Teaser:

On a cross-country car trip which rivals his real-life experience as a kid, Sam finds himself in the shoes of a 13 year-old boy who's sister constantly torments him. But while dealing with the frequent humiliation, Sam has to find a way to keep his mother from running away from the family and never being heard from again.

Audio from this episode:

Sam: Oh have a cow, why don't you?

TV Guide Teaser:

As a teenager in 1964 traveling with his family, Sam must prevent his mom (Sandy Faison) from making a fatal mistake and abandoning them. Hank: Sherman Howard. Bill: Joseph Hacker. Alex: Ami Foster. Beth: Amber Susa. Lew: Jason Logan. Sam: Scott Bakula.

Commercial:

Synopsis & Review:

In this episode, Sam leaps into a thirteen-year-old boy named Butchie Rickett (Frank Borin), who is on an across-country trip from their home state Florida to the Wyoming mountains, with his controlling father Hank (Sherman Howard), desperate mother Emma (Sandy Faison), and bullying older sister Alexandra (Ami Foster).

He is told that the mother is going to disappear and he and Al assumes that she will run off with a one Billy McCann (Joseph Hacker), a man that she and Hank both knew in high school that she winds up reuniting with on the trip. A widower himself, Billy is accompanied by his 14-year-old daughter Beth McCann (Amber Susa), who seems to take a liking to Butchie, as she asks him wryly, '"What grade are you in?".

If Emma, who seems to be quite friendly, if not smitten with old classmate Billy, runs of with him, as feared by the family, it would ultimately destroy the family, as it had did in the original timeline of events before Sam's leap into Butchie, and cause Butchie to not graduate high school and his sister to get pregnant at sixteen.

Sam does his best to keep the pair, Billy and Emma, apart but they just keep running into each other and eventually, Hank becomes jealous and his controlling nature gets worse. Turns out that Hank had went off to college himself on a football scholarship but he got injured and dropped out of college. He's very proud of owning his own poultry factory and is intimidated by the old suitor's doctorate and more prestigious career. Sam is having difficulty getting anyone to listen to him because of his age and the sister just will not stop harassing him.

Eventually, after a fight, Emma escapes off to the forest to try to collect herself as Sam follows her. Sam, as leapee Butchie, then learns how desperately unsatisfied she is in life after having to give up on her dream of going to college and being a doctor when she got pregnant and he manages to convince her to go back to school. Her husband is against this plan, however, because he feels that it's his job to support the family and so she runs off again. Sam discovers that she did not run out on the family after all when Al comes across records of skeletal remains being found at the bottom of a nearby cliff thirty years later.

Sam leads Butchie's father Hank and sister (as well as the Billy and his young daughter) to the cliff that the mother has somehow gotten stuck on. In a desperate situation, the Billy asks the old suitor for help rescuing Emma, but he panics and takes his daughter to go find an authority figure to aid. The family tries to lower a rope down but the mother is frozen so Sam has to be lowered down to personally lift her back up to the top. Billy has a lot of difficulty with the rope and it almost completely snaps but ultimately Sam and the mother reach the top safely. Sam finds out that father eventually retires and the mother goes on to get her doctorate. Sam decides there's still one more thing to do before he leaps, and dangles Alexandra in a well to stop her from torturing Butchie in the future, earning her grudging respect. Source

Personal Review by Sherdran <aka> Eleiece:

I've always enjoyed this episode. It's fun because poor Sam learns what it's like to have a big sister who enjoys her 'job' too much. On the other hand it reminds me of how important it is not to take someone for granted. From the point of thinking you know what's best for them to thinking that they will always be there ("You're mom's been running away since the ninth grade. She'll come back." [Hank to Sam/Butchie]). And even more, that when life gives you a second change with that someone, don't make the same mistakes twice.

Music:

"What'll I Do?" (written in 1924, words and music by Irving Berlin)
"Crazy" by Patsy Cline

"Runaway" Dell Shannon
"Our Day Will Come" Ruby & The Romantics
"Moon River"
"Walk Like a Man" by Frankie Valle and the Four Seasons

Al Trivia:

'Runaway' is the third episode in which we learn about Al's interest (which mirror Dean's real life interest and passion) in and for taking care of the environment:

To Sam after he let the card blow out the window: "Now don't ever litter again. This was a special occasion."

Previously, in "Sea Bride" Al talks about trash being thrown into the ocean. Then in "One Strobe Over the Line" he demands Sam use a paper cup instead of styrofoam.

Miscellaneous Trivia:

Scott Bakula fell down some stairs during the production of this episode and dislocated his foot. In the following episode, "Future Boy" had a slight re-write to include Sam falling out of the mock spacecraft at the begging of the episode so that it would explain the characters' limp.

Pop Warner is a nationwide youth football organization.

"What'll I Do", Emma & Hank's 'song', was written by the prodigious and fabulously talented Mr. Irving Berlin in 1924. It has been used in many films. One film in which it was used was "Big City" in 1948. That would work out to about right for when Hank and Emma graduated high school. Perhaps...and this is my own speculations...Hank took Emma to see that movie and that's when "What'll I Do?" became their song.

***"What'll I Do"***

What'll I do?
When you are far away
And I am blue
What'll I do?

What'll I do?
When I am wond'ring who
Is kissing you
What'll I do?

What'll I do with just a photograph
To tell my troubles to?
When I'm alone
With only dreams of you
That won't come true
What'll I do?

What'll I do with just a photograph
To tell my troubles to?
When I'm alone
With only dreams of you
That won't come true
What'll I do?

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed by Congress and signed by President Johnson on July 3, 1964.

The "Feminine Mystique" by Betty Friedan was published February 19, 1963.

There were several colleges named in this episode, and interestingly enough, their locations span the U.S:
Northwestern (North - Chicago, IL)
Florida State (South - Tallahassee, FL)
Yale (East - New Haven, CT)
Cornell (North - Ithaca, NY)
Berkley (West - Berkley, CA) and, though not specifically named,
the University of Miami (where Emma got her doctorate in speech and drama)

Emma and Billy McCann only recited a handful of lines from the famous balcony scene of 'Romeo & Juliet':
EMMA/JULIET: "What satisfaction canst thou have to-night?"
BILLY/ROMEO : "The exchange of thy love's faithful vow for mine."
EMMA/JULIET: "I gave thee mine before thou didst request it: And yet I would it were to give again."

There is a trail with rock formations called Devil's Backbone, and it's located nearly Loveland in Larimer County, Colorado. Here's the link, if you'd like to take a look.

Alexandra's favorite methods to torment her little brother/Sam: Noogies, wedgies, Charlie horses, ear flicks and 'purple nurples.'

Here's the poem Sam mentioned to Emma during the roadside scene.

***"The Road Not Taken"***

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

-- Robert Frost --

Kiss with History:

President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Bill (#64) into law on July 2nd, 1964, two days before Sam leaped into Butchie. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin.

Guest Cast Notes:

Sandy Faison as Emma Rickett: Sandy Faison is known for Quantum Leap (1989), Grace Under Fire (1993) and Anything But Love (1989). In 1977, she made her Broadway debut as "Grace Farrell", secretary to "Daddy Warbucks", in "Annie". American singer and actress. Teaching at the prestigious 'Fiorello H. LaGuardia' High School of Music, Art and Performing Arts, also known as the "Fame School".

Sherman Howard as Hank Rickett: Sherman Howard was born on June 11, 1949 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for Day of the Dead (1985), Seinfeld (1989) and The Stand (1994). He has been married to Donna Bullock since May 1988. They have one child. He was previously married to Jeanette Sherman.

Joseph Hacker as Billy McCann: Joseph Hacker was born on September 2, 1944 in Shaker Heights, Ohio, USA. He is an actor, known for The Winds of War (1983), Knots Landing (1979) and Remington Steele (1982). He has been married to Maurine Louise Saari since 1988. They have two children.

Ami Foster as Alexandra Rickett: Ami Foster was born on August 5, 1975 in the USA. She is an actress, known for Punky Brewster (1984), Pound Puppies (1985) and Troop Beverly Hills (1989).

Amber Susa as Beth McCann: Amber Susa is known for Quantum Leap (1989), CBS Summer Playhouse (1987) and Merem Melek (2008).

Frank Borin (as Buff Borin) as Butchie Rickett: Frank Borin was born on March 20, 1977 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He is a director and producer, known for R3hab, Zayn & Jungleboi: Flames (2020), 24: Live Another Day (2014) and Butcherhouse Chronicles. He's beginning work on his first feature film, the "Butcherhouse Chronicles" for Platinum Dunes to be produced by Michael Bay, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form. He was also recently attached to the feature film Plains High. Frank has been nominated and won multiple MTV VMA awards for his 5 Seconds of Summer, Angel Haze and Good Charlotte music videos. Frank won the prestigious Much Music Award for directing Midway State's "Never Again" music video and was also nominated in the same category for his Metric "Gimme Sympathy" music video. Frank has directed music videos for Eminem, Red Hot Chili Peppers, 5 Seconds of Summer, Jason Derulo, Tinashe, Becky G, Little Mix, Backstreet Boys, The Script, Duran Duran, The Vamps & Shawn Mendes as well as commercials for Coca Cola, Sprite, Playstation, Microsoft Xbox, Activision, Bud Light, and Tommy Hilfiger among many others. Frank directed various 2nd unit sequences on the TV show "24" starring Kiefer Sutherland.

Jason Logan as Park Ranger: Grampa Mike worked on the IH farm machinery assembly line in Chicago before WWI. Opened a candy store in Chatham ON where he met the beautiful Rosamund Moore. "Grandma Rosie" gave him three sons. An Edward G. Robinson lookalike, Mike followed the lead of his countrymen Spyros Skouras and Alexander Pantages into the vaudeville cinema show business and built a handful of theatres including Sarnia's original Imperial - half the size of Toronto's Pantages (now the Canon Theatre). The 800-seat Imperial was swept away by a triple tornado in 1953. My Great UncleJack Logan managed the Capital Vaudeville Theatre in London ON - hometown of Jack Warner, Ned Sparks, Gene Lockhart, Aimee Semple MacPherson and the Lombardo Brothers. That movie palace was also demolished - this time by the wrecking ball. But the Sarnia Imperial lives on having morphed into a Blue Water area community auditorium at the former Famous Players/Paramount Capital , near the library and museum and our 19th Century gabled brick house on Queen Street, my Devine Street PS, where public grade-school classes integrated Native children from Kettle Point, Ipperwash, Walpole Island & other First Nations. And nearby Sarnia's Collegiate Institute where I was in school with novelist Marian Engle and veteran news-anchor Tony Parsons. I always knew I was destined for the stage after my high-school idol ("It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World") Soupy Sales drove the 60 miles from WXYZ Detroit to emcee a talent show. Here was the hippest, funniest man alive in 1954 making us laugh with a zanyness akin to Jerry Lewis or Jim Carrey (both of whom I've worked with on films). The Soup was also a hipster blues & jazz afficiando with a wild Mon-Fri midnight "Soupy's On" variety show featuring stars like Dizzy Gillespie & Al Hibler & T-Bone Walker sandwiched between his hilarious comedy sketches like "Gaylord the Mississippi Gambler on the SS Kielbasa" featuring Flash Gordon & the Polka Chips".

"When you least expect it...expect it."

"I want to spend some part of my life as me."

"Don't you see? You're gonna lose her if you don't start listening to what she needs."

"You owe it to yourself to do the best thing for you."

Production Credits:

Theme by: Mike Post
Music by: Velton Ray Bunch
Co-Executive Producer: Deborah Pratt
Co-Executive Producer: Michael Zinberg
Supervising Producer: Harker Wade
Co-producers: Paul Brown, Jeff Gourson
Produced by: Chris Ruppenthal
Created by: Donald P. Bellisario
Written by: Paul Brown
Directed by: Michael Katleman

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: John Koslowsky, A.C.E.
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
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 © 1991 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