Dear Reader,
Here is some advice I got back in about 1990 regarding my
idea for an episode of a TV show that was then on NBC.
To both explain what sort of advice I can still use, and to
say why I believe my rare ideas for a TV show episode, movie or music video are
worth doing, I am writing you this note.
Back in the 1990’s NBC had a TV show on called “Quantum
Leap”. Set in the year 1999 (then 10 years in our future), the Sci-Fi show had
American scientists inventing a type of time machine. This allowed them to send
one scientist’s ‘soul’ (for want of a better word to describe what happened
each week) back in time up to about 50 years.
For the fiction of the show, this scientist *could* affect
history – but, with one exception, the show never even tried to make a positive
difference to society.
My episode would have changed all that. Let us call my
episode “Tomorrow was Yesterday”.
My plot was seemingly simple: the scientist would go back in
time to 1963, and prevent President Kennedy from being shot.
As you know, an hour Network TV show has from 47 to 51
minutes of footage after commercials.
How could I fill so much time? So far, my episode is only
about 5 minutes long.
I now need to explain more about my idea, and how my Sister in Law gave
me needed advice…
For the fiction of the show, scientists could not actually
send a man back in time; instead, they exchanged ‘souls’ with another man back in
time. So the Star of the Show, an actor named Scott Bakula, would look to everyone
back in time to be exactly like the man who existed back then; even sounding
just like the man in the past. He would, however, retain his own memories and
motivations.
So here is more of my idea:
Scott Bakula would ‘be’ Abraham Bolden – the first black Secret
Service on the White House Staff. Hand selected by JFK himself, this would be
literally the perfect person to pretend to be, since his job was to protect the
president from being shot, no one would think to question him if he actually
did stop the shooting.
Now you see that I only have about ½ hour of material.
How could I fill all available time?
Here is where my Sister in Law helped me:
Remember the show aired in 1990; for the fiction of the
show, it took scientists another 10 years to perfect the time travel process.
What, I wondered, would America be like in 2000? Could I fit
that vision into my episode?
My Sister in Law showed me a photo she took of an Army
General, Colon Powell. What if he became President in 2000?
*Perfect* !
Of course, no one knows what happens if you really change
history, and I had to ‘sidestep’ this question for my episode.
If JFK was not shot, many Bills to advance minorities might
not have been passed. After all, President Johnson was able to push through
these types of Laws because he could say he was finishing the vision of JFK;
without this motivation, some in Congress would never have voted for the
legislation.
I needed the real Colon Powell to play himself as President;
if the White House Oval Office scene was filmed in B&W, with a black Secret Service man
and a white President, it was set in 1963; if in full color of a white
scientist and a black President, it was set in the future world of the year
2000.
I still have my time travel paradox to deal with; I now have
to remind you that I know many of you do not believe as I do regarding the true
motivation behind world events. So just pretend that this is just a silly Sci
Fi TV show idea…
The scientist would be arguing with President Powell that since
he can do so, he was obligated to change history for the better. President
Powell reminded the scientist that he would not have just been elected if JFK
was not shot 36 years earlier. Powell even asks the scientist – since he *did*
already change history long ago, how is it that he was not ‘erased’ from what
is then ‘present’ day events?
Powell then expresses his sadness he felt that day in
November, 1963, after learning that JFK was shot. He say he would OK changing
history - *if* that could be done without affecting the civil rights that lead
him to be the first black President.
He says that every American remembers where he was when he
heard Kennedy was shot on Saturday, November 2nd.
BUT WAIT, says scientist Bakula. Since he ‘exists’ in both
1963 .and. 2000, he knows Kennedy was not shot until Nov. 22nd.
Scientist and President now realize both histories ARE true:
Secret Service Agent Abraham Bolden DID save Kennedy’s like when he was to be
shot in Chicago on Nov. 2nd, but, sadly and necessarily, JFK was
still shot in Dallas 3 weeks later.
There would be a parallel scene in 1963 where Agent Bolden
begs Kennedy not to go to Dallas. Kennedy wisely says that he was elected by
the people to make America better; he cannot be so fearful of death that he
avoids difficult situations. JFK then repeats what he actually said in real
life: that the Secret Service cannot fully protect him if some sick man shots
at him with a rifle from the top of a building.
I hope you now see what I sometimes say “do MY episode !”
I leave as a puzzle how I was able to come up with this
episode since I have no imagination.
Thank you for reading my long note about how my Sister in
Law helped me 22 years ago.
Stephen
