OUT ON A LIMB {PART 2 OF 2} (TV)
Summary
The second part of this two-part miniseries detailing actress Shirley MacLaine’s experiences with fringe spirituality and paranormal phenomena, based on her book of the same name. Shirley arrives in Lima, Peru to meet with David, who decides to begin their trip by taking her to see Machu Picchu. She recalls that Abzug warned her not to go to Peru, noting that she still knows little about David. Shirley and David talk with a local who claims he has seen “flying disks” around Lake Titicaca, which David corroborates. They reach Machu Picchu and take in the sights, and later they take a helicopter ride over the Nazca Lines, a series of ancient rock carvings which form images when viewed from the air. David hints that he believes that both Machu Picchu and the Nazca Lines were created with extraterrestrial assistance. While driving to their hotel, David points to evidence that the locals in Peru are somewhat blasé about the existence of UFOs, largely taking them for granted. While passing the remnants of wreckage from a highway accident, Shirley is taken aback by David’s seemingly detached thoughts about death. He claims that everything operates according to a “higher reality” and that she shouldn’t be angry with death, although she has difficulty believing him. They reach the hotel, which proves to be little more than a farmhouse with little in the way of accommodations, much to Shirley’s chagrin. That night they go down to the river for a mineral bath, and while there David leads her in a meditation exercise in the hopes of expanding her awareness and teaching her how to control her breathing. The experience is eye-opening for her, and after the bath she recalls her time with Gerry in Hawaii. Over dinner David explains that he’s been going back and forth to Peru for about eight years, explaining that he had some sort of life-changing experience while there. Her first night is challenging at first but with David’s aid she gets through it. While out walking they stop at another mineral bath, and David engages in another meditative trance. She recalls working on the film “Being There,” where Peter Sellers describes his recent heart attack and a supposedly out-of-body experience he had while briefly pronounced clinically dead. David makes similar claims of leaving his own body while meditating. Shirley speaks with another Peruvian native who believes in the UFO visitations. She and David visit a local market, where they have a conversation about loneliness which makes Shirley quite emotional, as she feels Gerry will never embrace the ideas she’s learning about spirituality. David assures her that no matter what, she will not lose her real friends, and that her role in the grand design of reality will eventually become more fully realized. They keep driving, and Shirley and David talk about a woman in his life whom he calls Maian, a geologist with whom he had a romantic relationship with while in Peru who turned him on to ideas about geopolitics and its relationship to spirituality. Maya instructed him to write down everything she said and pass it on to “the right person,” which he now believes to be Shirley. Furthermore, he claims that Maian was some sort of extraterrestrial being, although Shirley doesn’t believe him and wants to return home. However, the following morning Shirley reconsiders and asks David more questions about Maian. David has not seen her since their initial meetings and keeps returning to Peru to search for her. He explains that he did not believe her claims at first but that she proved herself by showing him a UFO, which landed near him. At a nearby site of ruins, David reveals that Maian told him a great deal about Shirley, that she somehow arranged for David to meet her due to their interaction in some previous lifetime. He hopes that Shirley will be able to educate the masses about all of this via one of her books, although Shirley believes David is crazy and that her personal search for identity is not something she is willing to share with the world. She resents that David seems to be using her to further his own ends and tries to leave, but David repeats the “out on a limb” speech she has heard twice before, and she becomes exasperated with the entire ordeal. She tries to run away as David tries to get her to believe his story. She escapes, but not before David gives her a bracelet supposedly from Maian. Shirley contemplates what has happened and tries to sort out her confusion. She drives out to the mountains for some time alone, but as the sun goes down she finds that her car will not start. She decides to sleep out there for the night, periodically trying to get the car to start. She somehow communicates with David, who is back at the hotel, by holding the bracelet he gave her and whispering his name. He drives out to her location and manages to find her. They reunite and he claims that Maian told him where she was before he picks her up, explaining that Maian’s voice often speaks to him in some telepathic manner. David gives her a cryptic warning before entering a trance and taking his hands off the steering wheel, alarming Shirley. They speed down the dirt road, somehow avoiding collision with any of the trees alongside it. Later, at the mineral bath David claims that Maian and her fellow aliens, the “Pleiadians,” protected the truck from harm by means of an invisible force field generated by the “divine God-intelligence force,” an energy field which resides throughout the universe, including within the human soul. Shirley is now convinced of the truth of David’s words, and has a strange experience wherein she perceives an ethereal glow emanating from living things around her. She has an intense out-of-body experience wherein she apparently leaves the boundaries of the earth and observes several celestial bodies before awakening back at the mineral bath with David. David explains that what she just experienced is similar to dying, and this eases Shirley’s fears of her own mortality. David talks to Shirley more about Maian’s thoughts on the nature of reality and the importance of the individual. Curious about Abzug’s campaign progress, Shirley and David visit Maria, a local psychic, to determine information that they cannot derive from the newspapers. Maria informs Shirley that Abzug will not win her mayoral election. While there, Maria also has a vision which seems to indicate that Gerry misses her. David drops Shirley off with his friend to drive her to the airport, explaining that he no longer wishes to leave, as he has fulfilled his function in bringing her there. He says that she has to return alone and ruminate on what she’s learned and how she intends to pass it on. She bids David a sad farewell and he gives her the advice to “love the world.” Shirley returns to New York and reads in the newspaper that Gerry is in town. She meets with Abzug and talks to her about her campaign; candidate Ed Koch fits Maria’s description of the one who would win the mayoral race. She convinces Abzug to commission another poll to determine Koch’s chances of winning. Gerry arrives at a fundraiser attended by Abzug and Shirley, and they are quickly surrounded by the press. Gerry has to go straight to the airport afterwards, leaving him no time to talk to Shirley. She chooses not to stay for his speech. Alone, she begins writing a draft of a book about everything she’s learned. Includes commercials. Includes an ABC News Brief with Ted Koppel.
Details
- NETWORK: ABC
- DATE: January 19, 1987 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:56:06
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:09310
- GENRE: Drama
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama
- SERIES RUN: ABC - TV miniseries, 1987
- COMMERCIALS:
- TV – Commercials – A1 steak sauce
- TV – Commercials – Advil pain relief
- TV – Commercials – American Express credit cards
- TV – Commercials – Bartles & Jaymes wine
- TV – Commercials – Carnation shakes
- TV – Commercials – Chevrolet automobiles
- TV – Commercials – Clairol hair coloring
- TV – Commercials – Clarion cosmetics
- TV – Commercials – CoTylenol pain relief
- TV – Commercials – Coca-Cola soft drinks
- TV – Commercials – Coors beer
- TV – Commercials – Corn Flakes breakfast cereal
- TV – Commercials – Cover Girl cosmetics
- TV – Commercials – Dow chemicals
- TV – Commercials – Ford automobiles
- TV – Commercials – Fuji video tapes
- TV – Commercials – Gravy Train dog food
- TV – Commercials – Honda automobiles
- TV – Commercials – Kal Kan pet food
- TV – Commercials – Kleenex tissues
- TV – Commercials – Lubriderm skin lotion
- TV – Commercials – L’eggs pantyhose
- TV – Commercials – Maxwell House coffee
- TV – Commercials – Maybelline cosmetics
- TV – Commercials – McDonald’s restaurants
- TV – Commercials – Ragu pasta sauce
- TV – Commercials – Raisin Squares breakfast cereal
- TV – Commercials – Sprite soft drink
- TV – Commercials – Vaseline skin lotion
- TV – Promos – “ABC News World News Tonight”
- TV – Promos – “American Music Awards”
- TV – Promos – “Amerika”
- TV – Promos – “Arthur Hailey’s Hotel”
- TV – Promos – “Dynasty”
- TV – Promos – “Good Morning America”
- TV – Promos – “Jack and Mike”
- TV – Promos – “Moonlighting”
- TV – Promos – “Stephen King’s The Dead Zone”
CREDITS
- Stan Margulies … Producer
- Colin Higgins … Co-Producer, Writer
- Robert Butler … Director
- Shirley MacLaine … Writer, Based on the book by
- Lalo Schifrin … Music by
- Shirley MacLaine … Cast, Herself
- Charles Dance … Cast, Gerry Stamford
- John Heard … Cast, David Manning
- Anne Jackson … Cast, Bella Abzug
- Jenny Gago … Cast, Maria
- Estela Paredes … Cast, Edelmira
- Louis Rivera … Cast, Pilot
- Amilcar Jara Palomino … Cast, Old Man
- Michael Kaye … Cast, Photographer
- For "ABC News Brief"
- Ted Koppel … Anchor