"QUANTUM LEAP" PROGRAM--MUSEUM OF BROADCASTING FESTIVAL
LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART
March 17, 1990

Transcribed by Sally Smith

# audience laughs
% audience applauds

(intro's by host--Scott, Dean, Deborah, Don)

DB: First, I want to thank (unintelligible--the host and the Museum). 
Second, I want to thank all of you out here for coming for the final 
explanation of what the hell this show is all about. # It's the only show on 
television that requires an instruction booklet before you watch it. # When 
I pitched it to Brandon Tartikoff, he listened to me, looked at me and then 
said, "All right, I want you to tell me that again in less than 20 seconds 
and so my mother understands it." # I believe his mother understands it, but 
I'm still trying to explain it to Brandon. # But at least he's still 
listening because he renewed us this week. % And that renewal is due not 
just to the show and everybody on it, but also to all the fans and everyone 
out there who really loved it. Let me just tell you a little bit about 
tonight's episode, I think most of you have probably seen it, but if you 
haven't, it's "Gloria", "What Price Gloria". It's written by Deborah, and 
for the few of you who may not understand what this show is about, we'll 
answer questions later. Let me just say that... # (calls of "we understand" 
>From audience) You all understand it? (audience says "Yeah!") OK, let's 
watch "Gloria"! %


(after the episode screening)

 (The Fearsome Foursome comes back, to thunderous applause. Dean 
encourages audience to applaud even more, Scott says, "He's _so_ shy.")

HOST: Who wants to ask the first question? Right here.

Q: I've never been clear about what happens to the people whose body...# 
What memories do they have after the experience? #

SB: Don's Rules of Quantum Leaping... #

DB: I've always felt (unintelligible, but it was something about them 
being in the Waiting Room)...they're under observation. They have the same 
Swiss cheesed brain that Sam had when he leaped. They're observed, probed, 
looked at by people in masks, and they come back and write books about their 
UFO experiences. # %

Q: Why did it take so long for that episode (i.e. "Gloria") to air after 
the preview?

SB: We shot that the end of the first season, like the second-to-last 
show that was shot and they had originally scheduled it that it would 
possibly air last year, but because NBC doesn't like to air new shows 
into...is it May or sometime...?

DB: Into the summer.

SB: They decided to hold it, so it was the preview, it was the trailer to 
our last show of last season, but then we waited and saved it. I think they 
were a little nervous about the show. #

Q: Do you have plans to repeat the original season? I know you've done a 
couple of episodes.

DB: This summer, we will...Well, in the coming months, unfortunately, 
because of the production schedule, in the next 2 months, you'll see a 
number of repeats from the first season, and then this summer we will repeat 
this season.

Q (same guy): Great. And by the way, Mr. Stockwell, congratulations on 
the Golden Globe. Way to go. %

Q: I was wondering, in the pilot and also in here, "What Price Gloria", 
communication was that Al sees, that everybody in the future sees the person 
that Sam's in their place, as Sam. Yet in the episode that just aired ("Pool 
Hall Blues"), Al tells Sam how surprised he was when he walked into the 
Waiting Room and saw his old friend.

DB: He was looking into the _mirror_ in the Waiting Room. (# 
disparagingly at the cop-out. %) 

SB: (unintelligible dig at Don, who shrugs and grins)

Q: Will the pilot ever be re-aired in its entirety?

DB: Ah. Hopefully in syndication. # Probably not. It was aired as a 90 
minute this year, and I doubt it would be aired again, but you never know.

Q (a girl of about 5): How hard was it (something about high heels)? #

SB: How old are you? # Have you tried yet? # Yeah? Then you know. # %

Q: Will the "Man of La Mancha" episode be repeated?

DB: Yes. %

Q: I'd like to know, in an episode that was shown a couple of weeks ago, 
Sam leaped into another body in the same episode. Will there be more of 
that?

DB: Interestingly enough, that episode that you saw was the first episode 
after the pilot. It was written as the first episode after the pilot. It 
didn't air in that order because we thought we'd confused the people enough. 
# They were _really_ gonna get confused if he jumped twice in one episode. 
And so it aired when we were in the black hole of Hell on Friday night and 
you probably missed it. # Most people did. And it will air again, but 
probably not until late this summer.

Q: I have a couple questions. One, is there an episode in the works where 
we see from the waiting room, Al's (unintelligible).

DB: Dean's always campaigning for that, because that would be an 
episode... # %

DS: I could have a girlfriend there I could touch! # %

Q: And my second question is, are we ever going to find out Al's last 
name?

DP (mysteriously): Ahh...! #

DB: I am writing an episode _tonight_...

DS (interrupting): I know it.

DB: No you don't.

DS: Yes I do!

DB: No you don't!

DS: I have my last name.

DB: No you don't! (by now, audience is laughing hysterically)

DS: (unintelligible due to #)

DP (smiling): Wait'll you hear your last name.

DB: Wait'll you _hear_ your last name.

DS: Wait'll _you_ hear my last name! # (Don asks him what he thinks it 
is) Vesuvius. # %

SB: Man with _no_ ego here at all.

DB: I'm not gonna tell you what his last name is in Italian, but it means 
"screwdriver". # %

DS: What do you mean by that? #

DB: We will find his last name in the episode I'm writing right now, 
which will be the final episode of this season, we find out his last name.

Q: Would you talk about casting these two?

DB (laughs): Talk about casting? # Well, when I wrote the pilot, Scott 
came in and read for the part along with, a number of people came in and 
read for the part. And when I saw Scott read the part, the little piece that 
he did, he walked out and I turned and said, "This is the guy. This is him." 
I didn't tell _Scott_ that. # (Scott shakes his head) Because we still had 
to negotiate a deal, and... #

DP: Even beyond that, he asked one question at the end of the 
reading...not that the reading wasn't wonderful (Scott says "ha ha" 
disparagingly) but he turned and said, "What is this relationship between 
Sam and Al?" And it was just the kind of question that was from such a 
thinking person that made Don say, "I don't know, but if you come back, I'll 
let you know." # (unintelligible, her mike cut out)

DB: And Dean came in, and... (laughs) # there was _no_ question.

SB: Right in my face with that cigar like this the whole time # (he gets 
in Dean's face to demonstrate) And the hands are going like this # Hold it 
up, hold it up. (Dean takes out a cigar and %)

Q: Every episode, Sam has a mission to accomplish. Do you have any plans 
to write an episode where he fails?

DB and SB: (discuss whether they already have or not.)

SB: It depends on what you consider failure.

DB: Failure or success, right.

SB: The Indian episode was an episode that dealt, was on the edge of that 
because even though he told me my mission was to help this man die, I 
believed that that couldn't possibly be my mission. So in a way, Sam learned 
a lot in that episode. Technically, I succeeded, because I got the man to 
the place he wanted to be for the time of his death, but, uh, it was a big 
step, I think, for Sam to realize that. And I know that there's an episode 
that they're writing now where, actually the opener for next year and the 
one that Don's working on now, where we deal with a couple of things that we 
would like to change in our personal lives. And the rules are...(looks at 
Don) The Don Bellisario Rules of Quantum Leaping... # which change depending 
on the day... # There will be a book at Christmas. We try and change our own 
personal history and are unsuccessful. I think.

DB: That's exactly right. The end of this season and the beginning of 
next season deals with stories where Sam leaps into a situation where Dean 
is trying to get him to change something in _his_ personal history and we 
learn a lot about Dean in that... % and is unsuccessful, I think. I'm only 
in Act 3 # and since I never know how they're gonna end until I get there 
too--and I'm serious about that, I never do--I can't tell you how it's gonna 
end, except that he probably will _not_ be successful in what he wants. And 
then in the opener of next year, I will tell you this; the opener of next 
year, he leaps into _himself_ at age 16. %

SB: Y'know, I just, in finishing that...I would have been really 
disappointed if that woman had jumped off the ledge tonight, if Sam had 
(unintelligible) There's something that's wonderful about the show that Don 
has written and about this guy, that he does succeed on some level, I think, 
all the time. And I think we don't have a lot of people like that on 
television that do kind of express those kind of feelings and emotions every 
week.

DB: Also, we can fail at what _he_ feels he's here to do, but there's 
many times a mission beyond what he thinks he's here to do, what Dean thinks 
he's here to do, what Ziggy thinks he's here to do, and he succeeds at that 
mission.

DP: (unintelligible, but points out that in the veterinarian episode, he 
was there to give Buddy Holly the words to "Peggy Sue") # He didn't get the 
girl! #

DB: But I think that's true of us too. I think sometimes we don't see 
what we're here to do.

Q: (asks Don if Deborah's going to write more episodes)

DB: I think Deborah's written; she can answer that, she's written I 
think, 6 episodes. %

DP: Yes, I'm sure I will. # As a matter of fact, we're shooting one that 
I've written now that will air in May, which is a fun love story on the 
Queen Mary.

SB: She's also written--and she won't toot her own horn--she wrote "The 
Color of Truth", which she won an award for last year. % She wrote "Another 
Mother". %

DP: (indistinct, something about always making Scott leap into women) # 
but I make up for it, I keep writing romantic ones. (indistinct)

DB: She's also the one responsible for taking his shirt off. (% wildly)

Q: Miss Pratt, Mr. Bellisario just said that he never knows how he's 
going to end a show until he gets there. Watching tonight's episode, when 
you started out, did you really have that wonderful little scene at the end 
in mind?

DP: Yes, I did. As a matter of fact, I have to tell a funny story. Only 
because he's the boss, he can just go write, but because _I'm_ not the boss, 
I have to come in with a story, to let him know. Especially because it was 
the first show we were bringing him in as a woman, everybody went (gasps 
theatrically) #. And when I got to that part of the script, I gathered all 
the staff, all the writing staff in my office and I closed the door--all 
men--and I said, "OK, guys, what's it like to be a guy? I want your most 
personal..." # And they told me about, y'know, "prepubescent hormonal 
overload". # And I had to take it and make it palatable for television. #

DB: We didn't use that term, "prepubescent hormonal overload" # (Scott 
and Dean laugh too). We talked about something else. #

DP: It was very educational for me as well. # I felt that, uh, I mean, 
>From the first time I wrote it, I had a whole vision, and I walked in and I 
saw Scott in that dress. # I saw John Wayne in heels walk across the room! # 
I said, "Scott, no no no, a woman wouldn't do that," and he looked at me and 
said, "But I'm not a woman." # And he said, "That's one of the things that 
differs about a woman playing this part of sexual harrassment, the whole 
attitude that a woman feels helpless." He says, "I could take this guy out 
at any moment." # (unintelligible)

Q (from another little kid): Has Sam ever tried to walk through that door 
that Al goes through?

SB: I haven't. I ought to do that sometime. # I don't think I can travel 
that way. He's a hologram and the door is his own image and...(a baby down 
front starts to cry)...oh... #

DS: He gets to kiss all the girls, that's _my_ door!

Q: I've noticed there's been a lot less references to historical events 
this season than there was the first season. (indistinct, something about 
formerly showing Sam's previous leap as a lead-in at the beginning of each 
episode)

DB: Yeah. Well, we did 2 things. We did something that we had when we did 
the first shows called "a kiss with history", which is like the "Peggy Sue" 
thing is a kiss with history, or where he performed the Heimlich maneuver on 
a man who turned out to be Dr. Heimlich! # And we'll have him throw a paper 
plate to a dog and have a guy named Frisbee watch it go by. Those are the 
kisses with history and they are a lot of fun and they are so _difficult_ to 
come up with and--this is a terrible excuse, we're gonna put more of 'em in 
next year, I guarantee. % There was a second part to your question.

Q: (repeats the second part)

DB: What we decided to do, there were a lot of people coming to the 
table...Can you _imagine_ what it would be like, you never saw "Quantum 
Leap", you tune in, and you see what you just saw now? # I mean, you know, 
it would throw you. So we put in what we call a "saga cell". That's the 
little thing you see at the front now, which replaced what we used to do, 
which was to take the last story where we ended and do a recap of it and go 
into the new story. And we did that so that new viewers, who are coming all 
the time to us, would begin to understand what it's about. And that was the 
reason. It was purely to expedite and help them understand the show, help 
new people to understand the show.

Q: This question is directed to Dean Stockwell. I _love_ the clothes you 
wear % The question is, are they commercially available? # %

DS: Well, uh, maybe some of them are, but the man responsible for those 
clothes...The idea really was Don's, and then I shared it, and then he found 
the right man to execute this, our costume designer Jean-Pierre Dorleac, who 
is _here_, I believe. (Dorleac stands up and is wildly applauded) Nice job!

Q: This is for Deborah Pratt. Besides the excellent acting of Scott and 
Dean, I'm extremely impressed with the writing on the show. Do you ever look 
at free-lance material at all? #

DP: Well, it has to go through Legal. And I have and I've found some very 
good writers that way. I'm very careful, but...it has to go through Legal, 
that's the most important thing, there's a way to submit it.

DB: Unless you have an agent. If you don't have an agent, it has to go 
through our Legal department, otherwise it's...

SB: Call Eddie Murphy and ask why. #

DP and DS: Ask Art Buchwald.

Q: During the first season, you were trying to leap Sam back. Have you 
given up that whole premise, you're no longer trying to get him back, you've 
left him in the hands of God now?

SB: We did an episode, I think it was the...was it the disco episode? 
Where we discussed that. And we talked about...I was talking about how I 
missed--well, I couldn't remember # but I knew that I missed home. And Dean 
said something to the effect that "this is your home now, each place where 
you are and you can't worry about getting back. If you get back, you get 
back, but you have to make each place and each family your family and your 
home." And so that's where we're at in terms of that.

DS: It would be a good thing to somehow touch back on that.

DB: It's also that he's...We will do that. He's also just...he's into 
what he's doing. And uh,

DS: He does it so well.

DB: And he does it so well. #

Q: You just touched on a point that I'm really enjoying about the show, 
and that is the concept that Sam is something of a divine agent, righting 
wrongs. Have you received much feedback from both NBC and the public on 
this, and do you plan to continue, because I for one find it really 
refreshing and enjoyable.

DB: We get feedback from the public that likes it. I haven't had any from 
NBC on that particular thing, I think they like it too. But mostly what the 
public likes about the show--not mostly, but one of the things that I get 
feedback on, and I'm not answering your question, I guess--is that we get a 
lot of things where they say that they like that they can sit down with 
their whole family and watch the show and get some moral purpose out of it % 
and not be embarrassed by it.

Q: There was one episode where he was the mom and the little child could 
see him and I didn't understand why...

DB: The little child's in the audience and she happens to be our child. 

SB: Troian!

(somebody holds a sleepy but adorable little Troian Bellisario up and 
everyone gives her a big hand; Don and Deborah look properly doting). 

DB: I gotta give equal time to her brother, who was also in an episode 
(Michael stands up and is also applauded).

DS: That's another rule of time travel according to Don Bellisario. # 
That certain individuals--kids under 5, isn't it? (looks to Don for 
confirmation) because they're on an alpha wave and are very pure # they can 
sense or spot the hologram. And animals. And *I* think it should be blondes 
with low IQ's. # % 

SB (gives a typically Sam shake of the head): You'll hear that line in a 
couple weeks.

DB (laughing): You see how _difficult_ it is to write this stuff. #

Q: Can you tell us a little bit about the idea, where it came from, how 
it developed?

DS: Well, I was up late one night... #

DB: I really can't, other than to say that I wanted to do a show that was 
an anthology, and an anthology is a very nasty word to a network or a studio 
because they never or rarely are successful. And I wanted to find a way to 
do an anthology that could be successful, where we could each week tell a 
different story. And I felt the way to do that was to have two people that 
an audience would come to love and be able to follow week to week and know 
them and therefore we could tell a different story every week. And it just 
kinda comes. You don't know where it comes from.

DP: Four o'clock in the morning. #

Q: I want to know, we've seen Scott now without his shirt several times, 
I'd like to know when we're going to see Dean without his shirt! # %

DS (reacts in amazement; it gets a big laugh, so he milks it for all it's 
worth and continues his almost-audible astounded stare): I thought you were 
gonna say without his _pants_! #

SB: They wrote an episode last--the Italian episode...

DB: I was about to say that.

SB: ...he was supposed to leap in with just his swimsuit on. #

DS: I said, "No way, I don't wanna steal every scene in this thing." # % 
(Don laughs hysterically) C'mon!

Q: Are there any plans to expand the time frame window? To go any further 
back.

DB: No. No. No. I did not want to go back beyond his own lifetime, 
because once you start to have him popping into the Civil War, and on a ship 
with Christopher Columbus, and all that kind of stuff, it loses--this is 
really gonna sound weird--it loses credibility! # % (Scott nearly falls out 
of his chair laughing) I could buy when he leaps into 1953, 'cause I was 
there. # I can't buy back beyond that. #

Q: Scott, I know what Dean's favorite episode is, what's yours?

DS: You know what my favorite is? #

SB: What's Dean's favorite episode?

Q: What's _your_ favorite episode?

SB: What's Dean's favorite episode?

DS: I don't _have_ a favorite episode!

Q: "Catch a Falling Star". What's yours?

SB: Oh. Y'know, I get asked that question a lot and I like different 
episodes for different reasons. And I don't mean that to be a cop-out, it's 
just that each one is so different. I loved this episode tonight because it 
was a total (laughs) departure # and yet, it was...I don't know, I just 
loved the pain of the clothes. # It was something, my wife was terribly 
satisfied, # she was thrilled, I'd come home and complain about how cold I 
was, y'know.  You've got nothing, you've got stockings and your legs are 
cold and she just said, "Ha ha ha". # % I loved that episode, I loved the 
"Jimmy" episode where I played the mentally retarded guy. % I loved the "La 
Mancha" episode. % I loved "The Color of Truth". I loved the Italian episode 
and I loved the episode last year where I played Sam Spade, the detective. 
So I could just keep going, because...

DS: I don't have a favorite. #

SB: He likes the shows that he's in.

DS: I like 'em all. I like 'em all.

Q: You told me at the convention in January that you liked "Catch A 
Falling Star". (everyone laughs)

DS: No, I love that, but that's not my favorite. I really don't have a 
favorite. I really like 'em all. I really do.

Q: I don't have a question, but I just couldn't leave here tonight 
without telling you all how wonderful you are... %

DS: Can we get her name and number? #

Q: How each episode has touched my life in such a positive way. 
(indistinct). Thank you very much. %

SB: Thank _you_.

DS: Thank you.

Q: (indistinct, mostly whether there would be episodes where the main 
point was trying to teach Sam something)

SB: Well, I think in a way we do that. I mean, when I, I played the 
mentally retarded man, I felt--and this is a weird thing to say--but the way 
the script was scripted, I felt very...very disjointed from everybody. I 
never was close to that cast. They did scenes, wonderfully scripted, where 
people would talk like I wasn't in the room. And I really, I feel a 
lot...(pauses, to others) This is so _cosmic_. # (he laughs) I do feel a 
lot, just without even thinking about it of those people and their lives. 
And I think that's what we try and do is that, then, when you're watching it 
that you get that sense, maybe a little bit, of what it's like to be an 80 
year old black man in 1955 and treated like dirt, y'know? And if a little 
bit of that comes through, then I think we're doing that.

Q: I would first like to commend you on your choice of Mike Post for the 
music, he's very good. And now...it's been so long that I forget my 
question.

Q: I wanted to know, does Dean's personality impact the way you write Al? 
(# as does the panel.)

DB: Does his personality impact? Well, you saw him tonight sitting here 
saying he has his last name and I'm saying _I've_ got his last name. # Yeah, 
his personality...Dean...(pauses and they look at each other, #). These two 
gentlemen both are very, very fine actors. Now, you expect to hear that from 
an exec producer, but I mean that, beyond what you normally say. Scott, what 
he just said a few minutes ago, talking about he was disjointed playing 
Jimmy, that's a _performance_ that you saw that he _gave_. Dean does the 
same thing. We could write Dean differently and he would perform 
differently. His personality does impact, the fun that he has and fun-
loving, but he does give a performance. It's not Dean. And he can give a 
serious performance, too. He loves to think he's a comedian. # And he's 
going to give a serious performance in the one that I happen to be writing 
right now. Very serious performance. (mumble from Dean) You're dreading it? 
# He dreads everything! # He dreads _everything_!

DS: Not everything. I wanna know when you're gonna write about Tina. #

DB: He came to me about six months ago, eight months ago and said, 
"Y'know, this Tina thing, it's getting to be a little too much." He came to 
me about a week ago and said, "Y'know, where's Tina?" #

Q: Can Sam die?

DB: Yes. Can Sam die in the episode? Yes, absolutely.

Q: Seven years from now. #

DB (grins at that remark): He can die. If you think about it, when Sam 
comes in--I don't want to confuse you all, but when Sam leaps in and bounces 
somebody out... uh, I like to think of it this way. If Sam had, if that 
person was hit by a car and they broke their leg and hit the street and 
_then_ Sam leaped in, Sam would not have a broken leg. But if Sam leaped in 
and was crossing the street and was hit by the car, then Sam would have the 
broken leg. And so that's the way we think about it when we're writing. And 
so, yes, he could be killed.

Q: I was wondering, this is directed both to Dean and Scott. Since you 
two know the characters so well, have you ever thought of writing an episode 
yourself, and also I was wondering if we could get a couple of bars of "Man 
of La Mancha". # %

SB (looks dubious): Well, I'll let Dean sing first.

DS (singing--badly!): To dream... # % That's enough of that! #

SB: We've been really lucky and extremely fortunate to have terrific 
scripts and oftentimes you have a great desire to help the creative staff 
create...

DS: Oh, we help 'em. # After they write it, we try and change everything. 
# But we're so busy doing one show after another that it's very difficult 
for us to sit down and say, "well, let's take the time to try and write 
one." They're up there full-time writing, we're full-time acting, Don's 
full-time seeing over the whole thing and...

SB: And they're doing a great job. %

Q: This question is for Scott. (indistinct, wanting to know if he 
researches any of the roles)

SB: The only time I do research is when it's something that I have to 
perform or do that I have no ability in my own life to do. Because I try and 
approach the show in a way that I come at each role in as a fresh manner as 
possible, without researching, because I want to feel for the first time, 
what it's like--as much as you possibly can--what it's like to be mentally 
retarded, what it's like to be black. I really try and avoid research 
and...This is _silly_ actor talk. (to others) I _never_ talk this way! # I 
don't! But to be in each moment as much as possible for the first time. And 
then I have a wonderful man, Diamond Farnsworth, who's right there--stand 
up, Diamond. % Who's Diamond? # Diamond is the stunt coordinator for the 
show and my double, and he teaches me everything that I don't know and he 
makes sure that I live through each episode. # Thanks, Diamond. He's great, 
he does a great job. %

Q: (indistinct, to Deborah, wanting to know if they got any complaints 
about showing the dead bodies at the end of "A Portrait for Troian")

DP: Right now. # No, no, we did not. That was uh, no. We didn't get 
(indistinct). That was supposed to be our Halloween show and the earthquake 
hit and (indistinct).

Q: The other part of that question was, was there any reason for you to 
be in that role, other than the chance to get physical with Scott? #

DP (indignantly): I never! I'm the only person on the show that didn't 
get to kiss him (Scott says "aww" with fake sympathy). No, it was, uh, I had 
come out of a long-time acting career and been beating my brains out at the 
computer and Don said to me, "You can act in one of the shows" and that was 
like the last one we were shooting (indistinct). I had a very, very good 
time working on that.

SB: She did a great job. %

Q: When Sam first looks in the mirror (indistinct, wanting to know how 
those shots are done).

DB: There's two ways of doing it. One is that we take a mirror and we 
simply angle it slightly so that Scott is standing here (gestures to 
demonstrate) and the person whose image we have chosen for Scott is 
standing--and that's the one we see in the mirror, in other words, he's the 
one reflecting. But the more interesting way to do it, as you saw tonight, 
we build a double room. So where you see the mirror is not a mirror, but 
it's simply a mirror without any reflective surface in it, and there's a 
very thin net there that gives it a little bit of a mirror look. And then 
everything is duplicated in the other room. In the episode tonight, where he 
was a woman and you saw him walk forward to that wall of mirrors; Jeannie 
Sagal played Gloria. She happens to have a twin sister (enlightened, 
audience says "Ah!").

SB (smiling): That's the only time we did it.

DB: That was her twin sister on the other side and then, of course, the 
reflected whoever he is. But it's a credit to our set people, camera...Is 
our camera here tonight? Is our production designer? (they stand up and are 
applauded). Since we're giving out aces, this is such a good feeling. We 
wanna share it. Is Michael here? Watkins? Are you here, Michael? He's got a 
broken leg. Are you here?

DS: Yeah, in the back!

DB: The cinematographer! %

SB: He makes those great mirror shots.

DB: It makes the great mirror shots work. And they are very difficult. 
And they are done usually to a timing cue. They're usually done to a count, 
there'll be a count going on, you move on this...Scott can do it, he can do 
it. Watch these 2 guys do it (Scott and Dean demonstrate. #). And Jean-
Pierre makes the, y'know, you have to make the buttons backwards and the 
pocket has to go on the other side.

DS: They have to write the words backwards.

DB: Everything has to be done backwards on set design.

Q (the guy who forgot his question earlier): Yes, I remember it now 
(Scott laughs). During each episode, we get so drawn into it and to the 
characters, do you ever plan on sending him back to a situation from another 
angle or right after he may have left out. I know you did that in the 
Italian episode, but it wasn't quite the same.

DB: Right. We, that's been suggested to us, and we really haven't thought 
about doing that, about going back again and seeing, being back in the same 
situation a little later or a little earlier and handling it differently or 
seeing the result. Right now--I'll be honest with you--right now we're 
trying so hard to make this show understandable out there # to most of 
America that with exceptions like "Gloria", and where he came in as Jimmy, 
we have pretty well kept Scott being someone his own age, I mean--well, the 
old black fellow... But we haven't tried to go too far afield. I mean, I'd 
like to bring him in as a baby (# Scott nods). I'd like to bring him in as a 
dog. #

Q: (indistinct) Is there a temptation and a line you draw as far as the 
extent he can change something, say prevent the Kennedy assassination?

DB: Yeah, there is, there's very definitely. The show does not deal with 
events that you can--that _you_ know about that can be changed, for example, 
the Kennedy assassination. Nor will it ever deal with that. It, uh, we deal 
with the personal lives and small stories about people and how they're 
affected. And since you don't know these people, you don't know whether that 
happened or didn't happen. And therefore it becomes very believable. But if 
we were to go back and try to prevent something like the Kennedy 
assassination--which we couldn't do. The only way you could do something 
like the Kennedy thing is to have him say, leap into a situation where he 
was able to know about the Kennedy assassination, was on Kennedy's staff or 
something and was trying to tell them "don't go to Texas, don't go to Texas" 
November, 1963, "don't go, don't go, don't go". And finally, the episode, he 
convinces them and so somebody says, "OK, we're not going to Houston, we're 
going to Dallas." (audience says, "Ooooo...."). But then he's _responsible_ 
for it! # And he's caused it!

SB: Think of the letters. #

DB: So we don't wanna do that.

Q: In this last episode, you saved a woman's life, she went on and had 
kids. Is there (indistinct, something about further changes)?

DB: Yeah, well, you're talking about...  See, everybody gets into the 
(Scott laughs knowingly), when you get into time travel, everybody says, 
"well, if you change something, there's a ripple effect." And what we did 
with this show is say, "Right." (pauses, grins) # And we don't worry about 
it! You wouldn't be here if he hadn't # jumped into some episode.

Q: The intro to the show as it exists now mentions that Sam can travel 
within his own lifetime. Assuming that he lives beyond the 1995 leap-off 
date, are there any plans to do any future time episodes?

DB: Probably down the line we will at some point, because it would be an 
interesting way to do a story, especially with Dean's character, back--or 
forward--into the future. But not right away. I don't think this season. I 
think, uh, y'know; if we're fortunate enough, third season, fourth season, 
we'll start doing something like that.

Q: There was an episode where Al was on a trial, basically, trying to 
keep funding for the program (indistinct). They said there was no effective 
evidence that Sam had not died. (indistinct) you say he stepped into the 
accelerator and disappeared. It seems that contradicts the idea that people 
are in Sam's body in the Waiting Room. Is there any way around that?

DB: It contradicts that people are in the body?

Q: Right. Either he disappeared, or he _didn't_ disappear, y'know?

DB: You're right. You're absolutely right (# Don looks not at all ashamed 
at being caught in this boo-boo).

SB: Oh, I can handle _that_ one. Sam--the _persona_ of Sam--disappeared. 
Sam's essence went phfft. Somebody else came in.

Q: Why are they having trouble keeping funding? #

SB: Keeping funding? Because he just looks like some crazy guy talking 
like a woman one week and a black guy the next week... # They've got a loony 
locked up in a white room! # %

DB (chuckling): Don't investigate this too closely. #

Q: I wanted to ask Dean Stockwell if "The Boy With Green Hair" is out on 
videotape because my kids don't believe that Al, as a child, ever made 
movies. # (Panel laughs.) 

DS: Is it on videocassette? Is that the question? I think it is.

AUDIENCE: Yeah.

DS: Yeah.

SB: You have to search for it. You have to go to like, a pretty...hip 
video store. # But you can get it, you can rent it, and it's well worth 
renting. # It really is.

Q: Just out of curiosity, Deborah, in the episode we just saw, apparently 
the dog could see Al. (indistinct)

DP: Animals? I do believe that, again, animals have no preconceptions. 
They take you face value as who you are. If they don't like you, they don't 
like you. And if all of a sudden, you're their master and you're standing 
there, and you're _not_ standing there the next minute, they're going to, I 
believe, have the ability to see you. It's the whole thing, based on, 
animals feel earthquakes, and animals, y'know...that they know if somebody 
else has walked in the house. They can be back in the bedroom and if 
somebody that's not supposed to walk in the house walks into the house, then 
all of a sudden the dog is up growling and their hackles are up. So, yes, 
that's what that's based on. As far as children, again it's the same thing. 
Children have no preconceived ideas of who you are, they just see you for 
who you are.

DB: It's difficult to fool a child; for example, throwing your voice. You 
can _not_ throw your voice and fool a child under the age of, I think, two. 
The child will always look to the person who is throwing their voice, where 
an adult won't. It's amazing.

Q: In "Another Mother", Al says to the little girl, "I'll be back, I 
promise." We know you have access to the little girl... # (various panel 
members make various faces).

SB: New, on NBC! #

DP: It's interesting that you say that. That was such a sweet moment 
between the two of them, and there were a couple of shows like that, that, 
just as a writer, I found myself setting up. One of them was when Sam leaped 
in and ran into the first girl...the girl he almost married, the professor 
show. I'd love to bring him back as the second guy she almost married, as 
that guy, and he's gotta deal with the moral dilemma of: does he let this 
woman marry this guy, or does he push her on to him?

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Oh, please do! %

DP: Same thing with uh, Teresa. In the sense that I would love to do a 
show down the line where Sam pops in as somebody else and Teresa's all 
grown. (indistinct) So, yes, I do hope to do that and I hope we're on more 
than long enough to have all those opportunities. %

Q: What other shows or movies has Mr. Bakula been in? (mispronouncing 
Scott's last name)

DP: It's _Bakula_!

DS: It's Bakula. Rhymes with Dracula.

SB: I've done _no_ feature films, so you don't have to look for me there 
(smiles). # 

DS: He's going to do his first feature film during our hiatus, coming up, 
called "Sibling Rivalry".

SB: My agent. My new agent. # %

Q: Who else stars in it?

SB: Kirstie Alley. (audience says "ooo") Carl Reiner. Um, I did a TV 
series called "Eisenhower and Lutz" for CBS (% Scott looks surprised at the 
number of people applauding). You should've written letters, but I'm glad 
you didn't! I wouldn't be here tonight. (to Don) I could leap back into that 
series! # %

DB: The one I want him to do is, I want to leap him into "Magnum". # %

SB: For those of you weren't familiar with "Magnum", it was a story 
about... #

Q: How do you make the series survive? Do you get the Nielsens every 
week, do you have an idea of well how you have to do to survive?

DB: Oh, yeah. #

DS: Oh, _yeah_.

DB: Every Thursday morning at 7 AM, Harriet calls me with the Nielsen 
ratings from New York, which are the overnights. And then at 12:30 we get 
the nationals, and then we get the breakdowns, then we get all the charts, 
and yeah...we know what we have to do.

Q: So what _do_ you have to do?

DB: We did it. We're renewed. %

Q: Does it help if we buy like a couple extra TV sets? #

DB: No, letters are very helpful.

DS: Write letters to NBC.

DB: Letters to NBC are very helpful, but...

DS: Or postcards. # Telegrams. # Cables. Phone calls.

DB: NBC has been extremely supportive. Brandon Tartikoff has really been 
a fan of the show...

DS: Fax. #

DB: What?

DS: Fax. #

SB: (indistinct)

DB: NBC's been very supportive, Brandon's been a fan of the show. We were 
renewed last, uh...when we started out, we were in the mid-season and we 
were renewed with numbers that normally wouldn't be renewed at all, except 
that he had faith in the show and we had just a lot of support from over at 
NBC, a lot of people that love the show over there. And that's what's kept 
us going. I'm convinced this is going to be a major, major hit show when the 
rest of the world out there understands that it's really not a sci-fi show. 
Y'know, it really isn't. It's just the device to tell the kind of stories we 
want.

Q: Do you have a certain number guaranteed for next year?

DB: 22 for next year. %

Q: (indistinct to Scott, something about liking the musical episodes 
best) My question is, do you prefer doing this to just acting--not that it's 
_just_ acting, but you, having been on stage, do you prefer doing all 
different sorts of things? And will there be more episodes featuring this in 
the future? The music.

SB: Well, we're doing an episode right now where we're doing the tango, 
which is a lot of fun, in parts of it. This is really kind of the role of a 
lifetime, because I get to do something different every week. When you're on 
stage, you do the same show eight times a week, but it's different every 
night. And I love that because you can work on things constantly. When we do 
a scene, we don't have the luxury of coming back to it--very seldom do we, 
in all of our shows have we gone back and changed a scene and reshot it. So 
it's gone. But this is the greatest role...ever. I get to do everything that 
they, anything they can dream up, we can do. Really.

WOMAN IN AUDIENCE: Tell them that you can do it all.

SB: Oh, thank you. %

DS: Can't shoot pool worth a darn. #

SB: (to Dean) Aw...! (smiling, to audience member) Thanks, Mom. #

Q: Question for Mr. Stockwell. Sam gets to be a variety of people. Do you 
find that your role is a little more limited, you interact with one person. 
What does that do for you as an actor, and do you hope to be able to 
interact with more characters?

DS: Well, that's the definition of Al's character in this, he interacts 
solely with Sam. And that's a challenge in itself. (grins at Scott #) I 
found that I got very fortunate when I got into this show in being blended 
with Scott, because we get along beautifully and he's _wonderful_ to work 
with. He's great. He really is. Plus, he has to work 12, 14 hours a day, 
every scene, five days a week, every show.

SB (happily): I get a day off Monday. #

DS: I come in, say, maybe three and a half days a week, y'know. That's 
why I leave it to the young guy to do all the hard work. #

SB (mock complaining): He gets the little computer toys, he gets the 
clothes, he gets four day weekends... #

DS: Al seems to have a hell of a past tense, a very widely varied 
experience in his life. A lot of that comes up in the show and those are 
interesting things to deal with and to act. So I'm very happy. I like the 
concept. But I'm not gonna do the next show. #

Q: (completely indistinct)

DB: I didn't hear the last part of the question.

DS: What's the most important thing to express through this series? And 
where'd you get the idea?

DB: Um! # First of all, I honestly can't tell you where an idea comes 
>From when you're creating a show. You sit down to create a show, you work in 
your mind on it, whatever you're doing. You go to sleep thinking about it, 
and the idea comes. I was reading a book at the time by Timothy Farris 
called "Coming of Age in the Milky Way", which was dealing with how man 
learned about the cosmos, how man deals with time, and how we're trying to 
find the start of the universe. It was a layman's book, but it was really 
about Einsteinian theories and the theories that we have now about quantum 
physics, but it really had nothing to do with this, other than I guess that 
was a seed that got it started. I was also at the time toying with the idea 
of doing a series about a sort of mystical Indian who, a young man in the 
Southwest, who... (Scott and Dean have started making disparaging faces. # 
Don turns to see what's going on and they laugh). _They_ wrote it! # What 
I'm trying to say is, I don't know. I don't know how you come up with it.

What's the most important thing about it? I think the most important 
thing about it is that we can take someone from the '90's and the 
sensibilities that we have today and we can go back and look at what we were 
and who we were as little as 10, 20, 30 years ago and see how far we've come 
and how far we have to go.

HOST: Well, I think I should express on behalf of everybody that we're 
very glad you came up with the idea % and (indistinct thank you, standing 
ovation from audience as they leave).