Sam leaps into a middle-aged housewife named Margaret Sanders in 1968 who is becoming involved in the Women's Lib movement at the instigation of her daughter Suzy and over the objections of her husband George.
I am surprised that it took until the last ten episodes for the series to do an episode which directly concerned Women's Lib, though it had been alluded to on numerous previous occasions. By this point, it had already dealt with most other major social issues in the US from the 1950s to the 1980s.
The episode's "antagonist" is a woman named Diana St. Cloud, played very well by the underrated Deborah Van Valkenburgh. However, better, more sensitive and more nuanced writing meant that this did not backfire in the same way as making the black man Lonnie Harper the de facto villain of "Black on White on Fire" did. As Sam says, Diana's ideas about equality were right but her advocating of violence to achieve them was wrong.
This episode also made a major point of depicting the problems faced by women in a male dominated world whereas the aforementioned episode didn't when it came to the subjugation of African-Americans, merely describing them. Admittedly, anyone with a decent knowledge of history would be aware of the various forms that the relevant categories of discrimination took but - unlike this episode and many others - "Black on White on Fire" violated one of the cardinal rules of storytelling: show, don't tell.
Incidentally, this is the only episode in which Sam leaps into a woman where he has a husband to contend with. That's something else I am surprised that it took the show so long to do.
As he leaps into Dr. Ruth Westheimer (whose husband Manfred is never seen or mentioned) in the next episode, this marks the only time that Sam leaped into two women in a row.
I am surprised that it took until the last ten episodes for the series to do an episode which directly concerned Women's Lib, though it had been alluded to on numerous previous occasions. By this point, it had already dealt with most other major social issues in the US from the 1950s to the 1980s.
The episode's "antagonist" is a woman named Diana St. Cloud, played very well by the underrated Deborah Van Valkenburgh. However, better, more sensitive and more nuanced writing meant that this did not backfire in the same way as making the black man Lonnie Harper the de facto villain of "Black on White on Fire" did. As Sam says, Diana's ideas about equality were right but her advocating of violence to achieve them was wrong.
This episode also made a major point of depicting the problems faced by women in a male dominated world whereas the aforementioned episode didn't when it came to the subjugation of African-Americans, merely describing them. Admittedly, anyone with a decent knowledge of history would be aware of the various forms that the relevant categories of discrimination took but - unlike this episode and many others - "Black on White on Fire" violated one of the cardinal rules of storytelling: show, don't tell.
Incidentally, this is the only episode in which Sam leaps into a woman where he has a husband to contend with. That's something else I am surprised that it took the show so long to do.
As he leaps into Dr. Ruth Westheimer (whose husband Manfred is never seen or mentioned) in the next episode, this marks the only time that Sam leaped into two women in a row.
