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In this weeks episode of the Quantum Leap Rewatch, Cory and Tom look ahead to the dystopian 80’s and dance with joy as they discuss season 3 episodes 13 and 14, “Future Boy” and “Private Dancer”.
Future Boy:
Sam leaps into Kenny Sharp, aka Future Boy, the sidekick of 50’s TV superhero Captain Galaxy. Al informs Sam that Moe Stein aka Captain Galaxy, is mentally unstable and that Sam is there to have Moe committed to prevent him from accidentally killing himself while trying to hop a train.
Sam doesn’t believe Moe is unstable despite his building of a time machine in his basement and eccentricities. Unfortunately Moe’s daughter Irene is determined to have him committed because she keeps getting calls where Moe has hurt himself or caused damage inadvertently around him.
Irene Sam and Moe have a dinner with a doctor who has come to determine whether Moe is actually a danger to himself. While it starts off going well, when Moe demonstrates his time machine and almost blows them up in the process, his fate seems to be sealed.
He attends a hearing in which both Irene and Sam plead their cases but the judge sides with Irene and orders Moe to be committed. Instead Moe leaps out of the judge’s quarters window and runs home to activate his time machine and almost leaps out. His daughter realizes that Mle made the machine to go back in time and be the father he never was to her decides to not have him committed and their relationship is saved.
However, Sam cannot leap until Captain Galaxy reads one last letter on air, a letter from Sam as a boy asking Captain Galaxy to explain his theory of time travel, which is the same theory that Sam himself developed to create the project that allows him to now finally leap.
Ziggy’s Data Retrieval:
Moe Stein is played by Richard Herd. He was in the original V series and Star Trek Renegades by Tim Russ (Holodoctor, The Borg teen, Chekov, Uhura). He has also appeared in Shameless (1500 cast members worked with George Wyner on that), Buffy, Star Trek Voyager, Next Gen. Most recently he was in Get Out in 2017.
The Judge is played by David Sage. We’ve seen him in Lois and Clark episodes Target Jimmy Olsen and All Shook Up.
We’ve also seen Nicholas Shaffer in Lois and Clark before. Here he was playing a staffer but in L&C he was credited as a technician in the episode Stop The Presses where two brothers take over a nuclear power plant.
The Director of Captain Galaxy is played by George Wyner. He played Colonel Sanders in Spaceballs.
This episodes unsung hero is Matt Marfoglia. His only other credit was before this, he was in Head of the Class as Student.
Moe also explains going from Friday to Wednesday. Quantum Leaps time slot had recently changed from Wednesday at 10 (Eastern) to Friday at 8 (Eastern).
Sam trips and sprains his ankle at the start of this episode. This was written into the script to account for an injury to his foot that Scott Bakula sustained during the filming of Runaway.
Private Dancer:
Sam leaps into Rod the Bod McCarty, a top Chippendales style dancer in NYC doing quite well for himself at a club called Mario’s Hideaway. Al arrives with information about a waitress at the club named Diana, an aspiring dancer who also happens to be deaf. Diana, complete with talent, but lacking in self esteem, will turn to prostitution to smoke ends meet and eventually succumb to AIDS unless Sam can help her.
Sam encourages her to try out at an open audition he learned of from a top dance instructor and while things go well at first, Diana can’t understand all the directions being given since she counts on lip reading to understand and when learning of she disability, the instructor turns her down.
Diana is further devastated when she learns Sam asked the club owner to NOT send Diana out for his private parties, a code word for prostitution. She decides that she needs the jobs anyway and asks Valerie, a friend of the club owner for a job, and she sends her out for a private party. Sam finds out and busts into the room, convincing Diana to not go through with it and then getting her another chance with the dance instructor who, understanding the disability and how to communicate, accepts her into her class, allowing Sam to leap.
Ziggy’s Data Retrieval:
Diana is played by Rhondee Beriault. She was in The Sound and the Silence as Hellen Keller and in an episode of Reasonable Doubts which had a lawyer and a congressman from Lois and Clark in it, (Congressman Harrington and Lawyer who defended Superman against lawsuits) as well as Mike Genovese, Lt. Garfield from Flash ‘90 and I Love You, But.
Valerie is played by Heidi Swedberg, you may recognise her as Susan from Seinfeld.
Joanna is played by the director of this episode, Debbie Allen. She is the younger sister of Phylicia Rashad from the Cosby Show. She was also in FAME, Grey’s Anatomy and appeared in an episode of Cosby as well.
This episodes unsung is Chris Solari. He was also in Great Balls of Fire, Moonwalker and Bits and Pieces, all of which he was a dancer.
Whats Next?
Next weeks episode discussions are “Piano Man” and “Southern Comforts”.
Thanks:
We give thanks to some dedicated fan sights. For more information on Quantum Leap, please take the time to check out The Quantum Leap Wiki and Al’s Place.
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