"Quantum Leap" Screening for Fans (1991)

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The "Quantum Leap" Screening for Fans was an event created for fans by Universal Studios.

printed in The Imaging Chamber #6

It took place February 25, 1991 at the Hitchcock Theatre in Universal City.

It was created to thank fans for their support of the show, and as a celebration of the show moving from the Friday Night Death Slot to its former glory on Wednesday nights.

Three hundred fans were in attendance. It is unknown how these fans were chosen.

Also in attendance were Donald P. Bellisario, Deborah Pratt, Dean Stockwell, and Scott Bakula.

The episode shown was "8 1/2 Months" which featured Bakula as a woman who was pregnant and giving birth.

Afterwards, there was Q&A session and an autograph session.

A similar official promotion event that year was Leap Week.

Fan Comments

I wish I’d had a chance to meet you at the February screening, but there were a lot of people I either didn’t get to talk to at all or barely had a chance to say "hi” to. It was rather an overwhelming experience, meeting so many people whose names I knew from the zines and the membership lists... And, of course, there was also the screening, and the Q&A, and the autograph session, and minor stuff like that. There’s a videotape of the Q&A supposedly in the mail to me, but it hasn't turned up so far.

[...]

One of our members. Kris Arnold, talked to Don Bellisario at the screening about the so-called hiatus. He told her he was responsible for holding back episodes in January and February. He said he knew that they had some especially good episodes coming up (and they did!), and he didn’t want to waste them on the Friday time slot. Kris, irrepressible soul that she is, berated him for worrying the fans with the show’s sudden absence, but Don felt the show’s chances were better with no ratings at all to drag the average down, as opposed to more bad ratings from either new episodes or reruns.

Hello, fellowLeapers! Here we go again. A lot has happened since #6. Thankfully the show is back on the air, on Wednesdays, the rating are vastly improved and, best of all, they’ve been picked up for another season. The ads NBC ran after the letter campaign were great fun!

Then, after "we won!”, Belisarius Productions did something completely unprecedented: they threw a party for their fans! Can you believe it? They wanted to thank us for writing the letters. Wow! Isn't it wonderful to have the people in charge of a series acknowledge that fans did play an important role in the life of the show? I've been involved in "save the show" campaigns before and never have I experienced anything like this. Unfortunately, I couldn't get to the screening as my vacation had already been scheduled for two weeks later and I didn't have the money to fly to LA and back twice in one month!

Well, we already knew God had a sense of humor. A few weeks after I wrote that letter to TIC #6 laying down the law about how fans should act around Scott and Dean, I was the one trying not to drool on their shoes. Not that I’m complaining, mind you. Julie Barrett and I flew out to California for the advance screening of "8 1/2 Months," which as we all know by now was great. As out-of-towners we got seats in the second row and, after the Q&A session, good spots in line for the guys’ autographs. I got more of a chance to watch and talk to Scott, of the two. What everyone says is right; he is nice. Which sounds like damning with faint praise, but English doesn’t have any good words for the kind of person who makes you feel comfortable Just by being in the room. I think he’d have a lot of fun at a con, and so would everyone else present. Dean was a little more formal, but he was also very polite and patient with the fans.

Further Reading

• the screening is mentioned at The Quantum Leap Frequently Asked Questions List
• The Observer v.1 n.2