Welcome back to our journey through the lifetime of one Sam Beckett, as we follow him through lifetime after lifetime of righting the mistakes of the past. This week: Sam leaps into his second woman of the series and a high school football star. Let’s fire up the accelerator and hope that this leap is the leap that brings us home.
1. Narration!
We still aren’t quite to the ‘classic’ opening of the show, but these two episodes featured (different) narrators doing a voiceover before the episode begins. This replaces Sam’s quasi-intros that would happen each week, and serve as a good introduction to the show for first time viewers. These episodes also kicked off the second half of season two, and the show was picking up steam, so it makes sense to take the opportunity to make it a little more user friendly for folks just dropping in.
“Another Mother” has narration by a gravely voiced man, which instantly sounds out of place, and “All Americans” gets the show’s eventual full-time narrator, Deborah Pratt, although the script continues to get tweaked. You may recognize Pratt as a writer/producer on the show, also the wife of show creator Donald P. Bellisario, and also Troian from last week’s “A Portrait for Troian.” She’s also the mother of Troian Bellisario, who plays the young Teresa in “Another Mother.” Incestuous enough for you?
2. Ominous and dark
While much of this episode keeps a reasonably lighthearted tone, whether it is the visual of Sam clearly out of place as a mom trying to offer the ‘birds and the bees’ talks, middle sister Susan’s crush on Tom Selleck, or the very sweet relationship between Al and Teresa. But at the core of this episode are two dark pathways: toxic masculinity and kidnapping. Kevin is 15 and a virgin, and is being teased mercilessly for the fact by his friends, which leads him to run away. When he runs away, he’s captured by the two greasiest, sleaziest skeevebags you’ve ever seen on television. The show does not try to give them anything resembling a motive or a picometer of depth, but rather presents them as just the dirtiest dudes on the planet. It’s implied that, maybe, they’re going to sexually assault Kevin, or maybe just kill him? It’s hard to tell through all the cartoonish slime, from their filthy van to their cliché facial scars.
But what keeps the episode from going over the edge is the real love present in the family. Kevin seems like a truly good son, and he and his mom have a good relationship. That core of family is so important to the episode, that you almost can forget how much of it is scored to creepy music showing a van that hasn’t ever been through a car wash.
3. The range of Dean Stockwell
Al gets a lot to do in these episodes. Since 4-year old Teresa is able to see both Al and Sam, a first for the show, Al has to do a lot of work to placate her into not freaking out. This allows the softer side of Al to show up, the guy who can be both a lot of fun and also quite tender with children. It’s a side of Al we don’t see that often, and it is a reminder of Stockwell’s talent.
That range is on full display in “All Americans,” where he has a more traditional – read: horny – role. But there’s one scene where Sam casually implies that Al might’ve been 16 when he lost his virginity. Stockwell uncorks such an amazing take in this scene, where he is truly offended at the accusation that he may have been a virgin for that long. He will not let this go, and interrupts Sam numerous times to shoot down the idea. It’s very funny and really well acted. Dean Stockwell is a delight.
It is also worth noting that this episode almost totally ditches the jokes of Sam being a woman the way his first female leap in “What Price, Gloria?” earlier this season. Sam is overwhelmed by the duties of being a single parent, but the show never relies on gay panic or ‘isn’t it funny that a man is wearing a dress?’ territory.
Continued below4. Pig Skin
In “All Americans,” Sam leaps into a high school football star who needs to keep his friend from throwing the championship game. It’s a relatively straightforward episode, with the usual moral conflicts and leap-induced trauma. It’s also one that spends a lot of time on the football field, and I’m shocked that Sam is as comfortable with the football lingo/skills as he is, as the show has established his ‘college at 15’ life, which probably left little room to play sports.
The reason that this is noteworthy, along with his knowledge of Spanish, is that Sam is getting more comfortable with leaning into his leaps and allowing the skills of the leapee to be utilized in each episode. It allows each episode to be a fish out of water story instead of a fish in space story. That’s to say, Sam has enough to worry about each week without having to learn new languages and skills.
5. A relatively non-offensive look at the Latinx experience in the early 1960s
All of the major players in “All Americans” are of Mexican descent, and while that would still be somewhat of a novelty in 1962, the writers don’t treat them as if they are bizarre or out of place. Sure, the parents, both of whom cook, of course work at a Mexican food truck, but that’s common for all shows of this era; rarely do you see ethnic characters operating outside of their stereotypical settings. And while the episode does use one of the character’s immigration statuses as a plot point, it never goes as far into stereotype junction as we’ve come to expect media from this era. Even if it does mention menudo, it does so in a positive way.
The Oh Boy Teaser
For the third time in the series, we get Sam leaping back into “The Color of Truth” again, for re-run purposes. That won’t be what we cover next week, but we will see you in seven days!
