315 Piano Man

Piano Man


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alsplacebartender

Al's Place Bartender
Staff member
Piano Man
November 10, 1985


Tullarosa, New Mexico


Leaping into a "lounge lizard" who has gone into hiding from the Mafia, Sam finds himself being tagged by an old girlfriend who has tracked him down to prove to herself that she no longer loves him. But through her klutzy antics in their road trip adventure, Sam must find a way to keep them both alive as an unknown assassin tracks their every move.


Written by: Ed Scharlach
Directed by: James Whitmore, Jr.


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Gotta love Piano Man for "Somewhere in the Night" though it has more going for it than just that.

This is one that I have watched fairly recently, but even so thinking about it again today, I can't recall the mirror shot. Was there one? If so where?
{Brian, perhaps you could do a section somewhere dedicated to "mirror shots", in the Images area perhaps?}
 
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leaper1 said:
Gotta love Piano Man for "Somewhere in the Night" though it has more going for it than just that.

This is one that I have watched fairly recently, but even so thinking about it again today, I can't recall the mirror shot. Was there one? If so where?
{Brian, perhaps you could do a section somewhere dedicated to "mirror shots", in the Images area perhaps?}

There was a mirror shot in this episode - in the begining,after Sam's finished is act in the Begining of the epiosde.

Anyway - I enjoyed this episode. It was quite good,especially Sam's version for "Somewhere in the night". It always great to hear Scott sings.
And of course,as it was mentioned before - Full of Action Suspense and so on.Exactly in the right Amount.
 
This is a great episode, I like his relationship with Lorane and of course his soft sexy voice singing Somewhere in the Night.

I was noticing something the last time I viewed this episode though. At the beginning Al says there is no information on Chuck Danner because we soon after find out that his real name is Joey Dinardo. But Just because Chuck Danner is not Joey's real name does not mean there is not some guy out there who really is Chuck Danner, so wouldn't Al still get information just the wrong information?
 
I am going to presume (correctly or incorrectly, as it were) that Ziggy uses government records like NCIC to obtain information on people Sam encounters. In that case, Ziggy would do an in-state search using name and date of birth, and any other parameters they know of. If the incorrect name is used, or the date of birth does not match, that person (Chuck Danner, in this instance) would come back as "not on file," unless the alias had been previously used in an arrest or other instance like that.
 
Al The Observer said:
I am going to presume (correctly or incorrectly, as it were) that Ziggy uses government records like NCIC to obtain information on people Sam encounters. In that case, Ziggy would do an in-state search using name and date of birth, and any other parameters they know of. If the incorrect name is used, or the date of birth does not match, that person (Chuck Danner, in this instance) would come back as "not on file," unless the alias had been previously used in an arrest or other instance like that.

But how can they know the date of birth or anything else like that without looking it up?
 
Piano Man was a great episode for many different reasons. The episode had a lot of suspense. It also had the wonderful song "Somewhere in the Night" by Scott Bakula. Lorraine was a tad irritating but her character did help to lighten the mood. Love the scene in the diner with the singing.
 
There are a lot of good things about this episode, but hearing Scott sing "Somewhere In the Night" alone makes it worthwhile. I could listen to that wonderful voice of his 24/7 and never get tired of it. :)
 
OK. This was a very good episode. Very entertaining. Ed Scharlach, best known for being a writer and a regular producer at the 1978 alien sitcom "Mork & Mindy", which starred Robin Williams, brings us a unique episode full of suspense, comedy and music at the same time. It's the case where I liked all of the characters, including all the short ones (including the guy who was going to repair the flat tire), and all of the actors. I thought Lorraine was very funny and Nikki, wow, he was actually quite menacing, as were all the bad guys.

Loved the fact that Al explains the reason of Lorraine being a jinx all the time, meaning that she kept dropping things and always hitting and tripping everybody else without any real intention of doing so, because she had some sort of dizziness.

I couldn't predict who the real and final bad guy was the first time I saw it, even though Ed Scharlach gives us a lot of hints about him at almost every turn.

"Somewhere In The Night". Of course a very memorable song and a classic tune from Quantum Leap. Kudos to its composer, I mean Scott Bakula!!! Wow! That's another fact I loved, especially from this episode: The way everybody else got involved, especially Scott, who was the star of the series. His show, really. If there ever would've been more than just 5 seasons, Scott would've made a great producer, I believe. He did a great job at directing as well, but I'll get to those episodes later... Everytime I see this episode, the trail of "Somewhere..." sticks in my mind for the rest of the day.

My favorite part: Sam and Lorraine playing the piano at the little restaurant they find while they're running away.

I know this could be wrong, but I thought Nikki's death was quite funny. I can't help getting a little "ouch!!" out of me everytime I watch it. Now, that's a horrible way to go, haha!! Oops!

My rating: Excellent.
 
Sweet episode, lovely having Scott sing and gentle way he is with Lorraine. What a GREAT guy. No wonder I've never gotten married...he's a big stick to measure a guy with. Sam NOT Scott. Scott is terrific but taken. Sam is a dream man. This episode is wonderful for a first time QL watch.
 
Interesting story including the introduction of a leapee with a name change.
Clearly "Chuck Danner" was a wanna-be and had no self-respect, the exact opposite of Joey DiNardo. It would have been interesting to see the persona last a bit longer in the episode, to have gotten to see more of the contrast.

It also would have been helpful to the story to have learned a little more about the past relationship of the childhood friends and what had happened when DiNardo had seen the murder since this situation set the scene for the leap. This is something however that probably would not have fit into 45 minutes(which is about what an episode runtime comes to if you eliminate how much of the hour was actually commercials during airing) which is understandable. There is a lot in this series that must be forgiven considering this factor.

The whole Nicky Bellimi twist was pretty clever and revealed that Sam hadn't necessarily fallen into his tendency of over romanticizing when he'd automatically assumed he was supposed to rekindle the relationship between DiNardo and Lorraine. My memory of my first watch is fuzzy but I may have figured it out, anyone who is paying attention would find it suspicious that Bellimi had actually sent her that kind of distance to get closure with an ex. Otherwise however he had performed well.

One thing that bugs me about this episode is the scene where Al told Sam to lose Lorraine to save himself/DiNardo, it was suspiciously careless. It had seemed more like an opinion than something that came from Ziggy or there might have been prior warning that she'd be run off the road. In this case the more tactful approach of just having Sam offer to take her to the airport where she was headed anyway probably wouldn't have helped for obvious reason however didn't seem to be considered.
Another example of Al making such a suggestion would come later in season 4's Justice when he convinced Sam to turn away the negro gentlemen seeking voter registration which seemed to make little to no difference as the young man's lynching was only delayed but correct me if I am wrong. Though that was better thought out and Sam's belief system clearly got in the way as he will never submit to a role that challenges it.
This Lorraine incident made far less sense, was quite messy and seemed unnecessary.

Al: "She's one of those people, she's got some little synapse connections missing in her brain. She's dizzy so it's hard to get a lock on her."


This is something that has me curious, so I tried to research it but holy crap the concept of synapse connections is complex as hell! I for the most part don't understand a bit of the descriptions that have been presented in search results other than that they are the communication line between neurons. I believe it's kind of like what's between you and the person on the other line of a telephone.
The passage I came across that made any sense to me and seemed to sound like it almost matches Al's description was this on a concept called 'Synapse pruning':
Synapse numbers in the brain vary over time. Periods of massive proliferation in fetal development, infancy and adolescence give way to equally massive bursts of "pruning" during which underused synapses are eliminated, and eventually to a steady, gradual decline with increasing age. The number and strength of synaptic connections in various brain circuits also fluctuate with waking and sleeping cycles, as well as with learning. Many neurodegenerative disorders are marked by pronounced depletion of specific types of synapses in key brain regions.
Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101117121803.htm

Apparently from birth to adulthood synapse connections in various areas such as motor, emotional and memory are molded from experiences and environment and any kind of deprivation in childhood can permanently result in lack of certain synapses. This could possibly explain displays such as The Great Spontini where Sam can't seem to accept the non-existence of a Hallmark family life such as Al's upbringing.

There is also something called 'silent synapses' the only part of which I could understand is that these are inactive in "most typical situations".

I haven't however found anything that could explain Lorriane's seemingly unique circumstance which Al had seemed to imply with his description.


Of course the main reason for watching this episode is Scott's performance of 'Somewhere in the Night'. A beautiful song which actually almost feels as though themed around Sam and Donna. The duet version with Lorraine was also very nice, she has a lovely voice. His singing always manages to steal the episodes in which they occur.

Tidbit: Having injured his foot on the set of Runaway Scott's limp both here and in Future Boy is real and the excuses for it in each written in as an accommodation. If memory serves, the injury was also present in Private Dancer but because the episode required dancing he had to perform on painkillers instead of being accommodated.
 
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Re: Scott's foot injury... I noticed the limp being written into Future Boy and Piano Man and their originally airing only 2 weeks apart, so I did the research and found out that he was hurt during filming of Runaway. The interesting thing is that he dosn't have the limp, nor is there any mention of use of painkillers, for 8 1/2 Months, which aired between Runaway and Future Boy. But that episode has a higher production number and may have been filmed after Piano Man, when Scott was more healed. I also noticed that Sam is hardly seen to walk or run at all in the episode Southern Comforts - he does get in a fistfight, but that scene might have used a stunt double.
 
A real, hidden gem this one. Out of all my excellent rated episodes, I feel this is one that's more under the radar. I'm glad to see it getting a lot of love here because it definitely deserves it. I think it's the simplicity at the start of the story, followed by the slow realisation that we're in for a more thrilling type of episode that works so well. But honestly, the first 10 minutes or so work so well largely thanks to Scott Bakula alone. I'm not even sure if I've commented on this before, but as many of you know, Scott has a great voice.

Somewhere in the Night is a simply beautiful song. I think all of us who've been touched by love and it hasn't worked out for some reason or another will definitely find a special place in their heart for this song. And without getting overly personal, that's the way it is for me. The melody and words are just beautiful, and Scott does a great job as always. And yeah, I think the moment the car explodes and the girl and that other guy die is when the episode really kick starts, though.

The whole episode is essentially one long chase sequence. It is quite exciting in parts, but of course there's a lot of humour. Characters like Lorraine usually annoy me. I don't know why, but they just do. Lol. But I actually like Lorraine. I think because there's an innocence to her and that she feels down about herself a lot. My favourite scene (aside from the opening one and the diner scene), has to be when Al convinces Sam to give her the boot. Al is just hilarious in that scene. Dean's facial expressions are priceless.

I think the only negative aspect of this episode is that Nicky is just too obvious to be the big villain. The fact that history keeps changing every time Lorraine talks to him should have made Sam and Al catch on sooner than they did.

My rating. Excellent. One of my favourites from season 3.