LEAPING TOO SOON AND TOO OFTEN

On this date in 1989, "Quantum Leap" debuted with a Sunday night movie premiere.  The show has always had a loyal fan-base.  What many don't recall is that it was a surprise second-season renewal.  Three airings on Wednesdays at 10 saved the show and turned out to be the only time slot that worked for this cult favorite.  This excerpt from my Kindle Single about my days as an NBC page recalls a time when not only was the renewal a surprise, but "QL" was struggling in season two against fellow quality dramas "Wiseguy" and "China Beach."  When asked my two cents, I suggested a family-friendly 8:00 slot, which was a common thought at the time.  When it was attempted in 1990 and 1992, it only proved fans liked their show where it was.  But then, I was among those surprised that the anthology format was going to last.

I arrived in California for the first time at the end of October, 1989, having lined up three or four interviews a day at NBC.  After locating the west coast page lounge, I “camped out” in sort of a mirror universe, complete with our east coast group picture on the wall.  My suit stood out like a sore thumb around the much more casual Burbank office style.   Hanging out in the NBC commissary (made infamous by bad food jokes by Johnny Carson and Bob Hope), I kept a log of my meetings in a notebook.  There was a pay phone outside to call home and internal phones to make appointments. 

Brandon Tartikoff was my first meeting that Monday.   I was greeted by his assistants whom I had previously spoken, and was escorted to an “auxiliary guest office.”  Although disappointed that I wasn’t brought into Tartikoff’s real office, I wonder if the guest office was later made infamous in 1994 when Jay Leno listened in on executive phone calls about his future on “The Tonight Show.”  Tartikoff soon entered, casually dressed in a sweater, and greeted me with familiarity from our few encounters in New York.  He had been working out some details regarding a live “Night of 100 Stars III” that would air the following May.  I told him of my background as a student of television.  He wondered if I had any relatives in the business, but I had not.  He asked if there was an area of programming in which I was most interested.  He had previously met some young people who wanted to enter development, current programming and such.  Without hesitation, I responded “scheduling.”  I had spent my life following the strategies of the then-four networks.  Besides, there weren’t many other people I had met who also followed the schedule.  Most of my page friends wanted to get into sports, news or entertainment programs. 

Tartikoff flipped over one of my resumes and scribbled the names of five of the newer NBC shows on the back: “Sister Kate,” “Mancuso, FBI,” “Hardball,” “Quantum Leap” and “Midnight Caller.”  Three of them were brand new fall shows.  The time-travel drama, “Quantum Leap” is easily the most recognizable of the quintet.  I wondered why he hadn’t written down the new Mel Brooks comedy “The Nutt House,” but later that day, I learned from a USA Today newspaper that it was the first cancellation of the season. 

That fall, “Quantum” went into its second season and was a bit of a surprise renewal.  It struggled on Friday nights early that spring as the replacement for fellow Universal drama, “Miami Vice.”  East coast execs would look at the overnights and ask “when can we get “Vice” back in there?”  With the series finale looming, “Vice” wound up replacing “Quantum” on Fridays after it had aired three times.  (Incidentally, “Vice” wrapped things up with a finale and still had four unaired episodes that didn’t broadcast until later.)  “Quantum” then ran three times on Wednesday nights at 10:00 where it did well in the 18-49 demographics.  It had only aired twice when it was announced as renewed for the fall schedule.  That fall, it didn’t set the world on fire on Wednesdays (competing with two other quality dramas, “Wiseguy” on CBS and “China Beach” on ABC).  Tartikoff asked me to write a few paragraphs about the five shows and send it to his office.  In my paper, I said to give “Quantum” which felt like an early-evening show, a couple of shots at Sundays at 8:00.  To me, the anthology format of the show to be like roulette.  If you liked the life Sam Beckett jumped into that week, fine.  If you didn’t like that life or the time period, you might not watch.  A Sunday tryout should show if there was interest and if not, pull the plug.  I was wrong, as it slowly built a loyal audience on Wednesdays and ran five seasons.  But, as I suspected, it was tested at 8:00 on Fridays and Tuesdays in the years to follow but it never did as well as in its Wednesday slot.

          That week in Burbank, I met with various executives in comedy, drama, late night, children’s programs, research and (the now extinct) movies-for-television.  Let’s cut to the chase.  I didn’t get a job.  There were two assistant positions I had applied for, as those assistants had been promoted.  Although there was no idea how to find a place to live and start working within the month, I was game.  I didn’t even have a credit card yet and had never rented a car.  I told the executives, some of whom went on to be network presidents, about my meeting with Tartikoff and my “scheduling assignment.”  Some drama executives shared their frustration about “Quantum Leap,” where they had received feedback that the handsome Scott Bakula never got the girl in the episodes.  In the far future, Bakula’s character was married but the female audience was hopeful that he would have romances (while inhabiting other people’s bodies).  

These rare promos aired the week before my 1989 visit to Burbank

and these aired after the show had moved to Fridays for the 1990/1991 season.