Quantum Leap (1989) - Chitlins, Rear Admirals & an Egg Salad Sandwich - That Aged Well

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
A few days ago. It was my cousin's birthday, and
I didn't realize this quite at first, but she hasn't
been responding to my text in a while, and I
think I was like, oh, she maybe changed her number,
and you know what you did?

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Forgot to tell I know what I did.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
She spoke, she's mad at me, and she.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Did not know no truthfully, because we did.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
I did talk to her after all of this, and
she's like, sorry, I forgot to give you my new number.
She moved, she got a new number. So I texted
her and for her birthday, and I wrote, let me
just read to you what I wrote to her, hope
this is still your number if it is, happy birthday,
all caps, acclamation points, emoji's, emoji's emojiska, and then I wrote,
to be cute and adorable and put something sweet and

(00:39):
nice out in the world.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
It's your natural state. You always returned to it.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
If it's not, then hello stranger. This is Janet's cousin.
Erica hich Okay, look, I stepped on a rake. I
know I stepped on a rake now, and I know,
but I had an image in my mind of someone
being like, lol, wrong number. Hope your cousin has a
great day, fine or nothing or just nothing.

Speaker 3 (01:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Two seconds after I sent that text, I just get
a reply I need a good blowjob from America.

Speaker 3 (01:13):
Did you send them back and menu with prices?

Speaker 1 (01:15):
I know, actually I genuinely did. I send my email
back and I wrote, well, thanks for clarifying, creep, have
a shitty day, and then I applot them. But I
mean it's funny. I thought it was funny, like come on,
so all right? And I shared that with my cousin's
sister and she gave me the real number and we
all had a big laugh over it. And then like
my cousin's my other cousin, the sister was like, hey,

(01:35):
can you share her new number with the Miami family
so that they all know it?

Speaker 2 (01:39):
And I'm like sure.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
So I texted ten of my relatives in Miami and
I'm like, hey, this is her new number. You know,
today's her birthday. You might want to say happy birthday.
And my mother responds, oh good. I texted her this
morning and was shocked by her reply.

Speaker 3 (01:57):
What was the reply?

Speaker 1 (01:59):
It mightn't have the right number. That explains a lot.

Speaker 3 (02:03):
So she didn't go with I have the wrong number.
She went with Janet Center something filthy.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Yes, Like, my mom didn't immediately go like, oh, I
have the wrong number. Now, she went like, oh.

Speaker 3 (02:14):
That's a wow, she's really working I do.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
I'm not gonna I'm not gonna say the reply because
but but my brother saw this sex exchange and like
because I immediately was like, lol, I got a creepy
response to just block that number. It's not the right
number anymore. And then my brother called me and he's like,
do you want to know what that person told our mother?
And I'm not gonna say it's filthy. It's so much

(02:37):
filthier than the one I got. And I was like that,
Like we were laughing for like fifteen minutes about it. Hey,

(02:59):
and I'm there.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
And this is that aged Well, yesterday's pop culture Today,
Labor Day is in the past. Summer is it's kind
of a it's.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
Not officially over, no, it's still hot as balls, but
it's gonna be over soon.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
It's gonna be We're at the end of summer, the
end of summer and weird, We're gonna do television the September.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
TV shows, yay back kind of TV shows.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
Well, I love I love this season like new TV shows,
old like returning old shows like the Thing that ended
on a cliffhanger in May, and I'm finally going to
get to see it. Yeah again, this is all network
television I'm talking about.

Speaker 3 (03:33):
This is all dead now, no it still happens.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
It still happens.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
Matt Locke and Elsabeth are gonna be back soon, and
I'm very excited about it. Yeah, yeah, because that's how
old I am.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
That's yeah, you were watching like Grandpa shows.

Speaker 3 (03:47):
We do a couple of five star Apple podcast reviews.
Do you want to read the first one?

Speaker 1 (03:50):
Sure? This first review comes from these former things, and
they write, I am currently cracking up listening to the
episode on the Cutting Edge. And then they write in prints,
these beloved rom com beloved, beloved, delightful hosts. That's it.

Speaker 3 (04:06):
That's the whole thing. And you want to know what
I love it.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
You're gonna listen to one episode, clear, concise, good, good,
good review.

Speaker 3 (04:11):
The Cutting Edge, I believe was the first episode where
we really hit a movie where I knew it backwards
and forwards, and you, if I recall correctly, we're fascinated.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
I had never I don't think i'd ever seen it before, right, yeah,
and yeah, yeah, yeah, no, you were obsessed with that movie.

Speaker 3 (04:28):
Yeah, and our friend Nina was here.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
It was so exciting.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
It was so exciting to see like the light in
your eyes. I'm so glad Nina was here. Actually, we
both by the way, I want the audience to know,
both of us. Just pointed to an empty chair where
Nina sat when she recorded it with us, as though,
like it's Nina's chair, She's.

Speaker 3 (04:45):
Gonna appear there. Ina, You're here with us in spirit.

Speaker 1 (04:49):
But yeah, like I was so glad she was here
because it was like you could riff with her and
I could just like sit back and watch.

Speaker 3 (04:55):
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. We also got a review from Penguins
not Penguins ooh maybe Australia. I bet simply obsessed, simply obsessed.
If you're looking for a podcast, okay, I'll stop. That
will make you kept going?

Speaker 2 (05:14):
I really I thought you were gonna keep going, Like, Yes.

Speaker 3 (05:18):
What happened was I kind of lost the melody in
my head and I was like pull pull a parachute.

Speaker 1 (05:23):
Oh I never let a lost melody stop me from
just belting.

Speaker 3 (05:28):
Simply obsessed. Rates If you're looking for a podcast that
will make you laugh out loud while taking a nostalgic
trip through pop culture that aged well is a must listen.
Despite not being my usual type of podcast, I found
myself completely hooked squeezing episodes into every spare moment. I have.
The hosts keep the conversation light, sharp, riddled with expletives, love,

(05:51):
and endlessly entertaining. I have found myself literally laughing out
loud at their hilarious commentary. Their chemistry makes every episode
a joy to listen to. The balance of humor and
insight keeps me coming back for more. This podcast has
officially become my go to escape. I can't recommend it enough.

Speaker 2 (06:09):
I love that they love our exploitives.

Speaker 3 (06:11):
Fuck you, yeah, you know I just recorded. I just
recorded an episode of another podcast where they are not explicit.
They don't curse, and when I tell you like the
struggle like there are a couple of times where I
was like and he wanted to kick his his his
his teeth in hunting for a way to not say ass.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
I genuinely don't think I could make it. I don't
think I could go an hour without cursing. They would
have to stop me and say could you read that?

Speaker 3 (06:41):
Can you maybe not say motherfucker?

Speaker 1 (06:42):
Could you not say we're talking.

Speaker 3 (06:45):
We're talking about the Sandlot.

Speaker 1 (06:47):
Yeah, we're talking about Miracle on thirty fourth Street. Could
you not could you not say motherfucker four hundred times
and not refer.

Speaker 3 (06:53):
To Santa's asshole. It's just not a Penguins, not penguins,
these former things. Thank you so much for these Apple
podcast reviews. If you would like a that age, weel
topeag you know what to do. You let us know
this is you and I will send it off for you.
Penguin's not penguins. If you are in fact in Australia
as we as we posited, maybe more difficult to get
that there, but we still appreciate it no matter what. Erica,

(07:16):
what is the first television show that we are talking
about on this the day of post labor? Post labor?

Speaker 1 (07:24):
Now now we're actually laboring.

Speaker 2 (07:26):
This is not yet all you laborers.

Speaker 1 (07:27):
Get back to work.

Speaker 3 (07:28):
Get back to work. I had a day enough of
your lazy asses. Back to the salt mines.

Speaker 1 (07:34):
Today's show is the sci fi drama series from nineteen
eighty nine. A Quantum Leap.

Speaker 3 (07:42):
Quantum Leap was requested by Karen Camille, Darcy Christina, Andy, Heather, Shannon, Kimberly,
Sabrina Oscar DJ, someone whose name is listed as Coffee,
Carbs and Books, and I have to say I want
to go to there sounds amazing. And also some more
people whose names do not appear on their social media profiles.

Speaker 1 (08:02):
I just want to say we put out the call.
There were so many and I want a couple of
people to feel seen because spoiler, these are shows we
are not going to be covering this month. But the
person who talked about night Court and how they were
obsessed with Dan Fielding when they were seven years old,
I look, I loved night Court when I was roughly

(08:22):
the same age, but I was into Harry, which means
at least you were into like men who were men,
you know what I mean? And I was into guys
who like close up magic, and so you're one up
on me. And also all the people who will ask
for sea questions.

Speaker 3 (08:40):
We will get to sea quests. I see you, yeah,
one day, one day, all right. Quantum Leap was created
by Donald P. Bellisario and stars Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell.
We will be discussing season one episode seven, The Color
of Truth, which was written by Deborah Pratt and directed
by Michael I'm gonna say they hard or Vijar. Perhaps

(09:03):
they are. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (09:03):
Probably. Quantum Leap over the course of its run, was
nominated for thirty two Emmys, winning six. Both Scott Bacula
and Dean Stockwell were nominated for four Acting Emmys for
the show, but neither of them ever won. Huh, it's
too bad, the bummer.

Speaker 3 (09:19):
I would love for them both to have emmys. I
don't know that this show is the one they needed
emmys for.

Speaker 2 (09:24):
I like, look, this episode's weird, but.

Speaker 1 (09:27):
I bet there's some really good Yeah, it's true. I enjoyed.

Speaker 3 (09:30):
I enjoyed Quantum Leep, you're right, you know what. I
take it back. You know what, if they that would
have been cool, actually, because I'm sure everyone winning was
like in La law or like they're all boring lawyers.

Speaker 1 (09:39):
Yeah, thirty something, Yeah was winning.

Speaker 3 (09:41):
Yeah, give someone a quantum leap.

Speaker 4 (09:43):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (09:44):
Doctor Sam Beckett, played by Scott Bacula, canonically has six
doctoral degrees, a black belt in kung fu, a photographic memory,
and is a virtuoso musician.

Speaker 1 (09:53):
Oh okay.

Speaker 3 (09:54):
On the other hand, his best friend Al played by
Dean Stockwell, is a five times married orphan and was
active in civil rights movement and a pow in Vietnam.

Speaker 1 (10:02):
But it is also a hologram.

Speaker 3 (10:03):
Is a hologram, yes, okay, but is a real person
back in Doctor Sam's like actual time, like he is
a real.

Speaker 1 (10:09):
Person, but he's hologramming in to help correct to help
with this quantum leaping.

Speaker 3 (10:15):
Whereas Ziggy they refer to a ziggy ziggyzy. I. By
the way, everyone, don't worry. I put like a a
primer in the beginning of the actual synopsis of the
actual recap that we're gonna do. So we're gonna catch
everybody up on all this. You haven't watched Quantum Leep,
don't worry. Buckle up. We're gonna get you through. It's
gonna be fine.

Speaker 1 (10:30):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (10:30):
But yes, uh Al is a real person who is
somehow hologramming into the quantum leap.

Speaker 1 (10:36):
So okay. So if he was a pow in Vietnam,
that means that Al lives like in nineteen eighty nine, right,
so like okay, okay, okay, So this takes place in
nineteen eighty nine essentially, right, and then like he obviously
goes back in time. Okay, because I'm trying to get
my mind around some of these outfits Al's wearing, and
I'm trying to get my mind around the car that's

(10:56):
shown in the credits, because it looks like there. So
the credits have like Sam driving in this very like
quote unquote futuristic looking car, and I'm like, oh, okay,
So in my head, Sam is in like, you know,
the year twenty four to thirty six or some shit.
But I think she also explains time travel, sure thing.

Speaker 3 (11:16):
But I think I think he's no, he's from nineteen
eighty nine, and I think he can only quantum leap
within his own lifetime. I think that is a limit.

Speaker 1 (11:24):
On got Oh okay, because I was doing some extracurricular
mental labor here, because in my head, Al is not
a person. Al was like a construct, a computer construct.

Speaker 3 (11:36):
Why is it she? Because his name looks like AI
the whole time?

Speaker 1 (11:38):
Well that, but also because because like in this particular episode,
he's like deeply involved in the civil rights movement, like
marched on Selmo with doctor King, And I'm like, wait
a minute, what, But if you're in the year twenty
four to thirty one. Who oh, you're a construct. Yeah,
all of that was wrong.

Speaker 3 (11:56):
All of it was wrong, all of it.

Speaker 1 (11:57):
Yeah. Quantum Leap Season one has a seventy four percent
critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an eighty nine percent
audience score. Look, I have to be honest, I've only
seen this episode I have. I'm gonna jump ahead. I
have in the past seen episodes of Quantum Leap, not
when they originally aired. I think I saw them on
like reruns. So I've seen like maybe two other episodes

(12:20):
of Quantum Leap in my life. I don't really remember them.
But so I kind of understood the premise of the
show before we were going into this. But this particular
episode is rough, and we picked it because we kind
of knew it would be rough because it's about something.
It's like, it's like it's about and I'm assuming not

(12:40):
all the episodes are like that, and like some of
them are just about him, like their lark, like trying
to save a person from doing a thing and like so,
but this one's about like the civil rights movement.

Speaker 3 (12:52):
Well, one of the people requesting I can't remember, maybe
it was Darcy or possibly Andy. One of them was like,
you have to do one a quantum Leep, but it
has to be one jumps into like a woman's body
or a person of color's body, like they pointed us
in this direction. Yeah, yeah, because it would have been possible,
I think in nineteen eighty nine for him to always
jump into a white person's body. I think they would

(13:13):
obviously have had stories about given the breath the series
is dealing with, they would have had stories where like
a person of color or a woman was more prominent, obviously,
But like I wasn't sure if they would actually go
so far as to put Scott Bacula as if he
was acting like a black grandpa in Alabama. I guess
what they did.

Speaker 1 (13:30):
That's what they did. But well, we'll get to it. Well,
I don't. I think the performance is fine. I have
no issues with his performance because he's not he's not
doing being Scott Bacula doing a thing. Yeah, and everyone sees, yeah,
he's not trying to be Viola Davis in the hell,
you know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (13:44):
Like that would have been a fucking problem.

Speaker 3 (13:46):
That would have been our assholes would have been the
size that the size of a head of a needle.

Speaker 1 (13:51):
Yeah, yeah, he's not. He's not you as smart, he
was kind, you was importanting anyone.

Speaker 3 (13:56):
Anyone, Thank god.

Speaker 1 (13:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (13:59):
I had never watched this growing up either. This was
definitely not something I would have been allowed to watch.
I remember it being a thing, like, I remember its existence,
and I remember kind of being aware of what the
premise was. But I don't think i'd ever seen a
single episode of the show until this one.

Speaker 1 (14:16):
That there was a remake like a few years ago,
well probably like six or seven years ago now, because.

Speaker 3 (14:23):
Not even that long. I think it was after the pandemic.

Speaker 1 (14:24):
Oh wow, okay, okay, so just a few years ago.
I never watched the remake. I think it only lasted
one one or two seasons.

Speaker 3 (14:29):
It was like two seasons. I heard it was pretty good,
but I didn't watch it. Eyther, Yeah, I know the
guy that was the lead in that was mamonly a
very handsome man.

Speaker 1 (14:36):
Hi, Hi, raymondly Yeah, you're listening for sure.

Speaker 3 (14:39):
You're very handsome. But I never watched it.

Speaker 1 (14:42):
No, me either, But because the I have to say,
the premise is good. Yeah, and it's it's a really
good acting challenge for the main character, right because he
gets to without without going into like a voice or
a thing. He's basically just Scott Bacula being I have
to imagine in the female ones, he does a little
bit of like femininity, but not much because he doesn't

(15:03):
have to do that much because he in the in
the show, he looks like the person whose body he's
jumped into, and he sounds like the person, so he
doesn't have to like put anything on extra right. But
what the audience ses is just Scott Bacula, like reacting
to a situation, unless he.

Speaker 3 (15:19):
Looks in a mirror and then you see the person
whose body he jumped into. Apparently Doctor Ruth appears in
the show later. I don't think he jumps into Doctor
Ruth's body, but I wish I really.

Speaker 1 (15:28):
Do you know who else wished doctor Ruth? She would
have loved for him to jump into that.

Speaker 3 (15:33):
Body, Erica. The tagline for Quantum Leap was the greatest
adventure of all time? Is just a leap away?

Speaker 1 (15:40):
Actually love it?

Speaker 3 (15:41):
I love it. I love it.

Speaker 2 (15:42):
Someone make another Quantum Leap. I want another one.

Speaker 3 (15:45):
This is great? Uh? Do you want to read the
iTunes synopsis for this episode?

Speaker 1 (15:50):
Sure, Sam leaps into the body of Jesse Tyler, a
seventy year old black man who lives in Red Dog,
Alabama and works for Miss Melnie written m I Z.
Second word me e l n y uh. Her name
is Melanie, is it?

Speaker 3 (16:08):
You have no evidence to support that because.

Speaker 1 (16:10):
Everyone in the show calls her miss Melanie.

Speaker 3 (16:13):
They call no they all call her miss Melanie, miss Melie.

Speaker 1 (16:15):
That's the bad Southern accents. That's that's the anyway. Moving on.
She is the seventy five year old widow of the
one time governor of Alabama, so all of her politics
are perfect. They're perfect No no Ah, Sam and Sam slash.
Jesse drives her to the cemetery where she visits her
husband's grave. Albert informs him that Miss Melnie will be

(16:37):
killed tomorrow when a train hits her car at the crossing.
Sam then brings Miss Melanie home and is chastised by Clayton,
miss Melanie's son, for sitting at the lunch counter at
Miss Patty's diner. M I Z. It's like they're like
trying not to missgender people, but they're doing it all wrong.

(16:57):
Sam becomes livid when Clayton tells his to keep her
quote unquote negro in line.

Speaker 5 (17:03):
Albert, who participated in civil rights Marches orders Sam to
stay out of politics, but Sam begs to differ, hoping
that his reason for the Quantum Leap is to initiate.

Speaker 1 (17:15):
The civil rights movement. This person does not understand what
a synopsis is. No, you don't have to give us everything, sir.
You just have to say, Sam goes into nineteen fifty
five Alabama. He's in the body of a black man,
moving on.

Speaker 3 (17:31):
Moving on. That's it. That's all you have to know, Erica,
do you have an actual synopsis for this episode of
Quantum Leap?

Speaker 1 (17:37):
Guys, don't worry about it. Scott Bacula solved racism.

Speaker 3 (17:41):
It's fine, Yay, Scott Bacula.

Speaker 1 (17:43):
Thank you, Scott Vacula.

Speaker 3 (17:46):
There's there's like a what seventy five percent chance that
Jordan Peele saw this episode of Quantum Leap, but a
young agent was deeply scarred by it.

Speaker 1 (17:52):
Right, yeah, yeah, He's like.

Speaker 2 (17:53):
My whole life is going to be writing against.

Speaker 3 (17:56):
This, writing against this. This isn't this is an episode
about the Sunken Place me the suncing Place is good.
All right, everyone stick around. We're gonna play a couple
of commercials right here. If you don't want to listen
to commercials. You can go to our Patreon that is
patreon dot com slash do Age Well podcast, join any
paid tire you get add free episodes delivered to your
feed every Monday morning at midnight. If you're not gonna

(18:17):
do that, stick around. We're gonna play a couple of
commercials and then we're gonna come back and take you
through season one, episode seven of Quantum Leap, called the
Color of Truth.

Speaker 1 (18:28):
Good Color of Truth. Oh good God?

Speaker 3 (18:31):
Is it indigo?

Speaker 1 (18:32):
Oh my god? And we're back all right.

Speaker 3 (18:43):
So before we get to this episode, I'm gonna read
everyone like the setup of Quantum Leap here. Okay, so
in the very near future. So I guess he's not
in nineteen eighty nine, he's in like nineteen ninety one seven.

Speaker 4 (18:56):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (18:56):
Physicist doctor Sam Beckett played by Scott Bacula, rises that
time travel within one's own lifetime is possible and obtains
government support to build Project Quantum Leap. Some years later,
having already spent forty three billion dollars, the government threatens

(19:16):
to halt funding as no apparent progress has been made.
You know what, good, good, thank you billion dollars. I'm
on the side of Congress in this one. You don't
get any more money.

Speaker 1 (19:28):
I mean, okay, look, Bill Gates, if you're feeling like
like spending some money, like maybe you invent the quantum leap.

Speaker 2 (19:34):
Yeah, leave the government out of this.

Speaker 3 (19:36):
But by the way, Bill, have you joined the Patreon yet?
Because you can't afford it. Sam decides to test the
Project Accelerator on himself to save the project, telling no one.
He is immediately thrown back in time, but upon awakening,
finds that while he physically exists in the past, he
appears to everyone else as the person into whom he
has quote unquote leapt a hologram of his best friend.

(19:58):
United States Navy Rear Admiral Al Calavichi played by Dean
Stockwell appears. There's nothing funnier than a rear admiral. That
is a joke. You can just say, rear admiral, it'll kill.

Speaker 1 (20:09):
In the room, Hello, sailor.

Speaker 3 (20:11):
Yeah, you're ever in a situation where a dinner party
is like going downhill to say, hey, rear admiral, it'll kill.

Speaker 1 (20:18):
Also has ever an actor's face just looks so vastly
the opposite of their name than Dean Stockwell. No, when
you think Dean Stockwell, is that the face and voice
in person you envision.

Speaker 3 (20:30):
Also, I like the fact that his last name is
apparently Kalavichi and he's called Al, but his first name
is Albert. According to the the synopsis, I would have
gone with an Alfredo Alberto Alberto or Alfredo Calavici makes
more sense to me. In any case, Al appears visible
and audible only to Sam. He explains that it appears
Sam must fix something that quote unquote went wrong in time.

(20:52):
Al is aided by Project Quantum Leaps, artificially intelligent supercomputer
nicknamed Ziggy, who is described as a parallel hybrid computer
with a massive ego.

Speaker 1 (21:03):
Been there? Wait? How come he?

Speaker 3 (21:07):
I have no idea. I don't know the answer to
your question.

Speaker 1 (21:10):
I just realized the thing. How is it possible that
the hologram is only visible to one person? That doesn't
make any sense.

Speaker 3 (21:18):
Maybe because he's also leaping like the time travel perfect.

Speaker 2 (21:22):
Fine, I'm going with it.

Speaker 1 (21:24):
No, no leaping into someone's body that's not yours and
just hijacking their body. What happens?

Speaker 3 (21:30):
Talk about a rear admiral?

Speaker 4 (21:31):
Whoa? Whoa?

Speaker 1 (21:32):
What happens when Sam leaves someone's body? Do they just
wake up and go like just are like, wait, why
am I standing here? What happened? Have I been gone
for three days? Do they all think they just had
a stroke and like stroked out over three days?

Speaker 3 (21:46):
Do you think that when your quantum left into what
you actually get is like a really delicious like propofile
nap for like however, like you wake up and you
are like, I got ten years back in my life. Yeah,
I feel great.

Speaker 1 (21:59):
I bet it does. But also you've been living in
the world for three days. So other people are like,
that was crazy what you did yesterday? You have to
be like, say, now what, I'm sorry? What? Huh?

Speaker 3 (22:08):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (22:09):
Oh I got roofied.

Speaker 1 (22:10):
I got roofied? Everyone? I got roofied? What did I do?

Speaker 3 (22:13):
This will definitely come up again in the discussion of this.

Speaker 1 (22:15):
Episode, because that person is going to wake up in
the most uncomfortable situation of their life and I'm like,
oh my god, poor Jesse. Yeah, what have we done
to Jesse?

Speaker 3 (22:26):
Okay, So, despite successfully changing the past in episode one,
Sam continues to leap seemingly guided by what is eventually
described as quote unquote and unknown force that wants him
to put right events in the past that went wrong
for reasons unknown. Chilling, chilling. Thenceforth, doctor Samuel Beckett leaps

(22:46):
from life to life and time to time, attempting to
quote unquote put right what once went wrong, and hoping
each time that his next leap will be the leap home.

Speaker 1 (22:56):
Oh he's I thought he.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
Was doing this, like because he wanted to be doing this.

Speaker 3 (23:00):
No, No, he's stuck.

Speaker 1 (23:01):
He's stuck.

Speaker 3 (23:02):
And spoiler alert for Quantum Leap. The Quantum Leap ends
because it was kind of somewhat unexpectedly canceled with the
title card. Doctor sam Beckett never returned home.

Speaker 1 (23:10):
Oh my heart just broke.

Speaker 3 (23:13):
This is like the kids staying the mouse and rolled
dolls the witches and they changed it at the end.
They're like, no in the movie, we're gonna let him
become a kid again.

Speaker 4 (23:20):
Oh.

Speaker 1 (23:20):
That genuinely just broke my heart. Oh, poor Sam Beckett.

Speaker 3 (23:24):
He's unstuck in time forever.

Speaker 2 (23:26):
What you get for spending forty three billion dollars of
my money?

Speaker 3 (23:28):
I just realized his name is Samuel Beckett.

Speaker 1 (23:30):
Yeah, Samuel Beckett. I caught that immediately. I was like, yeah,
I see what you're doing there.

Speaker 3 (23:35):
Yeah, cute, all right, that is our setup Erica on
with the show.

Speaker 1 (23:40):
We open on an absolutely incredible seventy five second long
eighties tastic opening credit sequence. I mean it is. It
is all the guitar riffs, all the synthesizer, since it
is all the neon like graphics. Yes, it looks like

(24:02):
a bar Mitzvah video. It is so fucking good.

Speaker 3 (24:04):
It is, and it does give us a hint of
what's to come with Dean Stockwell, because there is a
fairly extended period at least in this in this season's
opening credits where he's wearing a silver Milar jacket, like
a silver Milar bomber jacket.

Speaker 1 (24:17):
Yes, okay, now that you are telling me he is
just a person in nineteen ninety or whatever, like hologramming back,
because when I again, when I thought he was like
a comput supercomputer or something, I was like, Okay, these
outfits now make some sense. Yeah, but now that I
know he's just a person in nineteen ninety walk in
the streets, his outfits made no sense. He's a military man,

(24:39):
he's a pow.

Speaker 3 (24:40):
They make sense if he is a pow who came back,
moved to Greenwich Village and is now like fuck, everyone.
I'm living my life and I am an out gay.

Speaker 1 (24:49):
Man, and or like I am a backup singer for
Prince Yeah, like I. Otherwise, none of this makes any
fucking sense, so dot Sam Beckett speaks to us in voiceover, saying,
once I got used to it, quantum leaping was a
lot of fun. So far, I've saved two lives, a
ballgame and a pig, and we kind of see flashbacks,

(25:11):
and each one of which has Terry Hatcher in it.

Speaker 3 (25:14):
Would you notice that I did, and I saw in
the Wikipedia. She goes on to play his actual wife,
like Sam Beckett's wife in whatever time he comes from.
Oh so, I don't know if she was cast later
as the wife or if that's a flashback to him with.

Speaker 1 (25:26):
His wife, because in the flashback, doesn't it look like
the nineteen sixties?

Speaker 3 (25:29):
Yes, you think it's a back to the future situation
where he like makes out with her mother played by
Terry Hatcher.

Speaker 1 (25:34):
Yeah, a thousand percent, except he does what back to
the futures didn't have the balls to do, and he
goes all the way. Yeah uh huh uh, He continues,
I fought for the faith with a nun against the mob,
put together three coors.

Speaker 3 (25:47):
I fought for the faith of a nun and against
the mob. It's definitely telling he was fighting against the
mob for the nun.

Speaker 1 (25:57):
I fought for the faith of a nun, which I
don't think I read correctly the first time, and honestly
even dumber now that I've read it as written and
Comma and against the mob yep. Two very different.

Speaker 3 (26:10):
Struggles, two different episodes.

Speaker 1 (26:13):
Put together three couples, a father and daughter, and the
lyrics to Peggy Sue. So again we are doing a
back to the future where he's just inventing rock and roll.
Correct that sends the voice over.

Speaker 3 (26:23):
The fleshbacks also show us that he's had the opportunity
to make out with like three different women. So I'm
you know what, go for it. Go for it, man,
Your life is hard right now.

Speaker 1 (26:31):
I was quantum leaping. That's it would be my first thing.
I'd be like, take a look in the mirror, see
what I'm working with, and then go all.

Speaker 2 (26:38):
Right, who am I fucking?

Speaker 3 (26:39):
Yes? That's fun?

Speaker 1 (26:42):
Who is this person having sex with? Raise your hands?

Speaker 3 (26:45):
What do you think it would be like if he
jumped into the body of a woman and was then
having sex with a heterosexual sex with a man.

Speaker 1 (26:51):
Oh so eye opening? What would he be feeling so amazing?

Speaker 3 (26:55):
Right?

Speaker 1 (26:55):
I mean genuinely like that would be amazing.

Speaker 3 (26:58):
That would sign me up. Interested.

Speaker 1 (27:01):
I'm interested, Interested, I'm interested. I genuinely would love to
have that experience. And the one day when this when
this technology is available to us, I might I might
go ahead and do that.

Speaker 3 (27:12):
Yeah, yeah, because what a great way? Like what if
what if he jumps into the body of the lesbian
couple and it's like.

Speaker 2 (27:18):
Oh, that poor other lesbian.

Speaker 3 (27:20):
Yeah, he's like, you were better at this yesterday.

Speaker 1 (27:22):
Why don't you know how anything works? You should know
how everything was?

Speaker 3 (27:29):
Did you not graduate lesbian school? You graduated? What happened?

Speaker 4 (27:32):
You?

Speaker 1 (27:32):
You knew where the glitterist was yesterday? What happened? This
episode picks up as Sam Quantum leaps into a new
body and finds himself standing in the doorway of Patty's Cafe.
As always, he doesn't know whose body he's inhabiting, so
he decides he's hungry. He also doesn't just like look
around and be like, huh, the cars, the clothing, the music.

Speaker 3 (27:55):
He doesn't take stock I'm in the.

Speaker 1 (27:56):
Fifties, so he decides he's hungry. He goes into the
diner and take a seat. There is a gasp throughout
the eateies. All the people in the diner look at him.
What are you doing? And Sam's confused at first, He's like,
mm okay, and then he sees his face in the
mirror across the way and realizes, row ro He's an
elderly black man. Everyone in this diner seems to be

(28:19):
white and it's the fifties. Hang on, I'm putting some
pieces together. Yeah, segregation, yikes.

Speaker 3 (28:25):
Yeah, except he doesn't, because he just sits there and
starts to smile at himself in the mirror. Yeah, how
a few quantum left into bodies? How long would you take?
Like just staring at your new genitals?

Speaker 1 (28:36):
Genuinely?

Speaker 2 (28:37):
The second thing I would do. The first thing I would.

Speaker 3 (28:40):
Do is vacon in front of a full length mirror,
being like, oh.

Speaker 1 (28:42):
Interesting, interesting, Yeah a thousand.

Speaker 4 (28:48):
All right.

Speaker 3 (28:48):
So Sam is immediately approached by two hostile young men,
Billy Joe and Toad. I say, I didn't make that up.
And it's even better in IMDb because Billy Joe is
credited in IMDb as Billy Joe Bob Billy Joe Bob
and if they had, if one person in the course
of this episode had called him billy Joe Bob, I
would have written it the entire time. But sadly he

(29:10):
is only referred to as Billy Joe and Toad and
Toad and billy Joe and Toad.

Speaker 1 (29:15):
Because they these are characters from Ta Kill a Moocky Bird.

Speaker 3 (29:18):
Billy Joe mccallis, dude jumped off the tall Hatchie Bridge.
All right, Billy Joe and Toad walk up to Sam
Beckett they call him son. Now, this was actually very
interesting for me. I know that referring to like that
that is a racial boy son, that kind of thing.
I know that as a fact. It has never hit

(29:40):
me the way it did in this. I think because
they they are so young, yeah, they're like twenty twenty,
and the gentleman is so old. It was and you're
not by the way you're looking at Scott Backill, you're
not looking at the doctor who's hired to play his
the body. Yeah, and it was really like, oh my god,
that's that. It's so offensive. It was so offensive. It
never hit me that hard before. Oh yeah, really not

(30:02):
until quantum ly quantum ly.

Speaker 1 (30:04):
You don't watch enough stuff.

Speaker 3 (30:05):
I don't. This is what we're learning. So Billy Joe
and Toad tell him he's made the biggest mistake of
his life. Luckily, mis Patty is there to intervene. She
points out, not hey, hey, hey, hey, stop it. We
all know Jesse. Everything is fine. She says she doesn't
want to spend the afternoon cleaning up blood. Okay, okay,
that's cool.

Speaker 1 (30:26):
That's not the argument I would have made, but you
know what, it is an argument. It's valid.

Speaker 3 (30:30):
Yeah. Just no fighting in the diner. No fighting, get out. No,
we're not doing this. She tells Sam to take Miss
Milney's lunch and get so she hands them a little These.

Speaker 1 (30:40):
Actors are just leaning so hard in Kentucky Fried accents.
It's really fun.

Speaker 3 (30:44):
If you thought we had fun with accents in the
Strictly Ballroom Streepy Ball episode, Buckle up, kids, Oh my god,
now I want to dance your dance at the Pan Pacifics.

Speaker 1 (30:55):
Get your tuna salad sandwich.

Speaker 3 (30:57):
And get it's not even eggs salad salad. It's even worse.

Speaker 1 (31:01):
Okay, okay, there is a hole runner in this with
this woman that like Miss Melanie when we do meet her,
is like, these are the best egg salad sandwiches. And
I went every day blah blah blah. Not thirty seconds
before that, she goes, whoof, must be one hundred and
five degrees today? Oh, it is a one hundred and
five degrees and that woman is eating egg salad in
the back of a hot car.

Speaker 3 (31:22):
There's no adjective I want attached more to egg salad
than sweating. I love a sweating egg salad.

Speaker 1 (31:27):
I like a steaming egg salad. I like an egg
salad that hasn't touched a refrigerator since the day it
was born.

Speaker 3 (31:35):
An egg salad's on the brink of turning.

Speaker 1 (31:37):
It is that like, I'm like, a, how is miss
Melanie still alive? She must be one thousand years old
if she's a minute, Because she is. She is obviously
impervious to death.

Speaker 3 (31:45):
She's mainlining cholesterol every day.

Speaker 1 (31:47):
She's mainlining salmonella and cholesterol on a daily basis, and
she's fine.

Speaker 3 (31:52):
Okay, So Sam takes the queue. He heads out, and
a little title card tells us that we're in Alabama
on August eighth, nineteen fifty five. Just point to order
here now, I will forgive the first mistake. Right, you're
little disoriented, you think you're hunger, you're in a diner.
You've been white your whole life. Whatever you go see,
you don't think twice about it.

Speaker 1 (32:09):
You don't realize you're in fifty five, like for some
reason whatever.

Speaker 3 (32:12):
From this point on, his behavior is frankly irresponsible.

Speaker 2 (32:18):
I had to say.

Speaker 1 (32:19):
I genuinely wrote in my notes, if Sam had watched
The Help for even five minutes, yea, Like, look, that
movie's dumb, but sure it's also somewhat, at least on
the base level, accurate. Like Sam is acting like he's
never heard of racism, doesn't know what racism is, doesn't
understand what segregation is. Bitch, you were alive during segregation.

(32:39):
You were a baby, granted, but like your parents were
alive during segregation. Surely someone showed you a newsreel at
some point of like a sit in and a Woolworths.

Speaker 3 (32:50):
The civil rights movement like officially ended twelve years before
you and I were born. Yeah, Like it's not that
long ago.

Speaker 1 (32:57):
Yeah, Like it's You're absolutely re because I get so
annoyed by Sam being like, wait, what do you mean
I can't do this you want.

Speaker 3 (33:03):
To backhand and I'm like, girl, yeah, you.

Speaker 1 (33:06):
Like, are you not from America?

Speaker 3 (33:08):
Is that what's happenings happening your explanation that he actually
is from like twenty four eighty seven, that makes more sense,
so much more.

Speaker 1 (33:15):
If he is from Yeah, if he's from three hundred
years from now and hopefully by then people's people have
sort of forgotten segregation and what that was, then fine,
it would make sense. But like, how do you not
understand what's happening? Sam steps out into the street. He's
called over to a car by Miss Melnie. Miss Melnie
played by the unimpeachable Susan French. Susan French is a

(33:38):
character actress. If you look her up on IMDb. She
was a theater lady until like she was fifty and
then switched over to television and did like small parts
in television forever. She is so good in this She
really fucking nails this part. I was like, you are
acting this shit out of this really stupid role and
I am here for.

Speaker 3 (33:55):
It well, and I think she makes more sense than Sam. Look,
I was not alive in the nineteen fifties, but like
I could see Miss Melnie being a person who exists
because she's not perfect.

Speaker 2 (34:07):
You're about to experience the fifties again.

Speaker 3 (34:09):
Well they're coming, hah. But like, she's not perfect. She
obviously has racism in her DNA, but she is also
not hateful. Yeah yeah, and it makes her interesting. She's
an interesting character. Where Sam is Sam's rough in this episode.
You guys, I love him. He Scott Baculi will always
love him. He means well, he means so.

Speaker 1 (34:30):
Well, but he is not doing like he's not doing
the campsite rule, which is you're supposed to leave the
campsite better than the way you found it. He's not
campsite ruling. Jesse. Jesse's life is going to be exponentially
weirder and worse after Sam leaves.

Speaker 3 (34:42):
He's taking a crap too close to the camp, but
he's not burying it.

Speaker 1 (34:47):
So he approaches Miss Melnie. She chides him for leaving
her waiting on the street. In the one hundred and
five et, now hand me over that egg salad sandwich.

Speaker 3 (34:57):
I want a goofy I'm not gonna eat it if
I can still make out the chunks of eggone oh growth,
I want it starting to decay.

Speaker 1 (35:04):
I actually like, excel it and I never want to
eat it again after this conversation.

Speaker 3 (35:07):
I've always hated it, so I'm fine with this.

Speaker 1 (35:09):
Yeah, Sam, who's out of the loopis so what the
fuck is going on? Because he doesn't have eyes or
ears or no that he's a quantum leaper, pretends that
he's forgotten where they're going because right, because Miss Melanie's like,
get in the car, drive me to where we're going,
and he's like, and where would that be again? And
she's like, are you okay? He makes up a story.

(35:29):
He goes, you know, I knocked myself on the head,
Miss Melanie, and I'm agitated and I don't quite understand
what's going on, and like, I'm like, at that point,
Miss Melanie should be like, well, then you're not driving me.

Speaker 3 (35:40):
Yeah, there is an overlay of racism on the scene.
But also if my driver was like, I'm sorry, I
knocked myself on the head so hard, I can't remember
the place we've gone every Tuesday for seven years, I'd
be like, well, okay, let's let's get you to the hospital.

Speaker 1 (35:53):
Then, yeah, buddy, Yeah, By the way, I looked it up.
This this episode came out before the film Driving Miss Daisy.
In case you're wondering if Driving Miss Daisy, informed like,
it's possible to play Driving Miss Daisy was on Broadway
at the time, so it's possible one of the writers
or someone from this show saw that and was like, oh,
I have a good idea for an episode driving Miss

(36:14):
Melanie Driving Miss Melanie. Because I was like, oh my god,
did they do this like six months after driving Miss Daisy?
This is just ridiculous. And then I googled it and
I'm like, nope, this or this is a full year
before driving So Miss Melanie agitated at her driver's confusion.
She's kind of a haughty rich lady at the beginning
of the episode, right, She's like, we're going to see Charles,

(36:37):
don't you remember as she gives him directions. She also
takes the time to berate him for his language when
he throws a damn it into the conversation.

Speaker 3 (36:44):
Sam tells us in voiceover that now that he knows
who he is, all he needs to do is figure
out why he's here. What is he supposed to fix
in this timeline? Why has he been sent here by
the Grand pooh bah? That's quantum leaping him around. It's
got to be the supercomputer, right, that was the actual answer.

Speaker 1 (37:00):
Yeah, that is the answer. It's supercomputer. That's also why
Sam never made it back because you can't actually fix
it's the same supercomputer from war games.

Speaker 2 (37:07):
You can't actually fix the past. It's futile.

Speaker 3 (37:10):
So he's just stuck forever, stuck forever. And also his
body is probably decayed at this point, right, right, what's
going on with his body? Are they like massaging his
muscles and working.

Speaker 1 (37:17):
Amounts Sam's body when he's quantum leaping.

Speaker 4 (37:20):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (37:22):
Maybe everyone he quantum leaps in goes into his body.
So every now there's an acting challenge. It's leap quantum,
it's reverse quantum.

Speaker 1 (37:29):
Oh my god, poor Jesse. He's like, yes, I'm in
the future.

Speaker 3 (37:32):
Actually, if I was a billionaire, I would fund to
show that followed quantum leap in the reverse. So Scott
Bacula was constantly having to act like all the people.
And then then we're getting into some real difficult stuff
when Jesse jumps into his body and he does have
to do the southern elderly black man acting that he's
not doing it. That would be fun and also problematic,

(37:56):
but more fun, more fun. Yeah, all right, so Sam,
and we're just gonna call him Sam. By the way,
if we ever call someone Jesse, it means we're referring
to like the actual actor who plays the black Man, right,
and we're calling Sam Sam.

Speaker 1 (38:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (38:12):
Yeah. So Sam and Miss Melane drive across the railroad tracks.
This is important for later. I want everyone to know this.
They drive across the railroad tracks directly into the cemetery.
Just just put that in your cap. I will bring
it up again later. They're there to visit Miss Melanie's
deceased husband, Charles, the former governor of Alabama. She's immediately

(38:34):
upset that weeds have grown up around charles Grave, despite
the fact that she insists that she's there every single week.

Speaker 1 (38:40):
Those are some fast growing weeds. Yeah yeah, it's hot
and humid in Alabama.

Speaker 3 (38:44):
Plans to grow fast.

Speaker 4 (38:45):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (38:46):
She starts to pull them out, but Sam insists she
let him take care of it. So while he's weeding,
he and Miss Melanie continue to talk. So Miss Melanie's
affection for Jesse, her driver, her man around the house,
her best friend, is clear right. She also like references
his deceased wife, saying there wasn't a fine a negro
woman in all of Alabama.

Speaker 1 (39:06):
But the way Susan French says the word negro, hu,
it is so close to the other word that I
actually had to pause and be like, what did you say?
And then I realized, Okay, no, it's she said negro,
which isn't great obviously, but like, is at least somewhat acceptable.

Speaker 3 (39:23):
It was the accepted nomenclature of the time. That is
what they would have said.

Speaker 1 (39:26):
Yeah, yeah, fine, and even in nineteen eighty nine that
would have been fine ish right, And I was like,
and then in my head, I just want the audience
to know my journey. Because we're only seven minutes into
this episode, I was like, well, yeah, Erica, I wouldn't
say the N word on TV. We're not gonna get
four or five N words in the middle of this
this episode of Quantumly whoops book up.

Speaker 3 (39:49):
Although I will say I'm glad they did because I like, look, because.

Speaker 1 (39:55):
You love the you say it so much. I heard
you call your sandwich the N word right before we
were recording.

Speaker 3 (40:12):
The episode doesn't age well, but I do think it's
attempting to treat the subject matter.

Speaker 1 (40:17):
Seriously well that's the difference between then and now. Right,
even now, maybe it was like an HBO show or whatever,
you could and you might want to put in the
N words for like the very similitude right of the situation.
But if you were airing this on NBC now or
whatever network this was on, you could not. You legally
cannot say the N word. I don't think maybe you

(40:39):
can legally say.

Speaker 3 (40:40):
It, but just no one does, or maybe you'd have
to get like a just like this is the historical
drama and this is it.

Speaker 1 (40:47):
Yeah. I mean like if you watch like Roots or something, yeah,
obviously they could say the N word, but like that
was the early eighties, and I don't think now if
you remade Roots, or actually think they did. I didn't
watch it, but I actually think they did. Yeah they
did remake, but I'm like, it's pretty I think you
could just watch the original. It's fine anyway. Anyway, long
story short, you can't get away with like saying the

(41:08):
N word on TV anymore? Too bad? Am I right? Yeah?
But yeah, I was so shocked when when it's said
in this episode, I was like, WHOA, I can't believe.
And then they keep saying it over and over.

Speaker 3 (41:24):
I'm like, stop, it really blew my hair back.

Speaker 4 (41:27):
We get it.

Speaker 1 (41:28):
I'm already uncomfortable hearing that woman say the word negro
over and over again. I'm like the stop. So Sam
excuses himself to throw out the weeds and Al appears.
Al is wearing the greatest. Alice is wearing like remember
Gem in the Holograms. I feel like this was this
is what they were going for with Jim and the Holograms,
Like they watched Jem and they were like, let's have

(41:49):
Al dress like one of the holograms. In Gem and
the Holograms. He is wearing a plumb purple pleated pants
set with a with a matching like silk and down.
I want to say, but that's like like all the
way buttoned up absolutely neck and like teeny tiny matching
suspenders lavender ones. And this is the only part I
don't like, a striped black blazer over that all with

(42:13):
like a large metal like jeweled brooch at his neck
and an enormous gold ring. And I want to say
his shoes also matched.

Speaker 3 (42:22):
His shoes are silver.

Speaker 1 (42:23):
His shoes are silver in the scene, okay, because there's
they're gold later and I love those gold shoes.

Speaker 3 (42:27):
He looks like someone playing the cheshire Cat and a
local theater production of Alice in Wonderland. It is incredible.

Speaker 1 (42:33):
It is incredible. And again, if this were to take
place in twenty one fifty three, I'd be like, that's
why he's dressed that way. But now that I know
that he is in nineteen ninety, it doesn't make any
No one dressed like that in nineteen ninety.

Speaker 3 (42:49):
He looks like Blanche Devereux. Blanche Devereux dressed like that
in nineteen ninety.

Speaker 1 (42:52):
No, he looks like Blanche Devere's like gay male cousin
in nineteen ninety.

Speaker 3 (42:57):
It looks like Effie Trinkett's gay uncle. That's a hunger game.

Speaker 2 (43:00):
Oh, that is a hundred Games reference.

Speaker 1 (43:03):
He looks like a kid who wants to start like
a band in a cartoon, Like in a cartoon, if
you wanted to start like a hot like a new
hot band, if you are like in Saved by the Bell. Yeah,
if they were gonna start a band.

Speaker 3 (43:16):
This guy would be the manager.

Speaker 1 (43:18):
This guy, That's how they would dress the guy playing
the manager. Right, So I guess it did exist in
nineteen ninety.

Speaker 3 (43:23):
I take it back.

Speaker 1 (43:26):
So al reminds Sam that being a black man in
the South in nineteen fifty five is dangerous business. He's like, Yay,
you gotta watch what you're doing here because you could
get Jesse killed. Remember, there's an actual human behind the
thing you're doing who has to live with the consequences
of your actions, uh huh while you are borrowing his body.

(43:47):
So just keep that in mind, please. Sam's like, sh nah,
shut up, and then is like, I bet I'm here
to change to make civil rights happen, right, That's what
I'm here for. And I was like, actually, no, Miss
Melanie is going to be killed by a passenger train
the following afternoon at like five thirteen pm or something.
So now you, as Jesse, will be there to save

(44:09):
her and you are not gonna let Miss Melanie die.
And we have to like reiterate Miss Melanie is like
one foot in the grave. She's old, she's racist. She
seems like a shitty old like like lady like who's
already half dead.

Speaker 3 (44:22):
So I do.

Speaker 1 (44:22):
Understand Sam being like, or I kicked heart the civil
rights movement?

Speaker 3 (44:28):
Do I have to save this one?

Speaker 1 (44:29):
Like? Why is she so important?

Speaker 3 (44:31):
That's kind of a dud.

Speaker 1 (44:32):
She's a dud. Like she seems like a dud. So
I'm a little on Sam's side. At the beginning of
this where I'm like, that's my fucking mission.

Speaker 3 (44:41):
Al goes on to mention Selma and other moments in
the civil rights movement. Sam is like, why do you
know all of this stuff? I have seven PhDs and
I've never heard of segregation. And Al says a lot
of my friends are black, which I laughed out loud
at because the TV show knows this is a joke.
Because Sam immediately goes, Oh my god, don't say that.

Speaker 1 (44:59):
I love that.

Speaker 2 (45:00):
Actually, I was like, oh wow, even in nineteen eighty nine,
that was the thing. Yeah, people, you can't just be
like I have black friends.

Speaker 3 (45:06):
And Dean Stockwold does a great job of going, but, well,
it's true most of my friends are black.

Speaker 1 (45:12):
Is that why he's dressed up way honestly? Because he
looks like Lionel Richie's guitarist. So that would explain like
the ocean saxophone player. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that would
explain his whole aesthetic.

Speaker 3 (45:27):
So Al goes on, He's like, look, I want all
these civil rights marches. I got arrested. I got beaten,
and Sam is again like, well, maybe I'm here to
like get involved in the civil rights movement, and Al's like, no,
you're here to say, miss Melanie, this is your job.
So Sam and Miss Melnie return home and they find
her son, Clayton played by James Ingersoll, waiting for them.

(45:50):
Because the writers were like, Okay, a modern audience might
find Miss Melanie a little bit objectionable, so what we
need to do is give them someone to absolutely despise.
And that is why her son is here, Clayton. Clayton
Clayton wasn't the name of Blenched Devereux's gay brother. Yeah, yeah,
I don't mind that Clayton's a homosexual. I just don't
like him. Dayton.

Speaker 1 (46:09):
Man, you really haven't grasped the concept of this gay thing,
have you, Blanche.

Speaker 3 (46:14):
It's a little golden girls in your quantum leap. Okay.
So Clayton insists that he have a chance to talk
to Sam alone. They go into the kitchen, and once
they're in the kitchen, Clayton unleashes what I can only
call a torrent of racism, a deluge, a flood of racism,
complete with two full hard r n.

Speaker 1 (46:32):
Bombs fourteen minutes I clocked in. I was like, how
deep into this episode are we? Oh my god, Yeah,
you're still thirty minutes left and we've.

Speaker 3 (46:39):
Had two Yep, we've got an uppity in there. It's like,
it's everything right. He's berating Sam for sitting at the
counter at Miz Patty's.

Speaker 1 (46:48):
I forget how dumb racism is sometimes because it's so
big and important, it's such a big part of the
fabric of American life that you forget that deep down
to it's very fucking is so stupid. He's like, how
dare you sit down for lunch where other people are
sitting down for lunch and their skin is different from your?

(47:11):
Like genuinely, so so dumb. And that's what I got
from the scene. Honestly, I was like, oh my god,
what are we even doing. Clayton goes to talk to
his mother and he basically beerates his mother then, and
it's like, you gotta fire Jesse. Jesse's a nuisance. We
gotta get rid of Jesse. And Miss Melanie, to her credit,
she's like, whatever Jesse did at Miss Patty's, it don't

(47:33):
make the least bit of never mind to me.

Speaker 3 (47:36):
All right.

Speaker 1 (47:37):
You know, sometimes I do love a Southern accent. When
I love when shit like that gets put into a sentence.
Clayton again references her, quote unquote uppitting negro Nah, saying
that as the widow of the former governor, people look
up to her. Miss Melanie tells him that she know,
excuse me, Miss Melanie, Miss Melanie.

Speaker 3 (47:59):
Don't pop that syllable. There is Miss Melmany.

Speaker 1 (48:01):
Putting too many I'm putting too many syllables in the name,
Miss Melnie. Miss Melanie tells him tells Clayton that she
knows exactly what her place is and she doesn't need
him to remind her of it. All right, she gets
Scarlet O'Hara real fast.

Speaker 3 (48:17):
Clayton leaves and Miss Melanie gets what I believe we
would refer to as the vapors. She calls for Jesse.
Sam rushes in. He tries to check her pulse. As
soon as he puts his hands on her, she recoils
and she says, what are you doing. It's like, I'm
just trying to check to see if you're all right,
and she says, please keep your colored voodoo to yourself.

Speaker 1 (48:37):
And then Sam's like, so I'm here to save your life.

Speaker 3 (48:39):
Huh yeah, great, great.

Speaker 1 (48:41):
Cool cool cool, Because also it's like, not only is
she like foot in the grave, but she has like
uncontrollable headaches that come on at a second, Like she's
basically seconds from coughing into a rag and that's full
covered in blood. Like, why are we here to save
this person?

Speaker 3 (48:57):
She asks him to get her a glass of lemonae.

Speaker 2 (49:00):
Yeah, that's called that's Southern penicillinic Here's everything.

Speaker 3 (49:02):
Here's every It's like wind dex in my big wedding,
Yeah yeah, or.

Speaker 1 (49:05):
Or Matza ball soup in the Jewish community. It cures everything.
While Sam is in the kitchen, a young black woman
named Nell played by Kimberly Bailey knocks on the screen door.
I for a hot second, I forgot how old Jesse was,
and I was like, oh no, Samm gonna try to
like have a love interest with this girl because she
seems way too young for him. Please please know. And

(49:27):
then I was like, wait, no, no, no, she sees Jesse,
so that's never gonna happen. She doesn't see Sam.

Speaker 3 (49:33):
It was like me and the teagemutan ninja turtles. It's like,
please don't make Judith Hoge, please don't.

Speaker 1 (49:37):
Make no and then I'm like no, no, no.

Speaker 2 (49:39):
She sees a seventy year old man, she doesn't see
the hotness.

Speaker 1 (49:42):
It is Scott Bacula, so she knocks in the screen door.
She tells Jesse how proud she is of him, right,
and Sam is confused, but he's but he plays along.
It's like, well, thank you very much. And Miss Melanie,
Miss Melmae, thank you. Melane calls Jesse bring me my lemonade,
and he brings it to her and Miss Melney tells

(50:04):
him that he can head on home with Nell, and
then that's when the audience finds out Nell, the girl
at the door, is Jesse's granddaughter.

Speaker 4 (50:11):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (50:12):
Nell drives Sam home. She wants to hear the whole
story about him. Sitting down at Miss Patty's, she says,
it's about time someone reminded all the white folks what
century they're living in. Nell's a firebrand. Yeah, she's ready
for some change.

Speaker 2 (50:23):
She's a kid too, She's like, this is bullshit.

Speaker 3 (50:25):
What are we doing. Sam wonders why she's driving so fast,
and Nell reminds him that he promised to cook chitlins
for the church. Picnic.

Speaker 1 (50:32):
Okay, what is about to happen is both hysterical kind
of deeply racist, but it's so funny that I'm gonna
let it go, and I think I think black viewers
would back me up on that. I just want everyone
to know what's coming because it's so goddamn funny.

Speaker 3 (50:54):
Look, he was a black belt in Kung Fu six
PhDs photographic memory. He's not a French culinarily trained chef.

Speaker 1 (51:02):
They did never went to Court on Blue. Even there,
I'm not even sure they work with Chitlins at the
Court on Blue, but they know they work with Ofal.
That scene made me laugh so harsh. Okay, moving on,
because we're not there yet.

Speaker 2 (51:13):
We're not there yet.

Speaker 3 (51:15):
So as they're driving, we see Billy, Joe and Toad
pull out and follow them. They were like hiding behind
a tree. As they go by, they pull out and
start following them, so they can obviously find out where
these people live.

Speaker 1 (51:25):
Yeah, it's not gonna end well. Sam's voiceover comes back
and he tells us I'd heard of Chitlins. Of course
in the whitest accent. I want everyone to know Chitilins.
He adds an extra syllable I'd heard of chitlins before,
thought they were one of those rare Southern delicacies that
taste as good as they sound. I never realized they

(51:48):
were pig intestines. And we cut to Sam trying to
bluff his way through cooking the chitlins and almost gagging
at the smell. And the prop master who brought in
the chitlins where Scott vacul has to be cooking, did
not tell anyone, like, you're supposed to cut it up first.
He just sticks an entire like pigs lower intestinal tracks

(52:13):
into a pot and starts boiling it, trying to make
it work.

Speaker 3 (52:17):
Look, I've never cooked chitlins. I don't know what they're
supposed to look like, but what these look like, it's
like the prop master came in with an old, dirty
mop and just cut off the bottom of it and
threw it in the sink.

Speaker 1 (52:29):
It's so funny, and he's like, I could do this,
and then again I have to think about the consequences
because like, clearly he's not going to make those chitlins.

Speaker 2 (52:36):
They're not going to taste good.

Speaker 1 (52:38):
What this is for, like a church function that he's
supposed to make the chitlins for a whole ass church function.

Speaker 3 (52:44):
How is Sam gonna get out of this one? Erica?

Speaker 1 (52:48):
Wait, he doesn't, though he does? He oh, he does.
You're right, I forgot, I forgot, I forgot you. Al
appears again.

Speaker 3 (52:57):
Al.

Speaker 1 (52:58):
It's like I love Chip because don't forget. I have
so many black friends. My best friend is Rick James.

Speaker 3 (53:07):
He's like, he's like, ooh, fresh baked corn bread.

Speaker 1 (53:10):
Like it's I am Rick James's personal stylist. That's why
I am dressed the way I am dressed.

Speaker 3 (53:17):
In case everyone's not sure. Dean Stockwell White, He's.

Speaker 1 (53:20):
Like, don't worry, I gotta killer recipe. So he talks
and through how to make chitlins. I think black audience
members would back me up on this. This is funny.

Speaker 3 (53:30):
This is I think this is I think this is
legitimately funny.

Speaker 2 (53:32):
Like it's kind of racist, but it's funny.

Speaker 3 (53:34):
Yeah. It's also like clearly like the ignorance at like
not ill meant ignorance.

Speaker 1 (53:39):
Right, It's a little bit of food racism of like, well,
this food is gross because it's not it's it's from
a different culture blah blah blah. So but I am
gonna let it slide. Because the idea of Scott Bakula
trying to cook chitlins is still relatively funny.

Speaker 3 (53:53):
Yeah, So as they're cooking and Dean Stockwell is just
doing the performance of his life, being mad that he
can't smell the chitlins because he's just a hologram. He's
being weirdly Southern's it's great, It's it's funny. The whole time.
Jesse's son or possibly son in law, he calls him
both daddy and Papa Jesse, so don't I don't know

(54:13):
exactly what the relation is, but in any case, he's
a full grown man, obviously because Jesse has a granddaughter. Right,
Jesse's Sun comes in. He wants to talk to him
about Miss Patti's and he also says, look, don't do
stuff like that, like I don't want my family to
be harmed because you decided you want to take a
stand against a bunch of rednecks. So now we've really
doubled down for Sam to be like stop it. Yeah,

(54:36):
like people who are living in this time are telling
you to stop it.

Speaker 1 (54:42):
Get out of my lane, buddy, like stay in yours.

Speaker 3 (54:46):
The sun leaves and Al also borrate Sam for sitting
at the counter, and Sam snaps, I didn't know I
was black at the time, which is true, that is correct.
But then he again proposes, like, hey, but maybe I
should be doing something more, and Al is like, you
are here to save the racist old white lady, and
that is it.

Speaker 1 (55:06):
That is a hard pill to swallow because also you're
stuck until you do the thing right, Like that's the
whole point of quantum leaping.

Speaker 3 (55:11):
Yeah, what happens. He must he must do it every time,
Like what happens if he fails?

Speaker 1 (55:15):
What happens if he failed? He maybe he gets quantum
left anyway, I don't know. So Sam's dander is up.
He starts to give out what four He tells out, Look,
I was hungry, so I sat at the counter. Everyone
saw me as a black man, but not a hungry man.
Don't try to out logic racism, because we've discussed earlier.

Speaker 3 (55:34):
It's dumb.

Speaker 1 (55:35):
It's at its core, it's just dumb. In that moment,
we hear Nell screaming and the family rushes outside to
find a burning cross on their front lawn.

Speaker 2 (55:45):
As Billy, Joe and Toad drive away.

Speaker 1 (55:48):
Yeah, the amount of like stuff I saw with burning
crosses as a kid, like the like the pop culture
that went to this shorthand I wonder if there was
a second option everything, anything.

Speaker 3 (55:58):
Else, anything else. The next morning, Sam, still not acknowledging
that he's in Alabama nineteen fifty five, goes to report
the crime to the sheriff, who is white, in case
anyone's wondering, The sheriff laughs it off. He says, the
boys have just been mischievous, and he tells Sam, leave
my son, Billy Joe to me. I'll take care of it.
So now Billy Joe is the sheriff's son. Sam tells

(56:20):
him it doesn't end here, Sheriff, and sheriff tells him
that's entirely up to you. Jesse again, Alabama, nineteen fifty five.
The sheriff leaves, and Sam immediately, Now I don't think
he actually he didn't know what he was doing. He
doesn't realize what he's doing, but like, just start to
be fucking aware. Sam. Now I'm genuinely annoyed with Sam.
He immediately drinks out of and splashes his face in

(56:41):
a White's only water fountain.

Speaker 1 (56:43):
YEP.

Speaker 3 (56:43):
As he does so, he's spotted by Billy Joe and
Toad and Toad wants to beat him up on the spot,
but Billy Joe tells his friend not here.

Speaker 1 (56:50):
Next day, Sam's at work, Miss mill Mey suggests they
have some tea, which she makes for them. Sam's like, oh,
thank you so much, and he tries to sit at
the table with her to drink the tea and she's like, whoa,
what are you doing?

Speaker 3 (57:05):
And he's crazy.

Speaker 1 (57:06):
He's like, well, you've made tea for the both of us, right,
so I thought I'm supposed to sit here and drink
it with you. And she's like, no, no, no, Coloreds
and whites just don't drink or eat at the same table.
Her words, not mine. It's just the way things are, Jessie.
And Sam suggests, well, maybe it's time things change, and

(57:26):
she's like, what we are in our seventies. Then the
doorbell rings. He goes to answer it. It's Nell again,
and he tells Nell, listen, go home without me, drive
the car without me. I'm going to use Miss Melanie's
car to drive myself home tonight.

Speaker 3 (57:41):
Yeah. He goes back to Miss Melanie, who has gathered
herself a little bit for this shocking argument discussion debate
that she has found herself in. She tells him that
no one is going to change the way things are,
and he assures her that someone is. Blacks are going
to unite, and Susan French goes.

Speaker 2 (57:57):
Blacks, I ever heard that dream before?

Speaker 4 (58:01):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (58:01):
Like what you what if it's an African American, she'd
been like, excuse me? Yep.

Speaker 3 (58:07):
He says that's what they'll we'll be called instead of negroes,
and Miss Melanie sputters, what's wrong with being called a nigra?

Speaker 1 (58:18):
The way she says the word is so sus.

Speaker 3 (58:21):
It's because it goes with an a.

Speaker 2 (58:23):
It's so close yeah, to the point that Sam's about
to make Yeah.

Speaker 3 (58:27):
Sam posits maybe it's just a little bit too close
to the end bomb and he actually says it yeah,
and Miss Melaney primly says she's never used that word,
which yes she has. Girl, girl, you grew up in Alabama.

Speaker 2 (58:38):
First of all, you grew up in Alabama.

Speaker 1 (58:39):
But secondly, like, even if you're like, I would know
because she doesn't curse, right, So I actually believe her
she would never use that word because she would never
use a curse word. She's a lady.

Speaker 3 (58:49):
I don't I don't believe her because I don't think
in eighteen seventy when she was born, it would have
even been considered a curse word.

Speaker 1 (58:55):
Oh huh, fair enough, I didn't think of that. But
but again, I do believe that in her mind that
is a that is a dirty word. Sure, and she's
a lady, so she would never say it, But the
way she says negro is.

Speaker 3 (59:07):
So close to it.

Speaker 1 (59:08):
And I'm like, you are saying it three times a day, obviously,
can we.

Speaker 3 (59:13):
Come up with a word that we can say instead
of negro? Because I'm now I'm getting uncomfortable how many
time we've already.

Speaker 1 (59:17):
Said it forty five times? Paul, It's already we can't stop.
And we all know that you say the hard any
word every.

Speaker 3 (59:26):
Chance you get, as soon as the mics are off.

Speaker 1 (59:29):
You love karaoke and just picking the word the worst
song you can think of for a white boy to
sing it karaoke?

Speaker 3 (59:38):
Uh So, Miss Melna wonders if he's gone crazy, and
Sam points out that he's not the one burning crosses
in front of people's homes, which is kind of a
conversation ender such a good argument.

Speaker 1 (59:48):
Yeah, I can't argue with that. We cut to Nell
she's driving by herself to choir practice. She's practicing in
the car, she's maybe a little distracted. And we intercut
that with Billy Bob and Toad at the same hiding
place saw them in previously. Are you giggling at the
word toad?

Speaker 3 (01:00:03):
I just think we're getting to the point now where
Toad is also not like tripping us out. Billy Bob
and Toad two completely normal names.

Speaker 1 (01:00:09):
What is his real name? Is his real name like
ted Ted? And they were like, Toad Toad? What kind
of shithead do you have to be for your family
to start calling you toad as a nickname? He's stick.

Speaker 3 (01:00:20):
His real name is probably like Jeffrey. But then when
he was like six, he like ate a toad.

Speaker 1 (01:00:26):
Gross, He had toads in his pockets all the time.
So the two of them are in the car and
they're like clearly stalking Jesse, right or who they think
is driving. Now, Toad is suddenly a little more hesitant
about whatever new plan they've cooked up, but Billy Bobbin says, no,
we ain't gonna kill him. We're just gonna whack him
into place a little bit.

Speaker 3 (01:00:44):
You know, that's great normal stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:00:47):
Yeah, as Nell's car approaches, They suddenly pull out in
the road and she swerves to avoid them, sending her
car careening off a cliff. Toad gets out of the
car tries to go for help, but Billy Bob shouts
that Damn and Bomb can't drive no better than a mule.

Speaker 3 (01:01:02):
Oh my god, there's so many of them.

Speaker 1 (01:01:04):
There's just too many of them in the episode. I'm like, stop,
we get it, we get it, stop saying it. And
he's like, we gotta get out of here. We gotta
get out of here, and the two of them drive off,
leaving Nell's bloody body on the ground.

Speaker 3 (01:01:16):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (01:01:17):
The problem with this episode two is I knew the
minute Nell showed up.

Speaker 1 (01:01:20):
The second I saw that girl, I was like, well,
something Bath's gonna happen to her that Sam's gonna have
to fix. Like, I just knew where it was going already,
and I was already so annoyed in advance by like
the tropes, that.

Speaker 3 (01:01:33):
It was gonna use its sure. Back at Miss Melnie's,
Sam is still trying to pressure her into taking a stand.
After all, she's a pillar of the community. If you
take a stand, people will follow you. Miss Melnie says,
we have to get the pipe in the kitchen fixed.
We should head into town and buy a replacement. Sam's
like no, no, no, no, no, no no, We're not
leaving the house because remember this, he has to keep

(01:01:53):
her safe, right, so his figures keep her in the
house being bang boom, not hit by the train. I
lived to quantum leap another day, yep. But she is
insistent she wants to go, and he's acting so weird
now that she's again like I'll just drive myself. He's
like no, no, no, no no, I'll drive you if
you want to go, if you must go, I will
drive you. As they're driving towards town, they pass the
wreck of Nell's car. They notice it. They pull over.

(01:02:14):
Sam rushes down to collect Nell, who is still alive.
She is gravely injured. He picks her up and they
head into town towards the hospital and Miss Melanie's like, Jesse,
where are you going. He's like, I'm going to the hospital.
I saw it yesterday. I know exactly where is. She's like,
that's the White hospital. They're going to refuse to treat
Nell and Sam will hear none of it now.

Speaker 1 (01:02:31):
Again, Sam, this is not your granddaughter.

Speaker 3 (01:02:35):
This is not your granddaughter. This is not the time
to make a stand. Get her to the hospital that
will help her asap. If that's in the other direction,
go in the other direction.

Speaker 1 (01:02:45):
Yeah, this hospital is I guess moderately closer sure than
the other one. So he's like, nope, fuck it, We're
going to the White Solely hospital. He pulls up. He
tries to give Nell to the doctors and nurses. They
of course, refuse to accept her, saying it's against the law.
Sam says, to hell with the law, and the doctor's like, no,
it's the law. And then Miss Melanie steps in. She's

(01:03:08):
she calls the doctor out by his name, and she's like,
I know you, and you are gonna help that girl.
The medical staff finally acquiesces, and Miss Melanie tells Sam
to stay outside because he's gonna he's trying to like
go in with Nell, and she's like, no, no, no,
stay outside, man, I got this.

Speaker 3 (01:03:26):
What has gotten into you? Are you on LSD?

Speaker 1 (01:03:29):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:03:29):
Like just stay out here, Sam, are you smoking the wacket?
To back it? Jesse? I should say, I know your
name's not Sam, it's Jesse.

Speaker 1 (01:03:38):
It's Jesse. So she goes in She's like, I promise,
I'll make sure Nell is taken care of. She's gone
from I will not sit down and drink tea with
you to fuck the law. We're helping this kid.

Speaker 4 (01:03:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:03:48):
Sam waits outside, he's pacing back and forth. Al appears again,
new day you outfit. He is now wearing a scarlet
brocade vest with black pants and a matching brocade and
the skinniest tie in civilization. Yes, it is black with
a white pattern on the front, but the back is
pure like ivory white. Yeah, he looks he looks like
the best blackjack dealer in Atlantic City.

Speaker 2 (01:04:09):
He is auditioning for Devo tomorrow. He is getting his
outfit ready.

Speaker 3 (01:04:12):
He is the baritone in the barbershop quartet at the
local Elks Club. Like he is excellent, I'll suggest that
Sam get bis Melney and drive her far away. He's like, great,
we're out the train stations in that direction. She is
due to can be killed by the train in twenty minutes.
Get her in the car and drive in the opposite direction.
We're good, big bang, boom, we can leap again. Sam

(01:04:33):
is like, I can't leave. What are you talking about?
And at that moment, the sheriff arrives and racist nurse
Ratchet appears to accuse Sam of breaking segregation laws, and
Sam's like, what did you want.

Speaker 4 (01:04:44):
Me to do?

Speaker 3 (01:04:44):
Did you want me to just let my granddaughter die?
And the Sheriff's like, no, you shouldn't have done that,
but I am still going to handcuff you because he
did break the law.

Speaker 1 (01:04:52):
Yeah, well, they're also the nurse is like, he talks
to himself, he's crazy, and like she's horrible.

Speaker 3 (01:04:57):
Yeah, but she's not wrong on that account.

Speaker 2 (01:04:59):
He is absolutely having a full ass conversation with nobody.

Speaker 3 (01:05:02):
On that far as she is concerned. Yes, absolutely. Sam
starts to struggle and the Sheriff's like, well, now, don't
make me get rough with you, and he's like, look,
I will go quietly, but promise me that you won't
let miss Melne leave the hospital for half an hour.
So the sheriff deputizes his nurse Ratchet to keep miss
Melney there and he takes Sam away.

Speaker 1 (01:05:21):
Why I don't understand.

Speaker 3 (01:05:22):
I don't understand.

Speaker 2 (01:05:23):
That makes no sense to me.

Speaker 1 (01:05:24):
Why. The Sheriff's like, even if he was just like okay,
Jesse wink and then doesn't do it. But he seems
to actually listen to Jesse, and he's like, all right,
if it's important to you that she stay here for
thirty minutes, I guess I'll make that happen for you.
And I'm like, what, why?

Speaker 4 (01:05:38):
Why?

Speaker 3 (01:05:39):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:05:39):
So, as Sam is driven away, Miss Melanie shows up
outside and Nurse Ratchet tells her that Sam was just arrested.

Speaker 2 (01:05:45):
And Miss Melanie is like, great, another thing I have
to fucking deal with.

Speaker 3 (01:05:49):
All I wanted was my sweaty egg salad.

Speaker 1 (01:05:53):
All I wanted was my hot, humid egg salad that
sat on the dashboard of my car, Yeah, for forty
five minutes before I ate it.

Speaker 3 (01:06:01):
I want to hear it splat in my stomach when
I swallow.

Speaker 1 (01:06:03):
What I mean, I want it to be.

Speaker 3 (01:06:06):
A shade of green that is that is just wrong, Yeah,
just wrong, and it overcook the eggs and gets that gray. Yeah,
I want the whole salad to be that.

Speaker 1 (01:06:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:06:16):
I wanted to taste like vinegary, you know what I mean,
Like it's turned vinegary.

Speaker 3 (01:06:20):
I wanted to have a living thing in it. I
know that it's salads generally not alive, but I want it.
I want that. I don't hear the screams of the mold.

Speaker 1 (01:06:30):
Miss Melanie heads right for her car. Who Miss Melanie,
Miss Melanie, the problem is, you gotta just relax that
job Miss Melanie has right for her car. A nurse
ratchets like wait, don't go, please say, and Miss Melanie's
like what, and Rose Ratchet's like, I don't care, and

(01:06:53):
Miss Melanie drives.

Speaker 3 (01:06:54):
Off all shout at his team center my location to
Miss Melanie's. Okay, So I guess this is something he
can do, like within the Leap, Yeah, you can get
centered on a different person rather than Sam. He appears
in the passenger seat as Miss Melanie drives. Okay, so look,
I get it. We have lower standards for TV. I

(01:07:15):
get it. So Miss Melanie is talking to herself, wishing
that her husband was there to help her decide what
to do. Oh, Charles, you always knew what to do,
as all governors of Alabama have since time immemorial, historically, historically,
they are always on the right side of history. Al
babbles at her please turn around or at least just

(01:07:35):
don't go towards the train tracks, and she talks to
her husband as Al begs her to stop, and a
train ominously approaches. We hear the whistle, and the tension
starts to build as Miss Melny goes, oh, what's that
nose and Al's like, you must hear the train whistle?
You old back.

Speaker 1 (01:07:50):
She thinks it's one of her spells. Yeah, because remember
she has it again. She guess, I guess migraines. Yeah,
and like some form of tennightis or something, because that's
what happened earlier in the episode.

Speaker 3 (01:07:59):
Uh huh.

Speaker 1 (01:08:00):
So she's like, ah, the ringing sound is back in
my ears again, and she's grabbing her temples and it's
literally a train. Like this woman can't tell the difference
between a train coming right at her and like a
migraine coming on. Yep, she shouldn't be driving.

Speaker 3 (01:08:14):
The tension builds until Al shrieks pull off into the
cemetery damn it, and Miss Melney pulls to the side
and then says, you didn't have to swear, thinking she
heard a message from her husband Charles. Yeah, right, okay,
let's break this down. First of all, I'm sure in
the lure of the show this is important because Al
has successfully contacted someone within the timeline. That's not what

(01:08:36):
I'm here to talk about. I'm here to talk about
the fact that Miss Melanie is approaching the train tracks
from the same direction that we approach the train tracks
in the beginning of the episode.

Speaker 1 (01:08:44):
Uh huh.

Speaker 3 (01:08:44):
Remember that thing I told everyone to put in their
cap yep, And.

Speaker 1 (01:08:47):
Is she heading thirty miles an hour going from east
to the west direction?

Speaker 3 (01:08:50):
Canonically, you stop at the train tracks, you cross the
train tracks, and you drive directly into the cemetery. Uh huh.
So pulling off into the cemetery would do nothing, because
it would still mean she would have to cross the
train tracks.

Speaker 1 (01:09:00):
Maybe the train cuts through the entire cemetery, so there's
cemetery on all sides.

Speaker 3 (01:09:04):
Of it, like around and around.

Speaker 1 (01:09:05):
It actually posits that's the fucking worst cemetery ever, and
the governor shouldn't be buried there. Cemeteries are supposed to
be peaceful. Peaceful places are of quiet contemplation, not a
fucking thoroughfare.

Speaker 3 (01:09:18):
She also like, like most of the time, I would
presume if a car gets hit by a train or something,
it's either someone trying to do a daredevil thing or
like the car gets stuck. This is positing that she
is driving, and I get that, like she's all discombobulated.
But like, there's a train a coming.

Speaker 1 (01:09:37):
Why isn't there any Like anytime you cross.

Speaker 3 (01:09:40):
A train track, something should come down, but it comes down.

Speaker 1 (01:09:43):
It's like ding ding ding ding, And you had to
sit there for forty five minutes. Why the train crosses?

Speaker 3 (01:09:48):
Yeah, why doesn't this town have one of those you
know whose job that would have been? Then?

Speaker 1 (01:09:53):
Yeah, this is his is Charles's fault.

Speaker 3 (01:09:55):
This is dramatic irony if she dies on these train tracks.

Speaker 1 (01:09:58):
Okay, so what if Charles actually did yell damn it,
pull over and it wasn't al and she heard Charles's ghost,
but we as the audience, only heard al so Al
did not successfully contact her.

Speaker 2 (01:10:12):
Charles did that's my head cannon?

Speaker 3 (01:10:14):
Maybe it was the egg salad sandwich.

Speaker 1 (01:10:20):
I'm gonna name her miss Eggie, Missggie. Miss Eggie was
like child pull over.

Speaker 3 (01:10:25):
Wait, isn't that the name of Echo Wodem's stand up
character on SNL.

Speaker 1 (01:10:27):
It is miss right right right? So so miss Salad,
Miss Salad, Miss Mayo, miso, miss yo, Miss.

Speaker 3 (01:10:35):
Salmonella, Miss Sloppa.

Speaker 1 (01:10:41):
That's what I call my vagina?

Speaker 3 (01:10:47):
Is that why it was written in the bathroom college?

Speaker 1 (01:10:50):
I love I love miss for a good time, go
down on miss Lapping and you're like what We cut
to Sam in his jail cell as al now wearing
Oh my god, my favorite outfit, my absolute favorite outfit.
It's an all yellow suit, but it's like a yellow
that evokes gold, so it's it's meant to be just gold,

(01:11:10):
not banana yellow.

Speaker 3 (01:11:12):
It's almost like a like a Safari color.

Speaker 1 (01:11:15):
Looks like banana rama. It looks like the Bengals. It
looks like a hair like girls pan from the eighties.
It's everything, it's everything. So it's an all yellow suit,
so like again, depleted pants, the button up shirt, a
yellow like sparkling gold tie. Paul Ron Paul says it's bronze.
I think it's more gold. It's just shockingly white, like

(01:11:38):
shocking the yellow gold gold shoes that I'm not kidding
I want in my closet yesterday. Yeah, and a trench
coat that's like doesn't quite work I think with it,
but it's like it's like a camel colored trench coat.

Speaker 3 (01:11:50):
He looks like he's gonna start lemonading.

Speaker 1 (01:11:52):
He does are lemonading. He looks like he looks like
he's like in Sesame Street. There to sell drugs to
little kids. Yeah, Like he's like a drug dealer on
Sesame Street where they're trying to teach them about stranger danger.

Speaker 3 (01:12:04):
He looks like Colonel Mustard undercover. Ha.

Speaker 1 (01:12:08):
So Al is excitedly telling Sam how he reached through
the space time continuum to talk to Miss Melanie and maybe,
just maybe he can reach other women, younger women, And
I'm like, ew, what the fuck? Yeah, in your own
timeline you're still alive. There are women, yeah, presumably younger
women than seventy five there too. Yeah, what is this

(01:12:30):
future you come from? Maybe if you stop dressing like
Carmen san Diego, those women in the future will want
to date you, sir.

Speaker 3 (01:12:39):
Possible. Look, I still think he's the height of fashion.

Speaker 2 (01:12:42):
I bet I love it, Don't get me wrong, I
fucking love it.

Speaker 3 (01:12:45):
He pulls this man pulls, I.

Speaker 2 (01:12:48):
Like genuinely, like I kind of wish this was fashion now.

Speaker 3 (01:12:52):
Yeah, it's so crazy, it's insane and fun and fun.

Speaker 1 (01:12:55):
Yeah. So anyway, he gets gross for a minute and
I'm like, alh And Sam's like, do you ever think
of anything other than sex? And I'm like, wait, is
that a theme in their ship? Is that a runner.
I don't want I don't want that to be a
runner at all. And then he moves on to a
more salient topic, So is miss Melney Melne alive? And
Al's like, yes, she's still alive. And then Sam's like, well,

(01:13:17):
then why am I still in Jesse's body? Why haven't
I quantum leaped?

Speaker 3 (01:13:22):
At that moment, the sheriff appears and tells Sam that
Miss Melne has insisted they dropped the charges against him.
He also says the balls that ran Nell off the
road didn't mean her any harm. They were probably trying
to run you off the road after all, giving all
your strange behavior, so's t yourr fault.

Speaker 2 (01:13:37):
So it's totally fine you guys, Yeah, don't worry about it.

Speaker 3 (01:13:40):
Still, the sheriff gives Sam his word that the boys
won't cause any more trouble, and Sam's like, that's not
good enough, and I'm like Sam, But.

Speaker 1 (01:13:47):
Honestly, though, at this point, I kind of I'm I'm
now I'm a little leaning on Sam's side, where I'm like,
you're the fucking law around here. I get that one
of those kids, one of those shitty fucking kids, is
your son. But they burned across in front of my house. Yeah,
they ran my granddaughter off the road and almost killed her.
Like maybe spending a couple of nights in jail before

(01:14:07):
like a trial where they're gonna be acquitted anyway, because
it's the fucking South, but at least do something.

Speaker 3 (01:14:13):
Yeah. The sheriff tells him to get out of there
before he changes his mind, and Sam leaves, telling the
sheriff he's gonna have to change his mind about a
lot of things.

Speaker 1 (01:14:20):
And then, oh my god, you guys, and then you
will not believe what is about to happen. It is
so shocking.

Speaker 3 (01:14:28):
The sheriff exits and Al is left alone in the
jail cell.

Speaker 1 (01:14:32):
There's a little joke here where Sam's like, Al, I'll
see you later or something, and he walks out, and
the sheriff like looks around the cell to be like,
is there someone else in there? Nope, and he locks up,
and then Al's left by himself in the cell, and
you're like, I wonder why that was left in the episode.

Speaker 3 (01:14:46):
I wonder. I wonder what he's gonna do. I know,
clip his nails.

Speaker 2 (01:14:49):
Is he gonna have a funny joke?

Speaker 3 (01:14:51):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:14:51):
Is he gonna? Is he gonna change his out Is
it gonna play a prank on the show?

Speaker 4 (01:14:54):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:14:55):
Is he gonna magically change his outfit into some green
themed outfit? We haven't seen him in green yet.

Speaker 1 (01:14:59):
Yeah, yeah, that's gonna happen. He's not gonna do the
craziest thing I could think of, right.

Speaker 3 (01:15:04):
Yeah, No, he's not. He's definitely not gonna sing a
line if we shall overcome?

Speaker 1 (01:15:08):
Is he? Oh? Yeah, he is pop Dean Stockwell dressed
like a banana at Studio.

Speaker 3 (01:15:16):
Fifty four, dressed like dressed like the man in the
yellow hat going to rescue Curious George from the.

Speaker 1 (01:15:23):
Zoo, just like the man in the yellow hat trying
to buy cocaine just to himself, sings we shall overcome.

Speaker 3 (01:15:37):
Wow, that's a choice.

Speaker 2 (01:15:39):
It's a choice that's a horrid choice.

Speaker 3 (01:15:41):
That's also a choice that you know that the writers
producers will if they come up with. They're all like
high five.

Speaker 1 (01:15:46):
I just also want to point out one thing we
haven't really talked about it at this point in the episode.
The only people of color that we meet in this
town in Alabama, which is Alabama's famously so many black
people live there for reasons. The only black people we
see in this episode are Nell and her father. That's it,

(01:16:08):
And I guess like and.

Speaker 3 (01:16:09):
Her mother briefly we do, oh, that's right.

Speaker 2 (01:16:12):
We do see the mom.

Speaker 1 (01:16:12):
Briefly, very briefly, and then like flashes of Jesse's face,
but I'm not gonna count it because Jesse doesn't even talk.
So like, we see those three people and that's it.
There are no other black people in this episode, which
is such a fucking rookie mistake, Like your whole episode
is about desegregation, and you don't even bother to like
hire black extras, show us that show us like the

(01:16:36):
rest of the neighborhood where Jesse lives. Yeah, where, like
there must be other houses on that street with other
black families with kids playing in the driveway. That drives
me insane, like truly fucking insane, because like, look, although
I still would have cringed my ass off, but if
they had had a black family singing, we shall overcome,

(01:16:56):
like in the background or something to try to drive
the point home what they were doing. That would have
been at least like that would have made narrative sense.
It might have even like hit some heartstrings. Back in
nineteen eighty nine, it wouldn't have seemed so so crazy
stupid the way it does now, but instead to just
have Dean stuck well as like the voice of the
Black People. Yeah, holy shit, what a choice?

Speaker 4 (01:17:21):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (01:17:22):
Okay, moving on, Sam Head's out of the station and
he finds Miss Melanie and Clayton. Uh Clayton. The one
thing I will say for Clayton at least is like
they because he's like the villain of the episode, along
with those other like Toad and Toad and Billy Bob,
is that they're always sweaty. All the bad people in
the episode are sweating constantly. Yeah, and all those quote

(01:17:42):
unquote good people are dry as a bone.

Speaker 2 (01:17:45):
That's how you can tell good from evil in this world.

Speaker 3 (01:17:48):
That's how you know the eggs out sandwich is evil.
It's sweaty as fuck. Ha.

Speaker 1 (01:17:52):
So Clayton is like, as far as I'm concerned, Jesse,
you should still be in jail. And Miss Melanie's like,
clay mind your own damn business. And Clayton's like mom,
and Miss Mellie's not, I don't want to hear it,
fuck off. And Clayton's like fine, I can't wait for
you to die. So I can inherit your house, and
he just walks off in a huff, and Miss Melanie

(01:18:14):
tells Sam that sometimes she thinks they must have switched
babies on her. I don't know how I got such
a shitty fucking kid.

Speaker 3 (01:18:21):
I'll tell you how. It's Charles.

Speaker 1 (01:18:23):
It's also you.

Speaker 3 (01:18:24):
You're not ready either.

Speaker 1 (01:18:25):
You just in the last five minutes gained some semblance
of social consciousness.

Speaker 2 (01:18:32):
Don't act like you've been a great mom your whole life.

Speaker 3 (01:18:35):
Sam thanks Miss Melnie for her help with Nell, and
she says she was glad to do it. Nell is
doing well. She's been moved to the Black Hospital and
Sam sputters and a move could have killed her, and
Miss Melanie says, well it didn't. Nell's fine and she's
with her own people, and that's the way it's supposed
to be. Okay, So, yes, miss Melanie's not great, and
we're having fun with that. But I appreciate that the

(01:18:57):
show is trying with her, yeah, to not make her perfect.
It's not like like a perfect white person doesn't exist today,
but like it definitely didn't exist in nineteen fifty five Alabama.

Speaker 2 (01:19:09):
It sure did and his name was Sam Beckett.

Speaker 1 (01:19:13):
No, you sure did. His name was El Calvic Cavi.
That we shall overcome king.

Speaker 3 (01:19:19):
Yeah, and like I do appreciate that the show is
trying to give her a nuance, right and and yeah,
that she is learning well.

Speaker 1 (01:19:29):
Also like the idea of we don't see what we
don't see. Yeah, Like it's just it's the fabric of
the world I grew up in and it just makes
sense to me. And so like she's with her people
at her hospital, that's how it should be.

Speaker 4 (01:19:42):
Right.

Speaker 3 (01:19:42):
Sam is bewildered that Miss Melaney's eyes weren't open to
the world after her experience, and Miss Melanie scoffs it's
no news to her that the world is unjust. But man,
knowing it doesn't mean I can change it. And Sam says,
you can. You did yesterday, and Miss Melanie's face hardened
since she says, if you want to keep working for me,
this conversation is closed forever. Now go to Miss Patty's

(01:20:04):
and get that moist egg salad sandwhich that's waiting for
me at the counter.

Speaker 1 (01:20:08):
It's been sitting there since seven am.

Speaker 3 (01:20:12):
I want that egg salad. Do it, and don't come
back here until it is. Sam Jesse, what the hell
your name is.

Speaker 2 (01:20:18):
I want to be able to smell it from the
curb outside.

Speaker 1 (01:20:22):
Sam heads into Miss Patty's the beginning of all the
trouble in this episode, right, Everyone gets quiet and looks
at him. What's he gonna do? Is he gonna sit
down again? He goes to the counter. He's like, I'm
here for the sandwich. Ms Patty's like, cool, here's the sandwich,
and he takes it and he's about to leave, and

(01:20:42):
then Miss Melanie, Miss Melmane, Miss Melne, Miss Melanie enters
behind him, and she announces loudly to everyone that she
has decided to eat indoors today at the counter and
not outside in the two hundred degree.

Speaker 3 (01:20:56):
Heat with four hundred percent humidity.

Speaker 1 (01:21:00):
She sits to the counter, she orders a lemonade, and
she's and mss Patty's like, I'll give you your sandwich
in a second. And then Mss Melanie says, jesse it,
why don't you come and sit next to me and
join me for lunch? And everyone goes what And Billy
Bob stands up to like, shut that old woman up,

(01:21:21):
and the sheriff tells him to sit down. It's so dumb,
And Sam's like okay, and he sits down next to
Miss Melanie and sees his reflection again in the mirror,
sees Jesse's face in the mirror.

Speaker 2 (01:21:36):
And smiles at his own reflection at Jesse.

Speaker 1 (01:21:39):
And at that moment, Sam Quantum leaps out of Jesse's
body and in the middle of a teenager drag racing
down a dirt road. And that's where the episode ends.
But I wish to God the episode had continued with
Jesse waking up from a three day fugue and not

(01:21:59):
knowing why the fuck he's sitting down at this lunch
counter with everyone in town staring daggers at him, with
his employer, who I'm sure he barely tolerates on a
good days, and he has to sit there and be like, wait,
we're having lunch. Oh my gosh, oh god.

Speaker 2 (01:22:16):
Have you ever had to have lunch with your boss?

Speaker 3 (01:22:18):
Yeah, but I was friends with my boss, I was
legitimately friend.

Speaker 1 (01:22:21):
I was friendly with my boss. I've been friendly with
my bosses. There are so few of them I want
to sit down and have a meal with sure, because
I have nothing in common with these people except for work.
And I don't want to talk about work at lunch.
It sucks. So I can only imagine that like Jesse
having to think of like conversation now to make with
his Melanie once they've sat down, to realize like, aha,

(01:22:44):
we've broken the color barrier and changed the South forever. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:22:48):
Fuck, now we have to talk for thirty minutes. Yeah
so hot today?

Speaker 1 (01:22:51):
Huh? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:22:52):
Did anyone tell Martin Luther King that all he needed
was one.

Speaker 1 (01:22:56):
Ex governor ex governor.

Speaker 3 (01:22:58):
Governor to change every change everything?

Speaker 1 (01:23:01):
Yeah, just just sit down at the lunch counter and
eat the grossest sandwich alive. But again, I just want
to go back to Jesse, the plight of Jesse, who
now has to sit there and be like, so, what
was it like being the governor's wife? Was that fun?

Speaker 3 (01:23:14):
And also like deal with the mess that Sam has
left behind?

Speaker 1 (01:23:18):
Like, wait, what do you mean my granddaughters in the hospital?
What happened?

Speaker 3 (01:23:22):
What do you mean I tipped off an entire like
brew haha in this town a couple of days ago
by insisting on using the whites only facilities.

Speaker 1 (01:23:29):
Why is there like the remains of a burned across
at my front lawn.

Speaker 3 (01:23:35):
Poor Jesse, He's the real victim.

Speaker 2 (01:23:37):
Do I have to eat this egg salad sandwich.

Speaker 3 (01:23:40):
I don't want to belt.

Speaker 1 (01:23:42):
Could I get a turkey turkey club? Anything else?

Speaker 3 (01:23:45):
Supit of salad?

Speaker 1 (01:23:46):
No?

Speaker 3 (01:23:47):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:23:47):
Something hot, something that can't have like festering microbes on it.
Can I just get your boiling as hot soup? Please?

Speaker 3 (01:23:53):
Or do you my one exit? Do you have gas
station seashi here? Do they share down here?

Speaker 1 (01:23:57):
No?

Speaker 3 (01:23:58):
Nope? All right everyone. That is the end of the
Color of Truth, Season one, episode seven of Quantum Leap
Stick around. We'll be right back after these messages with
our random observations and final rankings, and we're back.

Speaker 1 (01:24:20):
Paul, take a break from saying the N word and
give us.

Speaker 3 (01:24:22):
Some won't give us, can't stop, won't stop.

Speaker 1 (01:24:26):
I love it. I want you to know he's called
me the N word four times. Do you have any
random observations on Quantum Leap The color of money?

Speaker 3 (01:24:39):
The color the color of money? Uh. The one good
line that Nell has when she's she's like talking to
Jesse and she's like, you did a great job, blah
blah blah, she does say all the white folks were
flapping their skinny lips about it, which I did appreciate.

Speaker 4 (01:24:56):
Love that.

Speaker 1 (01:24:58):
I only have one servation, and it has nothing to
do with the rest of the episode. It is from
the beginning, the very moment during the credits there's a voiceover.
I don't know if you caught the voiceover during the
credit sequence, but Scott Vacula going. It all started when
a time travel experiment I was conducting went a little
coca Coca coca, and I was like, I heard that wrong.

Speaker 2 (01:25:21):
It's cock eyed. I'm sure it's cocky. Sure, I heard
it wrong.

Speaker 1 (01:25:24):
And I rewound it and I heard cocka, And I
was like, the thing I was watching it on didn't
have like close caption as an option, so I was like,
I heard it wrong again. I'm gonna rewind it again again.

Speaker 3 (01:25:35):
A Q tip real quick.

Speaker 1 (01:25:36):
I swear to God, he says cocka cocka, went a
little cocka like shit definitely. Uh. I hate that. I
hate that.

Speaker 2 (01:25:47):
My whole boner for Scott Vacula just died.

Speaker 3 (01:25:51):
My boner for Scott Vacula's eternal it could not die.

Speaker 1 (01:25:54):
No, I now have the I have the ick for
Scott Vacula because he said the word cocka.

Speaker 3 (01:25:58):
But that is the closest it's ever come. I will
say that. I will say that I only have one
more it is it is, I didn't put this in
the recap doesn't really matter, but they do go to
the trouble of giving Jesse like a backstory, and at
one point Sam asks Al like, well, what about Jesse,
Like when did he die? What happened? Did he die
on the train tracks? With her? Like how worried should
I be about this train track thing? Basically ha, and

(01:26:20):
Al's like, oh, no, we can't find any records on him,
like it wouldn't be unheard of that a black man
in the fifties wouldn't have records, which makes sense. But
then at the end he's like, oh, by the way,
Ziggy found Jesse. He's still alive. He's like one hundred
and four and still kicking. And I'm like, okay, So
if he's one hundred and four, now, that means it's
been thirty years in the past, which means it's like
nineteen eighty five. That also doesn't make any sense. Everything

(01:26:43):
is breaking down.

Speaker 1 (01:26:45):
Yeah, what when are you? Sam?

Speaker 4 (01:26:48):
And Al?

Speaker 1 (01:26:49):
When are you? My question isn't what, but when?

Speaker 3 (01:26:52):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (01:26:52):
Who?

Speaker 1 (01:26:53):
And when are you?

Speaker 3 (01:26:54):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (01:26:55):
Also like they must have put that line in honestly
genuinely to make the audian's comfortable with the idea that
Sam isn't going to fuck up anything so much for
Jesse that this is going to get Jesse killed.

Speaker 3 (01:27:07):
That was my exact reason, which I'm like, so you
are somewhat aware because it's like a lot of this
comes off as it's obviously very white savior. It's obviously
like a little bone chilling to watch the entire thing
and how we all thought that racism was solved. Not
all of us, but a lot of white people did.
And it's like, I agree, that is what that has

(01:27:28):
to be. While they put that line in right because
there's no other reason for it.

Speaker 1 (01:27:32):
But then again, but just say, like, actually he lived
another thirty years and died peacefully in his sleep the end, Like,
don't say he's still alive because that messes with the timeline.

Speaker 3 (01:27:41):
Of the show, surrounded by his loved ones and Miss
Melanie actually left him an enormous sum of money and
he lived out his life in peace and quiet.

Speaker 1 (01:27:50):
Yeah, yeah, Paul, How should we rank this particular episode
of quantumly.

Speaker 3 (01:27:58):
One to ten rear admirals?

Speaker 1 (01:28:00):
Nah, we didn't. We didn't hit that hard enough.

Speaker 3 (01:28:02):
Now with his privates, it's not my joke. That Stephen
Sondtime's joke. I know what I'm stealing it. Steve would
want it that way.

Speaker 2 (01:28:08):
Steve would want it that way.

Speaker 1 (01:28:09):
Yeah, Private, Yes, we are admiral.

Speaker 4 (01:28:12):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (01:28:13):
How about one to ten delicious Chitlin recipes given to
us by an Italian man in the future. Has black friends.

Speaker 3 (01:28:23):
Yes, so many, so many black friends. Speaking of food,
one to ten, just gloppy egg salad sandwiches.

Speaker 1 (01:28:30):
Oh yum, festering.

Speaker 4 (01:28:32):
Uh huh.

Speaker 2 (01:28:33):
I want, I want.

Speaker 1 (01:28:35):
I want the brown paper bag to run away from
the sandwich.

Speaker 3 (01:28:38):
I want the toast to be toasted after the salads
and put on it by the sun.

Speaker 1 (01:28:43):
Oh yeah, I want, I want that rye bread to
be sweating. Uh huh Yeah. How about one to ten
Dean Stockwell.

Speaker 2 (01:28:51):
Fashion moments that just make this whole episode bearable.

Speaker 3 (01:28:56):
Like that time you looked like the bar manager at
dancey Tyria ha ha.

Speaker 1 (01:29:01):
Like his time the time he DJed a wedding in
New Jersey, m the time he the time he advised
Little Richard because he was Little Richard's personal trainer turned
to the gym, just gave him, gave him some workout tip.
The time he was a Pimp and a Rick Assley
music video.

Speaker 3 (01:29:15):
The time he was Elton John's dentist.

Speaker 1 (01:29:18):
This one, this one, this one?

Speaker 3 (01:29:20):
Do you want to go first? Or should I go first?
I'll go first, Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:29:23):
I I had a thought.

Speaker 3 (01:29:25):
I was like, that's always the guys. It's dangerous up.

Speaker 2 (01:29:29):
We should be able to say the N word.

Speaker 1 (01:29:32):
Look, it's it's time people, let's move past it. And
I'm kidding. My thought was I watched this by myself
in my apartment, and I was like, what if I
was watching this with one of my like my many
many black friends, because I am Dean Stockwell, no, but Jenny,
what if I was like sitting there and watching this
with like a black friend, Like, what would my reaction

(01:29:53):
have been.

Speaker 3 (01:29:55):
I it's talk about sweating. You would have been the
egg salad sandwich roughly the.

Speaker 1 (01:29:59):
Same I would Jen, only I would imagine I would be.
I would just be like, oh my god, this is
so dumb, Like this is crazy, Oh my god, he's
singing we Shall overcome. I'm dying inside. But honestly, part
of me would have also been like, genuinely at the
end of the episode just been like, yeah, I'm sorry,
sorry I made you watch that. Yeah, my apologies, my
apologies for making you watch that, because it's it's really embarrassing.

(01:30:23):
It is, it's really really embarrassing. Everyone's heart is in
the right place. They are trying to do right by
lair like liberal sixties minded hearts because remember who wrote this,
Like the people who grew up in the sixties, right,
the people who idolized you know, Martin Luther King and
Malcolm X. Maybe not Malcolm X, but Martin Luther King

(01:30:45):
and like grew up and then became cocaine adult television
writers and we're like yeah, and we're like, well, we
sold out all our morals and and and ethics, but
but we should at least try through our art to
create some level of messaging out there for the world. Right.
So that's the journey that I'm going on that these

(01:31:06):
writers are going on, right, Yea, so their hearts are in.

Speaker 2 (01:31:10):
Sort of the right places.

Speaker 4 (01:31:11):
But like.

Speaker 1 (01:31:13):
I harped on this earlier, but just the fact that
they didn't bother to cast any other black people, that
they didn't bother to have like literally anyone just in
the background walking around, Like if Jesse can just walk
through the town square without people screaming, and that means
other black people can just walk through the town square.
It's not the town isn't so segregated that like people

(01:31:35):
can't walk through in the background. But they didn't bother
because they didn't occur to them, because they were like, look,
look at what an amazing job we're doing solving racism.

Speaker 3 (01:31:43):
With this episode.

Speaker 1 (01:31:45):
They had a burning cross, they had Dean stock while
singing we shall overcome. I don't know if I'll ever
get over honestly, whilst dressed like a coked up banana.
I like it does just does an age well, like
and like you you do have to give it a

(01:32:06):
little bit of credit for the heart is in the
right place again, but like the messaging is so crazy wrong.
I don't think this is harmful, right sure, Like I
don't think anyone in nineteen eighty nine watched this and
was like, well, we solved it done, high five, we
solve racism.

Speaker 3 (01:32:22):
Well, I think I think it was in line. Like
I feel like I was taught that in elementary school,
Like when I learned solved it well, when I learned
about the Civil War, it was like the Civil War
happened so long ago. Segregation and like when you're ten, Yeah,
and it's nineteen ninety or whatever. Yeah, nineteen sixty sounds
like a thousand years ago, right, And like it felt

(01:32:46):
like it was done, like it was solved. And I
feel like I was taught that and I had to
unlearn that and be like, oh wait, no, hang on,
hang on. You know, like the Civil War, you know,
the North one and everyone agreed, you know what, the
North was right the whole time, and we're all cool
with that. And yeah, the South is actually very grateful
to the North for what we did.

Speaker 1 (01:33:05):
And by the way, the North did not have slavery,
totally innocent. Look it up, it wasn't a thing.

Speaker 3 (01:33:12):
Yeah. So like, like I I think that the show
presents that the word coming to my mind is sanitized
version of events. And and I don't think it's alone.
I think that's that was.

Speaker 1 (01:33:26):
There was so much of this.

Speaker 3 (01:33:27):
Yeah, and and and and I one hundred percent agree
that it. Like the heart is in the right place here,
but like it's so unsophisticated, and it's so it implies
that all we needed was one black man to decide
to sit at a segregated lunch counter and happened to
have a a B minus boss who was going to

(01:33:51):
decide to have a social consciousness and that would like
affect change and that like that's just simply it. It
It minimizes what the actual issue was and is so
much Yeah that like I feel like all we can
actually give credit for is the parts that are not

(01:34:12):
like specifically about this are they're entertaining. The episode itself,
if you take out all of the cringe moments, is
fundamentally entertaining.

Speaker 1 (01:34:19):
So there's so little that's not cringe. I can't even
think of like him making chitlens. I guess that's pretty funny.

Speaker 3 (01:34:25):
Yeah, but like like I understand that, like the writers
thought they were doing a thing. Yeah, and a bit
of credit I think can be given for that. And
the same way that we talk about, like we just
talked about like friends, how like Friends was groundbreaking now
it is considered homophobic, right for like the gay community.
I don't know, this was groundbreaking, but it was like
reinforcing that message of like high five, y'all, we did it,

(01:34:47):
we did it, we solved it, we solved it.

Speaker 2 (01:34:49):
And also also how terrible was the fifties?

Speaker 1 (01:34:52):
Am I right? Like thank god, we don't we're not
like that anymore.

Speaker 3 (01:34:56):
Yeah, And like the fact that a white man goes
into the situation treated as black for literally five seconds
and it's like, enough is enough. I won't stand for this,
and he solves it. Yeah, whereas no black person ever
thought enough is enough and then was like and yet
there's literally nothing I can do about this, and I
have to fucking make my way through this world. Yeah, right,

(01:35:19):
Like it's that That's what sticks in my craw the
most about it.

Speaker 1 (01:35:23):
I think for me, it's it's having a man dressed
as a used car salesman in Hell singing we shall overcome.
That's what really sticks in my That's the moment that
really sticks in my craw.

Speaker 4 (01:35:38):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:35:38):
Let's give it a commeasure at score? Shall we? Should
we give it like a two?

Speaker 3 (01:35:43):
I think a two. I think a two.

Speaker 1 (01:35:45):
I think so many and words too, by the way,
like many if like if you are triggered at all
by that, skip, look, do not watch this.

Speaker 3 (01:35:54):
Yeah, Like, if you are triggered by any kind of racism,
just don't watch this episode. It's I don't think it
quite hits offensive, but it's so blind to everything and
it's so backwards, unsophisticated, that it's it's simply not worth it.
It's not worth it, you guys, that's.

Speaker 1 (01:36:11):
Not worth the time.

Speaker 3 (01:36:12):
It's not worth the time.

Speaker 1 (01:36:13):
And like, I bet, there's so many great episodes Upuantum Leap.
They're totally fun and like, not nearly this stupid.

Speaker 3 (01:36:19):
I want to see the one where he saves the pig.
I love Charlotte's Webb genuinely.

Speaker 1 (01:36:23):
I kind of want to watch another one to cleanse
the palette a little bit, to be like, Okay, okay,
so that's fun, Like one with Terry Hatcher where he
just makes out with Terry Hatcher for an hour. Sure, great,
let's watch that.

Speaker 3 (01:36:34):
Yeah, so we're agreeing it's a two out of ten
Dean Stockwell Moments, only giving the two for what we
can see as the intent.

Speaker 1 (01:36:41):
Yeah, yeah, and what I think might be like. And
again with these episodes of this show the podcast, I
just want to reiterate, we are judging one episode of
one television show that neither of us are really versed
in at all. So, for all we know, the rest
of the show is a pluses across the board. I
doubt it.

Speaker 3 (01:37:00):
Well, it could be maybe, So we don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:37:02):
We're only we're only saying what we what we think
of this particular episode, right, So yeah, no, don't watch.

Speaker 2 (01:37:10):
Don't watch this particular episode of Quantum.

Speaker 1 (01:37:12):
Leap unless you unless you want to die of embarrassment
if you're white, or just furious anger if you're not white. Paul,
do you have a palate cleanser for Quantum Leap?

Speaker 4 (01:37:23):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (01:37:23):
Yeah, I was poking around. If you want to do
like a great sci fi show, there's always Battlestar Galactica.
I know that's first thought, but it's it is very good,
the reboot of Battle Star Galactica. There's also Looking. Scott
Baculo was on the first season of Looking, which kind
of brought him back into my my realm as someone
to be lusted after, which is great. I think that

(01:37:44):
Looking kind of didn't get a fair shake from anybody.
I think it was. I think it was better than
people said it was at the time. It wasn't perfect.

Speaker 4 (01:37:51):
I liked it.

Speaker 1 (01:37:52):
I can't remember what the the the gay.

Speaker 3 (01:37:54):
Community kind of turned on it because it was the
only gay show and it wasn't everything to everybody. I think,
and it's it's I can honestly say I always liked Looking,
but like a lot of people I know did not,
and fair enough, like I'm not telling you you should
have liked it, but like, I think that show ages
pretty well and it's not perfect, but it's interesting and

(01:38:15):
Scott Baculu's hot on it, So you know, there's.

Speaker 1 (01:38:17):
That Scott Bacula. I'm looking at his like IMDb. He
plays a lot of gay characters. I forgot. He's one
of the gay neighbors in American Beauty. Yeah, and he's
in behind the candele Ora remember that.

Speaker 3 (01:38:27):
Oh god, I hate that movie.

Speaker 1 (01:38:28):
I really I kind of enjoyed it. I thought it
was weird and fun.

Speaker 3 (01:38:32):
And find Matt Damon's so irritating weird.

Speaker 1 (01:38:35):
I just really liked like the weirdness of it all.
I genuinely did. I think he plays if memory serves
this has been like a minute since I've seen that,
he plays this plastic surgeon.

Speaker 3 (01:38:45):
Right, No, Oh, Scott Bacula doesn't Rob Low play play
the plastic surgeon.

Speaker 1 (01:38:49):
Oh you're right.

Speaker 2 (01:38:50):
I think Rob Low plays a plastic surgeon.

Speaker 1 (01:38:51):
I got to rewatch that movie.

Speaker 2 (01:38:53):
Honestly, I remember having a grand old time watching that movie.

Speaker 1 (01:38:58):
Anyway, I don't know, I have a hard time giving
a pallet cleanser, because again, I feel like other episodes
of the show are probably better. I don't have a
pallet cleanser. I'm just gonna say probably better episodes of
Quantum Leaf. Sorry I didn't do the homework for this episode.

Speaker 3 (01:39:13):
All right, everyone listening. That is the end of our show.
You can follow us on Blue Sky, Threads and Instagram
for social media. If you want to know what our
monthly themes will be in advance and you want to
request on those themes, that is on Instagram and on
Instagram only. We have a tea public shop where you
can pick up podcast swag, and we would love it
if you'd leave a five star of you on Apple
Podcasts on any podcasting platform that you use. If you

(01:39:34):
do that, just like these former things and penguins not
penguins from the top of this episode, let us know
you did it. We will send you a that aged
Well tote bag. And if you always thought I don't
know how to do that well, I've done some of
that for you. You can go to rate this podcast
dot com slash that age well and follow the instructions there,
and I have left a link for that in the
show notes of this episode.

Speaker 1 (01:39:53):
That Aged Well is produced and edited by Paul Keola.
We would like to thank Karen Camille, Darcy, Christina, Andy, Heather, Shannon, Kimberly, Sabrina, Oscar,
DJ Coffee, Carbs and Books, and some people whose names
do not appear on their social media profiles for reaching
out and letting us know that you wanted us to
discuss quantum leap.

Speaker 4 (01:40:14):
Mmmm.

Speaker 1 (01:40:15):
Folks listening. If you want to have a say in
the topics we discuss, join our Patreon. We say it
every week, but it remains true. Every patron gets to
vote in an exclusive monthly poll to determine one of
our subjects. So head on over to patreon dot com
slash That aged Well podcast to find out more. Speaking
of which, some tears on our Patreon come with thanks

(01:40:37):
from a podcast character. And today we're hearing from Agent
double O Panties. But hmm, I don't see him in
the green room.

Speaker 3 (01:40:45):
Oh what?

Speaker 5 (01:40:46):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (01:40:46):
No, he sent a voice memo.

Speaker 4 (01:40:49):
I hope this message finds you well, my little Uruguayan Empanada.
Give my regards to the Florentine Panzianella you waste your
time with. He'll never kill your toes, sweetheart, he'll just
want to thrill your hair. My apologies, I couldn't make
the trip in person this time, but with the current
state of the world, I'm sure you understand that everywhere
I turned, there's another goddamn filthy nazi a punch. I'm

(01:41:11):
going through panties like Leonardo DiCaprio, goes through women over
the age of twenty five quickly and with no time
to get to know them. That's why it was so
nice to get your request that I send a message
to Patty Pankey of ex fukes just say thank you
for being a patron of that age. Well, Patty, your
beautiful name reminds me of my favorite bit of dirty doggerel. Oh,

(01:41:33):
patty cake, Patty cake, Baker's man. Bake me a cake
as fat as you can, pat it and prick it
and bark it with a bee, and put in me
oven for baby and me. Can you believe they keep
that the children. It's disgusting. I gotta go now. Touty
and fruity, this itching powder isn't gonna get between the

(01:41:54):
cushions of the deep sofa by itself.

Speaker 1 (01:41:57):
In a voice memo sounds a little like Elvis.

Speaker 3 (01:42:01):
Presley did you notice that I didn't. It's good to know, though,
It's good to know that if if someone was doing
an impersonation, they have a start of an Elvis Presley, a.

Speaker 1 (01:42:16):
Little bit of a start of in Elvis Presley.

Speaker 3 (01:42:18):
Yeah, good to know. Good?

Speaker 1 (01:42:20):
You know?

Speaker 3 (01:42:21):
All right, Erica, any final thoughts on quantum Leap?

Speaker 1 (01:42:24):
We should no no.

Speaker 3 (01:42:36):
For some reason, new York City Center of the Universe.

Speaker 1 (01:42:42):
I read that so earlier this week when when Arielle
and I were hanging out. We were like in Hudson
Yards and she was like New York City and I
said center of the Universe. She started laughing, and I
was like, yeah, I mean I can't. I'm so glad
you did that. I was like, yeah, I can't hear
that without hearing Center. I also can't hear a little
town of Bethlehem without thinking we raise our Glass. You

(01:43:03):
bet your ass, like genuinely can't hear that song without.

Speaker 3 (01:43:07):
Hearing that lyric. It's because your cultured

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Quantum Leap (1989) - Chitlins, Rear Admirals & an Egg Salad Sandwich

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Quantum Leap (1989) - Chitlins, Rear Admirals & an Egg Salad Sandwich