It is hard to hate Quantum Leap, the NBC sci-fi series which debuted in 1989 and was canceled in 1993 after completing its fifth season. The show is so utterly well-meaning, following the lovably gee-whiz Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula) as a scientist whose experiment “leaves him leaping from life to life, striving to put right what once went wrong, and hoping that his next leap will be the leap home.”
That just warms the heart, doesn’t it?
On the other hand, Quantum Leap is very easy to mock, largely due to its remarkably earnest tone and many “very special episodes,” like a sci-fi Blossom. Sam is fate’s grunt soldier, fixing broken relationships, saving one life at a time, and occasionally running into young versions of celebrities, e.g., Stephen King, Buddy Holly and Michael Jackson. However, he’s constantly faced with the prejudices of our past which leads to plenty of sermonizing. His best bud Al (Dean Stockwell) is always around for a reliable one-liner, but even he gets in on the sermonizing and turns out to have led an insanely eventful life, with an ever-growing list of prior careers and ex-wives.
In general, there’s an awful lot of plot convenience to what Sam and Al turn out to be capable of. Plus, the mechanics of the time traveling component of the show are pretty wonky, and what they thought the future was going to look like was hilariously inaccurate.
Those are the types of things which really jump out at me every time I re-watch Quantum Leap. My love for the show has not faded, but my willingness to mock it has sure increased. There are plot holes and awkward moments galore as well as some simple reminders of how much TV culture has changed since Quantum Leap went off the air.
1) God or Fate or Whatever Sure Has a Sick Sense of Humor
Almost every single Quantum Leap episode ends with Sam being thrown into the deep end in a new and terrifying situation, forcing him to either sink or swim. That’s a pretty shitty existence, going from smiling earnestly one second to walking on a stage in front of a packed theater of people waiting to hear you play piano the next second. But boy did it make for good television. It’s one of the things that makes Quantum Leap so compulsively watchable, its every episode ending on a cliffhanger in which Sam has no idea what to do next and lets outs an exasperated, “Oh boy.”
However, if we ignore the part where this is a TV show with a story structure designed to keep viewers hooked, and think of the logic of the show’s own universe it becomes pretty apparent that God or fate or whatever the heck it was leaping Sam throughout time has a wickedly dark sense of humor. Seriously, why couldn’t Sam have ever been allowed to simply leap into someone sitting around their living room watching TV, with maybe their wallet (and thus a quickly accessible method of identification) laid out on the table in front of them? Nope, instead Sam got dropped into situations like this:
And this:
Is any of that really necessary for Sam being able to put right what once went wrong? Absolutely not. God or fate or whatever just really liked watching the poor bastard squirm.
2) Sometimes Sam & Al Just Weren’t That Bright
Al is “a hologram that only Sam can see and hear.” It’s right there in the show’s voice-over prologue. However, sometimes both Al and Sam seemed to forget that, the most egregious example being the time Sam tried to throw a pie at Al’s face in the season 4 episode “Stand Up”:
And Al behaved as if he 100% believed he was in real “pie on face” danger:
Sam usually gets the benefit of the doubt because, well, he’s damaged goods with his ultra convenient/inconvenient “Swiss cheese” memory. But Al? Was he just humoring his mentally compromised best friend, the way one might tolerate a “not quite right” uncle’s insistence that he did actually magically produce the 7 of hearts when doing a card trick? Was he just so caught up in the situation he forgot he was just a hologram? Or maybe is it just that sometimes Sam and Al appeared to have taken complete leave of their senses in the show’s effort for comic scenes between the two? Fine, it’s obviously the latter.
3) Some Innocent People Had Their Lives Ruined By Sam
For a show whose own series finale was shockingly bittersweet, Quantum Leap was built on happy endings. Most if not all episodes ended with Al assuring Sam (and by extension the audience) that everything worked out a-okay for all involved. However, when you think about it in some cases that doesn’t seem true. Case in point, in “Shock Theater” Sam develops multiple personality disorder as the result of being leaped into a mental hospital patient who immediately receives traumatic electroshock therapy (again, with God and his dark sense of humor). Sam keeps shifting back and forth between adopting the various identities of those he’d once leaped into in the past. To save his own life and maintain his connection with Al, Sam needs to have electroshock re-administered to him at a dangerously high voltage. He, while believing himself to be a mentally challenged man named Jimmy and thus slurring his speech, manages to pull it off by desperately pleading with the attending nurse, “If you don’t shock Jimmy Al go away.”
Waaaaaaaiiiiiiiit a minute here. I get that the historic period of the episode (specifically 1954) is meant to comment upon the early days of medicine in relation to mental health and conditions like multiple personality disorder or schizophrenia. In that way, this is Quantum Leap‘s own version Sybil. Al even references Sybil in the episode! So, none of the doctors or nurses truly know what the heck is going on with Sam. However, even though a perfectly timed dosage of electroshock at the same near-fatal dosage as the therapy that triggered the multiple personality disorder is what Sam needs it’s not necessarily what the person he leaped into needs nor is it medically advisable. In the course of the episode, the generally sympathetic nurse argues that 200V is a potentially fatal voltage, administering electroshock therapy twice in 48 hours could kill the patient and that only doctors are allowed to administer the therapy, a fact confirmed by one of the doctors. Yet she is the one to administer electroshock to Sam at 200V while the Doctor and orderly are arguing. This is supposed to be a big, heroic moment, but, wait, didn’t the episode establish that what she does could actually kill the patient? Yep, pretty effectively, too.
How do you think it’s going to go over in a Morbidity & Mortality meeting if when asked why she gave the patient a fatal dosage of electroshock therapy she replies, “He said if I didn’t do it his imaginary friend was going to go away”? She might end up a patient at that very mental hospital, oh irony of ironies, or at the very least mentally anguished, haunted by frequent “Why did I do it?” thought. However, even if the nurse had been wrong about both the voltage and frequency of treatment being fatal she still broke the rules by administering treatment and is likely looking at some serious repercussions in her career. That is but one example of a happy ending being not so happy and an otherwise nice and decent person whose life was potentially screwed by Sam Beckett.
4) Al Totally Amy Pond’d a Poor Little Girl Except Even Worse
In the Doctor Who episode “The 11th Hour,” the Doctor encounters an adorable little Scottish girl named Amelia Pond. He promises to take her to the stars and on an adventure, but when he fails to return she had to go through years of therapy as no one believed her tale of a “raggedy doctor” who literally fell from the sky. The thing here is that, crucially, the Doctor did eventually come back, and he never intentionally misled poor Amelia. He just really sucks at getting time coordinates right.
So, what then, do we make of the final scene from Quantum Leap‘s season 2 episode of “Another Mother”? By this point, the only thing preventing Sam from leaping is Al’s need to say goodbye to the adorable daughter of the woman Sam leaped into. Falling into that kid/mentally challenged/animal spectrum of people who can actually see Al other than Sam, the girl had grown attached to Al and him to her. What proceeds is a genuinely sweet scene between a young child actress who mostly flashes her big white eyes at Stockwell as he promises to come back to see her again real soon.
Liar! Al can’t go back. He’s not really a time traveler who can just go anywhere he wants; he is linked to Sam’s brain and can only go to a place and time where Sam is present. Unless Sam leaps back into that family with the little girl, Al has no way of following through on his promise. That poor little girl probably had years of therapy after that, refusing to back down from her claims of a strange imaginary man from the future who was going to come back to see her any minute now, just you wait and see. “Oh, it was just an imaginary friend” they’ll all say, angering her even more. Of course, that imaginary friend may be the least of their concerns since that little girl will probably also swear up and down that for around a week mommy went missing and a nice man named Sam pretended to be her and dressed in her clothes.
5) Nope, You Didn’t Dream It – Al Really Did Rap in One Episode
Some things are so strange, so bizarre, so impossible sounding you can convince yourself over time that you simply made it up. For example, was Creed ever really a super popular band? That didn’t really happen, did it? Well, in the case of Quantum Leap re-watching it reveals that one insane thing you might have convinced yourself was but a fever dream of your’s actually happened. I present, with utter, utter regret, rappin’ Al from “Shock Theater”:
With Sam a bit busy being 12 different versions of himself, it is up to Al to right the wrong, and in this case, it means teaching a man how to read. Why? Ah, who cares. Why does Al think simply teaching him a song about the alphabet will automatically guarantee his ability to read? Ah, again, who cares. The bigger issue here is simply what in the hell were they thinking by having Dean freakin’ Stockwell perform a rap song on a national television show in 1991? In fact, years later they included that song, “ABC Rap,” on the show’s official soundtrack meaning you can go buy “ABC Rap” on iTunes right now. Mercifully, M.C. Stockwell’s long-awaited rap album “Nozzles, Cigars & Bazoombas” never materialized
6) Sam Was a Man-Whore Cheating on the Wife Waiting for Him Back Home
Every Quantum Leap episode other than the pilot features a moment during the opening credits where we see a montage of Sam’s best kisses with woman from the show’s history to that point. Of course, there’d be plenty of kiss scenes to show – the dude got some serious action as the show sought to appeal to Bakula’s female fanbase. It is also the natural by-product of an episodic show with a central male character who is both a lover and a fighter – he’s going to have a ton of love interests. The same thing was true of Kirk on Star Trek: The Original Series. But at least there was no woman waiting at home for Sam, no woman so despondent with loneliness she looks up at stars at night and imagines one of them talking back to her with Sam’s voice, right?
Then the season 4 premiere (“The Leap Back”) happened, and we learn that bachelor Sam had changed his own history on a previous leap in the first season resulting in him having now actually been a married man this entire time. Knowing that from the get-go when re-watching the show makes a fun game out of, “I wonder how close Donna was to complete breakdown this week based upon Sam’s romancing of yet another woman.” To be fair, in “The Leap Back” Donna actually forgives Sam for his many, many infidelities because his memory loss meant he didn’t know he had anyone to whom he’d pledged to be faithful.
There was always a strange dynamic to sexuality on the show, in which Al and his consistent references to nice “bazoombas” and “gazongas” was a horndog for Sam to admonish. Who the hell is he to talk, though? He fell in love with women sometimes at the literal drop of a hat, bedded them, and then left them high and dry for his next leap. Man, at least Al knew what he was. Sam? He was a total man-whore; he just didn’t know it.
7) Our Definition of Physical Fitness Sure Has Changed
Back in the day, Scott Bakula was what might best be described as man candy. His Sam Beckett was the consummate sensitive 90s male, not afraid to cry (and boy did it show) but tough enough to stand up for what’s right. So, obviously, the show featured Bakula shirtless…a lot. Like at least once every other episode.
Wait, that’s what qualified as a sex symbol back then? Don’t get me wrong – Bakula looks fantastic. He’s clearly in good shape. It’s just that nutrition and body shaping sciences have advanced so much that we now have constantly shirtless male stars of TV shows who look like this:
Advantage? Stephen Amell of Arrow. Well, I guess the true advantage goes to the viewer inclined to find such sights appealing as neither are in anything remotely resembling bad shape. Re-watching an older show like Quantum Leap centered around a male sex symbol shows just how much our image of that type of person is ever-shifting in response to the advances in abdominal muscle-shaping glory.
8) They Were Desperate For Ratings That Last Season
It’s always kind of sad when you see your favorite show trying too hard to get big ratings. However, sometimes when you watch older shows in syndication or on Netflix you may not be aware of it because your viewing is happening so long after the fact. But let’s look at what Quantum Leap did in its fifth and final season:
- Sam Leaping Into Dr. Ruth, Elvis, and Lee-Harvey Oswald Even Though He Wasn’t Supposed to Leap Into Historical Figures
- Sam Leaping Into Someone Working for Marilyn Monroe
- Sam Leaping Into the Civil War Even Thought He Wasn’t Supposed to be Able to Leap Outside of His Own Lifetime
- A Trilogy Focused Upon Sam Being the Father, the Lover, and then the Court Defender of One Woman At 3 Different Stages in Her Life
- A Trilogy Focused on the Concept of There Being Evil Leapers Out There Just As Sam is a Good Leaper
- Stunt-casting of Brooke Shields in an episode somewhat recreating the scenario of her film Blue Lagoon
- Sam leaping into a vampire
Some, if not most, of these episodes are pretty good. The trilogy focused on Abigail was admirably ambitious, and the concept of an evil yin to Sam’s not-evil yang was long overdue. However, taken as a whole it becomes pretty apparent they were ditching all of their old rules and just throwing everything at the wall in the hopes of getting the ratings necessary for a sixth season (epic fail on their part). Plus, they re-did their theme song – you know, their amazing, instantly hummable Mike Post-composed theme song. They made it oddly insistent and energetic in a desperate “Please watch our show, we have pep now” fashion:
Alas, they got themselves canceled.
But I really like Quantum Leap. Let’s end on a positive note. What is a good truth learned from re-watching Quantum Leap?
Most of Your Favorite Episodes Are Still Amazing
“MIA,” “The Leap Home,” “The Leap Back,” “Catch a Falling Star,” and many, many other beloved Quantum Leap episodes are still as good as they ever were.
What about you? Any things you’ve noticed upon re-watch? Liked the show but never actually went back and re-watched it? Let us know in the comments.
This post is partially a result of years of joking with my best friend Julianne. Click here to check out her picks for Quantum Leap‘s 10 best episodes.
We Minored in Film 
I’ve been watching Quantum leap now for the last couple months. So happy I found it on Cozi TV. After all these years I love to watch the show, I finally got to see the season finale. Sam still traveling through time. This was a great show, and since then no one has been able to recreate something as fantastic as this. It used a lot of history to make the shows which made it really really interesting. I missed the show. I think one of the best shows was the show where Sam leaps into Lee Harvey Oswald, it was fantastic.
In the Raped episode Katie McBain had to appear with Al in the imaging chamber in order for Sam to testify in court against her attacker after she was raped.
A Quantum Leap I wish they had is Sam leaping into Natascha Kampusch of Austria on Mar.2nd 1998 13 days after her 10th birthday in order to keep her from being abducted by the now dead Wolfgang Priklopil.
That’s an unusual comment. Also “It is hard to hate Quantum Leap, the NBC sci-fi series which debuted in 1989 and was canceled in 1993 after completing its fifth season.”
I have often wondered (knowing the obvious answer) why Sam never leaped forward beyond the time that he entered the chamber (1999 wasn’t it?). The obvious answer is of course, we had no knowledge of the future and it would be difficult to predict how things would change but even more obvious is the simple fact that people like to reminisce about by-gone eras and it made the stories more enjoyable for the audience. I do, however, have the real answer, albeit never revealed in any episode. The reason makes perfect sense with the concept of Sam’s invention and why we never saw the event occur during the run of the series. Alas, you will have to wait until the “Sequential Leap” — Pete Rosetto is completed and NBC decides to do a spin-off…. lol
Here’s the explanation from within the show’s lore;
‘Beckett, with his team, theorize that time travel is possible within the traveler’s own lifespan.’
Simply put, the future was not yet part of his lifespan.
In reality, Einstein’s theories show that time travel FORWARD is possible, and has been achieved fairly frequently during tests. It’s backwards that’s theoretically impossible.
thanks for that insight: I guess Sam may be a creature ‘of the moment’, whereas he can go anywhere in the past, but cannot go anywhere beyond the present from which he first came; however, he may spent a day or years in a past, but of only a second or fraction of a second from the time he last left the present.
What if Sam leaped into someone who knew Aikido which is the directing of violence away from yourself.Lifeline the G.I.Joe medic is a blackbelt.
Amazingly enough, every single person Sam lept into knew Aikido even though Sam himself did not. Another little known piece of trivia is that the GI Joe medic loves Zagnut candy bars, although he limits himself to a single one of them on cheat days.
I can’t remember which episode, but it is mentioned that Sam Beckett did know some self-defense stuff, which was supposed to explain why he used those kicks so frequently after that.
Is a great show to watch even all these years later- the chemistry between
Bakula and Stockwell. And great performances from the many guest stars, What is wrong with a little cheesy when the end result is after watching you feel good and had the chance to maybe laugh a little.
i really enjoyed quantom leap when it was first screened , and im enjoying it now , yes there are loop holes in some of the stories, but isnt that called poetic license ? and its meant to be a fictional program not a documentary, i do tink its a shame sam never found his way home as i feel it would have been a fitting ending , but i understand now why it was left open, hopefully they will pick it up again as there are countless story lines they could pursue .
Ive been watching Quantum Leap on Cozi and catching up on the ones Ive missed on Netflix. However Netflix doesnt have the pilot or the final episode so Im dvring the show on Cozi hoping to get both. It was an awesome show and Scotts a sexy man (then and now). Why doesnt Netflix have the final episode. I saw it in 1993 when it aired and would love to see it again.
I don’t know if you’re a Hulu Plus member but you can find every episode except season 2 episode 2 there. I dont know why you can’t get that episode but it doesnt seem to be available on ant platform.
S2E2 [Disco Inferno according to IMDB] is also 2 bucks on iTunes or Amazon.
Netflix also is missing the Private Dancer [S3E14] episode where male stripper Sam helps a talented deaf guy avoid tragedy. But iTunes has it.
Netflix just added several of these episodes
Thank you Judy. I don’t know why the media thinks that all of us need to be hairless plastic people with less than 5% body fat.
The creators also created Magnum PI and there was talk about doign a crossover where Sam leaps into Magnum. Such a shame they didnt make that in time.
Donald Bellisario has created some of the most popular TV shows of their eras. Airwolf, Magnum PI, Quantum Leap, JAG, NCIS. The man is a genius when it comes to building a world that people want to watch! He even had his hands in on 11 episodes of Battlestar Galactica. Pretty amazing!
But there is an episode where one character is watching an episode of Magnum P.I. 🙂
I noticed something odd in “How the Tess was Won” back in Season 1… He looks into the mirror, and Doc has glasses on… Yet we can clearly see Sam does not… Whoops!! Love the show overall, though…
I would like to know why the show was cancelled, I have been checking all the sites and none of them say why does anyone know? I think it was a great show and am watching it on Netflix.
Read somewhere that viewing figured dropped in the second last season so in final season they brike all the rules to try and pick up viewers intorducing bad leapers and jumping into historical figures etc. Jury was out until the last episode when they didnt renew show sothey added that stupid bit of wording to imply an ending. Why did viewing drop? I think people were watching x files and that sort of tv back then. Gritty broody stuff in the 90s. QL was too bubblegum for that era.
There were a few factors in the viewership drop over the last couple seasons.
For one, it was frequently pre-empted by live sports which had run overtime. NBC carried a lot of sports, and the post-game timeslots were always a minefield of may-or-may-not broadcast.
For another thing, even though QL had a hardcore growing fanbase the network kept moving the broadcast all over the schedule which made it difficult to keep up with even for hardcore fans. I remember frequently setting my VCR to record that week’s episode, only to come back later and find some other damn thing on the tape which had been swapped in. Fans didn’t know when the show would air, therefore they weren’t watching the show, therefore the ratings sucked; the network pretty much created QL’s problem and then punished QL for it. Theories for this included the network wanting to be able to justify dropping a particularly expensive-to-produce show, so engineering the viewership downturn on purpose.
In the pre-mainstream-Internet, pre-instant-streaming age, missing an episode meant you might have to wait a year or more to see it rerun, or pay to buy expensive and scattershot episode-by-episode VHS releases years later.
I followed QL pretty religiously during most of its original run, and still there were many episodes I hadn’t seen until the reruns got syndicated onto Scifi Channel years later.
Scott said I’m an interview that like many shows, the time slot change was a factor.
Dang timeslot shenanigans. Darn network schedulers.
What if Sam leaped into the 1972 Munich games and prevented the terrorist attack that took place causing the deaths of 11 Israelies.
Only in the Dr.Ruth episode do we see the changing of the leapee in the waiting room.
Wow that would be late night Quantum leap. very deep.
To me, Scott Bakula’s physique is way sexier than the example of “today’s sexy male,” but that’s just me. He’s in good shape, natural chest hair and tanned–not “unnaturally” overly bulky.
Speaking as a guy, I certainly find Bakula’s physique less intimidating. The Stephen Amell and Henry Cavill’s of the world, on the other hand, are walking reminders of the untold hours of extreme work, remarkable sacrifice and top-dollar trainers and nutritionist you’ll never have time/resources to put into your body.
Yes, definitely. There’s a whole lot that goes into getting a body like the actors you nentioned. And for most everyday Joes, that’s not practical. It takes a huge amount of commitment and sacrifice. I did a bodybuilding contest (figure) once and it was a lot of training, eating certain foods, supplements, etc. It was a great experience, but not something I would do for the rest of my life.
S[peaking as a woman I would still take Scott over Stephen Amell. For one Scott Bakula has acting talent he wasn’t just eye candy. Steve Amell can’t act at all. I still watch Arrow but watching him try to show emotion is painful for all the wrong reasons.
I love how Amell still can’t quite make consistent eye contact with his co-stars.
So true! His acting is so painful for me to watch. I love watching him in interviews and on panels. His personality seems fun but his acting? Nah.
He’s definitely a better panel personality than actor. If Arrow wasn’t already proof of that, TMNT: Out of the Shadows put any lingering doubts to bed.
Very, very true!
Couldn’t Sam make the leap home after telling Beth that Al was still alive and would be coming home.
Nope he is a man. Much better to be out and acting like a single man forever than coming home to his wife and real.responsibilities.
What you are missing is that Sam never returned home, not because he didn’t want to or someone/something was keeping him. He didn’t return home because he never left in the first place.
Sam wanted to save his brother, Donna wanted to make amends with her father, Al wanted to make sure Beth was there when he got back from Vietnam. Those were the reasons each one had for being on the project.
Sam had accomplished all of these things(The leap home pt. 2, Star Crossed lovers, Mirror Image). So if you look at the time line, you will find that all three of those key people(project leader(Al), designer(Sam), and I don’t really know what to call Donna) no longer wanted to travel back in time. So when we look at the final line we know that Sam never returned home, because he never left in the new changed time line.
If you want to hash out timelines, Leaper Sam would just continue on with doing what he only knows now, leaping(If the final leap wasn’t him dropping out of existence).
Yes, I watched every episode I could when they first came out. At first I was mad when they didn’t have Sam leap home, later I realized why, because he would have never wanted to leave in the first place.
Quantum Leap is one of my favorite classic tv shows ever I think the tv show has one of the most interesting but more limited time traveling concepts ever one can only time travel within his own life time. To leap into peoples lives to change history in those peoples past lives for the better to make right where once went wrong. I remember watching Quantum Leap when I was little and remember how interesting the show was to me but I thought it was like Murder She Wrote to me. Also now when I watch it now I think how much more interesting it is now but at the same time think how it doesn’t appeal to me very much as my other favorite tv shows. Because what I think about the shows time traveling concept is somewhat daul because the tv shows main character Sam Buckett can’t time travel outside his own life time so it’s not like the classic H G Wells book The Time Machine and the Back to the Future trilogy.
To compare Quantum Leap to Murder she wrote is sacrilege. Its like comparing Breaking Bad to Diagnosis Murder.
What I think about the Quantum Leap episodes timeline I’m not very interested in I know that the show can not go out of the shows maincharacters life time so not a day past the future and a day before in his past. So the timelines are only within like the years 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1961 1964 1965 1968 1969 1970 1974 1981 1985 which I think that really sucks because those timelines were not very interesting to me because they were just well not appealing to me. I would have loved to see episodes take place in 20000 bc as him as a cave man 1700s revolutionary war 1800s wild west 1900 1906 San Francisco earthquake on board the Titanic 1920s prohibition 1930s the hindenburg disaster ww2 some years in the future like 2015 2020 even 2050. Also the years that I wish took place in Quantum Leap where in the years 1943 1944 1946 1947 1949 1950 1951 1952 1990 1992 1994. So if Sam Beckett was born in 1943 instead of 1953 it could have taken place in those years and change some of the shows episodes timeline to make them in the years like 1945 1949 instead of 1953 1961. For example for the The Leap Back episode I would change the year to 1932 instead of 1945 so Al would Leap into a bootleger instead of a returned home ww2 veteran. So more episodes of Sam could take place in the 1940s and ww2 which would be much more interesting to me if I wrote Quantum Leap.
The main point of the timeline was to appeal to nostalgic members of the audience. In 1989, the people watching that advertiser’s craved were born during the years covered on the show. The show was fantastic, but it really was just a piece of nostalgia. At the time, the 1930s and 1940s were the time of your grandparents, an age group never really worried about by most advertisers, so it didn’t make sense to cover that time period. Then the 30s and 40s were viewed exactly the same as the 50s and 60s to you now.
Come on. I loved the show as much as others on here but looking back it had to end. It had a shelf life. He had leaped into all sorts to deal with racism, sexism, discrimination of age, handicaps. The people he leaped into that were connected to famous people were always a let down because its TV so it could never really be controversial about the famous person. And only once did he leap outside his own timeline and that wasnt very interesting just more a gimmick. We cant relate to the 1800s after all nor would ziggy/gushi have that much facts on the people of that period. How old was Sam anyway that he could leap back to the 50s yet be from the future? 70 years? Thats a great body for a 70 year old. They did it all in the last series. Evil leapers and jumping into famous people. There was nothing more to do. I just wish the ending wasnt so rushed and they did that Magnum crossover. Maybe if it was still goign they could have done Dr Who or Sherlock or 24 crossovers. Dont think there is much else.
In one episode they mention that Sam is 16 in 1969 which means he was born in 1953. The “future” of quantum leap begins in ~1999 which means Sam is ~46 when he starts leaping. Makes sense considering all the degrees and skills that Sam supposedly has. The show arguably had the potential to last a few more seasons… but really it lasted 5, which is a pretty decent run for things that aren’t straight up soap operas.
So even if I was to rewrite Quantum Leap to make Sam Beckett 10 years older than the age Sam is really on the show then he would have entered the chamber at 56 years old which is not a so old age either. Also since I rewrote Sam Becketts character to be 10 years older born in 1943 that would make him 16 years old in 1959 so I would have to change another Quantum Leap episodes timeline. Also about Al I don’t know how old the actor Dean Stockwell who plays him his but He seems pretty old I would probably have to say somewhere in the 1930s. So I would just say 1932 just to make up a year not really the year the actor was born in but just the year Als character from the show was born in just so a Quantum Leap episode could take place during prohibition because 1932 was one of the last years of prohibition because prohibition only lasted about 13 years.
Yes really interesting I wish they did a Quantum Leap Magnum PI crossover to it would have been really interesting I just also wish they made a Qauntum Leap episode with Albert Enstein in it because I would have liked to see that just like the episodes when he leaped into people connected to famous people he leaped into someone who worked with him. They could probably have done so much with that.
Well also again with Als and Sams age well I wish they were older. Also again with Als age not just restricted to the year in the early 1930s like 1932 but also the other years in the early 1930s like 1930 or 1931 or even 1929. But I would think it would have been better if he was born in 1931. So Al would be born in 1931 and Sam in 1943 again so interesting because some episodes of Quantum Leap could have taking place in prohibition and wwll.
So the years that I wish took place in Quantum Leap were the years like 1942, 1943, 1944, 1946, 1948, 1949, 1950 and 1951 but now when I think about now and because of what you said I think it doesn’t have to. Also it doesn’t matter because the only thing that was epic in the 1940s was ww2. But now I wish some episodes of Quantum Leap took place in the summer olympics or on the nasa space race rocket missions. Like Mercury or Apollo. Like they could had Sam leap into John Glenn on his first into space earth orbit mission. Then Apollo imagine they could had him leap into the Apollo 1 or 13 missions. He could have saved the lives of the Apollo 1 astronauts and the mission then made it a success. Then do the same with Apollo 13 mission like prevent the mission at first so they could fix the oxygen tank that caused the explosion on there space craft and then would lauch later and now could have landed on the moon.
John,
While I can appreciate your thoughts about Sam preventing some of the darkest hours of our space program the sad thing is that these things had to happen. Over on despair.com there is a poster that states that sometimes the purpose of your life is to serve as a warning to others. It shows a sinking ship. With every loss of life, NASA learned some very hard lessons about the risks which come with being on the cutting edge of technology. The Apollo 1 fire resulted in a complete redesign of the spacecraft. The Challenger (STS-51L) explosion resulted in not only a solid rocket booster (SRB) redesign, but the agency as a whole was forced to take a hard look at its culture. It wasn’t the failure of the SRB O-ring alone that caused the loss of Challenger and her crew.
The loss of Columbia (STS-107) resulted in not only a more thorough examination of operating practices and procedures but opened a doorway through which ordinary citizens were able to serve as extra eyes, often able to see the forest for the trees and see through the fog of “launch fever”.
Sam certainly could have done what I did. Sometimes you can indeed accomplish your mission indirectly…you only need to recognize that this is how you’re going to have to do it, and take a leap of faith.
This show instantly and permanently replaced the slot in my brain where it envisioned things when I heard the song “Imagine” with that of him on the porch singing the song to his young sister making the slow realization that he wasn’t just making up something on the fly, it probabably was a real song, if it was and John Lennon sang it, and she hadn’t heard of it, then maybe he was from the future… and welling up and breaking down realizing that meant her brother would die months later in vietnam, and dad would have a heart attack, and this yet-to-meet Tommy she would fall for would beat the crap out of her…
25 years on, that image churned up upon hearing the song.
Right there with you. I always flash back to that moment when I hear “Imagine.”
The reason I’m here tonite is because while at dinner, I heard Ray Charles sing “Georgia” and you know where my mind’s eye went.
I live perhaps 30 miles from Cokeburg, PA, and the final episode “Mirror Image” felt personal to me. I knew and worked with miners quite like those in the story, and about 13 years ago became enmeshed in my own improbable story.
Sometimes, you have to take your own “leap” of faith.
I just finished watching QL for the first time (never watched it before) it was rather a gem I found. Great show and it’s one of the few shows that I have watched from the late 80s and 90s. I never knew it existed until I found it and played it and it caught my attention enough to keep watching it until the end, great show over all, the finale… of course it left me hungry for more. When Sam Leaped into his younger self, I’d like him to see his brother coming back from Vietnam, and also would have like him to see his family again even if it wasn’t on the future-present time, but just to check how his sister afterwards, and to perhaps to meet his family and let them know that he was for reals. I love that Sam went back to fix Al’s life on his final action, that was really good gesture for the finale, would have love to see how this affects the timeline. I had the impression that according to Al’bert, the bartender, Sam could Leap anywhere he wanted, but Sam didn’t actually believe it, and the lack of faith prevented him to ever go home.. that is the impression I got from the finale.
I always viewed the finale as confirming that Quantum Leap was always essentially a precursor to Touched By An Angel, and that in the end by choosing to keep helping people instead of returning home to see his family Sam gave into the higher power’s purpose for him and more or less became an angel.
I agree that with The Leap Home storylines it would have been interesting to do a little more with checking back in on his sister, since the storyline with Tom was more less resolved.
any way possible to purchase videos of the series
You can buy the entire series on Amazon, and the individual seasons are also available for relatively cheap:
http://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Leap-Complete-Scott-Bakula/dp/B00MN9PQBO
You should be warned that they didn’t secure the music rights to various songs for the DVD releases.
meaning?
What part of that sentence didn’t make sense to you?
Well u said You should be warned that they didn’t secure the music rights to various songs for the DVD releases. What does that mean if I bought the DVD releases?
You have circular objects protected by a mixture of platic and cardboard.
The circular objects contain visual and audio data. Their contents cannot be altered. With the right software, the visual and audio data can be extracted and manipulated then saved to another circular object.
Explanation: Pretty much all well known songs in the episodes — like Ray Charles’ “Georgia” in the scene where Al and his first wife slow-dance — have been replaced on the DVDs by generic soundalikes. (I assume the only exceptions to this are songs that were actually sung “on camera” by Sam or some other character.) Unfortunately, in the case of “Georgia” the replacement track has a completely different mood to it, totally destroying the emotion of the scene. Major bummer. I was actually thinking of picking up the DVDs fer cheap somewhere until I discovered that. Now I wouldn’t take them for free… “NBC.com/classic-tv” web site had all episodes in (AFAICT) their original forms available for viewing online until just a few days ago, when they removed the last few seasons. COZI TV is still airing the original versions (again, AFAICT) for at least the next few weeks. Hoping they cycle through at least once more so I can see the remaining episodes I’ve missed.
Oops… I mean, all episodes except “Disco Inferno” — that’s why I was watching the DVD versions of some of the episodes. (I checked out the season 2 DVD from the library.)
Wait a minute… The later seasons are back at “NBC.com/classic-tv/quantum-leap”! (Must’ve been a temporary glitch that made them unavailable. [I blame Ziggy…])
It’s actually more complicated than that. Due to different licensing laws in different regions, the Region 2 (UK) season 1 and 2 DVDs had the correct music.
Here is the real sad truth when you watch Quantum leap. If it was still on TV today it would look like this http://cimg.tvgcdn.net/i/r/2014/11/24/b43bb92c-f208-470a-a6fb-d8f1876f61a7/thumbnail/640×440/c2e3256a8814c5049d87c47763ef9a98/141124ncis-nola3.jpg
Great picture. Thanks for the link. And I thank “time” for allowing Mr. Stockwell to still be with us.
No problem K
A leap that I wish Sam made was into a luxury prison somewhere in the world such prisons actually exist worldwide there’s 50 of them listed on Arrest Records.Com.
What if Sam leaped into an cruel inhumane prison.
You’re talking hardcore Quantum Leap cert 18/ R. What if he leaped into Anne Frank’s house during the war or into a serial killer and junkie.
Whatever happened to the Evil Leapers?
Since Alia’s reformed is she leaping around in time somewhere making amends for former misdeeds she commited as a evil leaper?
They could have made a spinoof show about the evil leaper trying to put right what she did wrong. Leaping into a guy etc. That would have had some tv mileage me thinks
What’s more, the version on the soundtrack CD (and iTunes, etc.) was a re-recorded version of the “ABC Rap” song, where instead of mental patients Al is rapping it to/with a bunch of children. For the full effect, imagine the track from the embedded YouTube clip from the episode, but with an added megadose of Kidz Bop.
I’ve listened to the ABC Rap on iTunes before, and I never noticed that difference. I obviously wasn’t listening closely enough.
I think it would have been neat if we saw at the end of each episode the changing of the leapee in the waiting room.
Agreed. If you were to do Quantum Leap nowadays, one of the first ideas on the table would have to be doing a bottle episode in the waiting room.
If I wrote Quantum Leap I would make the characters older than their actors real life age just so because some episodes of Quantum Leap can take place in prohibition and ww2.
You could instead do what the show what did and play around with the notion of “Sometimes, you can leap back into your ancestor’s timeline” but maybe limit to an immediate ancestor (like just your dad, not your grandpa).
I see that’s interesting I wish they could have done that. Leaping just not only within your own lifetime but also lifetimes within your ancestors lives.
What would be a good title for a virtual season 6 and beyond of Quantum Leap picking up where Mirror Image left off? I’m been thinking of writing 1 but I haven’t come up with a great title for it.
First title that comes to mind is Quantum Leap: The Search for Sam
Project Quantum Leap is located in Stallion’s Gate New Mexico so where is the Evil Leaper’s project located?
Honestly, I always assumed the Evil Leaper project was not Earthbound but instead mounted from some kind of hell dimension, with the evil leapers and their assistants being souls forced to do the devil’s bidding.
Oh I know… Norwich in England
I don’t know we wish they went more into detail about that. Also what did yous think of my comments?
In Revenge of the Evil Leaper Zoey leaped out and the prison warden returned and Alia leaped out and Angel Jenson returned where in time did Zoey and Alia end up?
I’ve been watching QL on Hulu the last few weeks and it’s great getting to see the old episodes again. I watched it when I was a kid. I remember most of the episodes, but there were a few that I didn’t remember including several in season 4. Right now I’m watching “Moments To Live” which makes me wonder this about Sam’s activities in the bedroom, if Sam gets a woman pregnant, is it Sam’s DNA that gets passed along or the person he leaps into?
The DNA of the baby would be the person he leaped into. We only see Sam’s DNA as we are the viewer and makes it both amusing to watch and easier to rally behind him if we see Sam as Sam. However I would be seriously peeved off if I was in the waiting room, leaped back into my body and foudn out my girlfriend was preggas from some night of passion while I was away. How about Sam keeps it clean or uses protection at least.
Well, we got our answer in Trilogy Part 3. We find out that Sam has a daughter with an outrageous IQ, so I guess Sam’s DNA gets passed on.
Well that just doesnt make sense and is morrally dosgusting but hey good entertainment for an episode.
Im sure they both got killed. One turned good and tried to run with sam but got killed. The other became a leaper too and was a sheriff or something and alarmingly went somewhere alone to play with her new male body then got killed trying to catch sam and co as fugitives. The real questio is how was she able to track sam and other leaper? They clearly have more control of the technology than sam and his swiss cheese memory. Swear thats that truth
In Season 5, episode 4 “Nowhere to Run”, Al says that he’s the only one that see Sam for who he really is. Yet, in an earlier episode when Sam first becomes a woman, Al says that he seems Sam the same way everyone else does.
Reblogged this on thepageofdaniel and commented:
Quantum Leap was / is a TV series that I * wasn’t * a super – devoted follower of, as opposed to, say, Stargate SG1, Stargate : Atlantis, ST : The Next Generation, VOY or Being Human or even The Walking Dead ( in the sci – fi, fantasy,horror, action mega – genre ) but I’d have liked to have seen TPTB do right by it. Please, no reboots.
Quantum Leap was on TV Trash’s 5 worst finales list.
I do not know why- thought it was a great final episode. Of course they left it open in case the show was picked up by another network.
Really?? How can a network pick up that after that ending? He can control where he leaps and understands things. Plus he messed up Al’s timeline so he is no longer the same womanising Al we new in earlier episodes thanks to Sam messing with his history. The fun of the show was he didn’t know what he was doing.
unintentionally racist, sexist, & nationalist (never explains why he only seem to save mostly caucasian niggaz frum their petty personal problems in north america & nowhere else) but still one of my favorite white ppl scifi shows cause the concept is novel.
if u ever had the misfortune of vicarious living inside someone elses’ lives, u can feel this series…
Good youtube clip of sam beckett trying to undo donald trump becoming president. Not spam. https://youtu.be/R0ScMs6_I8s
Quantum Leap was the second show I remember being my favorite show (Wiseguy being the first.) I loved it all and was not yet cynical enough to see the over eager earnestness of it. You listed most of my favorite episodes but left out The Boogieman which is my fave. All the cultural references really work and Stockwell gets to have some good fun as the devil. The address changing to 666 is my favorite. Sadly, this must have been the primer for the “Evil Leaper” crap that made me stop watching. I was happy to tune back in to the finale which still makes me teary. I’m a big Bruce McGill fan anyway and I loved the callbacks. I’m an atheist but I still bought into the hand of fate concept (in fiction.) I’m watching the pilot right now.
Why is everyone ragging on QL being wholesome and earnst.? It wasn’t the bubblegum show of Highway to Heaven or Star Trek where the lesson is spelt out and almost winking at the camera. This show dealt with Klu Klux Klan, racism, sexism, rape, murder, homosexuality and it didn’t always solve the issue but maybe enlightened one or two individuals. Take the episode where Sam leaps into a cadet in the navy who may or may not be homosexual. It never determines whether he was or not but did address some levels of ignorance and homophobia. Or experiencing being a minority during the Michael Watts riots.
I personally liked the episodes with the famous people, especially the Marilyn Monroe one and the Lee Harvey Oswald ones. They really did their homework on their lives and their characters and portrayed them beautifully. I have watched all of the QL episodes and still have yet to find out one I didn’t like. (except for the finale, that thing was terrible)
4) Al Totally Amy Pond’d a Poor Little Girl Except Even Worse these is wrong Al was link to sam and could go with in the same time he was so if sam travel in a time when the girl was alive or young to see Al he could then go see her.
I’ve only started to watch Quantum Leap recently via Netflix streaming. I never watched it when it was on network TV. Back then there were shows more interesting to watch like “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and “Babylon 5.” I became interested recently because it became available on Netflix and also Bakula was also in one of the Star Trek shows, “Enterprise.” At first I didn’t think it was that great but after a while it started to grow on me. So I’m now up to season 3. Bakula was also in another show that I liked called “Men Of A Certain Age.”
The point about the nurse in ‘Shock Theater’ is extremely compelling except faulting Sam for the consequences giving him that second lethal treatment had is hypocritical on your part after you’d argued in an above point that it was GTFW’s “sick sense of humor” that had planted him on that table in time to get his brain fried in the first place.
She made a choice when she gave him that second lethal treatment, you said it yourself it was that which threatened her career and possibly her life not refusing. That she was compelled to do it was her own irrationality but I must say that I don’t believe it was about “Jimmy” claiming that the treatment was necessary to make his “Imaginary Friend” stay. She’d suspected that it was the first treatment that had sent an acute depressive patient with no history of trauma or instability into multiple personalities and it was specifically when he’d whispered to her “Save Sam” that she was compelled, likely because she took it as a plea to “check out”. Was this still illegal, yes but she was the only one there who’d felt any compassion for him so I believe that it’s plausible that she valued ending his suffering more than her career.
“6. Sam was a man-whore cheating on the wife waiting for him back home”
That is just one of two interpretations.
First of all, pre-‘The Leap Back’, whether or not Sam’s feat in ‘Star-Crossed’ was successful was an uncertainty, don’t forget Donna was even engaged prior to him and based on the little substance Sam’s relationship with her had throughout the series especially when you consider how much attention Al’s marriage to Beth got, I seriously doubt they considered it successful when they wrote seasons 1-3. I suspect that she was a plot device in ‘Star-Crossed’, merely meant to introduce the rule against the leaper tampering with his own timeline.
In fact, Donna was also a plot device in ‘The Leap Back’. Her role was initially written for Tom, Sam’s brother whose life he saved in 3×2 ‘The Leap Home Part II: Vietnam’. Donna, however, was felt to have provided Sam with a stronger conflict between staying home and leaping again to save Al because a marriage is more fluid than a sibling relationship. This is revealed in the behind the scenes publication ‘Another Time, Another Place’.
Every time Sam changes something in the past it creates a domino effect throughout the entire timeline. This is even pointed out in ‘Mirror Image’:
“At the risk of over inflating your ego Sam, you’ve done more. The lives you’ve touched, touched others. And those lives, others!”
A change Sam made, big or small in say 1955 will still have results 1987. Watch the film ‘Frequency’ and you’ll see what I mean.
Although it may be reaching, off-screen changes Sam made either pre or post-‘The Leap Back’ could have erased his marriage to Donna multiple times just as one had created it.
Technically this ultimately did happen in canon after ‘The Leap Back’ because Deborah Pratt did not approve of Donna’s comeback (among other things) and had mentally written her off to justify Abigail. She’d written Trilogy with the desire to explore Sam in a sexual relationship in-leap. Also note that Donna is noticeably absent from ‘Lee Harvey Oswald’, ‘Killin’ Time’ and arguably ‘Mirror Image’ (given the nature of ‘Mirror Image’ I believe it’s possible that it occurred merely in Sam’s subconscious).
“He fell in love with women sometimes at the literal drop of a hat, bedded them, and then left them high and dry for his next leap.”
NOT TRUE.
There’s a reason Al calls Sam a prude and he’s more experienced.
The only women that we can be certain Sam slept with were Tamlyn in 4×13 ‘Temptation Eyes’ and Abigail in 5×9 ‘Trilogy Part II’ and the latter was half due to a strong mind-merge with his leapee.
Contrary to the definition of a whore man or woman, Sam NEVER made advances and ALWAYS avoided those made towards him when he didn’t genuinely reciprocate the attraction. Even when it takes his leapee out of character because he refused to take advantage of anyone.
Recall that in 2×1 ‘Honeymoon Express’ he avoided sleeping with Diane McBride as though she had an STD that he was aware of because she was a married woman and although she saw otherwise he wasn’t her husband.
He also wasn’t compelled by Martha in ‘Southern Comforts’ and she actually was a whore so how his leapee felt about her didn’t much matter, regardless of his identity she would have considered him a client.
I concur wholeheardtly with your thoughts on season 5. I am not a fan of the celebrity leaps and the Evil Leapers, while I enjoy them had gimmick written all over them and Trilogy is just eh.
I just finished watching QL on Netflix. I loved it more than I did the first time around. Sure the show had some inconsistencies, but it was what good TV is about – the imagination. So when we talk about “sad truths”, the biggest sad truth is that, like everything on this earth, it had it’s time and had to come to an end.
As for the Evil Leaper, after the Halloween episode where the devil himself intervenes, it makes some sort of sense that he wouldn’t just drop it and let Sam continue unchallenged. Alia says that where she is from is far worse than death. And the melty way she and Zoe are pulled back after Alia refuses to kill Sam indicates and time is reset, echoes the first failure of the devil. When Alia does not return to the waiting room after being shot protecting Sam, it is indicated that she is now free. Take what you will from that, but it sounds like a soul that has made amends.
This takes us to some further speculation about the meaning of the finale, and the other “leaper” souls found in Al’s Place. Why does it seem to spook Sam’s Al so much that Sam has met his uncle? He leaves to do some more research and that’s the last we see of him. Sam returns to the moment when Al, the hologram is dancing with Beth. Shouldn’t he have been able to see Al? No because, Al’s moment with Beth exists at on a different timeline than this jump Or, because Sam fixes Al’s marriage, and since Sam met Al when he was in a weak time of life and the project turned things around for Al, does that keep Sam from meeting his future partner? As we know from when Sam leaped into the young Al and for a moment Al lost his future, the project goes on with a different handler. So, yes the project continues.
So to examine the question of why does Sam not come home? Al the bartender, suggests a sabbatical before he moving on to harder assignments. This makes the ending statement of Sam never going home more disturbing. Especially after meeting the spirit of the crippled miner, it makes me think back to the pilot episode of “something went wrong” with the experiment, and maybe Sam didn’t really survive, just his spirit went on. I didn’t like this conclusion. I like to think he’s still out there doing good.
Coming to the next topic of traveling within one’s own lifetime, Sam Beckett was born in 1953. (I could have swore there was an early episode set in 1952.) His experimental first leap was in 1999. Why did he never travel anywhere beyond 1989? That leaves ten years for sure unexplored. Now the “lifetime” we refer to is never defined as “lifetime so far”. Thus, if Sam Beckett lived to be 80 years old, why could he have not leaped. per say, into the year 2016 to save his grand children from disaster? As long as his lifetime were an 80 year loop of string, this logically could happen.
Possibly, I over think these things, but that is what makes this show such good entertainment. It leaves the imagination open for more.
Another wonder of this show was the talent. Singer, Dancer, Actor, and musician, Mr. Bakula is a multi-talented performer, and the show didn’t let that go to waste. I think Shock Treatment was my favorite episode for the acting. What a great display of emotion and versatility. Plus, Dean Stockwell’s wit and style made for great entertainment.
Umm thats a paradox then. Al saved Sam a number of times. If Sam changed Al’s future then Al can’t perform the things he did that got Sam tot he point of meeting Beth or even given Sam the knowledge to know to make Beth wait for Al.
If the show was to come back I would like it to feature a new lead searching for Sam, As Sam was missing since his leap to Al’s wife at the end of the 5th season.
However with technology progressing they have managed to expand time travel to any point in the past yet not sussed out how to travel forward past present time.
This would open the show up to some really amazing possibilities such as,The Titanic, The assassination of President Lincoln or even Jack the ripper while still looking for Sam at the same time.
I don’t know if I would like that or not. The best part about the series was the actual “slice of life” that was shown focusing on “real” people and situations. You could change the life of a fictional 50’s kid’s show host or a small family in a major historical disaster or a small town sheriff, but you can’t really change the outcome of the Titanic of the Lincoln assassination. And if you did back to the Titanic and don’t change the outcome, then how can you really like the leaper? You might be able to do something like have him leap into the body of a student of the teacher from the Challenger space flight with Sam trying to figure out how to stop the shuttle, but his real mission is to stop something else in the child’s life. But that type of story could only work well once.
Come on. You cant return the show with Sam Scott Bakula back. He is too old (see my other post eoth their picture now). I like idea of looking for him in pilot maybe and he coukd cameo and hand baton to new person. Agree cant change world events. Take a leaf from Dr Who and his theory on not being able to change fixed points in time. They shoud make it grittier though. Maybe real time like 24. No more apple pie. What wa that jake gillinhall film on a train where he keeps leaping??
Source Code?
Thats it. Thanks Kelly (enjoy your blogs and film reviews by the way esp ones about box office and and sequels). Source code was a bit lacking as a film but enjoyed the scott bakula cameo as his dad esp when he says “oh boy”. Yes i am serious. It is in that film. You can even see it on youtube
“If the show was to come back I would like it to feature a new lead searching for Sam, As Sam was missing since his leap to Al’s wife at the end of the 5th season.”
Bellisario did conceive a concept for the sixth season that followed Al becoming a leaper to search for Sam supposedly with Sammy-Jo as his hologram.
Just recently photographic evidence of an alternate ending to ‘Mirror Image’ that led into it was discovered. The photos and a possible script can be found at Al’s Place.
I would like to say something, I just hope I do not offend anyone but I feel i must say it. When “Quantum Leap” had played for the first time here in New Zealand, I instantly became a fan. However I have now noticed that not all the episodes have been replayed to date. You Bastards!! where is the episode in which Sam leaps into a Dog? I know for certain that I( have seen it on the program’s first run in this country, but now you assholes have removed it and claim it was never made. What bullshit wool are you trying to pull over the eyes of the Quantum Leap fans?
Bring back that episode then the series will be complete. Right now you are ripping the fans off!!
I have no memory of this episode, but if it exists I would watch it in a heartbeat. Oh boy, I’m the dog! And Al getting all jealous of the view Sam’s gets of women’s gazongas (his word, not mine) as they bend over to pet him.
It is the truth that such an episode DOES NOT exist, that it was considered early on but never made. As was an episode where Sam leaped into a baby.
I must disagree with you, as I know that episode does exist. I know that I have seen it in the late 1980s that he leapt into a dog. I believe that I may have experienced a Mandela effect but I am certain that the episode exists. It was made otherwise I would not have said that I have seen it.
I do not recall an episode where Sam leaps into a baby, I think that does not exist.
There was a proposed issue of the Innovation Comics series that had him Leap into a toddler, but it never went further than the one-page teaser before the company folded.
Are you sure you aren’t confusing it with the episode where he leaps into a chimp?
No I am not confusing it with the episode where he leaps into a chimp. The episode where he leaps into a dog was the first animal he leapt into and was in an earlier season.
I think you may be mistaking him leaping into a monkey/gorilla for leaping into a dog.
Sorry I am NOT mistaking him leaping into a chimpanzee. The leap into a dog took place in an earlier season before that one and was the first animal he leapt into.
I’ve already responded to this, but wish to submit an expanded response.
It’s the truth that this episode was never made.
The concept was considered, perhaps even scripted but was ultimately scrapped. As was an episode in which Sam leaps into a baby (thank GTFW, both sound implausible and just ridiculous).
I can’t recall the exact source but I remember hearing or reading a panel or interview in which Scott Bakula discussed this and commented that he was disappointed that he didn’t get to do the baby episode.
The only episode produced that leaped Sam into a non-human was season 4’s ‘The Wrong Stuff’ in which he leaps into astrochimp Bobo which IS available with the rest of the series from all sources.
“As was an episode in which Sam leaps into a baby (thank GTFW, both sound implausible and just ridiculous).”
I remember ER did an episode entirely from the point of view of a nonverbal patient, played by Cynthia Nixon. This was years after QL, mind you, yet in my head that’s how I keep picturing Sam as a baby – just a lot of POV shots from him looking up and struggling to communicate, his words all coming out as crying to the adults.
That’s probably not how they were planning on doing it, but that might have been the only way to go about it to end up with anything other than regrettable TV, although it does leave open the question of what wrong needed to be righted and how Sam, as a baby, could possibly go about pulling it off.
Sorry Cordelia, but the episode was definitely made and I know that I have seen it.
I am sorry Cordelia, but you are wrong! The episode WAS made and it was the first time Sam leapt into an animal in an earlier season than the one of the chimpanzee. As I have said I know Because I have actually seen it, I had never for gotten it.
I also like the earlier Time Tunnel. Remember the episode where they ‘leap’ onto the Titanic?
Did sam when he leaped into a woman’s body kiss a man then leap into next body! Very convenient that he kissed woman all the time! Just wondering.
He ALMOST kissed a man as a woman, in the final moment of the season 5 episode ‘Liberation’ (which was the one time he leaped into a woman who was in a relationship) but it was cut off before lip-to-lip contact was made by Sam leaping out. I believe this was because such a display was too controversial at the time.
” I believe this was because such a display was too controversial at the time.”
It was 1993, after all. There’d only been maybe just 1 prior same-sex kiss on American TV to that point, and when Picket Fences did one that same year they had to reshoot it so the kiss takes place in the dark:
https://www.refinery29.com/2018/03/193489/gay-lesbian-kiss-on-tv-scenes#slide-3
Gee. I used to watch “Melrose Place” with my sister. (We also used to bond over TV and watch James Cameron films together too.) It brings back memories of her being disappointed that the gay character on “Melrose Place”, Matt, never got to kiss his bf onscreen.
I remember that. Used to love Melrose Place. Everyone was screwing everyone, yet there was always poor Doug Savant never getting to kiss anyone.
Doug Savant has been married to Laura Leighton in real life for 20 years so he’s a lucky guy.
Good point. He came out of the whole thing just fine.