<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

Quantum Leap, a science fiction television show created by Donald P. Bellisario, aired on NBC for five seasons, from 1989 to 1993.

The series stars Scott Bakula as Sam Beckett, a multi-talented genius whose particular gift is quantum physics. With the help of his close friend Rear Admiral Albert Calavicci, played by Dean Stockwell, Sam builds a huge government-funded research project called Project Quantum Leap, all based around his "string theory" of time travel. This theory suggests that individuals might be able to leap back and forth through time . . . but only through the duration of their own lifetime.

Sam steps into the Quantum Leap accelerator before the device is completely ready to go, in reaction to threats by the government to cut off funding to the project. He awakens to find himself in the past, on an Air Force base, suffering from almost total amnesia. Strangely, everyone Sam encountered believes he is a test pilot named Tom Stratton. Worse, the image Sam finds in Stratton's bathroom mirror seems to confirm their story--the face he sees is not his own! Fortunately, the Project has a means of contacting Sam, by sending a hologram of Al to check on his status and brief him on events in their present.

In the Quantum Leap pilot, "Genesis," Sam must cope with his amnesia and pretend to be Tom Stratton while Al and the project scientists look for a way to retrieve him. The answer to retrieval turns out to be unorthodox: if Sam can complete an airplane test flight that killed Stratton, he might leap back home. But Sam is no pilot. Al is, fortunately, a former combat pilot as well as an engineer and astronaut--but as a hologram tasked with the role of project Observer, he cannot touch anything Sam encounters in 1953. (As an additional wrinkle, Al is invisible to everyone but Sam.) The two cooperate to save the test flight. Instead of leaping back to his own time, however, Sam jumps forward to 1968, into a minor-league baseball player whose life course is in similar need of correction.

This unusual concept became the template for Quantum Leap episodes: as each story opens, Sam finds himself inhabiting the life of a new person. He and Al then determine the date of the leap and the identity of the "leapee," and try to correct something that has gone wrong in the lives of the people surrounding him. Success would trigger the next jump. Sam was born on August 8, 1953 and his leaps carried him across America in the period from 1953 to 1987. (On one exceptional leap, Sam found himself inhabiting the life of his Civil War-era great-grandfather. This leap turned out to be the result of a malfunction.)

Sam's ability to play-act the roles of Americans of a variety of sociological and professional backgrounds was due to his exceptional mind. At the time of his initial leap, he possessed multiple doctoral degrees (including one in medicine), experience with several martial arts, and a long track record as a musical performer. He could speak a number of modern and ancient languages. When called upon to exhibit skills he lacked and could not fake--for example, speaking Italian or performing a bar mitzvah--Al supplied the necessary knowledge by drawing on either his own experience or Project research. As a result, Sam was able to leap into the lives of doctors, lawyers, stuntmen, soldiers, mothers, police officers, Elvis Presley, beauty contestants, and, in one memorable case, a teenager on the cusp of giving birth to an illegitimate child.

Sam and Al, whose relationship evokes that of Don Quixote and his sidekick Sancho Panza, are initially drawn together by a shared experience of tragedy. Driving both men to pursue time travel in the first place are losses within their own lives: the early deaths of Sam's father and Al's sister, the loss of Sam's elder brother in Vietnam, and the break-up of Al's marriage as a result of his long imprisonment during the Vietnam war. Though most of Sam's leaps are visits to the lives of strangers, he and Al are occasionally able to influence their own pasts. These self-interested leaps had mixed results.

Quantum Leap explored a wide range of topical issues. Some of the more daring episodes addressed sexual harassment, gays in military service, scientific experimentation on animals, and the stresses of single motherhood. Over the course of its five seasons, Sam leapt into the brother of a battered woman, a Native fugitive from police, a date-rape survivor, a mental patient, and a young man with Down's syndrome. The issues of racism--particularly against blacks in the 1950s U.S. South--and America's participation in the Vietnam war were also recurring themes. These forays into serious subject matter nevertheless take place against an essentially upbeat backdrop. More than anything, Quantum Leap's foundation is its premise that individuals can better the world, and that by helping a single person in trouble, one may be benefiting a larger network of people, improving the lives of many.

This optimistic structure, combined with comic dialogue, a good mix of light-hearted episodes and, most importantly, outstanding performances by and strong chemistry between actors Stockwell and Bakula (who would later go on to play Captain Jonathan Archer on Enterprise) won the hearts of thousands of fans whose loyalty remains unshaken to this day. The show's groundbreaking concept has proven hard to replicate, though a host of imitators have made the attempt: the explicitly religious Touched by an Angel, Sliders and, more recently, the supernatural drama Tru Calling all owe a debt to Quantum Leap.

Quantum Leap fans, who refer to themselves as Leapers, maintain an active presence on the Worldwide Web through the creation and maintenance of fan sites, the writing of fan fiction, and participation in Quantum Leap mailing lists. Fans raised a portion of the money required to get Dean Stockwell a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and have campaigned for a Quantum Leap feature film. More recently, fan attention has focused on controversy tied to the release of the show in DVD format. Though the first season was issued with some fan-pleasing extras, later seasons have been released with nothing but the bare-bones episodes, and with substitutions for the music originally aired on the show that fans have deemed inappropriate and, especially in the case of the S2 closer, "MIA," inexcusable.

Controversies aside, Leapers are waiting for an upcoming new version, rumored to be in production, with cautious optimism.

Though Sam and Al are the only characters who appear in all 95 episodes of Quantum Leap, the project had a number of rarely seen but often mentioned recurring characters: the parallel hybrid computer Ziggy; Ziggy's programmer, Gooshie (played by Dennis Wolfberg); Doctor Verbena Beeks; and Al's on-again, off-again girlfriend Tina. Al's five wives are also frequent topics of conversation.

Spoiler Warning: Plot details and/or information about the ending follow. If you wish to enjoy the work first, stop reading here and return at another time.

Though the role of the divine in Quantum Leap is kept in the background, occasional references are made to the possibility that "God, Time, or Fate" is acting as a sort of conscious force behind Sam's leaps. In the enigmatic final episode, "Mirror Image," Sam leaps back to the precise moment of his birth, where he encounters a mysterious entity who suggests that it is Sam himself controlling the leaps. "Mirror Image" ends the series with a happy outcome for Al—Sam is finally able to save his first marriage—and a less overtly happy one for Sam. Viewers learn that he never makes it home. This finale is in keeping, stylewise, with many Bellisario productions, which often tell the stories of soldiers who go missing in action.

Popular Culture

• On June 29, 2007, TV Guide listed Quantum Leap as #19 in its list of the Top Cult Shows Ever

Quantum Leap's episodes, with their leap dates, follow:

First Season

1a. Genesis Part 1 - September 13, 1956 (1)

1b. Genesis - September 13, 1956 (2)

2. Star-Crossed - June 15, 1972

3. The Right of God - October 24, 1974

4. How the Tess Was Won - August 5, 1956

5. Double Identity - November 8, 1965

6. The Color of Truth - August 8, 1955

7. Kamikazi Kid - June 6, 1961

8. Play It Again, Seymour - April 14, 1953

Second Season, 1989

9. Honeymoon Express - April 27, 1960

10. Disco Inferno - April 1, 1976

11. The Americanization of Machiko - August 4, 1953

12. What Price Gloria? - October 16, 1961

13. Blind Faith - February 6, 1964

14. Good Morning, Peoria - September 9, 1959

15. Thou Shalt Not . . . - February 2, 1974

16. Jimmy - October 14, 1964

17. So Help Me God - July 29, 1957

18. Catch a Falling Star - May 21, 1979

19. A Portrait for Troian - February 7, 1971

20. Animal Frat - October 19, 1967

21. Another Mother - September 30, 1981

22. All Americans - November 6, 1962

23. Her Charm - September 26, 1973

24. Freedom - November 22, 1970

25. Good Night, Dear Heart - November 9, 1957

26. Pool Hall Blues - September 4, 1954

27. Leaping in Without a Net - November 18, 1958

28. Maybe Baby - March 11, 1963

29. Sea Bride - June 3, 1954

30. M.I.A. - April 1, 1969

Third Season, 1990

31. The Leap Home - November 25, 1969

32. The Leap Home, Part II (Vietnam) - April 7, 1970

33. Leap of Faith - August 19, 1963

34. One Strobe over the Line - June 15, 1965

35. The Boogieman - October 31, 1964

36. Miss Deep South - June 7, 1958

37. Black on White on Fire - August 11, 1965

38. The Great Spontini - May 9, 1974

39. Rebel Without a Clue - September 1, 1958

40. A Little Miracle - December 24, 1962

41. Runaway - July 4, 1964

42. 8 1/2 Months - November 15, 1955

43. Future Boy - October 6, 1957

44. Private Dancer - October 6, 1979

45. Piano Man - November 10, 1985

46. Southern Comforts - August 4, 1961

47. Glitter Rock - April 12, 1974

48. A Hunting We Will Go - June 18, 1976

49. Last Dance Before an Execution - May 12, 1971

50. Heart of a Champion - July 23, 1955

51. Nuclear Family - October 26, 1962

52. Shock Theater - October 3, 1954

Fourth Season, 1991

53. The Leap Back - June 15, 1945

54. Play Ball - August 6, 1961

55. Hurricane - August 17, 1969

56. Justice - May 11, 1965

57. Permanent Wave - June 2, 1983

58. Raped - June 20, 1980

59. The Wrong Stuff - January 24, 1961

60. Dreams - February 28, 1979

61. A Single Drop of Rain - September 7, 1953

62. Unchained - November 2, 1956

63. The Play's the Thing - September 9, 1969

64. Running for Honor - June 11, 1964

65. Temptation Eyes - February 1, 1985

66. The Last Gunfighter - November 28, 1957

67. A Song for the Soul - April 7, 1963

68. Ghost Ship - August 13, 1956

69. Roberto! - January 27, 1982

70. It's a Wonderful Leap - May 10, 1958

71. Moments to Live - May 4, 1985

72. The Curse of Ptah-Hotep - March 2, 1957

73. Stand Up - April 30, 1959

74. A Leap for Lisa - June 25, 1957

Fifth Season, 1992

75. Lee Harvey Oswald - October 5, 1957 - November 22, 1963

76. Leaping of the Shrew - September 27, 1956

77. Nowhere to Run - August 10, 1968

78. Killin' Time - June 18, 1958

79. Star Light, Star Bright - May 21, 1966

80. Deliver Us from Evil - March 19, 1966

81. Trilogy Part I - August 8, 1955

82. Trilogy Part II - June 14, 1966

83. Trilogy Part III - July 28, 1978

84. Promised Land - December 22, 1971

85. A Tale of Two Sweeties - February 25, 1958

86. Liberation - October 16, 1968

87. Dr. Ruth - April 25, 1985

88. Blood Moon - March 10, 1975

89. Return - October 8, 1956

90. Revenge - September 16, 1987

91. Goodbye Norma Jean - April 4, 1960

92. The Beast Within - November 6, 1972

93. The Leap Between the States - September 20, 1862

94. Memphis Melody - July 3, 1954

95. Mirror Image - August 8, 1953