Quantum Leap (TV Series)

Goodbye Norma Jean - April 4, 1960 (1993)

Scott Bakula: Dr. Sam Beckett, Dennis Boardman

Photos 

Quotes 

• [Sam has gently averted Marilyn's advances] 

  Dr. Sam Beckett : It's not that I don't want to. I mean, every man on the planet wants you.

  Marilyn Monroe : They don't want me. They want Marilyn. But I'm not her. She's somebody that I put on, like a cashmere sweater or a mink coat. Somehow, I think you're the first man I've ever met that really understands that.

  Dr. Sam Beckett : I'm sure there were others too. I just... Maybe you weren't listening.

  Marilyn Monroe : I listened. Men didn't.

• Dr. Sam Beckett : Look, I-I'm not trying to be a writer. I'm just... I'm just trying to tell you that... your life can be so wonderful, if you let it. You've gotta hang on to it with everything you've got.

  Marilyn Monroe : What's gotten into you?

  Dr. Sam Beckett : People adore you.

  Marilyn Monroe : "Adore". That's great if you're some kind of a stone statue.

  Dr. Sam Beckett : No. No. Look, that's not what I meant. People really care about you. You're one of the most loved people in the world. Ever.

  Marilyn Monroe : Then why can't I feel it?

• [Al tells Sam about Marilyn's passing only two years after these events] 

  Dr. Sam Beckett : Are you telling me that I saved her life so she could be in one last picture?

  Admiral Al Calavicci : But what a picture.

• Admiral Al Calavicci : That's it, Sam. Marilyn does the film, and a lot of people say it's the best work of her career. Um... and, uh, get this: they re-title the film at Marilyn's insistence because of something that you said.

  Dr. Sam Beckett : What do they name it?

  Admiral Al Calavicci : 'The Misfits'.

• Dr. Sam Beckett : [narrating]  Some quantum leaps are like nightmares - getting pummeled in a boxing ring, working on a chain gang... So if you'd told me I'd find myself chauffeuring Marilyn Monroe around Hollywood in a big V8 convertible, I'd say I'd died and gone to heaven.

• Dr. Sam Beckett : Al? You think I was crazy if I told you that...

  Admiral Al Calavicci : If you told me what?

  Dr. Sam Beckett : Never mind.

  Admiral Al Calavicci : I'd say welcome to the human race, Sam. Every man that ever met her fell in love with her. Just... take good care of her and don't let her die. Nobody that beautiful should ever die.

• Dr. Sam Beckett : [carrying Barbara's luggage to her room]  Um... where's the rest?

  Barbara Whitmore : That's it.

  Dr. Sam Beckett : What do you mean, "That's it"? Two suitcases and a cardboard box is your whole life?

  Barbara Whitmore : My whole life is Marilyn.

• Dr. Sam Beckett : [as Dennis]  Look, I'm surprised you're gettin' away with this.

  Marilyn Monroe : With what?

  Dr. Sam Beckett : With, with bein' out in the public, you know, without bein' spotted.

  Marilyn Monroe : Only Marilyn Monroe gets spotted. Today I'm Norma Jean Baker.

• Dr. Sam Beckett : The public is crying for a new Marilyn Monroe movie.

  Marilyn Monroe : After my last picture, they're just plain crying.

• Marilyn Monroe : I read somewhere, in Africa, or Asia, that when someone saves your life, they're responsible for you for as long as you live.

  Dr. Sam Beckett : Yeah, but, um, this is California.

  Marilyn Monroe : [snaps her fingers]  That's where it was!

• Dr. Sam Beckett : Marilyn, look, I know that for every good thing that this life has given you, it's also given you...

  Marilyn Monroe : A punch in the nose? A thorn for every rose?

  Dr. Sam Beckett : Something like that, yeah.

  Marilyn Monroe : Those are clichés, Dennis. They don't play.

• Dr. Sam Beckett : I don't know why; but... you've gotta make this picture.

  Marilyn Monroe : There'll be other pictures.

  [Sam looks at Al who shakes his head] 

  Dr. Sam Beckett : I don't know about the other pictures; but this one will never come again. And this one needs you. It needs a brash, beautiful, glorious, untamable misfit.

  Marilyn Monroe : "Misfit"...

• Dr. Sam Beckett : How you feelin' today anyway?

  Marilyn Monroe : Who, me?

  Dr. Sam Beckett : Yeah.

  Marilyn Monroe : Just wonderful. It's a beautiful day, a new house, champagne... Who needs a life?