NOT TRULY THE ORIGINAL VERSIONS Jay D. Schwartz's VHS production copies.

PQC

Banned
Aug 6, 2007
70
0
0
47
www.myspace.com
For anybody who bought some VHS production copies of episodes that Jay D. Schwartz promoted because the episodes aren't musically tampered with...I just got around to watch the six episodes I bought to discover these aren't the original versions of the episodes...the consistency is just downright weird.

I bought VHS production copies of MIA, THE LEAP BACK, LEE HARVEY OSWALD, MEMPHIS MELODY AND MIRROR IMAGE. From my guesstimate, these may have been episodes possibly edited for syndication that needed to be approved for whatever reason. However, I don't see any syndicuts in the actual episode itself and all the music is intact and original (however Becket is still spelled wrong in MIRROR IMAGE.)

MIA and THE LEAP BACK do not have the original season saga cell and the musical montage is from the 4th season. Likewise, with MIRROR IMAGE. MIRROR IMAGE musical montage is from the 4th season and like I said BECKET is spelled wrong.

Interesting to note that there is no end credit sequence in MEMPHIS MELODY either on the VHS. Also, the rock version of the theme music (only in the 5th season except for MIRROR IMAGE) is taken out and replaced by the original theme with 4th season musical montage.

So, no matter what we do, we may never, ever, ever, ever get our hands on a true first run original version of any episode with everything intact. Either the music has been tampered with, scenes taken out OR the saga cell is wrong or musical montage isn't right.


Unless, of course, you have a special VHS stash of original NBC recordings.

The 9 episodes Universal released on VHS are correct except for THE LEAP HOME Part II: VIETNAM (they edit out Sam saying "Oh Boy" in the water) and on the back cover they say Sam is from Elk Ridge, Illinois. It's suppose to be Elk Ridge, Indiana.
 
I don't know what I have on VHS - there are a few episodes on "official" tapes in a box upstairs. I'll pull them out and see what I find.

I was wondering if anyone knew about the iTunes' episodes - were songs replaced on those as well?
 
Quantum Leap is a show in which with a lot of variations in its episodes.

When it went into syndication they standardized the format of all seasons to be mostly the same. Though this series probably was a hard one of edit than most. Think about it, every two episodes have duplicate footage. The Leaps-ins. Which meant a lot of stuff from the main plots had to be cut.
 
I still have a bunch I recorded directly off NBC onto VHS.

I almost bought some of the Jay Schwartz' production copies just because of that slight possibility that they might be different. But it sounds like it was just different intros, different theme music, etc. That can all easily be fixed by cutting and pasting.

I know Mirror Image was cut-cut-cut to make it fit in the 51 minutes. Would love to see the original some day.
 
I have the original version of MIRROR IMAGE on VHS. It's from a South Dakota NBC affiliate. It's a complete hour with commercials intact (ads for new episodes of Cheers, Seinfeld and the finale for A Different World.)

Beckett is spelled right at the end of the episode. The only downside is there's a severe weather warning beep and lower screen scroll through for maybe a minute or two of the leap in. Other than that, it's the original version of MIRROR IMAGE.

There's also an SNL ad for the Mother's Day special featuring Mike Meyers, Phil Hartman and Chris Farley and their mothers.

Keep the commercials...it's always fun to see what was being advertised during the time period.

I also have the season finale version of MIRROR IMAGE that somehow got leaked by somebody at Universal. Season finale version is without commercials with some special effects missing such as credits and incomplete Imaging Chamber effects. There's also time codes. You see the picture of the Calavicci family at the end and there's even an alternate credit sequence at the end.

The VHS copy of Jay's I bought at the convention was a waste of money. When you play the tape it might say EDITED version and EDITED is never ever a very good word.

MIA does have the original music for Al and Beth's dance at the end. Lee Harvey Oswald does not have the correct original opening sequence and the rock theme is taken out. Memphis Melody doesn't have the rock theme music either. The Leap Back seems pretty intact though.