget that Sam basically passed the theory/concept of Leaping to himself by way of a 1950’s sci-fi TV show.
When Sam leaped back to the Civil War era, the slave who was liberated from his ancestor’s farm decides to take the last name King, and it is discovered that he is an ancestor of Martin Luther King.