Sam leaps into Dr. Ruth Westheimer, a celebrity sex therapist and talk-show host. As the real Dr. Ruth counsels Al in the Waiting Room, Sam must deal with both the dysfunctional romance of a couple of members of Dr. Ruth’s team, as well as a woman who has called into his show to talk about a potentially abusive situation at her work.
Written by Robin Bernheim. Directed by Stuart Margolin.
Previous Episode: Liberation • Next Episode: Blood Moon
Comments:
Dr. Ruth is quite a good episode of Quantum Leap. It’s funny and imaginative, with some decent emotional beats. It’s also unabashedly goofy, but in a good way.
Of course it’s notable because this time around Sam is in the life of a real person, and that real person is on hand to play themself. Dr. Ruth Westheimer turns inn a decent performance, although admittedly she doesn’t have to do much other than what she did in her public life anyway.
And naturally, it’s fun to see Sam begin to take on Dr. Ruth’s tone and manner of speech. The idea that Sam’s mind would merge to some degree with his host’s used to be something that the show only hinted at, but now it’s just full-blown expected. Al comments on it, but not in a way that treats it as remarkable or concerning.
The story is made up of four parallel sets of scenes, all featuring something about who Dr. Ruth was. Maybe the consistently funniest is seeing Sam’s awkwardness playing Dr. Ruth on her radio show—this gives us quite a few humorous bits. The storyline with Doug and Debbie isn’t particularly exciting, but it does allow us to see Sam playing another side of Dr. Ruth’s life.
The plot with the harassed and abused Annie is of course dramatic and gripping, and allows for that classic Quantum Leap trope of Sam doing things that his host could never do. We don’t get to see Dr. Ruth running over the roofs of cars except in fleeting glimpses reflections, but it’s hilarious to just imagine how others who are watching would be reacting to the site of what she is doing.
But the thing that really makes the episode special are the scenes in the Waiting Room with Al talking to the real Dr. Ruth. Al of course is someone well positioned to be receiving the sort of input Dr. Ruth could provide, and the scenes between are funny but also read as believable and authentic. And of course, it also gives us a peak at another side of the leaps that we don’t normally get to experience–particularly when the actual leap is visualised by showing someone leaping out of the Waiting Room, only to be replaced the next host (who in this case, is apparently a vampire!)
Anyway, like I said, it’s a good episode–it’s funny but also dramatic when it needs to be, gives some good beats with the characters, has good performances from both Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell, and shows us a side of the series’ premise that we don’t normally get much of a look at.
Cast Notes:
• Peter Spears (Doug Bridges) was an Oscar-winning producer (and actor) in the Best Picture-winning film Nomadland.
• Stuart Margolin directed this episode, the only time he did so on Quantum Leap. He’s best known to me as an actor, having played Angel in many episodes of The Rockford Files.
• Mary Scheer (Other Woman) voices Alice, the main antagonist in the animated series Penguins of Madagascar.
• Robert MacKenzie (Nigel Corrington) only has a few acting credits on IMDb, but one of them is an episode of Deep Space Nine called Necessary Evil, and another one was an episode of V, where he played a character called “Visitor Military Attache”.
• Dr. Ruth Westheimer plays herself. She was a noted sex therapist and radio talk show host. She occasionally appeared in other movies and TV shows as herself or variations of herself.
• Robyn Lively (Annie Wilkins) is an actress I’ve heard of, but I’m not sure why. She played a character in Twin Peaks named Lana Budding Milford that I don’t remember. She was also in The Karate Kid Part III and TV movie called Summer of My German Soldier that I saw a loooooong time ago.
• Robin Bernheim wrote this episode, her fourth of five credits on Quantum Leap. She also wrote an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation (The Hunted) and Star Trek: Voyager (Fair Haven, Memorial and Live Fast and Prosper). She also wrote episodes of Earth: Final Conflict, TekWar and Beauty and the Beast.
Who and Where is Dr. Sam Beckett?
Sam is Dr. Ruth Westheimer, real-life sex therapist and talk show host, in Manhattan, New York City, from April 25-27, 1985.
What does Sam have to do?
Sam has to both help Dr. Ruth’s colleagues, Doug and Debbie, find a lasting love with each other, and help to save young Annie from being first harassed and then murdered by her lecherous boss. And Sam also helps 421 women not get breast implants that might have caused them health problems. But it is also implied that Sam cannot leap until Dr. Ruth has actually helped Al sort through his relationship problems in the future.
What do we learn about Sam Beckett?
Nothing, really.
What do we know about Al?
We’ve heard this before, but it’s reiterated that Al has been married five times and was raised in an orphanage. Dr. Ruth speculates that Al has a fear of abandonment which has led to his multiple divorces, and that all stems back to growing up in the orphanage.
What about the experiment?
It’s implied that Sam does not leap until Al finishes his interactions with the person Sam has leapt into!
“Driven by an unknown force…” (God or Time or Something)
There’s no particular reference to this.
“Oh Boy”
The catchphrase is heard when Sam first leaps in, and then later Sam says “Oh boy oh boy oh boy,” when he learns that Annie is going to die.
Sam’s Complicated Love Life
Though there is a lot of talk about love and sex and relationships, Sam himself is not directly involved in any of this himself.
The Many Loves of Al Calavicci
Al and Dr. Ruth talk extensively about his girlfriend Tina, who Al has been talking about for the whole series. They’ve been going out, according to Al, for four years, give or take a couple of months. In that time, he has apparently never said to Tina, or to himself, that he loves her. When pressed, he says he said that once, to his first wife Beth, but never since. Does that mean he never told any of his four subsequent wives that he loved them? Yeesh.
Other Observations
• The episode begins as the previous one ended, with Sam finding himself in the middle of a live-radio program, and seeing that he is the famous Dr. Ruth Westheimer, and the hilariously awkward question, “Is the size of a man’s feet related to the size of his love muscle?”
• A lot of the answers that Sam gives to the people who phone in with questions are super silly, but also funny and enjoyable. It’s interesting to see how much social norms and tv have changed. Back in the 90s, it was vaguely scandalous to have so much open talk about sex and orgasms and the rest of it, but now all this comes across kind of tame.
• Dr. Ruth’s real advice from the Waiting Room is pretty good: “Sam, sex is not dirty. It’s a very natural thing. Being frank about it and educating your children to be morally responsible and safe is better than sweeping it under the rug.”
• Al claims that there were 6280 Annies in Manhattan in 1984, but Sam has actually leapt to 1985 according to the opening credits (and in later dialogue). Maybe Al was just accessing census information from the previous year.
• Al starts calling Dr. Ruth “Dr. Ruthie”.
• Al rises up in the middle of the flames from a Cherry Jubilee being cooked–pretty funny.
• Doug and Debbie and their fights are by far the silliest part of the episode. “I don’t know why we’re fighting about this,” says Doug, “because it’s water under the bridge.” Debbie replies, “I’ll water your bridge,” and throws water on him.
• Nice bit of double-layered dialogue from Sam. Annie says, “Why would someone as famous as you care about someone like me?” and Sam replies, “How do you think I got to be so famous?…Besides, helping people is what I do for a living.”
• Annie’s boss fully gaslights Annie, and for a bit you aren’t sure who to believe…except for the hint of the other woman reacting in the background.
• Like I said, the Douglas/Debbie plot is the silliest part of the episode, including the way Sam resolves it by putting them on the spot live on the air on Dr. Ruth’s show.
• Man, the boss tries to fully beat up Dr. Ruth, and he will always remember the experience of Dr. Ruth beating him up instead. Serves him right.
• The third and final “counselling session” between Dr. Ruth and Al is really good. I mean, they all are, but I really like this one. Al says his love for Beth was so special, that he could never love someone like that again. Dr. Ruth replies, “Of course, not like that. Who is asking you to love everyone the same? People are different– unique–so why shouldn’t our love for them be different?” She gets Al to admit that he loves Tina differently than Beth, and Dr. Ruth tells him, “Maybe I tricked you into it, but you said it. Now say it again, and drop the “different” part. That’s a given.” It’s good stuff.
Sam Leaps To
Blood Moon
Favorite Dialogue
There’s a number of good lines but I have a hard time looking past the litany of euphemisms that Al spits out for what he likes about his girlfriend Tina. With some brief interruptions from Dr. Ruth, he says…
Uh, well, um–Oh, well. She’s got…great…casabas….Well, you know. Melons….Hoo-has? Honkers? Hooters? Headlights? Uh, ta-tas? Teeters? Tweeters? Tom-toms? Tetons?…I’m trying to say it. Uh, meatballs. Mangoes. Cream pies. Cupcakes? Uh, bangers? Bouncers? Bulumbas?…Bazongas? Breasts! I said it.
Special thanks, by the way, to this site for the episode transcriptions.
The Best Moment
Like I mentioned before, I think my favorite moment (aside from maybe Al’s personal breakthrough at the end, referenced above, is Sam running along the roofs of cars as he’s trying to get to Annie in time to save her life, and the shocked stares from the people who are apparently watching Dr. Ruth Westheimer performing such feats of athleticism.
Previous Episode: Liberation • Next Episode: Blood Moon
