January 29, 2003

Guestvision By: Matt Searcy <aka> mstalanon

 

To not lose faith! I guess a few of the fans have started to lose faith that
there would EVER be any type of revival of the show, whether in TV or Movie
form. There still isn't an official website for the fans of the show. There
currently isn't even a cable or network channel that I know of that hosts
the shows here in the states. I have read of one in England that is pretty
sporadic... sometimes it's on there, sometimes not, sometimes in episode
order, other times it's not. Even the Sci-Fi channel that has the marathons
doesn't air the episodes in order... they're being aired with other
priorities... most controversial, most emotional, most popular... ya get the
drift.

Well, it does tend to bring you down. I've seen some of the biggest and most
devoted of fans crumble over time and just throw their hands up and go,
"Awww Hell!" Fans have a choice... and I'll steal a line from one of my
favorite short stories-turned movie:

"Get busy livin'... or get busy dying!"

We can either lose faith, or knuckle under, and persevere!!! WE WILL NOT
LOSE FAITH! Quantum Leap WILL be made WHOLE. It took many years and TONS of
fans of Star Trek to institute change; to make the nozzles at NBC and
Paramount not shut up the fans of the original series. Heck, if it weren't
for those "Trekkies" (they like to be called 'Trekkers' nowadays), there
wouldn't be the resurgence: The movies, the TV series, the various comics,
the sheer amount of books (some written by Shatner himself) and magazines,
the conventions, the costumes, and the fans themselves!! Oh yeah, also the
"FanFic!" LOL!!

We have to tell ourselves daily and convince ourselves, much like recovering
addicts (guess that's what we really are, huh? <<grin>>) do. Every day it's
a monologue that we say to get ourselves going.

"There IS a Quantum Leap! It WILL be back!
Scott Bakula once wanted it to happen very badly... he WILL come back!
Dean Stockwell perfected the word 'Nozzle'!! He WANTS to use it again!
Donald P. Bellisario IS in Charge!!"

And some of us add in the somewhat unnecessary bit "And Bonnie the Hammer
can go take a looooong Leap off a VERY short Pier!"

To me, it's all about Faith. I have faith that my favorite stars will
resurface again. They already did for "Enterprise" and there are rumors of
them reuniting again on that show. People WANT the formula that Scott and
Dean perfected.

It was SO wonderful to see those guys hamming it out in the dailies... in
the bloopers, and yes, on the screen with the finished product. ANYBODY
that's a student of human behavior realizes that these two had a lot of
admiration for each other.

To me, that is very much the reason Quantum Leap continues to thrill
audiences to this day. Whole new generations of fans of the show are in my
house now, thanks to my faithful Scifi/USA tapes I made back when Dinosaurs
ruled the Earth and scared us hairy apes all the freakin' time! These new
fans see the buddy bits, they see the storylines... they see the message
that "every life has meaning", they see the shows where God would send this
TEAM into the life of a simple boy, or a raped girl... because they are
special to Him! These new fans, even as young as nine years old, anxiously
await the standard phrase which became so well known in the series... "Oh
Boy!" They giggle watching the three-way conversations between
Leaper-Observer-and usually some poor sap that has no idea all this
confusing stuff is going on. These newbies thrill to see the adversity, the
fights, the girly-dresses and Sam's grimaces of "oh no" and "not again".
They rib each other as ol' Al once again goes after the ladies with a leer,
and yet has even more heart than Dr. Beckett when it comes to the
downtrodden.

Ask me again WHY I still have faith... when a simple TV show can mean so
much to me, and then thrill audiences ten years after it stopped airing!!!!

With love and respect,

Matt Searcy aka mstalanon