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Chris Ruppenthal is an American television and film writer based in Hollywood, CA. He received an A.B. Degree from Harvard University in 1976 where he was an Editor of the Harvard Lampoon as well as a member of The Delphic Club and The Hasty Pudding where he performed in three of the famous Hasty Pudding travesty musicals. Following Harvard he worked for a time in New York City in advertising before moving to California to pursue a writing career. He received an M.A. degree from the USC Film School.[1]
Ruppenthal boasts an impressive resume, credited as Co-Executive Producer of “The Outer Limits” and “Silk Stalkings”; Supervising Producer of “Lois and Clark: the New Adventures of Superman”, “Touched by an Angel”, “Harts of the West” and “Covington Cross”; and has writing credits for “Blade: The Series”, “The Outer Limits”, “Avalon: Beyond the Abyss”, “The Pretender”; “Silk Stalkings”, “Lois and Clark”, “The X Files”, “Touched by an Angel”, “Harts of the West”, “The Adventures of Bisco County Jr”, “Covington Cross”, “Moonlighting”, “Sledge Hammer!” and “Max Headroom”.
Ruppenthal currently resides in Los Angeles where he continues to write for television and Works for LAUSD at Berendo Middle School in (the Pico-Union District) and the UCLA Extension School.
For Leapers, however, Chris Ruppenthal does not need an introduction, being Quantum Leap royalty. He was a producer of the show for most of the series run, and completely wrote nine episodes: “Good Morning Peoria”; “Animal Frat”; “Freedom”; “One Strobe Over The Line”; “The Halloween Episode”; “Glitter Rock”; “Hurricane”; “Roberto!”; and “The Curse of Ptah-Hotep”; as well as co-writing the teleplay for “The Last Gunfighter”. Ruppenthal’s only directorial credit is also from Quantum Leap, he directed “Southern Comforts”, an episode widely acclaimed for addressing the issue of domestic violence. He even made a cameo appearance as Sam’s mirror image in the afforementioned episode-that-must-not-be-named, which, along with writing the so-called “cursed episode” earnt him the nickname “Ruppenboogie”. As such, it is very fitting that Ruppenthal is here to boogie with us for this episode of the podcast. Please enjoy Albie’s conversation with Chris Ruppenthal…