As a traveling amateur magician raising a daughter alone, Sam must find a way to keep the daughter from being taken by her mother when she returns three years after abandoning the family. In order to do that, Sam has to perform a deadly magic trick in order to get the money he needs to buy a permanent home for them. But when his daughter attempts the trick in desperation, it may mean the end of her life.

Audio from this episode:

Al: Hey, I was the guy in the rack.

Synopsis & Review:

Sam leaps in, he’s in a box, with swords going through! He handles this remarkably well, until his daughter, Jamie announces he’s in the box of doom, which causes him to panic and try to escape. The box collapses to reveal he’s in the middle of a magic act. Jamie announces him as the Great Spontini. Oh Boy!

After the credits Sam and Jamie are in the middle of the act, which Sam seems to struggle with, much to the annoyance of his 12 year old daughter. He performs the old saw a girl in half trick. He does okay for a total rookie.

After the show, Jamie is preoccupied with Sam’s health, blaming that for his less then stellar performance. She brings up an audition of a show that Bill Bixby is involved with, this is before he starred in “The Incredible Hulk” which debuted in 1977. This show is supposed to, according to Jamie, star “The great Spontini” and the table of death.

They go into the dressing room, Sam has fun with his mirror image, And we have Al’s first appearance at the 8m34s mark. Tina is apparently away for two weeks, so Al is having a dry spell.

They hear a knock at a door, where a woman enters, Al knows that it’s Elaine somehow. She starts making out with Sam, despite knowing that his 12 year old daughter is in the other room and could come back at any moment. She instantly accuses him of thinking of his ex wife. It’s revealed it’s been 3 years. She starts trying to help him forget about her, when who should wander in but Maggie, with her new fiancé, and soon after - his daughter.

Maggie, wife of Harry, and mother of Jamie, walked out on them three years ago, and apparently this is the first they are seeing of them. We are introduced to her Fiance, Steve, a lawyer. Maggie wants a divorce, and Steve wants to make things easy. Al doesn’t buy it. Steve is playing nice about a hearing that’s supposed to happen tomorrow.

They leave, and Sam thinks that he’s there to reunite the family because according to Elaine, he never stopped loving Maggie, and he thinks that she feels the same. Al doesn’t believe so, pointing out, that she left and started a whole new life. But Sam thinks she came back because she still loves Harry.

Next scene is the hearing, which seems to be taking place in the judges chambers. Steve reveals his true agenda, which is the custody battle, and points out very obvious ways in which Harry is not exactly providing a suitable living environment of Jamie. You don’t even need to be a good lawyer to eviscerate Sam as Steve does. Steve is scuzzy lawyer, who just wants to win… but he makes a lot of solid points. He does however go too far, and suggests that Harry and Jamie shouldn’t even have contact.

This is the scene where the old calculator style handlink goes kablooey. Al and Ziggy prove useless here, as they should have seen all this coming…

Sam asks if what Jamie wants matters, and the judge says that she’s a minor. She doesn’t get a say. Harry is ordered to release Jamie into Maggie’s custody. The judge suggests Sam get a lawyer. (Advice he will continue to ignore throughout the episode.)

Jamie and Sam share a scene, where Sam has to break the bad news that she’s going to live with her mother for the time being. She doesn’t take the news well.

Jamie has an idea! And the idea is the table of doom. It’s this table, that you lie down, handcuffed too, after a period of time, spikes fall on you to kill you, if you have a bad night. So if you screw up this trick, you get spiked to death on stage.

This is the official scene where the gummy bear hand link is introduced, and we get Al’s commentary on it, while Sam fails to get himself free. Thankfully Sam is not lying on the table, and Al, who was laying down on the rack, is just a hologram.

Next Scene… Sam wonders if maybe Harry losing a child is a good thing. Al says its not for the best. The kids life does not turn out all right. Al is taking this personally because his mom left him and the family.

Sam has a new plan. Make nice with mother, as Al says. He puts on some cologne, too much apparently, as Jamie points out. Apparently you aren’t supposed to drink cologne. Jamie is doing everything she can to show how unhappy she is, while Sam is trying to convince her to give it a chance. Sam and Maggie talk, almost seeming to bond, when Jamie enters the room, pretending to be stabbed with a knife to get their attention. Jamie refers to her mom as her first name, which is the ultimate show of disrespect.

Jamie discovers a stuffed animal that Maggie took, that Jamie thought she lost. Maggie took it to have a piece of Jamie and made it easy on her for awhile.

Sam tries to reminisce with Maggie, despite having no memories of that life at all.
Sam’s efforts seems to work, resulting in a kiss. Sam almost seems to have her convinced until he mentions the magic shop. This makes her angry. She mentioned she had no choice but to leave the family. Steve interrupts. Sam and Steve get into it, and eventually Maggie kicks them both out. She exits the scene. Steve brags to Jamie, that when he’s finished with him in court, Harry will never be seen again.

Next day, Maggie’s leaving for a court appearance. Jamie is being left with a babysitter. Sam feels like maybe he messed this leap up, suggesting he should have gotten a lawyer. But no, according to Al that’s how Harry lost everything.


Meanwhile Jamie is trying to do the table of death trick, which Al pops into discover. Ziggy says… she’s going to die.

Cut to the court room, Steve is questioning Maggie.

Al is uselessly trying to talk Jamie out of what she’s doing but then remembers he’s a hologram.

Cut to Sam on the stand, he’s testifying. Al appears, to tell him about Jamie. Sam exits the court in a hurry, and Maggie follows.

Meanwhile Jamie drops the key, and in the process of trying to retrieve it, drops her stuffed animal on the button to start the deadly magic table.

Sam gets to Jamie in time and manages to get her out just in the nick of time.

Back at the court room, the lawyer is arguing that Harry should face charges for child endangerment. Maggie disagrees. She drops the custody case, and the divorce. She’s not going to marry Steve after all. Jamie instantly seems to be forgiving of Maggie, and after Al says Maggie and Harry being together is not in the cards, Sam decides to change things by kissing her. History changed, Sam leaps... Synopsis by Dave Korman

Music:

In the leap in at the end of Black On White On Fire, "Sobre las Olas" is played, but was removed from the actual episode.

Project Trivia:

Al, after years of beating and smacking the handlink, finally breaks the calculator version, and it is replaced with the new gummy bear version.

Al's Outfits Worn in the Episode:

1. Brown shirt, with a dark blue jacket and pants. 

2. Orange, black and green shirt, with a black coat with white markings, copper tie and dark green pants. 

3. Light brown shirt, slim black tie and diamond icon coat.

Al's Women:

Al was in a custody battle with his 4th (but says 3rd) wife Sharon over their dog Chester. Sharon won.

Al checks out the women's dressing room. He was upset that Tina had gone to visit her mother for two weeks and he does have his "needs."

Al says that he got a lot of hickeys because he wore Auqa Velva aftershave.

Miscellaneous Trivia:

This episode was supposed to be aired earlier in the season, which is why the gummy bear version of the handlink has already been seen three times prior to this point. Al switches from the early version of the Handlink to the final version during this episode. Although the final, more colorful version debuted a few episodes earlier ("The Boogieman") due to NBC airing the episodes out of order, it was clearly intended to debut in this episode. During the first scene with Judge Mulhearn, Al has difficulty retrieving data from Ziggy using the older handlink, to the point where he nearly (or possibly does) smash it apart. The next time we see Al, he is using the new handlink for the rest of the episode. With the exception of a few other episodes that aired out of order, Al uses this new handlink for the rest of the series.

Dan Birch, Harry's mirror image, is an accomplished magician and provided technical advice on the magic in this episode. He is the brother of Cheryl Birch, Universal’s Director of Business Affairs.

Rich Whiteside made his first on-set appearance during this episode. He went on to advise on "The Leap Home - Part II: Vietnam." This episode was filmed before the season opener.

Guest Cast Notes:

Amy F. Steel as Maggie Spontini: Amy Steel's acting career began in West Chester, Pennsylvania in 1973 when she attended Westtown school of dramatic arts. After two summers of dramatic training, Amy joined Barley-Sheaf Players and starred in two productions. She temporarily left the theatre to further pursue her academic career at the prestigious Kent school in Kent, Conneticut. After three years at Kent, Amy left to attend a small college in Palm Beach, Florida where she majored in communications and broadcasting. It was there that John Casablancas, President of the renowned Elite model Agency discovered her.
Amy left Florida for New York in June 1979. Career opportunities in modelling, television and film soon followed. Amy has appeared in many television commercials, several soap operas and many hit movies. Today her film and TV career continues to shine. Amy has appeared in JAG, Don Bellisarios's post Quantum Leap series Cmdr. Samantha Woodling in the episode "Promises". Also she has appeared in Chiago Hope, Dianosis Murder, American Gothic, Home Improvement and The Friday the 13th films.

Erich Anderson as Steve Slater: Erich Anderson is known for Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984), Unfaithful (2002) and NCIS (2003). He has been married to Saxon Trainor since November 29, 2003. He has appeared in Star Trek The Next Generation as Commander Kieran MacDuff in the episode "Conumdrum" He has also appeared in Melrose Place, The Outer Limits, 7th Heaven and Touched By An Angel.

Lauren Woodland as Jamie Spontini: Lauren Woodland was born on October 28, 1977 in Carson City, Nevada, USA. She is an actress, known for The Young and the Restless (1973), Alien Nation (1989) and Cold Case (2003). Lauren has appeared in L.A Law, Brooklyn Bridge (serval times), Brotherly Love, Encore! Encore!and Seven Days.

Michael Fairman as Judge Mulhearn: Michael Fairman is a veteran of film, stage and television, with a career spanning more than 40 years. He has portrayed Adlai Stevenson in the political thriller Thirteen Days (2000) starring Kevin Costner, was featured in David Lynch's Academy Award-nominated Mulholland Drive (2001) and played Ben Affleck's father in Dreamworks' Forces of Nature (1999). This versatile actor can be seen regularly on television, having guest appearances on popular shows such as ER (1994), The Practice (1997), The X-Files (1993), Boston Public (2000), Family Law (1999) and Dharma & Greg (1997), to name just a few. He started out his career as a navigator in the U.S. Air Force. While stationed at Tachikawa Air Force Base near Tokyo, he joined a theater group and has been acting ever since. After the Air Force, he enrolled in the Dramatic Arts Department of New York University. Beginning with Oedipus in Sophocles Oedipus Rex, he played leads throughout college, including a series of classical roles at the Oregon Shakespearean Festival. He has played everything from Stanley Kowalski in "A Streetcar Named Desire" to Pozzo in "Waiting for Godot" to his critically acclaimed "The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail" and was in numerous productions off-Broadway. This extensive stage experience led Michael to numerous recurring roles in such hit TV shows as L.A. Law (1986), Hill Street Blues (1981) and Cagney & Lacey (1981), and extended runs on the soap operas General Hospital (1963), Ryan's Hope (1975) and Love of Life (1951). Fairman is in the soon-to-be-released feature film comedy Wheelmen (2005).

Robin Greer as Elaine: Robin Greer was born on May 27, 1960 in Hollywood, California, USA. She is an actress, known for Falcon Crest (1981), Quantum Leap (1989) and Angels' Brigade (1979).

Jean Adams as Mrs. Futrell: Jean Adams is known for Clean Slate (1994), Quantum Leap (1989) and Moonlighting (1985).

Dan Birch as Harry Spontini (Mirror image): Dan Birch is known for Quantum Leap (1989) and Columbo (1971). He is an accomplished magician and provided technical advice on the magic in this episode. He is the brother of Cheryl Birch, Universal’s Director of Business Affairs.

Production Credits:

Theme by: Mike Post
Music by: Velton Ray Bunch
Co-Executive Producer: Deborah Pratt
Co-Executive Producer: Michael Zinberg
Supervising Producers: Harker Wade, Robert Wolterstorff
Co-producers: Paul Brown, Jeff Gourson
Produced by: Chris Ruppenthal
Created by: Donald P. Bellisario
Written by: Cristy Dawson & Beverly Bridges
Directed by: James Whitmore, Jr.

Executive Producer: Donald P. Bellisario
Associate Producer: James S. Giritlian
Executive Story Editor: Tommy Thompson
Director of Photography: Michael Watkins, A.S.C.
Production Designer: Cameron Birnie
Edited by: Jerry Temple, Jon Koslowsky, A.C.E.
Unit Production Manager: Ron Grow
First Assistant Director: Paul Sirmons
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
Technical Advisor: Dan Birch
Sound Mixer: Mark Hopkins McNabb
Stunt Coordinator: Diamond Farnsworth
Sound Editor: Paul Clay
Music Editor: Donald Woods

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 © 1990 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

Podcasts:

In the thirty-eighth installment of The Quantum Leap Podcast, Albie, Heather, Juan, and Gabe from Thinking Outside The Long Box discuss season three, episode eight, The Great Spontini. – Recorded Live in Colorado.

There are first impressions, an episode recap, thoughts and opinions, and a great interview with episode guest star and Magic Consultant, Magician Dan Birch

Christopher DeFilippis also brings us another edition of the Quantum Leap Radio Sightings

Matt – author of “Quantum Leap: Beyond the Mirror Image” shares his journey writing, and some of his favorite Quantum Leap timeline mistakes and reconciling them.

Jessie brings us her second segment in her multi-part series on Acting: “The Magic If”.

Hayden McQueenie is back with his latest “Quantum Deep” segment about Forecasting The Future.

Also some exciting news from Don Bellisario 🙂