Leap Date:
October 19, 1967

Teaser:

Sam finds himself in a fraternity with the nickname "Wild Thing" and is informed by Al that he is there to prevent a student from setting an explosion that kills someone on campus in protest of the Vietnam War.

Audio from this episode:

Scooter: Here are your lobsters, your royal wildness, sir.

Video from this episode:
The Cherry Bomb Scene

Air Date in Germany on RTL:  April 19,1991
Air Date in France on M6: October 20, 1993

Synopsis & Review:

After nearly drowning in Claridge Lake, Sam nearly drowns again, this time from leaping into the middle of his host's beer chugging session. Sam has leapt into Knut “Wild Thing” Wileton (the leapee Knut is played by Jeff Benson), the head of the “Tau Kappa Beta” (TKB) fraternity in 1967, during one of their many parties. After immediately being vomited on, Sam finds his room, kicks two sexy ladies out of his bed, and tries to get some sleep.

The next morning, Sam is extremely frustrated, because his frat-mates pass the time by propelling water balloons from the chemistry classroom's window using a slingshot they made out of surgical tubing. Al arrives and compliments their handiwork, saying it was better than what he used when he was in college, and has fun reminiscing. Outside, a stall has been set up with Vietnam War protesters handing out fliers. Al informs Sam that he is there to help Elizabeth Spokane (Stacy Edwards) – a classmate of Wild Thing's, one of the protesters and an unfortunate victim of the water balloon slingshot. Al informs Sam that in two night's time, she sets off a bomb in the chemistry building as an act of protest against the war – the university supports the war effort. The building was supposed to be empty, but a student had snuck in to study and was killed in the blast. Elizabeth spends the rest of her life underground and on the run.

Sam goes down to apologize to Elizabeth for the water balloon and invites her to the TKB luau the next night – by Sam's logic, Elizabeth can't set off a bomb if she's not there. Elizabeth declines, so Sam offers to help distribute flyers and go to their rally, but is met with a rebuff by their leader, Duck (Darren Dalton), who believes that Sam only wants Elizabeth for her body. Sam counters that Duck wouldn't refuse anyone's help if he were serious about ending the war. Duck realizes that Sam is right and notes that Wild Thing isn't as dumb as he looks and that deceptively smart people like him need to be kept in check, which Duck promises to do.

In chemistry class, Elizabeth interrupts the lecturer and begins a debate, asking him to justify the college's stance supporting an illegal and inhumane war. The lecturer tries to deflect the question, but it's Sam who manages to defuse the debate by saying that what matters is what the South Vietnamese want and that America should take its cue from them. After class, Sam and Elizabeth have a chat, Elizabeth warms up to Sam and she agrees to go to the luau. That is, until Scooter (Robert Petkoff), a pledge for the TKB frat arrives to show Sam that he was following the TKB initiation instructions Wild Thing set – wearing his underwear on the outside and carrying a lot of hot dog meat to distract the Dean's dog while he steals the Dean's prized signed basketball.

Disgusted by Wild Thing's abuse of Scooter, Elizabeth tries to leave, but Sam tries to talk some sense into her, saying that men have evolved so they don't need to hunt anymore, but still need a way to vent their excess testosterone. Elizabeth leaves anyway. Al, who's been listening to Sam, suggests that Sam take his own advice and just try to enjoy himself. Since he can't stand the fraternity's childish antics, Sam worries that he doesn't know how to have fun, but Al says that fun is a relative term - he calls Sam's situation “between funs”, so Sam should just go with it and then he'll leap out and never have to do antics like that again.

Back at the frat house, one of Wild Thing's friends is making a prank call to campus security about a bomb in the chemistry building. Some of the others are trying to study for a chemistry exam, but come to the conclusion they're going to fail. Sam, however, solves a difficult problem in his head, which starts a chorus of “Wild Thing, I think I love you!” and they make a plan to just cheat off Sam. Sam refuses, so instead the boys decide to just do something stupid and pointless – flushing cherry bombs in the girls’ toilets. Sam, who has never done anything like this before, because at college he was a “meganerd”, has as much fun as Al who watches, but unfortunately Elizabeth notices him as he escapes.

At the rally, Duck makes a passionate speech about needing to make their voices heard, even if it means taking up arms against the government if they refuse to listen. Sam is the only one unimpressed, and wonders what Elizabeth sees in him. Al thinks it's partly because of his silver tongue and partly because of the Assembly's collective guilt at being able to afford college and not having to be on the battlefield. Sam tries to convince Elizabeth that if they use violence then they are just as guilty, and advises using publicity instead, as the pen is mightier than the sword. Duck again tries to get rid of Sam, claiming that Sam doesn't care about stopping the war. This upsets Sam, who reveals that he lost a brother in Vietnam. Elizabeth now feels sorry for Sam and agrees to go to the luau with him.

At the luau, Elizabeth makes a comment about Sam being right about needing to cause publicity, and that the TKB boys blowing up the toilets gave them an idea. Al tells Sam that the bomb is still going off, so Elizabeth must have put a timer on it. The boys also tell Sam that since he wouldn't let them cheat off him, they sent Scooter to get the exam. Realizing that Scooter is still in danger, Sam tries to call campus security about the bomb, but they think it's another prank, so Sam and Elizabeth try to save Scooter themselves. They are followed by the frat boys, having found Scooter who chickened out of trying to get the test.

In the chemistry classroom, Elizabeth shows Sam where she hid the bomb, and Al tells them how to defuse it. They are successful, but Ziggy tells Al that they are still going to die in the blast. They realize there's a second bomb. Luckily, Duck is nearby, having arrived to view his handiwork. Sam beats Duck up and stops him from leaving. Thinking he is about to die, Duck reveals the location of the second bomb. Without any time to defuse it, Sam has his frat-mates build the slingshot, and propel the bomb out the window, giving a “Bitchin!” explosion in the air and saving everyone in the building.

Back at the luau, Sam comforts Elizabeth, who is distraught from how close her actions came to killing so many people, saying she just went a little overboard and that she shouldn't try so hard to please her parents. Al informs Sam that Elizabeth remains an active protester, and her actions help stop the war. The last thing Sam has to do before leaping is to officially start the TKB luau celebrations, and at the last minute, he is lifted by a crane to do a dive into the pool. Al tells Sam not to mess up, as in the original history, Wild Thing broke his neck and was left paralyzed. Sam reluctantly jumps, and lands in the pool safely. With a final “TKB is the life for me!” Sam leaps. Source

Music:

"Louie, Louie" by The Kingsmen
"Surf City" by Jan and Dean)
"La Bamba" by Richie Valens
"I Can't Help Myself" by The Four Tops
"Wild Thing" by The Troggs

Sam is able to calculate complicated algebra in his head rapidly.

Miscellaneous Trivia:

The episode title came from the movie "National Lampoon's Animal House", also about a fraternity.

Written on Knut's door : "Wild Thing lives here. Trespassers will be eaten".

Guest Cast Notes:

Stacy Edwards as Elisabeth Spokane: Edwards was born in Glasgow, Montana, the daughter of an Air Force officer, and grew up all over the world, from Guam to Alabama. At 18, she received a scholarship to the Lou Conte Dance Studio in Chicago andbegan her performance career as a dancer and actress.

Raphael Sbarge as Will: Raphael Sbarge has been a working actor for more than five decades. Growing up in New York City's Lower East Side, Raphael began working on Sesame Street (1969) at the age of four. His did his first Broadway show at 16, opposite Faye Dunaway and his first big film, Risky Business (1983) starring Tom Cruise, as he was graduating high school at 18. His mother, Jeanne Button, was a Broadway costume designer and his father, Stephen Sbarge, was an artist, photographer, and documentary filmmaker. He has performed in theaters all over the country, including at Yale Rep, Long Wharf, Mark Taper, and Kennedy Center. He has performed on stage with Al Pacino, Frank Langella, Gwyneth Paltrow, as well Jason Robards and Colleen Dewhurst in the Bway revival of Ah, Wilderness. He has been in many successful films, including Independence Day (1996) with Will Smith, Pearl Harbor (2001) with Ben Affleck and the cult classic Carnosaur (1993) for Roger Corman. He will be in the new Universal/Blumhouse film, The Exorcist: Believer (2023), with Ellen Burstyn, Jennifer Nettles, Leslie Odom Jr. and Ann Dowd which opens on Friday, October 13th, 2023. Raphael's resume includes more than 100 guest appearances and series regular roles on network television shows, including the long-running ABC hit Once Upon a Time (2011) as Dr Hopper, Stephen Bochco's Murder in the First (2014) for TNT, and The Guardian with Simon Baker, for CBS. He has recurred on many series including Star Trek: Voyager (1995), Dexter (2006), Prison Break (2005), Longmire (2012), 24 (2001), among many others. He has done extensive voice work in video games including lead roles in Mass Effect - The New York Times Game of the Year - and its two sequels, as well Knights of the Old Republic, a popular Star Wars game.As a director, Raphael received his first Emmy nomination for LA Foodways (2019), for PBS. His recent feature film, Only in Theaters (2022), opened in Los Angeles and NYC to critical acclaim, played 80 theaters around the country and is now available on Amazon and on DVD, distributed by Kino Lorber. Other films and series Raphael has directed include The Bird Who Could Fly (2017), The Tricky Part (2019), A Concrete River: Reviving the Waters of Los Angeles (2015), 10 Days in Watts (2023), and more.

Darren Dalton as Duck: Darren Dalton made his screen debut as Randy Anderson, the Soc, in Francis Ford Coppola's The Outsiders (1983), a drama based on the novel by S.E. Hinton. He has since starred in over 30 films and has also worked as a screenwriter and producer. He has collaborated with C. Thomas Howell on a number of projects including War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave (2008) and The Day the Earth Stopped (2008). Dalton is probably best known for his starring role in the John Milius World War 3 film Red Dawn (1984) in which he co-starred with Howell, Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen, andLea Thompson.

Brian Haley as Guna: Began his professional career as a stand up comic in the Seattle area in the mid '80s, though was acting in Seattle theater since a child. He got his proverbial 'big break' in 1990 as a stand up on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. An HBO special followed as well as a two year deal for his own show at Fox television, which did not produce a series. While at Fox he wrote and starred in several short films for the TV show The Sunday Comics (1991) which led to a starring role in the film Baby's Day Out (1994). Several other movies followed including Little Giants (1994) where he played overzealous father Mike Hammersmith (aka Spike's Dad), the presidents secret service agent Mitch in Mars Attacks! (1996) and muscular dope Christie in McHale's Navy (1997).
During the 1995 Super Bowl he was in a popular Miller Lite beer commercial where he played hard luck quarterback Elmer Bruker, the man who was on every winning Super Bowl team, but never played. In 1996 he replaced Lowell the mechanic (played by Thomas Haden Church on the NBC series Wings (1990) and in 1999 he played bartender Tom Vanderhulst on the short lived CBS series Maggie Winters (1998) with Faith Ford. He lives in New York and has a production company Sky Blue House Productions.

Stuart Fratkin as Hags: Stuart Fratkin was born on September 22, 1963 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Teen Wolf Too (1987), Friends (1994) and Ski School (1991). He has been married to Monica Lee Melvin since June 8, 1991. See the chat transcript featuring this actor on the Al's Place online community messageboard!

Robert Petkoff as Scooter: Robert Petkoff is known for Irrational Man (2015), Loverboy (1989) and Quantum Leap (1989).

Edward Edwards as Professor Davenport: He is an Associate Artist with Global Arts Corps, an international theatre company, whose goal is to use the transformative power of theatre to bring together people from opposite sides of violent conflict. Also he works with The Children's Craniofacial Association, where he scripted a reader's theatre version of WONDER by R.J. Palacio to be used as a study guide in classrooms all across America to help promote the message of kindness.

Jacqueline Citron as Emily: Jacqueline Alexandra Citron is known for Quantum Leap (1989), Grand Canyon (1991) and Tales from the Crypt (1989). Twin sister of Kristen Amber Citron.

Kristen Citron as Cindy: Kristen Amber Citron is known for Quantum Leap (1989), Grand Canyon (1991) and Tales from the Crypt (1989). Twin sister of Jacqueline Alexandra Citron.

Hope Marie Carlton as Woman #1: Extremely cute, slim and shapely blonde sprite Hope Marie Carlton was born Hope Marie Rizzitano on March 3, 1966 in Riverhead, New York. Carlton began modeling at age thirteen (her mother was a professional model). Hope was the Playmate of the Month in the July, 1985 issue of "Playboy" magazine. She went on to appear in several "Playboy" videos and a bunch of "Playboy" special edition publications. Carlton portrayed feisty federal drug enforcement agent, "Taryn", in three enjoyably low-brow, low-budget action pictures for director Andy Sidaris: Hard Ticket to Hawaii (1987), Picasso Trigger (1988) and Savage Beach (1989). Moreover, Hope acted in a handful of B-flicks and even a few horror movies (she has a memorably sexy cameo in A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)). Among the TV shows, she made guest appearances on, are The A-Team (1983), Married... with Children (1987), L.A. Law (1986), Charles in Charge (1984), Quantum Leap (1989) and Baywatch (1989). Carlton owned and operated the resort, the "Sorrel River Ranch", with her one-time husband, Rob Levin, in Moab, Utah. Hope and Levin had a daughter, prior to divorcing in 2005. Hope MarieCarlton now lives in Colorado.

Shannon Terhune as Woman #2: Shannon Terhune was born on September 16, 1962 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She is an actress, known for Eleanor and Franklin (1976), Quantum Leap (1989) and California Dreaming (1979).

Brian Leckner as Frat boy: Brian Leckner is an American actor. He was born in Pasadena, CA, on January 2nd, 1967. Brian was raised in Hermosa Beach, CA. He attended Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach,CA. Brian is a graduate of The Joanne Baron/DW Brown Studio, a Two year intensive study of the famed "Meisner Technique" Brian found this training invaluable and has relied on this training his entire career. In 1991 Brian met the acting teacher Larry Moss and it would change his career. Brian found himself in the lead for a revival of the iconic television series'' Bonanza''. Playing the bastard son of Hoss Cartwright was a thrill for the wanna be cowboy. Acting opposite such legends as Ben Johnson, Jack Elam, Richard Roundtree & Leonard Nimoy ( all on the same set !) would teach Brian invaluable lessons on how to succeed on the set and in life. By the age of 24 Brian had starred in a series of Bonanza MOW's for NBC however his dream job was just around the corner. Sgt Bilko was another iconic TV show being brought to the big screen by Imagine / Universal. Steve Martin, Dan Ackroyd & the late great Phil Hartman would star. Brian played Sam Fender a main member of Bilkos's platoon.Working with these comedy icons was a childhood dream come true. Brian would forge a friendship with Phil Hartman that would include fun times on Catalina or down to Baja for sport fishing. Both SoCal natives bonded over their love of the sea. Has appeared in numerous Commercials & Episodic's over the years from Seinfeld, House, X-Files, Charmed, The Mentalist, Knight Rider, E.R. & L.A. Firefighters. During summer hiatus Brian can be found on the steppes of the Mongolian countryside, his wife's home country and now his favorite place to be.

David Pressman as Frat boy: David Pressman was born in New York City, New York, USA. David is an actor, known for Krapopolis (2023), DC League of Super-Pets (2022) and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2005).

Jeff Benson as Knut "Wild Thing" Wileton (Mirror image): Jeff Benson is known for Diggstown (1992), Quantum Leap (1989) and The Taking of Beverly Hills (1991).

In the library, there is a book called "Fundamentals of Surveying" which wasn't written until 1985. Another book, "Men Know Your Symptoms" was not published until 1986.

The timing of Al's countdown for the bomb doesn't add up in real time.

Script:

Thanks to actor Stuart Fratkin for providing this script!

Production Credits:

Music by: Mike Post
Supervising Producers: Deborah Pratt, Paul M. Belous, Robert Wolterstorff
Co-producers: Paul Brown, Jeff Gourson, Chris Ruppenthal
Produced by: Harker Wade
Created by: Donald P. Bellisario
Written by: Chris Ruppenthal
Directed by: Gilbert Shilton

Executive Producer: Donald P. Bellisario
Associate Producers: David Bellisario
Director of Photography: Michael Watkins
Production Designer: Cameron Birnie
Edited by: Alan Shefland
Unit Production Manager: Ron Grow
First Assistant Director: Ryan Gordon
Second Assistant Director: Rob Mendel
Casting by: Ellen Lubin Sanitsky
Set Director: Robert L. Zilliox
Costume Designer: Jean-Pierre Dorleac
Costume Supervisors: David Rawley & Donna Roberts-Orme
Sound Mixer: Mark Hopkins McNabb
Stunt Coordinator: Diamond Farnsworth
Contributing Musical Composers: Velton Ray Bunch and Jerry Grant
Sound Editor: Paul Clay
Music Editor: Tom Gleason

Panaflex ® Camera and Lenses by: Panavision ®

This motion picture is protected under laws of the United States and other countries. Unauthorized duplication, distribution or exhibition may result in civil liability and criminal prosecution.

Copyright © 1989 by Universal City Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The characters and events depicted in this photoplay are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

Bellisarius Productions and Universal, an MCA Company

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