Magnum P.I. is already a pretty wild show when it comes to supernatural undertones, which are strangely strong for a crime show- there’s ghosts, visions, prophetic dreams, little omnipotent voices…
However the sheer chaos of introducing leaping into the show’s canon would really have taken it to a whole new level and I am truly sad we never got to see it.
It would have strictly been a Quantum Leap episode (the Magnum P.I. run was already over at this point) as a special season finale, but I think it would’ve still been part of the Magnum canon. Tho to be fair, could you imagine this from the Magnum P.I. side of things- just an episode where at the end suddenly Magnum turns out to have been Sam Beckett this whole time and the Magnum audience has to very quickly accept time travel and leaping as a reality in this show?! That would probably have been a whole episode of Magnum being fully competent and responsible for once!
The reason why it never happened isn’t actually confirmed. Some say it might have been that Tom Selleck wasn’t interested in reprising the role for it or that Bellisario (showrunner of both shows) was suddenly more interested in doing a Magnum P.I. movie at the time (which also didn’t happen)… There’s theories but we don’t really know.
But for everyone who’s also sad that we never got to see this: At a Quantum Leap convention (presumably a long time ago) they once showed the only (test) footage that was recorded for this episode (which tells you just how close it was to becoming reality) of Scott Bakula doing takes of the famous 4th wall break for the leap-in scene, which a convention guest thankfully thought to record:
Itis just three extremely low quality minutes of Scott Bakula turning his head, both in the iconic Magnum shirt as well as… not in any shirt as the convention audience cheers.
I have an additions to make, after having seen most of Quantum Leap.
When Sam Beckett leaps, the person he leaps into goes to a waiting room at the research facility (in 1995 if I’m not mistaken).
Al has mentioned that people who arrive often think they’ve been abducted by aliens and we see people arrive there confused and in disbelief.
Thomas Magnum was this close to canonically becoming a time traveller and going to the future. Think about that.
Celebrate the return of Agents Fox Sculder and Dana Mully in The X-Flies as it returns to our televisual eye-vortexes in 2016 by wearing one of these fantabulous t-shirts.
And if you believe that Star trek Enterprise has Sam Beckett (Quantum Leap) is inhabiting Johnathan Archer’s body then Judeo Christian religions are real in the Star trek universe as well
Originally, in the Miss Deep South script, Sam had an opening monologue after he enters the lobby where he talks about his sister, Katie, and how she loved pageants. This was later cut, but Sam’s closing lines about wishing Katie was there were kept.
Posting this on behalf of Matt Dale (who wrote the amazing Beyond the Mirror Image), who writes:
“Quantum Leap fans!
Would you like to be involved in my next project, set to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the show next year?
I’m looking to collate a collection of fan stories… do you have…:
- A fun memory of meeting one of the cast or crew? - A unique piece of memorabilia? - A story about how QL has affected your life? - Recollections of running a fanzine back in the day?
…or anything else that captures the spirit of variety in QL fandom?
Nothing is too big, too small, or too strange (hell, Allison Pregler’s drier lint portrait of Dean Stockwell gets a piece). If you’d like to chat about it, I’d LOVE to hear.”
In earlier drafts of their first episodes (Star-Crossed and MIA, respectively), Donna and Beth, now both brunettes, originally had different hair colors.
Donna’s hair was described as auburn, while Beth was blonde.
In the past, Donald Bellisario has denied the existence of the alternate ending scripts. We now know the ending mentioned above went through filming, since negatives from the set were found:
Quantum Leap sometimes drew inspiration from real-world events for their episodes, and Killin’ Time is no exception.
Leon Stiles, the serial killer in this episode, is possibly based off of Christopher Wilder, who went on a killing spree through Texas and Oklahoma, plus other states, in early 1984. While Wilder targeted beauty queens (prostitutes are a common target for serial killers, e. g., Jack the Ripper), he and Stiles both abducted and killed young women. Both Wilder and Stiles (at least, in the original history) both died in a confrontation with police.
