"The Play's the Thing"


Leap Date:

September 9, 1969


Episode Adopted by: Rindi
Additional info provided by: Brian Greene


Synopsis:

As a young man romancing a much, much older woman, Sam must convince her not to move back to Cleveland with her straight-as-an-arrow son and his wife. And somehow he also has to get through a nude version of "Hamlet."

 

Audio from this episode




TV Guide Synopsis
Place
Leap Date

Name of the Person Leaped Into
Music
Project Trivia
Sam Trivia
Al Trivia

Al's Women
Al's Outfits Worn in the Episode

Miscellaneous Trivia
Writers
Director
Producers

Crew
Broadcast Date
Guest Stars
Guest Cast Notes
Personal Review
Best Lines
Best Scenes
Say What?
Quotable Quotes




 

Production # : 67301





TV Guide Synopsis:
Sam falls into a May-December romance as a struggling actor dating a woman twice his age, and he tries to save his career and find her a break as a singer. Jane: Penny Fuller. Ted: Robert Pine. Neil: Daniel Roebuck. Liz: Anna Gunn. Sam: Scott Bakula. Al: Dean Stockwell





Place:
New York City, New York




 

Leap Date:
September 9, 1969



 


Broadcast Date:
January 8, 1992 - Wednesday




 

Name of Person Leaped Into:
Joe Thurlow




 

Music:
Theme: Mike Post
Music: Velton Ray Bunch

"Goin’ Out of my Head" by Little Anthony & The Imperials is sung by Penny Fuller (Jane).

"Together Forever" (cover) by Aretha Franklin plays on Jane's tape.

"The Look of Love" by Dusty Springfield is sung by Jane.

"Born to the Wild" by Steppenwolf plays in the club.

"My Cherie Amour" by Stevie Wonder is mentioned by Jane.

"Time of the Season" by The Zombies plays at the club.

"For Once in My Life" by Stevie Wonder is sung by Jane for an audition.




 

Project Trivia:
There is no imaging chamber door the second time Al comes to Sam.




 

Sam Trivia:
Sam remembers events from "M.I.A." and "Last Dance Before An Execution."

Sam says "Oh Boy!" three times in this episode.

Sam recalls voting in a Jimmy Carter election.

Sam believes it is ok for women to marry younger men just as much as men being able to marry younger women.




 

Al Trivia:
Al’s fifth wife’s dream was to be in the roller derby.

Al’s fifth wife ran off with a bricklayer.

Al says "Oh Boy!" once in this episode.

Al appears 3 different times in this episode and each time he has a cigar.





Al’s Women:
Al likes Petra.

He mentions his fifth wife - she was a roller derby fan.




 

Al’s Outfits Worn in the Episode:
1st appearance: Al was wearing a red jacket, a white button up collar shirt, a metallic bolo, black slacks, and sunglasses pin.

2nd appearance: Same outfit as #1.

3rd appearance: Al was wearing a light mustard jacket and slacks to match, metallic gold button up shirt with white spiral ovals placed sporadically over the shirt, a metallic goldish copper tie and shoes cant be seen.




 

Miscellaneous Trivia:
Jane Linhurst says "Oh Boy!" once in this episode.

Sam gets Joe a job as the new Boxer Boy (a play on the underwear Joe Boxer).





Crew:



Writers:

Beverly Bridges

 


Directors:

Eric Laneuville

 


Producers:

Co-Executive: Deborah Pratt

Co-Executive: Michael Zinberg

Supervising: Harker Wade




 

Regular Cast:
Scott Bakula as Sam Beckett
Dean Stockwell as Al Calavicci


 


Guest Stars:
Penny Fuller as Jane Lindhurst
Robert Pine as Ted
Daniel Roebuck as Neil Lindhurst
Anna Gunn as Liz Lindhurst
Craig Richard Nelson as The Director
Paul Collins as Rob Jackson
Eva Loseth as Petra
Deem Bristow as King
Will Schaub as Joe Thurlow (Mirror Image)





Guest Cast Notes:

PENNY FULLER appeared in All The President’s Men (1976) starring Robert Redford.

ROBERT PINE appeared on Enterprise: Fusion (2002) with Scott Bakula a decade after this Quantum Leap episode. He has also been in Independence Day (1996) with Tom Cruise. Also, like many other actors that appeared on Quantum Leap he was also on Star Trek: Voyager: The Chute (1996).

DANIEL ROEBUCK has been in Halloween... The Happy Haunting of America! (1997) with Jamie Lee Curtis which he also produced and directed, Final Destination (2000) with Devon Sawa, and Agent Cody Banks (2003) with Franky Munez. He was also in Star Trek: The Next Generation: Unification: Part 1 and Star Trek: The Next Generation: Unification: Part 2 (1987).

ANNA GUNN has been in the TV show Miracles (2003) with Skeet Ulrich with whom she also starred in Nobody’s Baby (2001). She was also in Lost Souls (2000) with Wynona Rider, and Caught In The Crossfire (1994) with DANIEL ROEBUCK.

CRAIG RICHARD NELSON was in The Grass Is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank  (1978) with Carol Burnett and in 1979 he worked with her again in Carol Burnett & Company. He too was in Star Trek: Voyager: Living Witness (1998).



 

Personal Review:
This is a good episode - one of those episodes that show Sam’s sweet romantic side. This episode makes you want to reach your dreams and to find that one love that will support you while you do it. It’s a touching episode.



 

Best Line:
"Quantum leaping through time I’ve leaped into an electric chair, gun fights, and the variety of handcuffs. It looks like I finally rated a cushy time." "Thank You." (Talking to God) --Sam "No (pause), Thank You." --Jane Lindhurst




Best Scene:
The best scene in this episode is at the beginning when Sam first leaps into Joe Thurlow an actor. He leaps into a bed of silk sheets and pillows. He thanks God for a comfortable landing and then an older woman rolls over, his girlfriend and Thanks him back, assumingly for the night before. Sam lye’s in bed naked and shy with a woman he does not know, not exactly the comfortable situation he thought.

I also liked the scene where Sam is trying to convince Jane to sing for an audition for the jingle singer for the Boxer Boy commercials and Al says, "Actions speak louder than words Sam," and he kisses her passionately to prove he loved her and supported her career.




Say What?
This episode takes place in 1969. All the errors here are due to the timeline:

There is a card with a barcode on the back, but barcodes weren't used until 1974.

Stock footage contains an advertisement for the show "Sly Fox", that opened in 1976.

The Twin Towers are seen in stock footage, but were not finished until 1973.

A poster for "Happy Birthday, Wanda June", can be seen, but the play didn't open until 1971.




 

Quotable Quotes:

"Morning Tiger." --Jane Lindhurst

"…don’t you think maybe she’s a little um long in the tooth for you?" --Al "Her teeth look just great to me." --Sam " No, no, no, no, I mean don’t you think she’s more right for me…" --Al "Oh, no, no, no she’s much too sophisticated for you." --Sam

"Just goes to show you that (pause) some dreams are suppose to stay up in the clouds." --Al "What are you talking about, no, you can never give up on your dreams." –Sam

" …the only thing worse than lying to other people was lying to yourself." --Neil\

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