Casper the Friendly Ghost Theatrical #34

Red White and Boo

by Isadore Klein, directed by Izzy Sparber and Myron Waldman

Every Casper cartoon had the same plot, including at least one (“Red, White and Boo”) from 1955 where Casper wonders whether people in the past will also be scared of him, so he uses a time machine to visit a caveman, Robert Fulton, Paul Revere, General Washington, and a Revolutionary War battle.

— Michael Main

Gee, maybe people in the past won’t be scared of me.

“Red White and Boo” by Isadore Klein, directed by Izzy Sparber and Myron Waldman (21 October 1955).

Unusual Tales #20

The Time Cap

by Joe Gill [?] and Bill Molno

Phil Winship, an executive at an American company in Iran, finds an odd cap in the desert that transports him to a strange laboratory.

— Michael Main

Now I realize what happened! This cap is some sort of time-travelling device!

“The Time Cap” by Joe Gill [?] and Bill Molno, Unusual Tales #20 (Charlton Comics, January 1960).

Scrooge

by Leslie Bricusse, directed by Ronald Neame

A faithful musical retelling of the original (complete with humbugs and the ambiguity over whether viewing the past and present consists of actual time travel).

— Michael Main

Humbug! Insolent young ruffians coming here with their Christmas nonsense!

Scrooge by Leslie Bricusse, directed by Ronald Neame (premiered at an unknown movie theater, Los Angeles, 5 November 1970).

Quantum Leap (s01e01–02)

Genesis

by Donald P. Bellisario, directed by David Hemmings

Physicist and all-around good guy Sam Beckett rushes his time machine into production—funding is about to be cut!—and as a consequence, he leaps into the life of a USAF test pilot, where Sam and his holographic cohort Al have a moral mission. And after setting things right in that pilot’s life, Sam—“oh, boy”—takes a few moments to win the big baseball game in 1968.

— Inmate Jan

One end of this string represents your birth, the other end your death. You tie the ends together, and your life is a loop. Ball the loop, and the days of your life touch each other out of sequence, therefore leaping to one point in the string to another. . .

Quantum Leap (s01e01–02), “Genesis” by Donald P. Bellisario, directed by David Hemmings (26 March 1989) [double-length broadcast].

Quantum Leap (s01e03)

Star-Crossed

by Deborah Pratt, directed by Mark Sobel

Why would anybody leap into English Professor Gerald Bryant during June 1972? Sam is certain that his mission is to he can reconcile his own future quantum physicist girlfriend with her father so that her fear of commitment won’t cause her to leave Sam at the alter in another twelve years.

— Michael Main

Don’t ya see, Al? I’m here to give Donna and I a second chance.

Quantum Leap (s01e03), “Star-Crossed” by Deborah Pratt, directed by Mark Sobel (NBC-TV, USA, 31 March 1989).

Quantum Leap (s01e04)

The Right Hand of God

by John Hill, directed by Gilbert Shilton

Sam leaps into professional boxer Clarence “Kid”Cody in 1974, where he must win his first legitimate fight in a year to save the sisters of St. Mary’s, start a new life with Dixie, and also—if things work out as expected in the Rumble in the Jungle—escape the mob.

— Michael Main

That surprise punch in the last inning . . . it was inspired.

Quantum Leap (s01e04), “The Right Hand of God” by John Hill, directed by Gilbert Shilton (NBC-TV, USA, 7 April 1989).

Quantum Leap (s01e05)

How the Tess Was Won

by Deborah Arakelian, directed by Ivan Dixon

Sam leaps into Doc Young, DVM, back in 1956 Lubbock, Texas, where it seems his purpose is to out-rope, out-ride, and out-posthole-dig cowgirl Tess McGill in an effort to win her heart.

— Michael Main

You can’t expect me to do this and not get involved. So if Tess falls in love with Doc, I’d appreciate it if you just leap me outta here as soon as possible.

Quantum Leap (s01e05), “How the Tess Was Won” by Deborah Arakelian, directed by Ivan Dixon (NBC-TV, USA, 14 April 1989).

Quantum Leap (s01e06)

Double Identity

by Donald P. Bellisario, directed by Aaron Lipstadt

Sam does a double leap at one location: First into hitman Frankie LaPalma at the moment when he and Don Geno’s former girlfriend are in the sack together, and then as Don Geno himself.

— Michael Main

Who ever heard of one lousy hairdryer blacking out all of the East Coast?

Quantum Leap (s01e06), “Double Identity” by Donald P. Bellisario, directed by Aaron Lipstadt (NBC-TV, USA, 21 April 1989).

Quantum Leap (s01e07)

The Color of Truth

by Deborah Pratt, directed by Michael Vejar

Upon arriving in an Alabama diner in 1955, Sam sits at the counter and sees an elderly Black man looking back at him from the mirror.

— Michael Main

You’re hear to save her tomorrow, not to initiate the civil rights activity in the South.

Quantum Leap (s01e07), “The Color of Truth” by Deborah Pratt, directed by Michael Vejar (NBC-TV, USA, 3 May 1989).

Quantum Leap (s01e08)

Camikazi Kid

by Paul Brown, directed by Alan J. Levi

It seeems that the only way Sam can fulfill his mission of stopping 17-year-old Cam Wilson’s older sister from marrying shithead Bob is to race Bob “for pinks” in hopes that Bob will lose his cool and show his true self, but that’ll only work if Sam (as Cam) and his buddy Jill can soup up Cam’s pink mommobile with a blast of nitrous oxide at exactly the right moment of the race.

— Michael Main

Older Brother: Come on, Mikey, we gotta rehearse.

Mikey: [waving] Bye-bye!

Quantum Leap (s01e08), “Camikazi Kid” by Paul Brown, directed by Alan J. Levi (NBC-TV, USA, 10 May 1989).

Quantum Leap (s01e09)

Play It Again, Seymour

by Donald P. Bellisario and Scott Shepard , directed by Aaron Lipstadt

Sam arrives in 1953 as a private eye who looks like Humphrey Bogart and has to solve the mystery of his partner’s murder while trying to figure out his relationship with his partner’s wife and the eager kid at the newsstand.

— Michael Main

Kid, if I’m lucky I’m gonna spend the rest of my life leaping around from one place to another instead of face down in a pool of blood.

Quantum Leap (s01e09), “Play It Again, Seymour” by Donald P. Bellisario and Scott Shepard , directed by Aaron Lipstadt (NBC-TV, USA, 17 May 1989).

Quantum Leap (s02e01)

Honeymoon Express

by Donald P. Bellisario, directed by Aaron Lipstadt

Sam pops into newly married Tom McBride (a New York policeman), who is headed to Niagara Falls with his new bride (a budding lawyer and the daughter of a senator). The two of them engage in the usual honeymoon activities—fighting off ex-boyfriend thugs, rolling underneath moving trains, studying for the bar exam—while unbeknownst to Sam, Al is at a Senate committee meeting in Washington, D.C., fighting for the life of Project Quantum Leap. Oh, yes, and it’s now official: Sam and Al believe that God has taken control of the project, although Al refuses to be pinned down as to which god she is.

— Michael Main

This committee has decided that your 2.4 billion dollar funding request for Project Quantum Leap . . .

Quantum Leap (s02e01), “Honeymoon Express” by Donald P. Bellisario, directed by Aaron Lipstadt (NBC-TV, USA, 20 September 1989).

Quantum Leap (s02e02)

Disco Inferno

by Paul Brown, directed by Gilbert Shilton

Sam finds out what it’s like to be a stuntman in a family with broken dynamics and (to him but not Al) in an era with broken music.

— Michael Main

Disco’s not gonna last forever. I got a feeling it’s probably gonna die in a couple of years.

Quantum Leap (s02e02), “Disco Inferno” by Paul Brown, directed by Gilbert Shilton (NBC-TV, USA, 27 September 1989).

Quantum Leap (s02e03)

The Americanization of Machiko

by Charlie Coffey, directed by Gilbert Shilton

In 1953, Sam steps off a bus as a sailor returning home from Japan with—surprise! to Sam and everyone else—a new bride named Machiko.

— Michael Main

“I try to find a husband . . . to find my husband”

Quantum Leap (s02e03), “The Americanization of Machiko” by Charlie Coffey, directed by Gilbert Shilton (NBC-TV, USA, 11 October 1989).

Quantum Leap (s02e04)

What Price Gloria?

by Deborah Pratt, directed by Alan J. Levi

Sam leaps into the body of executive secretary Samantha Stormer during a time rife with sexual harrassment that hadn’t yet been challenged or even given a name.

— Michael Main

You know, this is degrading. First he chases me around the office, then he says I gotta wear lipstick

Quantum Leap (s02e04), “What Price Gloria?” by Deborah Pratt, directed by Alan J. Levi (NBC-TV, USA, 25 October 1989).

Quantum Leap (s02e05)

Blind Faith

by Scott Shepard, directed by David G. Phinney

Who knew that if Sam leaped into a blind pianist’s body that he’d be able to see with his own eyes and stop a Central Park killer?

— Michael Main

He says he wants to play.

Quantum Leap (s02e05), “Blind Faith” by Scott Shepard, directed by David G. Phinney (NBC-TV, USA, 1 November 1989).

Quantum Leap (s02e06)

Good Morning, Peoria

by Chris Ruppenthal, directed by Michael Zinberg

Somewhat disoriented Sam—as Howlin’ Chic Howell at a 50’s radio station—must help station owner Rachel Powell defend rock’n’roll from the town elders and mobs of pitchfork-carrying, record-burning hayseeds.

— Michael Main

Fred, I appreciate your opinion, but no matter how many editorials you publish, I am not gonna stop playing rock’n’roll.

Quantum Leap (s02e06), “Good Morning, Peoria” by Chris Ruppenthal, directed by Michael Zinberg (NBC-TV, USA, 8 November 1989).

The Hemingway Hoax

by Joe Haldeman

Literature professor John Baird and conman Sylvester Castlemaine hatch a plan to get rich forging Hemingway’s lost stories, but before long, Baird is confronted by an apparent guardian of the many timelines in the form of Hemingway himself.

— Michael Main

I’m from the future and the past and other temporalities that you can’t comprehend. But all you need to know is that yiou must not write this Hemingway story. If you do, I or someone like me will have to kill you.

“The Hemingway Hoax” by Joe Haldeman, Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, April 1990.

Pug

by Theodora Goss

In the time of Napoleon, a sickly English girl discovers a dog in her garden, and the dog leads her through a door to other times and places.

— Michael Main

(Imagine our relief to learn of Waterloo.)

“Pug” by Theodora Goss, in Asimov’s Science Fiction, July 2011.

Videoville

by Christopher East

In late 1986, geek Tim Stanek (he prefers the term “nerd”) and his high-school buddy Louis are approached one night by an unheard-of sort of person: a sensitive and inclusive football jock who asks them to come with him on a mission that needs their particular kind of resourcefulness.

— Michael Main

AAPL, AMZN, GOOG, NFLX

“Videoville” by Christopher East, in Asimov’s Science Fiction, December 2014.

Miniseries

시지프스: The Myth

Sisyphus: The Myth English release: Sisyphus: The Myth Literal: Sisyphus: The myth

by 전찬호 and 이제인, directed by 진혁

Young genius Han Tae-sul is the focus of dangerous people and a mysterious woman—Gang Seo-hae—from a war-torn near future.

Sadly, the story comes close to being a slick static timeline, but alas, the writers could not follow through.

— Michael Main

The Downloader is a real piece of work. There’s only a ten percent chance of success, eh? And even if they make it, half of them get caught by the Control Bureau.

[ex=bare]시지프스: The Myth | Sisyphus: The myth | Sijipeuseu: The myth[/ex] by 전찬호 and 이제인, directed by 진혁, 16 untitled episodes (JTBC-TV, Korea, 17 February to 8 April 2021).