{"id":214,"date":"2009-02-11T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-02-11T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wwwold.sketchwar.org\/?p=214"},"modified":"2009-02-11T07:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-02-11T15:00:00","slug":"fsw-pimp-my-tv-edition-peters-entry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sketchwar.org\/?p=214","title":{"rendered":"FSW: Pimp My TV Edition (Peter’s entry)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Friday Sketch War
\nPimp My TV Edition
\n\u201cQuantum Leap Trailer\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

FADE IN:<\/p>\n

SERIES OF SHOTS (1995)<\/p>\n

Brief glimpses of shaky digi-cam footage:<\/p>\n

A) SAM BECKETT (30s, likeable) works in a high-tech science lab.<\/p>\n

B) He steps into a pillar of smoke.<\/p>\n

C) He vanishes in a flash of blue light.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the caption “1995” appears and fades, and a clear female voice narrates —<\/p>\n

ZIGGY (V.O.)<\/p>\n

In 1995, Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the main accelerator of Project Quantum Leap and vanished —<\/p>\n

OVER BLACK<\/p>\n

ZIGGY (V.O.)<\/p>\n

— until now.<\/p>\n

EXT. MILITARY OUTPOST (1976) – DAY<\/p>\n

A dusty, utilitarian building in the middle of nowhere. A caption — “1976” — appears and fades.<\/p>\n

INT. INTERROGATION ROOM – CONTINUOUS<\/p>\n

A small, white, antiseptic room with minimal furniture. A massive mirror takes up one of the walls.<\/p>\n

MILLINGTON (20s, intense, creepy) looms over OTIS (8, farm boy, scared).<\/p>\n

OTIS<\/p>\n

I’m Otis Beaufoy.<\/p>\n

MILLINGTON<\/p>\n

No. You’ve temporarily taken Otis’s place. Otis is cooling his heels in a lab in California, thirty years in the future.<\/p>\n

OTIS<\/p>\n

That’s crazy!<\/p>\n

MILLINGTON<\/p>\n

Is it —<\/p>\n

Millington GRABS Otis’s arm (cree-py), and something odd happens —<\/p>\n

Otis morphs into Dr. Sam Beckett.<\/p>\n

MILLINGTON<\/p>\n

— Dr. Beckett?<\/p>\n

He nods to the mirror.<\/p>\n

MILLINGTON<\/p>\n

Kill him.<\/p>\n

Sam dives for cover just as GUNSHOTS shatter the mirror.<\/p>\n

EXT. LAKESIDE (2010) – DAY<\/p>\n

AL (60s, cantankerous) walks and talks with an UNSEEN FIGURE in idyllic surroundings.<\/p>\n

AL<\/p>\n

Sam randomly leaps from person to person, and decade to decade. Even I can’t find him any more.<\/p>\n

Most of this line is voiceover for a —<\/p>\n

SERIES OF SHOTS><\/p>\n

A) Sam looks into a smeary mirror in a gas-station bathroom. His mirror image is an elderly black man. (Caption: “1958”.)<\/p>\n

B) Sam drives a Cadillac through the desert. He wears sunglasses and a hat, and he smokes a cigarette in a cigarette holder. In the car’s rearview, Hunter S. Thompson looks back. (Caption: “1971”.)<\/p>\n

C) Sam clumsily applies lipstick in a ladies’ restroom. In the mirror: an attractive blonde. (Caption: “1985”.)<\/p>\n

BACK TO SCENE<\/p>\n

Still walking and talking.<\/p>\n

UNSEEN FIGURE<\/p>\n

Maybe we can help.<\/p>\n

New angle REVEALS that the figure is MILLINGTON, now in his 50s, still intense, still creepy!<\/p>\n

OLD MILLINGTON<\/p>\n

So. What makes Sam tick?<\/p>\n

EXT. NEIGHBORHOOD STREET (1993) – NIGHT<\/p>\n

Fire trucks flash their lights on a suburban street as a three-alarm fire dies down. ONLOOKERS gape at the destruction. (The caption: “1993”.)<\/p>\n

A three-alarm fire dies down.<\/p>\n

ONLOOKERS gape at the destruction.<\/p>\n

Sam, in full firefighter’s gear, hands a bottle of water to RHEA (30s), holding a cat, still attractive despite the soot, grime, and singed clothing.<\/p>\n

SAM<\/p>\n

I know what it’s like to lose your home. You’d give anything to get it back, and —<\/p>\n

RHEA<\/p>\n

Wait, how did you even know we were trapped in there?<\/p>\n

SAM<\/p>\n

I’m a time-travelling scientist from the future.<\/p>\n

Beat.<\/p>\n

Rhea laughs.<\/p>\n

RHEA<\/p>\n

Whatever.<\/p>\n

INT.\/EXT. SURVEILLANCE VAN – CONTINUOUS<\/p>\n

Two scary-looking GOVERNMENT AGENT types watch Sam and Rhea with high-tech equipment.<\/p>\n

AGENT #1<\/p>\n

We’ve acquired the target.<\/p>\n

RADIO VOICE (FILTERED)<\/p>\n

Get him.<\/p>\n

The agents depart the van, weapons drawn.<\/p>\n

INT. SHABBY LIVING ROOM (2010) – DAY<\/p>\n

GUSHIE, a little technician with bad breath and odd clothes, shows Al a cryptic readout on a homebuilt computer.<\/p>\n

AL<\/p>\n

What does any of this mean?<\/p>\n

GUSHIE<\/p>\n

Sam has a trackable signature. We can find him.<\/p>\n

AL<\/p>\n

Tell me where.<\/p>\n

INT. MOD NIGHTCLUB (1966) – NIGHT<\/p>\n

An over-the-top nightclub full of garish colors (caption: “1966”).<\/p>\n

A rectangle of light appears in the air; HOLOGRAM AL enters through it.<\/p>\n

A PASSERBY walks straight through Al like he’s a ghost.<\/p>\n

Al crosses to —<\/p>\n

A NEARBY TABLE<\/p>\n

— where *three* Sams sit, all scribbling equations.<\/p>\n

AL<\/p>\n

Sam. I’m back.<\/p>\n

SAM #1<\/p>\n

Al?<\/p>\n

SAM #2<\/p>\n

Al?<\/p>\n

SAM #3<\/p>\n

Al!<\/p>\n

Sam #3 leaps up and tries to give Al a big hug.<\/p>\n

He sweeps right through the hologram.<\/p>\n

Al rolls his eyes.<\/p>\n

EXT. WHEAT FIELD (1959) – DAY<\/p>\n

In the middle of nowhere, a small airplane bears down on Sam, North by Northwest-style. Sam hits the ground. Holo-Al stands nearby, the wheat sweeping through him. (Caption: “1959”.)<\/p>\n

EXT. WHEAT FIELD – LATER<\/p>\n

Sam and Al hide out from the plane.<\/p>\n

SAM<\/p>\n

Why would someone be after me?<\/p>\n

AL<\/p>\n

You’ve had this hero gig, going from place to place, setting things right that once went wrong.<\/p>\n

This serves as voiceover for another quick —<\/p>\n

SERIES OF SHOTS<\/p>\n

A) In Yankee Stadium, Sam hits a fly ball into deep center field. (Caption: “1967”.)<\/p>\n

B) Sam pilots a Medivac helicopter through a sandstorm. (Caption: “1992”.)<\/p>\n

C) Sam kisses a movie starlet in a Douglas-Sirk-looking scene on a film set. (Caption: “1957.”)<\/p>\n

BACK TO SCENE<\/p>\n

Right back where we were.<\/p>\n

SAM<\/p>\n

What, was somebody setting them wrong in the first place?<\/p>\n

Al doesn’t answer, but he looks worried.<\/p>\n

The plane makes another pass.<\/p>\n

INT. UNIVERSITY LAB (1958) – NIGHT<\/p>\n

Al follows Sam through a lab full of boxy old-style lab equipment (caption: “1958”), and he’s mad as hell.<\/p>\n

SAM<\/p>\n

I have to stop these people.<\/p>\n

AL<\/p>\n

I made you a promise. I promised you I was gonna bring you home.<\/p>\n

Sam approaches a big red button.<\/p>\n

SAM<\/p>\n

Not yet, Al.<\/p>\n

Sam hits the button.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, the room dissolves into —<\/p>\n

INT. HOLO-ROOM – NIGHT<\/p>\n

Now Al is all alone in a plain room similar to the Enterprise’s holo-deck.<\/p>\n

AL<\/p>\n

Dammit!<\/p>\n

EXT. KHE SAHN, VIETNAM (1968) – DAY<\/p>\n

Sam, now in military fatigues, drags a WOUNDED SOLDIER to shelter while bombs EXPLODE nearby and airplanes lay down STRAFING FIRE. (Caption: “1968”.)<\/p>\n

WOUNDED SOLDIER<\/p>\n

Leave me! That’s an order!<\/p>\n

SAM<\/p>\n

We just have to go a little further!<\/p>\n

INT. PROJECT QUANTUM LEAP (2010) – DAY<\/p>\n

Al, bruised and bleeding, picks his way through the lab we saw at the beginning. <\/p>\n

Except now it looks like a bomb has hit it.<\/p>\n

Smoke and sparks everywhere.<\/p>\n

The same voice from the opening — <\/p>\n

ZIGGY (O.S.)<\/p>\n

Initiating auto-destruct sequence. Good-bye Al.<\/p>\n

AL<\/p>\n

What? No!<\/p>\n

INT. CONTROL ROOM (2010) – NIGHT<\/p>\n

A high-tech center that puts everything at Project Quantum Leap to shame. Three-dimensional holo-projections float about the desks and big e-ink maps cover the walls.<\/p>\n

Al, still looking beat-up, sits handcuffed to a chair.<\/p>\n

Millington stands by a control pad and lectures him.<\/p>\n

MILLINGTON<\/p>\n

You lost, Al. We won. And now, *we* decide what happens to Sam!<\/p>\n

He turns a key on the control pad and pulls a lever.<\/p>\n

EXT. FREE-FALL – DAY<\/p>\n

A BLINDING FLASH OF BLUE as Sam leaps into a body that’s in free-fall, 10,000 feet up, plummeting towards earth.<\/p>\n

SAM<\/p>\n

Oh boy.<\/p>\n

SMASH CUT TO:<\/p>\n

QUANTUM LEAP LOGO<\/p>\n

The first few notes of the original theme song play faintly.<\/p>\n

A jumble of different years fade in and out in the background.<\/p>\n

“2010” fades in beneath the main logo, and sticks.<\/p>\n

FADE OUT.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friday Sketch War Pimp My TV Edition \u201cQuantum Leap Trailer\u201d FADE IN: SERIES OF SHOTS (1995) Brief glimpses of shaky digi-cam footage: A) SAM BECKETT (30s, likeable) works in a high-tech science lab. B) He steps into a pillar of smoke. C) He vanishes in a flash of blue light. Meanwhile, the caption “1995” appears […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[148],"class_list":["post-214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sketches","tag-pimp-my-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sketchwar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sketchwar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sketchwar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sketchwar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sketchwar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sketchwar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sketchwar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sketchwar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sketchwar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}