Proof Alternate Ending of Quantum Leap was shot

There has been rumors for years that additional footage was shot before the series was cancelled. Most telling were scripted pages of Al and his wife Beth. This would be after Sam changed history so that Beth never remarried before Al returned from Vietman. Al explains to Beth that he no longer can track Sam and that he plans to Leap to go searching for Him. She excepts this and believes he will succeed. Saying if Al could return from Vietman to her, he will return home from leaping.

Curiously series creator and episode writer Don Belisario has always denied this even existed. At a 2009 convention I attended he seemed annoyed about any questions on the subject.

Well recently a QL fan bought a box of photo negatives on EBay from production of the series. She was very surprised to discover negatives of Dean Stockwell and Susan Diol shooting that scene.

Here is a YouTube video of her explaining this discovery
And her Tumbler page with the pictures https://qlnegatives.tumblr.com/tagged/deleted+ending

I would LOVE to see the actual scene if it still exists. I can only speculate that the cancellation is still sore subject with Don.

 

I know there was an alternate ending which featured a picture of Al, Beth and their daughters, but I'm not aware of any actual live-action footage to that effect.

Are you sure this isn't what you were referring to?

 

Watch the video. As she explains the scene of the picture with Al, Beth, and their 4 daughters had leaked online years ago. But the scene of Al and Beth talking about Sam had never been seen in photos or footage. There was huge doubts THAT part had ever been filmed. Until know. https://78.media.tumblr.com/e68fdbbc9af74ae07ca8f37e03a066cc/tumblr_p423u6wCa71x5h85jo2_1280.jpg

 

Wow. That's cool.

 

I would have loved to see a tv movie back then, with Al as the leaper, trying to find Sam and retrieve him somehow, or change his fate via butterfly effect. I always wanted to know more about the evil leapers and what that was all about, other then the vague spiritual connotations.

 

I'd like to think the Evil Leapers are a result of Sam altering something in the timeline. So Sam would be responsible for creating them in the first place. Yes, Sam has done a lot of "good" with his leaps but it would have been neat to have seen some side effects because of it as well.

 

The episode right before the first evil Leapers episode was the one in which Sam leaped into an elderly man who had seen UFos. US Government agents interrogated Sam under truth serum. Sam revealed his real name, the name and purpose of Project Quantum Leap, and his top secret military clearance code.

Many fans think that is what lead to the evil Leapers. History was changed. People in the government know about Sam and his time travel before it happened. They started to investigate him and other signs of his activities. When he started building Quantum Leap a secret shadow counter group was started which stole his technology. Most likely the evil Leapers were from a time period later in the future.

 

That works.

 

I like that idea.


It's a shame we never got TV movies or a new series before the actor who played Al, died.

 

Umm Dean Stockwell is still alive and kicking age 81 though probably mostly retired.

Wiki lists his most recent appearence as a 2014 NCIS:New Orleans ep playing the father of Scott Backula's character and between 2006 and 2009 he had a occurring role on Battlestar Galactica.

 

You're right, I was confused. But he's in horrible shape, last I heard. In poor health and confined to a nursing home.

https://www.reddit.com/r/QuantumLea...y_for_dean_stockwell/?st=je07uk1p&sh=cdb07be4

 

Did Alia or Zoey know anything about Sam, Al or Project Quantum Leap before running into them? If not, that could nix the notion of an alternate program in the same timeline. Personally, I thought that they might be from an alternate dystopian future.

 

They might not know, but that doesn't negate the possibility that others in their project might.

 

I recall even back when the show was first canned that if the show had continued it would be about Sam leaping as himself and set in the future. Am I the only one who doesn't find that concept very interesting? I mean it wouldn't be complete waste because you would still have Bakula and Stockwell but overall it doesn't sound like something I would want other maybe a episode or two.

Jason

 

I would highly recommend the book http://www.lulu.com/shop/matt-dale/beyond-the-mirror-image/hardcover/product-23098157.html "Beyond the Mirror Image : The Observer's Guide to Quantum Leap". It's extremely detailed account of the production of the show. Compiled from interviews and comments at conventions over the years. It came out about a year ago and I was blown away about how much I learned.

Dean Stockwell commented at a convention shortly before cancellation that the plan was for Sam and Al to leap as a team in season 6.

My guess is that would have been short lived and gone back to the original format. That Don had pitched that gimmick to NBC with hopes that would motivate them to renew with a new angle for them to promote. Obviously that plan did not work. Don always hoped to bring the show back. I suspect he cut that ending so he was not tied to a specific cliffhanger. But with the possibility of using that scene with Al and Beth in a TV movie. That on screen text was done last, last minute. Which is why Sam's last name is misspelled with only one "t"!

 

It would be in their best interests to keep Alia in the dark, but Zoey didn't know about it either, which is why I suspect that none of them knew.

As for the nature of the evil leapers: I always thought it was .

 

That was my first thought after I saw the finale with the bartender who was maybe God. If God had good Leapers, then it would make sense for the Devil to have evil ones.
I understand it really wasn't what the show was about, but I wish they had gotten a chance to deal a bit more with the mythology behind the evil Leapers and then the whole thing with maybe God.
It felt like there was a chance they could have introduced a bigger conflict between groups of good and evil Leapers.

This is a really cool idea, and a nice use of the show's previous stories to explain them.

Cassius Pride, the father of Scott Backula's Dwayne Pride, is played by Stacy Keach in NCIS: New Orleans. Dean Stockwell's Thomas Hamilton was the father of Steven Weber's character, Douglas Hamilton.

I saw the story about the alternate ending on Io9 the other day, and I'm disappointed they didn't leave it in. I actually like that as an ending for the series than the one we ended up getting.

 

So either way he would have been playing a racsist dirt bag

Should have realised he can't have play Cassius pride given the scenes on the motor yacht when c. pride has only just gotten out of prison.

 

The lost ending footage has been found
https://screenrant.com/quantum-leap...eHykIRj85Jl8Q6CvNfXgYK1Od_czzOtlbcchu7p-t-oO8

 

The wiki is wrong. Stacy Keach is the only actor to play Scott Bakula's character's dad on NCIS:NOLA. Dean Stockwell was in an episode that year, but he played another character.