Mirror Image Deleted Ending--REDISCOVERED!

[BJackson]

I told you folks I found something HUGE, and here it is: negatives for Mirror Image's deleted ending, which was previously just a rumor!

Here's my vid all about it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3at8cylnJc


And you can view all of the high res images here:
https://qlnegatives.tumblr.com/tagged/deleted-ending

Enjoy!

[feldon30]

This is astonishing news. Thank you so much for doing this video and taking the time to scan, cleanup, and post the photos. And very disappointing that Bellisario boldface lied to us about it.

[Lightning McQueenie]

Here are the photos:

[Lightning McQueenie]

And some more:

[Lightning McQueenie]

And more still:












I really hope that we will eventually get to see this footage

[Avilos]

As I posted when I saw this on Facebook -

It's raises so many questions.

If the show had been renewed and this had been included what would the length of Mirror Image have been? It was aired standard length. Would it have been longer than normal? There would have been no text at the end but that is so sort? Would other scenes been shortened to allow this ending?

Most of all, why has Don been denying it exists? I remember at the 2009 convention my roommate asked him about the footage of the picture of Al, Beth, and their daughters which had leaked online. Don was clearly frustrated that it was leaked and wondered who did. Must have been someone who worked on QL. He did not seem to even like us knowing that existed.

Pure speculation. I think the whole situation with the cancellation is a very sore subject for Don. He has made it clear QL was the show that he is the most proud of doing. Clearly he did not want the show to end and was not given many options at the time.

[alsplacebartender]

Thank you again for sharing these!!

[Lightning McQueenie]

Originally Posted by Avilos

As I posted when I saw this on Facebook -

It's raises so many questions.

If the show had been renewed and this had been included what would the length of Mirror Image have been? It was aired standard length. Would it have been longer than normal? There would have been no text at the end but that is so sort? Would other scenes been shortened to allow this ending?

Most of all, why has Don been denying it exists? I remember at the 2009 convention my roommate asked him about the footage of the picture of Al, Tina, and the daughters which had leaked online. Don was clearly frustrated that it was leaked and wondered who did. Must have been someone who worked on QL. He did not seem to even like us knowing that existed.

Pure speculation. I think the whole situation with the cancellation is a very sore subject for Don. He has made it clear QL was the show that he is the most proud of doing. Clearly he did not want the show to end and was not given many options at the time.

Al and Beth, not Al and Tina

I think that once the show was cancelled, Don might have been hoping to use said footage for the start of a Season 6 or telemovie should the show be picked up again. Unfortunately that never came to pass, so it surprises me that Don stayed so tight lipped for so long. I am also surprised that others involved in this scene also denied its existence - Susan Diol (Beth) for example. In their case though it makes sense that they may have signed nondisclosure agreements - though I question their validity after 25+ years...

[Avilos]

LOL! How did I miss my mistake? I was typing so fast! Swiss Cheesed memory... Not even truth as I shared this story on another message board and did Not mix up their names,I certainly know the difference between Beth and Tina...

[Avilos]

Originally Posted by Lightning McQueenie

Al and Beth, not Al and Tina

I think that once the show was cancelled, Don might have been hoping to use said footage for the start of a Season 6 or telemovie should the show be picked up again. Unfortunately that never came to pass, so it surprises me that Don stayed so tight lipped for so long. I am also surprised that others involved in this scene also denied its existence - Susan Diol (Beth) for example. In their case though it makes sense that they may have signed nondisclosure agreements - though I question their validity after 25+ years...

My guess it's more likely out of respect or deference to Don. Than anything legal. This was his show and the actors do not want to speak an choices that they were not part of making.

It's also been many years. I have discovered from interviews and online posts that actors shoot so much on a project they often forgot what was used and what is cut out. Seeing these pictures could jog a lot of memories for Dean and Susan.

Most of all I am curious what Deborah Pratt says now that we have seen these. She has often been more forthcoming than Don on somethings.

[alsplacebartender]

Thanks again to Allison Pregler for sharing the newly discovered QUANTUM LEAP alternate ending negatives with us! They are now archived on Al's Place fan site in high-res TIF format.

Al's Place - Mirror Imaging

[Nellis]

Originally Posted by BJackson

I told you folks I found something HUGE, and here it is: negatives for Mirror Image's deleted ending, which was previously just a rumor!

Here's my vid all about it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3at8cylnJc


And you can view all of the high res images here:
https://qlnegatives.tumblr.com/tagged/deleted-ending

Enjoy!

That's huge! I don't get how something like that could have been lost for so many years. I'm so glad it's found though! Great video btw.

[QL Nut]

Well, first off, wow!!! It's pretty stunning to see any new reveals from the series after the DVDs came out.

How about the possibility that these are negatives of still shots? It doesn't appear that either Susan or Dean were caught mid-sentence here. Being still shots, maybe there was no actual extended ending? Or, just a very brief non-dialog ending.

Thanks for these!

[Lightning McQueenie]

All Leapers should have a listen to the latest Quantum Leap Podcast, there is even more news about the deleted ending!

http://quantumleappodcast.com/qlp-045-piano-man/

[Sam Beckett Fan]

This is a mindblowing discovery!

I can't decide what's more mindblowing, that bestie and I have never heard of this ending (and I just Facebook IMed the video to her) or that Bellisario lied about its existence. That has me slightly questioning my respect for him but I digress.

I found the contrast of Beth telling Al that he needed to leap to find Sam from Donna in 'The Leap Back' attempting to stop Sam from leaping to save Al brilliant. It illustrates what a stronger and more mature couple Al and Beth are.

This raises a significant question; Sam made the conscious decision not to return home, so would he appreciate being found? Would Al be able to convince him to come home?
This is assuming Al would find him at all. What are the chances of that with no clues to pursue since the whole idea is that Ziggy can no longer track Sam? How would he go about it?

The fact that there are images of this scene suggests that it was filmed. I hope that now that it's out in the open, it'll be released. I want very much to see it.

[Avilos]

My best guess on why Don has mislead us -

Those deleted scenes were only created as a hook to motivate NBC to renew the show for a 6th season. By breaking new grounds in what show could be about and used a marketing angle for the network.

BUT once the show was cancelled he had mixed feelings about whether those scenes were ever a good idea. I suspect that Don planned to return the series to its normal formula sometime in season 6. With no season 6 what do those scenes accomplish?

He always hoped, and still does hope the show would be revived. Perhaps he was saving that stuff if the show ever came back. Or not be beholden to those ideas if the show comes back.

I really wish at least we had seen Al and Beth together in the future. It would have given some closure. But than it raises the question of how long the episode would have been. Mirror Image as aired was standard length for the time. It reads like it would have run at least 5 or even 10 minutes longer.

I would love to see all that was filmed. I suspect all that is controlled by Don or Universal. Don is so mysterious to this day. So vague on the script he is writing and what it’s chances of getting made are. While Universal has done nothing with the show. DVDs had music cut and it took an outside company to release the show on Blu Ray.

[Sam Beckett Fan]

I found the script and I must admit I'd feel insecure about the direction near the end as well.

The thought of Al as a leaper in itself was one I had trouble with.
On the one hand, the prospect of seeing Al's approach to a leap as the executioner rather than as an adviser is quite intriguing.
Season 3's 'Private Dancer' teases the difference between the two characters' priorities with Al's insistence that the focus should be on Diana's incomplete general education vs. Sam's on jumpstarting her dancing career via getting her into a legit dance school.
We can tell how differently that leap would have gone had Al been the leaper.

At the same time, however, moving Al from the sidelines to the front line is a clear gimmick much like transitioning Zoey from an observer to a leaper in 'Revenge' (and we all know that the entire evil leapers arc was a gimmick).

To go a Star Trek route as Al himself so creatively put it, is a step further into the gimmick zone, a step too far for me. For the record, I don't like the suggestive ending of 'Starlight Starbright' either.

On a more positive note, I adored the Al/Beth scene, as I stated before, it's a perfect contrast to Sam/Donna in 'The Leap Back' and gives us some insight into their relationship, their bond.

I found it intriguing how we got further confirmation that Bartender Al is GTFW and the whole different picture we get of his convincing Sam that he could control his leaping. If it was, in fact, he who'd sent Sam into the distant future, that's a leap choice Sam did not make so convincing him that he controls his leaping becomes invalid. Whether a deception, a cruel tease or something else, the revelation is seemingly useless apart from fixing Al's and Beth's marriage.

This has me questioning whether it was truly Sam's choice not to return home even in the aired content and what aspects exactly GTFW controls.
It raises a lot of other questions as well.

- How much does Al know about Sam's encounter with the Bartender? It's been a while since I've watched the show and don't remember how much Sam said once Al's instincts were successful in connecting to him in the imaging chamber.
- How did he manage to leap into the bar rather than ending up somewhere and somewhen random?
- The cliffhanger suggested that he'd been transported into his first leap but how is he leaping into other people while Sam is leaping as himself?
- Is it that Sam isn't leaping as himself? Can it be that because he's in the future surpassing his own lifetime, his counterparts don't have his place to fill so instead are held in the void Sam spent his time between leaps in? Or perhaps the bar has become the new 'waiting room'. The bar and the void might even be one and the same.

[feldon30]

After the events of MI and the original finale, Al owes his life, his family, not having been divorced and miserable so many times... He owes everything to Sam. It would be unfair for him NOT to go and try to help him. I do think he'd need assistance as he makes a better Observer than a Leaper. I imagine an episode with the two Al's meeting face to face, possibly in a place memorable to the Admiral.

It's hard to ignore the massive plot hole of rewriting the Al and Beth story though. Sam benefitted from the knowledge of Al and his past wives for so many leaps. Without that knowledge of Al having been married 5 times, some of the leaps just wouldn't have been solved.

I'm amazed that fan fiction authors have been able to continue the series given the problems created by the finale.

[leaper1]

Originally Posted by feldon30

I'm amazed that fan fiction authors have been able to continue the series given the problems created by the finale.

The very reason most of my fan fiction stories are set PRE-MI.
I have written a few post MI stories, for the Virtual Seasons and elsewhere, but I definitely find pre-MI stories easier.

[Sam Beckett Fan]

Originally Posted by leaper1

The very reason most of my fan fiction stories are set PRE-MI.
I have written a few post MI stories, for the Virtual Seasons and elsewhere, but I definitely find pre-MI stories easier.

I can back this up.

I'm currently reading fanfiction and so far from what I've found the post-MI timeline in which Al and Beth are still married is exclusively applied to one-shots that leap Sam home.

It can be argued that the marriage fits pre-MI because it's existed the entire time and the divorced Al that went through four additional marriages never did but that presents an unclear paradox because it that the case or does it muddle two different timelines?
See the confusion?

[Al_Calavicci]

Thanks so much for sharing these great photos with us here on Al’s Place. That was truly an amazing find! This is why it always pays to keep looking,you never know what may turn up. I truly wish this show could have had at least one more season and Al could have gone after Sam and brought him home. For many,many years I’ve hoped Donald Bellisario would have done something about that,and produced a TV movie brining Dean and Scott back together one more time for the sake of closure to the series. Unfortunately now,26 years later that’s probably never going to happen due to Dean Stockwells age,and I would never want to see anyone other than Scott or Dean play Sam or Al. I wish I could leap back and change things so this series would have lasted longer than it did. I watched it when it was new and still love it to this day. Thank you again for sharing your find with us all here.

[feldon30]

It is this find, more than anything else, that has forced me to start listening to the Quantum Leap podcast. I've truly enjoyed it, especially the Leap Back podcast episode. For me, having QL experts really go over each episode with a fine-toothed comb, comparing different script drafts and pointing out little details is just what I am looking for.

[Al_Calavicci]

Hi Feldon,I’ve never listened to the podcasts. How do you access them here? Do you have to sign up for another site to hear them or is there a player on Al’s Place?

I think it’s great that so many of the members here share their finds with the other fans. I wish the show had a larger following so maybe another leapcon would happen. Quantum Leap is a very underrated show.

[feldon30]

https://quantumleappodcast.com/

You can get to it with the Podcasts app on your iPhone or you can download a podcast app such as Google Podcasts on your Android phone.

iPhone link for QL Podcast:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/...677375838?mt=2

One-click download for Android:
https://subscribeonandroid.com/quant.../feed/podcast/

Personally I downloaded Google Podcasts app and then opened it up and typed Quantum Leap and it came right up. I subscribed and I get notified whenever there's a new episode.

[Lightning McQueenie]

OK, we don't know who did it, but someone has UPLOADED THE LOST ENDING OF QUANTUM LEAP!!!

This is not a drill people!!!

https://www.reddit.com/r/lostmedia/c...r_before_seen/