#538876
Animal Frat
Original Air Date: January 3, 1990
Written by: Chris Ruppenthal
Directed by: Gilbert Shilton
Leap Date: October 19, 1967
This time: Sam leaps into a kegger. He is Knut “Wild Thing” Wileton, a brother in Tau Kappa Beta. The fraternity also likes to throw water balloons out the window; amazingly that will be important later.
Al shows up to say that Sam is not there for academics. A local group on campus, led by Elizabeth Spokane, will detonate a bomb in the chemistry building to protest the Vietnam War but the building has someone in it, leading her to hide for the rest of her life. He must prevent her from doing that though the task is made harder after his brothers hit her with a water balloon. Sam tries to apologize, but is blocked by Duck, the male group leader. Duck is dubious but agrees to let Sam help but only under his watchful eye.
In class, the bothers are being general assholes while Elizabeth is trying to talk to the professor about the college’s support of the war. The brothers challenge him to take Elizabeth to a luau party which Al agrees with since that would keep her away from the bombing site. Sam uses his intelligence to convince Elizabeth to accompany him on the condition that he pass out some fliers.
At the luau, Sam finds out that Elizabeth planted the bomb on a timer. As it turns out, a pledge, Scooter, is in there! Everyone rushes to save him, not knowing that Scooter already came back. They successfully defuse the bomb, but history is not changed. Duck has a second bomb as a failsafe. Sam finds it, but there is no time to defuse it though they can toss it out the window like a water balloon.
Elizabeth gets back on the right track, but Sam doesn’t leap. The brothers have him jump into a pool, something Wild Thing survived but was paralyzed. He is successful. Sam leaps …
… into a mother preparing dinner while kids are arguing.
Stop talking to yourself: Right before leaping into a kegger full of drunken students, Sam talks about how rewarding leaping can be.
Only Sam can see and hear: Al is useful in the brothers successfully putting cherry bombs in the girls toilets.
Mirror images that were not his own: Right before waking up the girls in his bed, Sam gets a look at Wild Thing.
Brush with Fame: Sam says that the Vietnam War would be stopped by a coordinated campaign of media and protests with thousands.
Let’s up the rating: The brothers sneak into the girls’ building and there are appropriate lingerie shots.
One more time: “I’m trapped in the body of a troglodyte. I don’t want to graduate in it, I want to leap out of it as soon as I can.”
Sam to Al bemoaning the leap.
The Rainbow Treknection: Before appearing on Voyager as Michael Jonas, Raphael Sbarge played one of the brothers here. Though there, he was trying to betray the ship and here is trying to save it.
Trivial Matter: Quantum Leap and Star Trek were not the only long running shows Sparge appeared on. He has a stint on 24 in season six and starred early on Once Upon a Time’s run as Archie Hopper/Jiminy Cricket.
Put right what once went wrong: “Hey, where are you going?” “I’ll get the notes from you later.” “Notes?” All the trappings of Animal House are here, down to the ladder falling although in this case it is not for that reason. We are constantly reminded of the fact that this is a fraternity throughout the hour. Between two parties and three pranks they writers keep the gags coming. There is even foreshadowing of the events in the climax. I am not sure how much acting is required for a bunch of young guys to act like jerks, but they sell it. While there are serious consequences that Sam is trying to avoid, we never lose sight of the setting.
The drama parts of the episode are good too, though they can drag at times. Let us face it, an anti-war protest isn’t that exciting right after a raid on the girls. There is little chemistry between Sam and Elizabeth while Duck comes across as a jerk. It is hard to see people following him. The parts are well-written and a nice contrast to the comedic segments. The anti-war setting feels like it could have used a few more extras as it somewhat pales to the fraternity.
The ending just strikes of Short-Episode-Syndrome. The whole pool jump is just an added antic that does not really add much especially with the other antics. It is just there to add to the runtime as it could have been deleted entirely without batting an eye. There is no reason Al cannot exposit what happens to in the future to Sam other than to pad the runtime. It is just tacked on. For that matter, we just know what happens to Elizabeth and to a lesser extent Sam. We do not know what happens to the brothers or to Duck. Did he face any consequences for trying to blow up the chemistry building? We will never know.
This episode is well-written and well plotted. There are clever things in here and while it is not something I will run back to watch, I did enjoy it. Balancing comedy and tragedy is not easy, but they did thread the needle here.
Original Air Date: January 3, 1990
Written by: Chris Ruppenthal
Directed by: Gilbert Shilton
Leap Date: October 19, 1967
This time: Sam leaps into a kegger. He is Knut “Wild Thing” Wileton, a brother in Tau Kappa Beta. The fraternity also likes to throw water balloons out the window; amazingly that will be important later.
Al shows up to say that Sam is not there for academics. A local group on campus, led by Elizabeth Spokane, will detonate a bomb in the chemistry building to protest the Vietnam War but the building has someone in it, leading her to hide for the rest of her life. He must prevent her from doing that though the task is made harder after his brothers hit her with a water balloon. Sam tries to apologize, but is blocked by Duck, the male group leader. Duck is dubious but agrees to let Sam help but only under his watchful eye.
In class, the bothers are being general assholes while Elizabeth is trying to talk to the professor about the college’s support of the war. The brothers challenge him to take Elizabeth to a luau party which Al agrees with since that would keep her away from the bombing site. Sam uses his intelligence to convince Elizabeth to accompany him on the condition that he pass out some fliers.
At the luau, Sam finds out that Elizabeth planted the bomb on a timer. As it turns out, a pledge, Scooter, is in there! Everyone rushes to save him, not knowing that Scooter already came back. They successfully defuse the bomb, but history is not changed. Duck has a second bomb as a failsafe. Sam finds it, but there is no time to defuse it though they can toss it out the window like a water balloon.
Elizabeth gets back on the right track, but Sam doesn’t leap. The brothers have him jump into a pool, something Wild Thing survived but was paralyzed. He is successful. Sam leaps …
… into a mother preparing dinner while kids are arguing.
Stop talking to yourself: Right before leaping into a kegger full of drunken students, Sam talks about how rewarding leaping can be.
Only Sam can see and hear: Al is useful in the brothers successfully putting cherry bombs in the girls toilets.
Mirror images that were not his own: Right before waking up the girls in his bed, Sam gets a look at Wild Thing.
Brush with Fame: Sam says that the Vietnam War would be stopped by a coordinated campaign of media and protests with thousands.
Let’s up the rating: The brothers sneak into the girls’ building and there are appropriate lingerie shots.
One more time: “I’m trapped in the body of a troglodyte. I don’t want to graduate in it, I want to leap out of it as soon as I can.”
Sam to Al bemoaning the leap.
The Rainbow Treknection: Before appearing on Voyager as Michael Jonas, Raphael Sbarge played one of the brothers here. Though there, he was trying to betray the ship and here is trying to save it.
Trivial Matter: Quantum Leap and Star Trek were not the only long running shows Sparge appeared on. He has a stint on 24 in season six and starred early on Once Upon a Time’s run as Archie Hopper/Jiminy Cricket.
Put right what once went wrong: “Hey, where are you going?” “I’ll get the notes from you later.” “Notes?” All the trappings of Animal House are here, down to the ladder falling although in this case it is not for that reason. We are constantly reminded of the fact that this is a fraternity throughout the hour. Between two parties and three pranks they writers keep the gags coming. There is even foreshadowing of the events in the climax. I am not sure how much acting is required for a bunch of young guys to act like jerks, but they sell it. While there are serious consequences that Sam is trying to avoid, we never lose sight of the setting.
The drama parts of the episode are good too, though they can drag at times. Let us face it, an anti-war protest isn’t that exciting right after a raid on the girls. There is little chemistry between Sam and Elizabeth while Duck comes across as a jerk. It is hard to see people following him. The parts are well-written and a nice contrast to the comedic segments. The anti-war setting feels like it could have used a few more extras as it somewhat pales to the fraternity.
The ending just strikes of Short-Episode-Syndrome. The whole pool jump is just an added antic that does not really add much especially with the other antics. It is just there to add to the runtime as it could have been deleted entirely without batting an eye. There is no reason Al cannot exposit what happens to in the future to Sam other than to pad the runtime. It is just tacked on. For that matter, we just know what happens to Elizabeth and to a lesser extent Sam. We do not know what happens to the brothers or to Duck. Did he face any consequences for trying to blow up the chemistry building? We will never know.
This episode is well-written and well plotted. There are clever things in here and while it is not something I will run back to watch, I did enjoy it. Balancing comedy and tragedy is not easy, but they did thread the needle here.
New places for old(er) keywords: Continuing Mission
Cardassians and Federation posturing it out: Showdown: Four Lights
Cardassians and Federation posturing it out: Showdown: Four Lights