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alsplacebartender

alsplacebartender

Al's Place Bartender - Brian Greene
Staff member
Jul 10, 2002
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www.quantumleap-alsplace.com
The Leap Home
November 25, 1969

Elk Ridge, Indiana


This time Sam leaps into...himself! Well, himself as a teenager back in Elk Ridge, Indiana on the family farm. Al tells him he is there to win a basketball game that was a turning point in many people's lives, but Sam wants to take the opportunity to prevent his sister from marrying an abusive alcoholic, his father from dying from a heart attack, and his brother from getting killed in Vietnam. This is Part 1 of a 2-part episode.


Written by: Donald P. Bellisario
Directed by: Joe Napolitano


Rate and comment on Part One of the third season premiere!
 
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I thought it was a real great leap.But what Al said it was not meant to be like when he metioned Beth Sam didn't change Al's history.Also when Sam said it was different how just because this time it was Sam
 
Almost an Excellent episode. the first 30 min of the episode were really great,but in the last 15 min(after Sam said he made it all up) the "magic" were slowly gone.
In the Bottom line just below excellencey. Probably One of my top 5 in QL,but also probably it's not in the top 3.
BTW Is there a story behind the name Lisa DPB loves so much?!
16 year old Sam had a crash on a cheerleader named Lisa,And of course we have Al's Lisa from a "leap for Lisa"...
 
I'm not being cynical. I was just mentioning the fact that DPB uses the name "Tom" for several of the characters in this series.
 
A great way to start a season. Sam has the chance to change the destiny of his siblings and his father, but, almost as happened with Al, he couldn't stop his father's inminent death a few years later and avoiding the runaway of his sister with Chuck.

It was like a prize for all the good he has been done 'til then. He doesn't want to leap, but as we all know, God, Destiny or whatever makes Sam leap moves him ahead to the next leap/mission.

Best Regards

Joe Quarterback
 
Al's speech of how he'd give anything to see his family again just for a few days always makes me cry. It makes me cry every time.

I can very much relate to Al when he says what he does. My little brother died in a senseless tragedy and sometimes like Al I'd give anything that I have just to see him for a day.
 
I have watched this Episode and it brings me to tears each time I watch it.
Errowyn, Let me say how my prayers are with you about your brother.
I feel the same about my Dad who died in 2006 I would give anything to talk with him again and hug him.
I know that there are many of us who wished they could do the same that Sam did.
 
This was the very first episode of QL I saw in the early 90s.. left me with a major *** moment... had no idea what QL was about at the time.
 
It's my favorite. One of my most favorite TV episodes ever. :)
I think everyone has that time in their past they would want to return to, when everything seemed perfect and easy, even if you didn't realize it at that time. Or some lost loved ones you wont see anymore *mentally hugs Errowyn and Cynthia* or people who will never be the same as they were back then. The sequence that Sam found out he couldn't help them and had to pretend he was lying was so touching for me! All the way.

Whenever I think of Sam wanting to go home I always think of the Elk Ridge Home not so much of the PQL home.

The actors for all the Becketts were amazing and touching, the 'double Scott' worked very well, although I wished the makeup had been a touch better around the eyes. And the lighting, the lighting! Lovely, especially considering the special requirements. It was a beauty and with and that beautiful set it felt like home for me too.

The only downside of me having seen it so often is me noticing every little glitch in it ... which doesn't stop me from enjoying it, every time. :D
 
This was a very nice episode, all in all. Sam's face expressions were perfect, especially when he found out that he was home. His singing voice was also spot on! Great episode, and one of the best in character development.

This is what I would call Sam's "second childhood". :D (Ducks from projectiles)
 
This is one of the best QL episodes, and one of the best episodes of TV period. It encapsulated the cost of leaping (knowing the future and having only limited power to change it), versus the desire to make everything right.

I thought that actress who plays the little sister, Olivia Burnett, was brilliant, and that porch scene was genius. In the original draft script, the camera was going to be just on Sam singing. But the way they filmed it, the POV was over Sam's shoulder from the back, and full on Katie's face (they're facing each other, Sam's playing the guitar). Katies face gradually goes from "Yeah, well, sing the song then" twelve-year-old snotty, to "Hey, I've never heard that before" stunned, to "OMG, he's from the future" serious, eyes welling up, mouth turning down, to full out crying, all in the space of two verses and a chorus.

And then Sam, himself in tears, recants to his whole family ("I made it all up" - when we know he didn't), and runs off like a sixteen-year old in a 40-year old's body, into the corn.

Oh, dear. Tissues.

Excellent is an understatement.
 
bluedana said:
And then Sam, himself in tears, recants to his whole family ("I made it all up" - when we know he didn't), and runs off like a sixteen-year old in a 40-year old's body, into the corn.
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Actually that reminds me of an interview I saw in The Quantum Leap Book. I think that Scott said something along the lines of "emtionally he's like a teenager".

Which I think is so true!

That is part of what makes him so endearing. :)
 
I wonder if this leap was meant to be GFTW rewarding Sam for following the rules in the previous leap? I wonder what punishment Sam might have gotten had he decided to save Al's marriage... If we remember the leap-out from "Star Crossed", he broke the rules, and leapt into having his face punched in...
 
Very moving episode--The porch scene when he sings "Imagine" and then runs off in tears through the cornfield where Al tells him he'd give anything to see his dad and sister again always chokes me up. I wanted to wrap Sam and Al both up and bring them home with me. It's hard to keep in mind sometimes they're fictional characters. :)
 
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Arguably the best episode in the series and a favorite. Scott Bakula gave a terrific, especially emotional performance in this. I love the entire scene on the basketball court when they're practicing and the moment when Sam realizes the guy in the gorilla mask is Tom. The whole exchange is wonderful.
 
Definitely a poignant episode but one that's hard to watch. That scene on the porch with Sam singing "Imagine" is a thing of beauty. But it's so easy to be roped in by this emotional idea of going back in time to see your own father and brother knowing they are soon to die. I think that's something almost anyone can relate to and it's heartbreaking. It's a completely different prospect than when Sam is in some stranger's life and Al pops and and says "Oh, unless you fix this, so-and-so will die tomorrow." There's really no emotional investment in that because we don't know those characters, but by Season 3 we know Sam well and can totally feel for his pain and what it must be like for him.

The other gut-wrenching scene is the very end where Sam is lifted up by his teammates and yells to Al to tell him about Tom and Al shakes his head sadly to tell him Tom still dies in Vietman, as Sam yells out "Tom!" just as leaps out. God that gets me every time! Strangely, though this is possibly the only time other than Mirror Image where Sam might actually leap deliberately, since he goes straight from there to Vietnam. He might not realize he's leaped on his own but he might have been responsible for this leap somehow, rather than GFTW.
 
As a third season opener, this is a very good episode. A story where Sam felt exactly what Al had felt in "M.I.A.", the only difference was the sort of love that was played.

Very emotional and very dramatic... The only thing I didn't like was that sometimes it was a bit too overly-dramatic: Sam running through the field when things didn't get the way he wanted, being so self-cented just because this time it affected his life, the way he sometimes threw his tantrums, etc. Very moving, still.

My favorite part: When Al finally sets him straight after Sam told him that it was not fair. "Well, I think it's damn fair", Al says. "I'd give anything to be with my family again. Anything." I don't remember the exact line now, but it was something like that. Then the scene where Sam is having the Thanksgiving dinner with all the members of his family. Very powerful and amazing.

Classic moment: Sam singing "Imagine", of course. Outstanding acting from Scott Bakula as Sam's father and Sam Beckett on the same episode. That truly deserved an ovation!!

My rating: Good.
 
I wonder if Sam would have any recollection of being in the Waiting Room as a teenager? Could this be what sparked his interest in Quantum Physics - knowing that he actually will succeed in being the world's first time traveller? It's a bit like in Harry Potter, how Harry knows he can cast a patronus to save himself because he'd already seen himself do it :)
 
Lightning McQueenie said:
I wonder if Sam would have any recollection of being in the Waiting Room as a teenager? Could this be what sparked his interest in Quantum Physics - knowing that he actually will succeed in being the world's first time traveller? It's a bit like in Harry Potter, how Harry knows he can cast a patronus to save himself because he'd already seen himself do it :)
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That's a very good question, and one I don't believe they ever answered during the series - what does the Leapee think happened to them while they were away? The only time we ever get any insight into this is in Double Identity. Sam leaps out of Frankie and into Don Geno. Frankie thinks it's still the same day as the wedding, when Sam leapt in. So, I guess Frankie remembers nothing of the waiting room.

In Future Boy we find out Sam wrote to Captain Galaxy when he was four years old and had his own Quantum time string theory explained to him on TV.
 
iMonrey said:
That's a very good question, and one I don't believe they ever answered during the series - what does the Leapee think happened to them while they were away? The only time we ever get any insight into this is in Double Identity. Sam leaps out of Frankie and into Don Geno. Frankie thinks it's still the same day as the wedding, when Sam leapt in. So, I guess Frankie remembers nothing of the waiting room.

In Future Boy we find out Sam wrote to Captain Galaxy when he was four years old and had his own Quantum time string theory explained to him on TV.
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Although, in "Roberto", when Sam is making his last closing speech to the audience, he claims in the next episode "he" (Roberto the leapee) will talk about how he was held captive by aliens, so that would suggest that the leapees do have some memory of the Waiting Room too...
 
I have a general question about this episode - or more about the American education system :)
The leap date of this episode is in November 69, which makes Sam 16 years old and in High School, thinking about which college he should choose. What I would like to know is: when will he graduate from high school and when will college start after that? Or, in other words: how many month in school has he left and how long till he starts attending college?
Here in Germany, school usually ends around June, and college or university starts in september or october. Is that the same in the US?

Oh, and I really love this episode, it's one of my favourites :)

Vicky
 
Mrs. Mallard said:
I have a general question about this episode - or more about the American education system :)
The leap date of this episode is in November 69, which makes Sam 16 years old and in High School, thinking about which college he should choose. What I would like to know is: when will he graduate from high school and when will college start after that? Or, in other words: how many month in school has he left and how long till he starts attending college?
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Most colleges start in late August here (though there are some that start a little later, in early September). Sam was applying for the next fall semester, so starting August or early September 1970. He would've just turned 17 at the time he started college.
 
Lightning McQueenie said:
I wonder if Sam would have any recollection of being in the Waiting Room as a teenager? Could this be what sparked his interest in Quantum Physics - knowing that he actually will succeed in being the world's first time traveller? It's a bit like in Harry Potter, how Harry knows he can cast a patronus to save himself because he'd already seen himself do it :)
Click to expand...

Ah but that would be a paradox;), how could something that hadn't happened to him influence something that hasn't happened yet?
 
Step 1: Go to your room and sit down at the desk.
Step 2: Take out pen and paper.
Step 3: Write, "Note to self: Whatever you do, don't step into the accelerator."
Step 4: Leap home.

:p
 
We are lead to believe that in normal circumstances, the Leapee remembers doing some of the things Sam did once they return. So what does young Sam remember? Does he remember trying to convince people he's from the future?
 
Ziggy is a lot more specific than usual about what the consequences will be of Sam's mission. How could she possible know what will happen if Sam's team wins the game
 
A very moving episode. Though Sam is being quite selfish, trying to change his history when he wouldn't do the same for Al. My favorite part is the front porch scene. The first time I saw this episode was the first time I'd heard Imagine . Hooked me on that song right away. I especially liked when Al chimed in for that one verse. Olivia Burnette did an amazing job acting that scene.

My only gripe is that maybe Scott should have tried to deepen his voice a little when playing John, since John smoked a carton a week. John and Sam sounded just alike.

I rate this episode Excellent.
 
A beautiful, wonderful start to the 3rd season of Quantum Leap. The personal favourite of Scott Bakula's, and I can't really blame him. In most lists of favourite episodes this one usually lands near the top. For me, this is definite top 20 and close to being in the top 10. There are so many things I like about it.

First of all, I like having faces and characters to connect with in regards to Sam's family. What I mean is, Sam will often mention his father, mother, brother and sister during leaps, and things that happened in his past. Knowing these characters ourselves helps us to relate to Sam's feelings of homesickness. I think, in the grand scheme of things, the Beckett farm will always be Sam's real home, even above the future home he left when he stepped into the accelerator.

The real tragedy of this leap, though, is that for the most part Sam doesn't get to enjoy it. He's so single-minded in his attempts to save his family that he nearly wrecks everything for himself and his family. Honestly, this part of the episode is what stops this from ranking even higher on my list. Of course I can understand Sam's desire to change the future for the ones he loves most, but there comes a point in the episode where I think he should know he's pushing things too far (the moment he admits to knowing the future is that point, for the record). I also can't help but feel placing this episode directly after M.I.A. (and even making references towards that episode) was a bad move on Don's part. It just adds to Sam's hypocrisy, really. The moment it comes to himself and his family the rules don't matter anymore. It just isn't Sam like, really.

My favourite scene has to be the one where Sam goes running off and Al finally confronts him about his recent behaviour. Al's small, but significant speech is one of the best moments of the entire series. "I'd give anything to have what you have, Sam. Anything."

My rating. Excellent. A brilliant start to the 3rd season.
 
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