Anyone Remember This Show

[amigocabal]

so a dude creates a time machine and tries to travel to the past (like what Kyle Reese did the The Terminator). But instead of ending up naked in the past, he ends up naked in the past inside another person's body. He then proceeds to possess other people in the past.

For an idea that could have been cooked up while high on crack cocaine laced with heroin, the show was critically acclaimed.

[SpottedKitty]

That sounds a little bit (but not all that much) like Quantum Leap. Not bad, and I did like a few individual episodes. Starring Scott Bakula before he became a starship captain in Enterprise.

[FaxModem1]

Quantum Leap wasn't meant to be a time travel show, or a scifi show. It was a show created by Donald Bellisario that could use old costumes and backlots on the cheap, to have an anthology premise. You cast two actors, set it anywhere in the 20th century America. Er, I mean anytime in Sam's lifetime, and tell whatever story you want. This is why Sam always leaped into an American, no matter what. Sam never appeared in, say, 1990s Iraq, 1980s UK, 1970s China, etc. The only time Sam actually did appear overseas, it was during a war that America was involved in, and Sam would be one of the soldiers.

The show's creator famously had a maxim for any questions, inconsistencies, or problems that came up. "Don't examine this too closely."

This is why details, such as how old Sam or Al were, what their backstories were, who they were married to, or how they knew each other, changed constantly. The writers just didn't care. It was "Love, American Style" disguised as a time travel show.

[amigocabal]

Quantum Leap wasn't meant to be a time travel show, or a scifi show. It was a show created by Donald Bellisario that could use old costumes and backlots on the cheap, to have an anthology premise. You cast two actors, set it anywhere in the 20th century America. Er, I mean anytime in Sam's lifetime, and tell whatever story you want. This is why Sam always leaped into an American, no matter what. Sam never appeared in, say, 1990s Iraq, 1980s UK, 1970s China, etc. The only time Sam actually did appear overseas, it was during a war that America was involved in, and Sam would be one of the soldiers.

The show's creator famously had a maxim for any questions, inconsistencies, or problems that came up. "Don't examine this too closely."

This is why details, such as how old Sam or Al were, what their backstories were, who they were married to, or how they knew each other, changed constantly. The writers just didn't care. It was "Love, American Style" disguised as a time travel show.

Maybe their backstories were changed by time travel.

I did some looking into the show, and noted that Sam never leaped into the following:

- an identical twin
- a gangster rapper during the late'80's/early '90's East Coast/West Coast rivalry
- an infant
- a submarine sailor.

[Elheru Aran]

Quantum Leap was... what, late 80s, early 90s? Gangsta rap was still not a very present thing in culture, that was more or less the grunge-rock period. White people still dominated in popular culture apart from Bill Cosby. It's no wonder they wouldn't have put Sam into that situation (not to mention that television at the time would have had to heavily censor most of those songs and dialogue anyway).

[FaxModem1]

Quantum Leap wasn't meant to be a time travel show, or a scifi show. It was a show created by Donald Bellisario that could use old costumes and backlots on the cheap, to have an anthology premise. You cast two actors, set it anywhere in the 20th century America. Er, I mean anytime in Sam's lifetime, and tell whatever story you want. This is why Sam always leaped into an American, no matter what. Sam never appeared in, say, 1990s Iraq, 1980s UK, 1970s China, etc. The only time Sam actually did appear overseas, it was during a war that America was involved in, and Sam would be one of the soldiers.

The show's creator famously had a maxim for any questions, inconsistencies, or problems that came up. "Don't examine this too closely."

This is why details, such as how old Sam or Al were, what their backstories were, who they were married to, or how they knew each other, changed constantly. The writers just didn't care. It was "Love, American Style" disguised as a time travel show.

Maybe their backstories were changed by time travel.

I did some looking into the show, and noted that Sam never leaped into the following:

- an identical twin
- a gangster rapper during the late'80's/early '90's East Coast/West Coast rivalry
- an infant
- a submarine sailor.

That was supposedly the justification, it was called the "Swiss Cheese effect". Really it was just an excuse to rewrite the character to fit whatever plot of the week they were going to have. So if one week Sam needed to know open-heart surgery, well he trained for years as a surgeon, so he can save the day, whereas a few episodes later, Sam isn't a medical doctor, and needs to know how to perform CPR from Al. In other words, while people did get attached to the characters, they were characters in name only, and more plot devices to change depending on the writer.

And the reason I bring up the non-American thing is that Sam Beckett had no rhyme or reason to only leap into 20th century America, and not say somewhere in 1910s Bolivia or 1930s Australia, other than the fact that they didn't have an established set and costumes for that. And you can't say it was due to distance, as Sam leaped into American soldiers in Vietnam during the Vietnam war. The established reason for all of this was that God was making Sam leap in order to improve the timeline, and if so, it really proved that God only cares about Americans.