'Tomorrow was Yesterday' TV Episode Idea

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 2^nd.

BUT WAIT, says scientist Bakula. Since he ‘exists’ in both 1963 .and. 2000, he knows Kennedy was not shot until Nov. 22^nd.

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. 2^nd, 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