Florida's Film, Television and the Arts Magazine
THE PENSACOLA CONNECTION For May 2026
This month: A local lawyer turns out a new book, a quantum jump back in time for TV nostalgia, and 2 bursts of Mach-3 speed ahead for silver screen aviation.
FIRST: New York native-born Pensacola resident attorney, turned radio & TV personality, now turned book author Mike Papantonio, has a new mystery thriller novel released in hardcover, as of just last March 3rd. “A Death in Arcadia: a Legal Thriller” is the seventh in his LT series, featuring his fictional alter-ego trial lawyer Nicholas ‘Deke’ Deketomis (of the fictional law firm of Bergman-Deketomis) as he targets a south Florida state juvenile justice facility, for the alleged murder of a teenage inmate by a security guard. (Fact: Arcadia is where Mike graduated from DeSoto County High School, circa 1971.) Besides working as a real trial tort lawyer for the real Pensacola-based firm of Levin-Papantonio, Mike has also hosted the Air America Radio talk show series “Ring of Fire” in Kansas City Missouri in 2004, the same show where he fielded on-air questions about indoctrinating youth into religion, during the filming of the indy documentary “Jesus Camp” in 2006, plus the YouTube TV series “America’s Lawyer” in 2016. To learn more, just email: https://www.mikepapantonioauthor.com.
NEXT: “Oh, boy…” Okay, seems I have finally found the episode of the original science fiction drama series “Quantum Leap” that mentions Pensacola, Florida. This classic show chronicled the time-traveling adventures of quantum physics scientist Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula) as he gets trapped in time, leaping from body to body throughout history, righting wrongs and saving lives, until he can successfully leap back home. The series ran on NBC from 1989 to 1993. (Not to be confused with the 2022 revival version.)
In the May 20th 1992 episode (Season 4 Episode 22, series episode 75) “A Leap for Lisa,” Sam leaps into the young US Navy Ensign ‘Bingo’ version of his hologram guide friend Al Calavicci (co-star Dean Stockwell) while stationed at Torrey Pines US Navy Base in Southern California in June 1957, and who is about to go on trial for an alleged rape & murder he didn’t commit: that of Nurse Marci Riker (Debbie James) whose dead body mysteriously turns up on an isolated beach, hence the frame-up. Al explains he got the nickname Bingo back in his pilot training days in Florida, while landing a plane with an oil leak emergency after flying out: “…from Pensacola to Ocala.” The episode’s title female is Lieutenant Lisa Sherman (Terry Farrell) another Navy nurse with home Bingo has a romantic affair, but dies in a tragic car crash before she can establish an alibi for him. Whoa…change history to save 3 lives at once? Hoo-boy… Guess I’ll have to order my Season 4 copy of this series on eBay, to find out how Sam does it. (Note: Terry Farrell, Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell each go on to later star as their own “Star Trek” characters: Jadzia Dax in “Deep Space Nine,” and Captain John Archer in “Enterprise” with Stockwell guest-starring as prison camp leader Colonel Grat.)
AND FINALLY: Time to set the Memorial Day Weekend time machine controls back to 1986, and kick in those after-burners to Paramount’s “TOP GUN.” This romantic action thriller starred Tom Cruise as Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell, a San Francisco hot-shot f-14 Tomcat pilot and Miramar TOP GUN Navy Flight School cadet assigned by James Tolkan as ‘Commander Stinger,’ with wingmen Anthony Edwards as ‘Goose,’ Val Kilmer as ‘Iceman,’ and love interest Kelly McGillis. (Sadly, both Tolkan and Kilmer passed away, prior to this article. RIP.)
So what’s the Pensacola connection? Although he appears only briefly as an extra, Captain James “Jim” DeStafney was stationed at Miramar Station, when Paramount hired him as ‘technical consultant’ for the film. He contributed lines to the script like: “Let’s see some of that famous pilot sh**! Also, Pensacola Naval Officer Mike Farrell (not the same as the actor in “M*A*S*H”) appears as a speaking extra in casual party scenes, with lines like: “Hey, Maverick!” or: “Is that real champagne?” Don’t blink or you’ll miss him.
Now, full-speed ahead to 2022, and the long-awaited sequel: “TOP GUN: Maverick.” Now our hero is re-assigned as flight instructor for a new hot-shot team of cadets, including Glen Powell as ‘Hangman,’ as they fly to the Middle East on a top-secret anti-nuke mission. What’s our connection this time? Not Pensacola, but a little further east. At Admiral ‘Iceman’s funeral, the bugler blowing ‘Taps’ is Marine Corps Captain Jake Anderson who resides in Crestview, just north of Eglin Air Force Base. Also, prior to the 2020 Covid pandemic, Cruise himself appeared live and in-person, marching through the Pensacola Naval Air Station’s Flight Museum during the May 2019 Flag Officers’ Training Symposium, to announce the sequel’s production and coming release date, as early as 2021. Last but not least, co-star Michael Ironside who played ‘Jester’ in the first film? Well… he did NOT appear in the second film, but he DID guest-star at the recent PensaCon 2026. So… NOW who’s feeling: “the need, the need…for speed? (*KA-BOOM!!*)”
Okay, that’s all for May, and for late spring.
Until things heat up next month, Later, Gators!
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Sincerely yours, KENNETH L. MANNING
Your Pensacola Connection
49 Murphy Lane, Pensacola, FL 32505
Phone: 1-850-287-2581
Email: [email protected]
