If Samuel Beckett was the star of a 70s cop show

Thom Dunn 9:47 am Fri Apr 17, 2020

Years ago, I published my unified theory on the secret shared universe of the works of Samuel Beckett and the character Sam Beckett from Quantum Leap. Since then, I've had a note in my ongoing list of Cool Story Ideas™ to make an absurdist buddy-cop graphic novel about a crotchety old Samuel Beckett teaming up with a teenage Andre the Giant.

Little did I know that someone had already played around with a similar idea.

This mashup video was put together by a Chicago-based playwright named Danny Thompson. From OpenCulture:

Some twenty five years after Beckett’s death, Thompson—whose credits includethe Complete Lost Works of Samuel Beckett as Found in a Dustbin in Paris in an Envelope (Partially Burned) Labeled: Never to Be Performed. Never. Ever. Ever! Or I'll Sue! I'll Sue From the Grave!!!—repurposed Rosa Veim and Daniel Schmid’s footage of the moody genius wandering around 1969 Berlin into the opening credits of a nonexistent, 70s era Quinn Martin police procedural.

In other words: it's perfect.

Watch the Opening Credits of an Imaginary 70s Cop Show Starring Samuel Beckett [Ayun Halliday / Open Culture]

Beckett's Last Tape; or, Waiting for Quantum Leap [Thom Dunn / Quirk Books]

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