317 Glitter Rock

[alsplacebartender]

Glitter Rock
April 12, 1974

Detroit, Michigan


Sam has leaped into the life of a heavy metal group singer and must keep himself from being killed by an unknown stalker.


Written by: Chris Ruppenthal
Directed by: Andy Cadiff


Rate and comment on this episode!

[mstalanon]

as a "metal" fan (sorta!), I really liked this episode a lot! I bought the TV series soundtrack just for the song!!!

[Vince Beckett]

Good episode. The band reminds me of Kiss.

[Janna Galaxy]

First episode I ever watched! My mum made me watch it...well not really...she would let me watch a video with my cartoons on it, because she was watching QL. But by the end I was hooked.

So this episode will always be special to me.

But I will always love the song Fate's Wide Wheel/Mystic Traveller.

[cookiemom6067]

Worth watching just for Scott's biceps when he's playing the keyboards during "Fate's wide wheel." (Is it warm in here, or is it just me?). Although I liked it for other reasons as well. Kiss was one of the first real rock bands I liked, in Junior High.

[isz]

I think this episode is A bit under average,but just because of "Fate's wide wheel" i voted "Average" and not "fair".The only thing from this episode,that i would always remember is this great song.

BTW,Does anyone knows if the songs performed by Scott in this episode were written especially for this episode,or were borrowed from some one else By Chris Ruppenthal for his script?!

[bluedana]

"Fate's Wide Wheel" was written for the episode. It is credited to Mike Post, Velton Ray Bunch, Chris Ruppenthal, and Mike Leggart on the soundtrack notes. The other songs from this episode aren't included on the CD.

[Joe_Quarterback]

It's a shame they didn't include "Rock the Redhead" in the soundtrack, 'cause it deserved a track on the cd. Of course "Fate's Wide Wheel" was cool, but I miss the "Rock the..." song.

Needless to say, Al's outfit was extravagant, but I liked the jacket with the "STOP" sign on it. I've been looking for years for that jacket...

Best Regards

Joe Quarterback

[Bexter]

I did really like this one because a) it had some great music in it and b) it was fun and not too serious. It was a really good "who dunnit" or in this case "who's gunna doit" You can't go past sex, drugs & rock and roll for a good fun storyline.

[sonea]

I thought the episode was very good. What bothers me, though, is why Dwayne would have tried to kill Tonic in the original history? When Sam leaped in, Al told him that Dwayne was taking the money. But how would Tonic have known that in the original history to make him want to go after Tonic?

But the songs--fabulous. Love Rock the Redhead and Fate's Wide Wheel!

[bluedana]

Originally Posted by sonea

I thought the episode was very good. What bothers me, though, is why Dwayne would have tried to kill Tonic in the original history? When Sam leaped in, Al told him that Dwayne was taking the money. But how would Tonic have known that in the original history to make him want to go after Tonic?

But the songs--fabulous. Love Rock the Redhead and Fate's Wide Wheel!

My guess would be that in the original history Dwayne killed Tonic in order to boost sales and make back the money for the band that he lost investing. Performers almost always have a revenue bump (people buying records, retrospectives, etc.) right after they die, especially if it's sudden and tragic circumstances.

Originally Posted by bluedana

Performers almost always have a revenue bump (people buying records, retrospectives, etc.) right after they die, especially if it's sudden and tragic circumstances.

Michael Jackson, anyone?

[ohboy]

That's a good comparison, Night Terror.

[JoeyCruel]

One of my favorite episode of QL!
I really like Rock The Redhead song, what a shame that they prefer that sloppy ballad for the CD.
But there are three things that aren't right:
1) The bass player with a mohawk, well first of all they are a Glam Rock band not a Punk band and in 1974 there weren't still artists with a mohawk.
2) The band is wearin' wigs, well it's too Spinal Tap for me, if some artist started to use wigs it happened after the 1991.
3) They aren't Heavy Metal, they are Glam Rock.

Now I really admire Sam, he was a leader of a Glam Rock band, he hates hippies,Charlotte Brontë and disco music!

[agtspooky]

Today the G4 channel was showing Glitter Rock. I love listening to Fate's Wide Wheel but it always makes me sad when Sam sings "Oh please let there be one final leap", knowing that he never did make it home.

[MichelleD]

I love any episode where Scott has the chance to sing. The scene where Sam is kicking the groupies out of his hotel room is funny.

[Sam Beckett Fan]

Something doesn't make complete sense in this episode.
There are two concert scenes, the last of which being the one Tonic is assassinated at where 'Fate's Wide Wheel' is performed (I love this song and how it fits Sam).
Backstage before, a band member groans that his wig has been stolen and is wearing a green mohawk wig as a replacement.
He's wearing the same wig in the first concert when they performed 'Rock The Readheads', before complaining his usual wig was stolen. Maybe I have missed it, but he's never seen in the wig Duane is, as it's clarified that he had been the thief having dressed as a band member to assassinate Tonic which actually more resembles Tonic's wig.

[Lightning McQueenie]

Originally Posted by Sam Beckett Fan

Something doesn't make complete sense in this episode.
There are two concert scenes, the last of which being the one Tonic is assassinated at where 'Fate's Wide Wheel' is performed (I love this song and how it fits Sam).
Backstage before, a band member groans that his wig has been stolen and is wearing a green mohawk wig as a replacement.
He's wearing the same wig in the first concert when they performed 'Rock The Readheads', before complaining his usual wig was stolen. Maybe I have missed it, but he's never seen in the wig Duane is, as it's clarified that he had been the thief having dressed as a band member to assassinate Tonic which actually more resembles Tonic's wig.

Dwayne stole the wig before the first concert that we see...

[Sam Beckett Fan]

I considered that but why then did Flash not ask until the second?

[iMonrey]

Originally Posted by Sam Beckett Fan

I considered that but why then did Flash not ask until the second?

I noticed the wig discrepancy too. I assumed I'd missed something cut from the syndicated version. This was another one where there's no clear shot of Sam's mirror reflection - towards the end, he looks at his hand in the reflective surface of the table beneath him, and you can make out a face behind it, but it appears to be a rather old man, which is odd since he's playing in a rock band.

[Sam Beckett Fan]

Originally Posted by iMonrey

I noticed the wig discrepancy too. I assumed I'd missed something cut from the syndicated version. This was another one where there's no clear shot of Sam's mirror reflection - towards the end, he looks at his hand in the reflective surface of the table beneath him, and you can make out a face behind it, but it appears to be a rather old man, which is odd since he's playing in a rock band.

I too considered that it was a slight consequence of perhaps a different cut than intended when shooting. My theory is that perhaps the 'Rock The Redheads' concert scene had been intended for or shot during the 'Fate's Wide Wheel' performance.

As for Sam's reflection, it's true that you get a rather poor angle of the face but Tonic does appear to be about ten years older than Sam. So roughly in his late 50's since Sam was 46 by then. In fact Sam's birthday in the present time of 1999 probably occurred around the PQL time of this leap since it's September in The Leap Back.

As for Tonic's being an up there in age for a rock star, I believe Gene Simmons of Kiss is in his sixties and still performing. I've actually never heard a single Kiss song but my mom has watched his BTS reality show (thus I have caught it a few times). So it's not so outrageous though perhaps for his time Tonic may have been among the first. What I find more interesting is the appearance of his age being in fair contrast to those of the rest of the group. Flash in particular looks closer to Sam's age.

[iMonrey]

Originally Posted by Sam Beckett Fan

As for Tonic's being an up there in age for a rock star, I believe Gene Simmons of Kiss is in his sixties and still performing. I've actually never heard a single Kiss song but my mom has watched his BTS reality show (thus I have caught it a few times). So it's not so outrageous though perhaps for his time Tonic may have been among the first. What I find more interesting is the appearance of his age being in fair contrast to those of the rest of the group. Flash in particular looks closer to Sam's age.

Well, we get such a brief and unclear glimpse of his reflection it's impossible to tell just how hold he's supposed to be, although one of his band mates does call him "old man" at one point. But yeah, it seems strange that all the other band members are roughly late 30's.

[Sam Beckett Fan]

Though the age of the actor does not necessarily determine the age of the character, Bruce Michael Paine who portrayed the reflection was 44 at the time of this episode's airing in 1991. A fun fact, he was also a musician in real life, twice a rock band lead vocal even. He's now deceased, he passed away in 2009. I looked up up on IMDB.

This age casting suggests that Tonic was intended to be in his late 40's or early 50's, putting my estimate off by at least 5 years and as much as 10. This could explain at least some why Flash who is clearly younger often acted like he was the leader of the group. He didn't seem the type who had a lot of respect for his elders and perhaps to Flash Tonic had been known to do some fuddy duddy leading.

Watching the episode now, I just noticed something. In his hotel room right before the fan girls show up, Sam is watching footage from a King Thunder concert on the television. Look closely, that footage is from a later scene in the episode, the 'Rock The Red Heads' performance. There is a shot of Scott's arm jamming on the guitar and the band member who's wig was stolen can be seen for a split second shot in the replacement wig.

[Donofrio_QLTD]

I'm back and very glad to be!! Wait for my review, lol.

[Donofrio_QLTD]

As much as I love this epísode, I have to admit that it suffers a great deal from Chris's writing and some of the acting from the guys who played the rockers and the lady friend, even though I liked their characters most of the time. They get to show the shallowness of such atmospheres and things like fame, fortune, greediness and of course all of that based on the image you can give to the outside world even when on the inside you're probably the most horrible or double-sided being.

On the directing, technical things like the scene where Sam is going to get hit by the light that falls from the ceiling or when he's going to get stabbed by Dwayne looked so fake they actually hurt the suspense. Another thing I didn't like, and I don't know if I should blame the writing or the directing for that, was that we never get a clear shot of the mirror image on this one. I know the important thing was the hand there but all you get is a distorted face and a bit of a lame picture at the end of the episode. Oh, well, not that important, either way.

On the writing side, well, point a) I know the kid is in love with his dad but he kind of overdoes it and all the scenes where he is alone, especially in his hotel room are all pretty bad acted because his character is a bit over-the-top. When he interacts with Sam, everything changes and even more when you get to hear his back story. He gets dimension there at least. Point b) Dwayne and the security guard are both pretty cliched. Especially Dwayne, and he practically gives the mystery of "who's the killer" away. Which brings me to my third point: c) Chris handled these "mysteries" greatly in "The B**gieman", but when he began to use such tricks as the "oh, yeah, maybe he did it... or could be the other one... or maybe that other guy did it... or maybe the son" mixed with a little lame humor it meant that his writing efforts began to weaken. He failed to try to confuse us but even more, he became laughably predictable. He kind of used that same trick in "...Ptah-Hotep" and "Hurricane" and it didn't work those times, either, it was pretty clear from the very beginning who was going to be the murderer, even though it was a bit more effective on those eps. I mentioned than on this one. It kills the mystery as well as the suspense and that makes it a pretty light-weight episode.

To the suspense's credit, it's a bit of a creepy episode when Al mentions the idea of some deranged fan who could be the killer almost at the beginning and also when they show the son: We still don't know who he is but he's spying Sam from the street. The scene when Sam talks to Dwayne in his office about the ranch and his bouncing account is a bit unsettling, too. Especially when you know who he is, and in that brief moment, Dwayne doesn't look cliched but authentically deranged, psychotic and insane. Gives me a shiver everytime.

A mixed point for me was the make-up itself. I didn't have any problem with it later but the first couple of times I saw it, it made me think that maybe they wanted to make some publicity for Kiss on this ep.

Anyway, it's not a bad episode in itself but I feel like it suffers from bad execution throughout. It's one I keep coming back to pretty often, though, as it's considered a classic and even with the many problems it presents it's still pretty fun to watch.

By the way, I know I'll probably get a lot of hate for this but I thought that most of the songs here were utterly ridiculous. Fate's Wide Wheel was good but, in my opinion, nothing special as it relies on many philosophical stereotypes. Hehehe!! Oh, well, I still liked them for what they were worth. They were fun to listen to even though they were all pretty short (a bit of impossible for songs that are considered 'hits', especially when it comes to Rock).

My rating: Average. Chris's weakest script, in my opinion.