Episode
adopted by: Sherdran
<aka> Eleiece Additional
info provided by: Cindy & Brian
Greene
Synopsis:
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.
TV Guide Synopsis: 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:
Place:
Carbon County, near the Wyoming / Colorado border
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
Project
Trivia:
Ziggy comes up with a unique theory...the 'Big Sister
Theory"...as to why Sam hadn't yet leaped after saving Emma.
Sam Trivia:
He remembers the book "The Feminine Mystique" and who wrote it and the
impact it made.
Sam's memory is further prompted by the radio announcer's comment (re:
Sam murmurs to himself, "Civil Rights Bill, ' 64.")
Sam remembers a similar type of
family vacation he took with his own family when he was 12 years old.
("Guess I must've blocked it out, huh?").
Sam's
outfits:
First (Leap-in) - A red & white striped polo shirt, dark
purplish-red madras plaid shorts, a green ball cap with 'Butchie' on
it, orange socks and white tennis shoes.
Second (Walking with Al at Camp Chipmunk) - The 'Wild Willie's" yellow
tee shirt, orange plaid madras shorts, same orange socks and white
tennis shoes.
Third (The running scene with Hank) - 'Wild Willie's' tee shirt, green
shorts, same socks & tennis.
Fourth (The night time/rescue scene) - Blue jeans with the cuffs rolled
up, dark blue jacket with stripes on the sleeves, red & white
large check shirt, white socks and tennis shoes.
Last (with Hank & Emma at the pavilion) - Jeans, a button down
shirt, a gray windbreaker, the green ball cap, and white tennis shoes.
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.
Al's
Outfits Worn in the Episode:
First - White leisure suit with a multi-colored (muted earth tones)
shirt, a black string tie with a round tie clip (looks like there's an
eagle on it) and gold shoes.
Second outfit (the rescue scene) Black pants, a red/orange shirt, the
'STOP' jacket (sort of a dark teal with a large red STOP sign emblem on
the back of the jacket and narrow white stripes above each pocket) and
red shoes.
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.
Regular
Cast:
Scott Bakula as Sam Beckett
Dean Stockwell as Al Calavicci
Guest
Stars:
Sandy Faison as Emma Rickett
Sherman Howard as Hank Rickett
Joseph Hacker as Billy McCann
Ami Foster as Alexandra Rickett
Amber Susa as Beth McCann Frank Borin (as Buff Borin) as Butchie Rickett
Jason Logan as Park Ranger
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".
Guest Who Appeared
In Other Quantum Leap Episodes: Holly Fields from "Camikazi
Kid" was nearly cast as Alexandra. She was asked to come in as a back-up. During the casting process near
the end of the day, Ami Foster was cast instead.
Say
What? Emma
states "The Feminine Mystique" has just been published, but it's over a year old at this
point in time.
The sign “Nothing Without the Diety” was spelled
incorrectly. It should have been “Deity."
When the photo of Sam is taken with the chimpanzees, there are two on him. When we see the finished photo, there is only one.
It becomes dark impossibly quickly near the end
of the episode.
When Sam goes to catch Emma, her hand is a good distance away as she
falls. Somehow he catches her anyway.
Quotable
Quotes:
She's
gonna have a big future as a mud wrestler, and she's only 14 and a half.
-- Al, "Runaway"
You look even prettier than I remember.
That is the oldest line in the manual.
-- Bill to Emma, and Al, "Runaway"
I've seen this scenario before ... and I don't like it.
Please don't let it happen to Emma and her family.
-- Al, "Runaway"
Daddy, maybe we can take a before picture ... so we can remember what
he looks like.
-- Alex, before throwing her "little brother" to the monkeys, "Runaway"
I'm old enough to be my own father.
That's a first.
-- Sam and Al, "Runaway"
Butchie, think fast!
-- Hank, "Runaway"
Sam ... toss it out ... go ahead. OK, good, and now don't
ever do it again. That's just a special case this time.
-- Al on littering, "Runaway"
I'm a kid ... nobody listens to me.
-- Sam, "Runaway"
She called me 'monkey boy'!
-- Sam, "Runaway"
I'm here to stop the big sister from noogie-ing him to death?
-- Sam, "Runaway"
The good news was that Emma was still with her family. The
bad news ... So was I.
-- Sam, "Runaway"
I'm sorry, but I don't have an orgasm waxing the damn kitchen floor!
-- Emma, "Runaway"
Maybe sometimes you can't fight fate.
-- Sam, "Runaway"
"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."
Best Lines:
"I may not be able to read a stupid map but I know a lot more about
more important things."
"13? I'm old enough to be my own father." (Sam to Al)
"When you least expect it...expect it." (Alexandra to Sam)
"She's got a great future as a mud wrestler, and she's only fourteen
and a half." (Al to Sam)
"The good news was that Emma was still with her family. The bad
news...so was I." (Sam)
"I want to spend some part of my life as me." (Emma to Sam)
"Don't you see? You're gonna lose her if you don't start listening to
what she needs." (Sam to Hank)
"I'm sorry, but I don't have a damn orgasm waxing the kitchen floor."
(Emma to Hank)
"You're alright...for a twerp." (Alexandra to Sam)
Best
Scenes:
There are two best scenes in Runaway. The first best scene is Sam and
Emma's roadside conversation:
Sam: "What's going on, Mom?"
Emma: "You wouldn't understand."
Sam: "C'mon. I'm thir...teen."
Emma (laughing): "Yeah. My little man!" (takes Sam's cap off and
ruffles his hair): "Gosh. How'd you grow up so fast? You and Alex will
be off to college before you know it and... I don't know. I'm just
kinda..."
Sam: "Afraid of being alone?"
Emma: "No. I'm already by myself most of the day. Daddy's at work, and
you kids are at school. I've got time to do whatever I want. It's
just... not like I though it would be.
(she pauses)
I know I've got no right to complain; not with what grandma went
through. And other folks struggling for money and jobs. And your daddy
makes a good living."
Sam: "Uh huh."
Emma: "I know I should be happy."
Sam: "No, mom. Not if you don't feel fulfilled."
Emma: "Now this doesn't mean that I don't love you and Alex and Daddy."
Sam: "I..I know. I know, Mom."
Emma: "It's just that I..um... want something more? I want to spend
some part of my life as me. Whoever that is. Not just as someone's
daughter or wife or... (she glances at Sam) ...mother. I want to... I
want to stop feeling like..."
Sam: "A non-person."
Emma: "Yeah. A non-person. I feel like a...non-person."
Sam: "Then you should do more. You should do something more."
(Emma laughs)
Sam: "What?"
Emma: "'Do something more.' That was the theme of my speech at
graduation."
Sam: "You were valedictorian?"
Emma: "Yep. Wrote this great speech. About taking chances and reaching
beyond the expected. Guess I should have listened to myself, huh?
Instead of wondering..."
Sam: "About the road not taken."
Emma: "Yeah. (she pauses). Well, guess it's too late for that now."
Sam: "No, it's not. That's what I'm saying. You can do anything you
want. You could in a whole new direction. You could go back to school!"
Emma: "Oh, not with all those young kids! I can't do that!"
Sam: "You're young, too. In the '60s housewives started...will start
going back to college."
Emma: "How do you know?"
Sam: "Well...my...a lot of my friends' moms are starting classes again."
Emma (surprised): "Really?"
Sam: "Yeah. And you're smart. And you owe it to yourself to do the best
thing for you."
The
2nd best scene is when Sam and Al are walking through Camp
Chipmunk, talking:
---
Sam: "They must've gotten ahead of us when we pulled over. This is
weird, Al. No matter what we do, we keep running into him."
Al: "Well maybe she told him where you were going."
Sam: "Maybe sometimes you can't fight fate."
Al: "Well, you have to, Sam."
Sam: "How? I'm a kid. Nobody listens to me. All I do is...I get teased
and ignored."
Al: "Well you've dealt with a lot tougher guys than that nozzle over
there."
Sam: "Hey, it would be a lot easier if this guy, Bill, were a jerk but
he's not. He's actually a pretty 'okay' guy."
Al: "So's Hank. Hey, it's 1964. Guys were different then. But they're
gonna change."
Sam: "I don't know..."
Al: "You gotta give Hank a chance, because if you don't, Alex gets
pregnant in two years. And Butchie doesn't even finish high school. If
she leaves, she destroys the whole family."
Sam: "What happens to her?"
Al: "I don't know. We don't have anything on Emma. Just that some time
tonight she runs away."
Sam: "Well even if I stop her, who's to say she's gonna hang around
here waiting for Hank to change?"
Al: "Maybe you're right. Maybe any mother that leaves her kids isn't
worth saving."
Sam (pauses, looking closely at Al): "You're taking this personally,
aren't you, Al?"
Al: "No." (pauses...thinks) "Alright. Yeah, maybe I am. My dad wasn't
there for my mom, so sometimes I can understand that she left him. But,
she left Trudy and me, too, and I could never understand that." (he
pauses again) "So just make sure they stay together, Sam."
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.
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:
Quantum Leap Podcast:
Runaway
Join us as we
buckle in for a family road trip — Quantum Leap style — with Season 3
Episode 11, Runaway.
Guest hosts Allison Pregler, Matt Dale and Christopher DeFilippis
journey cross country with Sam as he Leaps into 13-year-old Butchie
Rickett. Not only does Sam have to deal with a host of adolescent
indignities — including a mean big sister and posing with Buffalo
Chimps — but he also has to find a way to keep Butchie’s mother Emma
from abandoning her family.
We also bring you an interview with actor Tom McTigue. Tom played
Blake’s sycophantic yes-man Calloway in the Christmas episode A Little
Miracle. He spoke to Chris about his acting and stand-up comedy career,
and recounted his time guest starring on Quantum Leap.
Then stick around for a new Quantum Deep, radio sightings, trivia, feedback and more.
The Quantum Leap Podcast: More fun than a barrel of Buffalo Chimps!
RUNDOWN
00:00:01: Intro
00:02:13: New Voices, Same Podcast
00:05:10: Initial Impressions
00:06:58: Episode Recap
00:11:30: Main Discussion
01:07:55: Promo: Barren Space Professional Audio Production
01:09:45: Vintage Audio: Scott Talks Quantum Leap
01:12:04: Ann Walker Show ID
01:12:10: Tom McTigue Interview
01:38:44: Quantum Deep: Identical Beckys
01:52:15: Quantum Leap Radio Sightings: Double Identity
01:56:41: Trivia and News with Albie and Hayden
02:16:46: Feedback
02:32:41: Up Next: 8-1/2 Months
02:33:49: Goodbyes
02:34:16: Credits
02:35:30: Bloopers
Let us know what you think!
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