Quantum Leap (TV series)

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Quantum Leap

Quantum Leap intertitle
Format Science fiction / Drama
Created by Donald P. Bellisario
Starring Scott Bakula
Dean Stockwell
Country of origin  United States
No. of seasons 5
No. of episodes 96 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time approx. 45 minutes
Production company(s) Belisarius Productions
In Association With Universal Television
Broadcast
Original channel NBC
Original run March 26, 1989 – May 5, 1993

Quantum Leap is an American television series that was broadcast on NBC from March 1989 to May 1993. The series was created by Donald P. Bellisario, and starred Scott Bakula as Dr. Sam Beckett, a scientist who becomes lost in time following a botched experiment. Dean Stockwell co-starred as Al, Sam's womanizing, cigar smoking sidekick and best friend. He appeared to Sam as a hologram that only Sam and a select few others could see or hear. The series features a mix of comedy, drama and melodrama, social commentary, nostalgia and sci-fi, which won it a broad range of fans. It is particularly notable for the end of each episode, where Becket leaps into his next persona (the story of the next episode), usually uttering "Oh boy".

Contents

[edit] Opening narration

The series' original opening narration was read by Scott Bakula:

“ It all started when a time travel experiment I was conducting went... "a little caca". In the blink of a cosmic clock, I went from quantum physicist to Air force test-pilot. Which could have been fun... if I knew how to fly. Fortunately, I had help - an observer from the project named Al. Unfortunately, Al's a hologram, so all he can lend is moral support. Anyway, here I am, bouncing around in time, putting things right that once went wrong, a sort of time traveling Lone Ranger, with Al as my Tonto. And I don't even need a mask... ("Oh Boy") ”

Beginning with the thirteenth episode of the second season, Bakula's monologue was replaced with a broader introduction explaining the show's premise. This introduction was originally read by actor Lance LeGault (who appears in the first season episode "How the Tess Was Won"), and later by Deborah Pratt (Bellisario's wife, as well as a co-producer and writer on the show). A shorter version of this second introduction, also read by Deborah Pratt, was used for the remaining three seasons

“ Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Dr. Sam Becket led an elite group of scientists into the desert to develop a top-secret project known as Quantum Leap. Pressured to prove his theories or lose funding, Dr. Becket prematurely stepped into the project accelerator, and vanished.

He awoke to find himself in the past, suffering from partial amnesia and facing a mirror image that was not his own. Fortunately, contact with his own time was maintained through brain-wave transmissions with Al, the project observer, who appears in the form of a hologram, that only Dr. Becket can see and hear. Trapped in the past, Dr. Becket finds himself leaping from life to life, putting things right that once went wrong, and hoping each time that his next leap will be the leap home.

 ”

In the show's fourth season, the monologue was changed again, this time the computer Ziggy whose voice was revealed in the episode "The Leap Back" spoke the introduction, moderating it a bit for length:

“ Theorizing that one could travel within his own lifetime, Dr. Sam Becket stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator, and vanished.

He awoke to find himself trapped in the past, facing mirror images that were not his own, and driven by an unknown force to change history for the better. His only guide on this journey is Al; an observer from his own time, who appears in the form of a hologram that only Sam can see and hear. And so, Dr. Becket finds himself leaping from life to life, striving to put right what once went wrong, and hoping each time that his next leap, will be the leap home.

 ”

[edit] Show summary

In the series' first episode, Sam appears in the past with no memory of who he is or how he got there. Referred to often throughout the series as the "swiss cheese effect," Sam's partial amnesia prevents him from remembering most of the details of his own life... all he knows is that he's not who everyone in the past seems to think he is. Fortunately Admiral Al Calavicci (Dean Stockwell), Sam's best friend, appears to him in holographic form and explains that Sam is the victim of a time travel experiment that went wrong. Now Sam is lost in time, and his colleagues are having difficulty "retrieving" him and bringing him back to his own time.

Dean Stockwell (left) and Scott Bakula (right) as Al Calavicci and Sam Becket

Sam soon learns that the man he replaced in the past (or "leaped into," in the show's parlance) is an Air Force test pilot who was about to be killed during a botched flight. Sam saves the man (as well as his wife and unborn child), believing that doing so might enable him to return to his own time, but soon "leaps" again and finds himself living yet another person's life, and once again trying to "put right what once went wrong." In each episode, Sam leaps into a new host, often finding himself in dangerous, embarrassing, or otherwise compromising positions, and with Al's help (and that of his colleagues, who have access to information from the future), tries to right some wrong or misfortune in that person's life.

Sam believes that God, or some other higher power, is controlling his leaps, sending him to times and places where he is needed. In the series' final episode, he even encounters a mysterious man, a bartender who insinuates detailed knowledge of Sam's "mission" and his true identity. Because this bartender was also present in Sam's first leap, Sam comes to believe he might actually be that higher power, though the man neither confirms nor explicitly denies this.

The bartender reveals that Sam himself has control over where he leaps in time. Sam does not accept this explanation at first. Later in the episode, the bartender explains that by building Project Quantum Leap, Sam has done a lot of good and can continue to do more. The bartender also tells Sam that it is by his own wishes that he continues to leap and asks Sam where he wishes to leap to next. Sam replies by saying he wishes to return home, but he cannot as he has a wrong to put right for Al by letting his first wife, Beth (Susan Diol, in her second appearance as Beth during the series), know that Al is still alive in a POW camp in Vietnam. Sam then promptly leaps out. It is believed that Sam continues to leap through time because he subconsciously wishes to continue, since his original motivation for creating project Quantum Leap was to change history for the better.

Several characters are referred to throughout the series, but rarely (if ever) actually appear. Ziggy, the artificial intelligence that runs the project and supplies Al with information to help figure out the purpose of Sam's leaps, only appears in one episode, and Gushie, the project's head programmer (who has chronic halitosis and is reputedly having an affair with Al's long-time girlfriend, Tina) only appears in six episodes, including both the pilot and the finale. Dr. Beeks, the project psychiatrist, is also frequently mentioned, but only appears in two episodes.

[edit] Laws of leaping

Al explains the concept of the experiment Sam in the first episode during his initial period of amnesia. Dr. Becket was developing an experiment that enabled him to connect his birth and death dates and compress that time-line together allowing each part of his life to touch the other, thus creating an environment where he is able to time travel to any point within his lifetime.

In another episode, Al uses an analogy to explain this theory. Using a piece of string, Al explains that one end represents Sam's date of birth, while the other represents Sam's date of death. Connecting the two ends together will, in effect, form a loop. The looped string is then scrunched up in ones hand, and various parts of the piece of string will inevitably intersect and touch each other. Al explains that Sam will continue to travel forward or backward through time until he meets one of these intersecting pieces then travels in the opposite direction, making Sam's journey random.

In early episodes, it was unclear whether Sam's mind was leaping into other people's bodies, or whether his mind and body leaped together. Later episodes make it clear, however, that Sam's entire body has traveled through time, and that 'the illusion of [his host's] physical aura' surrounds him, making him look and sound like that person to whomever he interacts with in the past (conversely, Sam's counterpart in the future is surrounded by a similar aura, and looks/sounds, to people at the project, like Sam). Sam is also able to transcend the physical limitations of his host, being able to see after leaping into a blind concert pianist, walk while sharing the existence of a legless Vietnam veteran, and retaining the strength of an adult man after leaping into a child, an elderly woman, and so on.

During the time in which Sam occupies a host, the host is simultaneously transported to the time travel facility where Sam made his initial leap - effectively switching places with them. It is never explicitly stated what happens to the people Sam has leapt into after he leaves, but it is assumed that the person immediately acquires the memories of the actions that Sam has done as if they had done them themselves. Though in the episode, "Roberto!", Sam suggests at the end that the people he leaps into remember being in the waiting room at Project Quantum Leap HQ.

It is established early in the show's run that Al sees Sam as the person he's leapt into, though later episodes demonstrate that he clearly sees Sam as Sam.

[edit] Sam's memory

At the beginning of the series, Sam has almost total amnesia, not even knowing his own name, or recognizing Al. Complex technical skills (such as medical and scientific training and his knowledge of foreign languages), as well as historical knowledge, seem to survive intact, yet he is unable to recall most of the details of his own life.

Sam slowly starts to remember more personal information during the early episodes of the series, such as the fact that he had an older brother who was killed in Vietnam, and a younger sister who eloped and married an abusive alcoholic. While reviewing his memory, Sam mentions that his sister now lives in Hawaii and is married to a Navy man, Jim Bonnick, a character from the Magnum P.I. series. He also seems to recognize Al's references to his various colleagues.

In the first episode of the fourth season, Sam briefly returns to his own time, at which point his memories from before he first leaped begin to return, but his experiences during the last four years quickly begin to fade. He first memory is that he is married in his 'present', and spends time with his wife, scientist Dr. Donna Eleese (Mimi Kuzyk), during the episode. The process is reversed when Sam once again leaps.

[edit] Historical figures

Also common to the show were "kisses with history," scenes where Sam briefly encounters a famous or infamous person usually unrelated to the episode's story. For example:

  • In "Star-Crossed," Sam has to get his future fiancée (and eventual wife, due to the success of the leap) (Teri Hatcher) to reconnect with her father, who is a colonel in the army. On June 17, 1972, Sam tries to bluff his way past the security guards in the lobby of the Watergate Hotel. He is ejected, but Sam manages to find a door with a piece of tape over the latch. He and his future wife sneak in, but the guard, noticing their car, does a check of the outside doors and reports a break-in.
  • In "How the Tess Was Won," Sam leads a young Buddy Holly to write the song "Peggy Sue."
  • In "Double Identity," Sam causes the Northeast Blackout of 1965 when he asks someone to plug in a 1000 watt hair dryer at a fraternity house at 111 Erie Drive, Buffalo, New York at 22:15 GMT (5:15 EST) on November 9, 1965.
  • In the episode "Camikazi Kid," Sam meets a boy called "Mikey," ostensibly Michael Jackson, and demonstrates how to do the moonwalk.
  • In "Play it again Seymour," Sam leaps into Det. Nick Allen, a man who looks a lot like Humphrey Bogart and in 1953 New York runs into a young Woody Allen.
  • In "Good Morning, Peoria," Sam helps Chubby Checker to perfect the Twist.
  • In "Thou Shalt Not...," Sam performs the Heimlich Maneuver on a choking man who is addressed as Dr. Heimlich; no one else present recognizes the technique as it had not yet been invented.
  • In "Sea Bride," a voice can be heard over the ship's intercom saying, "Calling Mrs. Thatcher, Mrs. Margaret Thatcher," a reference to the British Prime Minister.
  • In "Leap Of Faith," Sam recounts to a young boxer a scene from the film Rocky—the young boxer's locker door is tagged with S. Stallone—a reference to Sylvester Stallone.
  • In the episode "The Boogieman," Sam's actions help inspire a young horror writer, Stephen King.
  • In "Rebel without a Clue," Sam pleads with Jack Kerouac to talk a young woman out of pursuing a dangerous life on the road.
  • In "It's a Wonderful Leap," Sam as a cab driver in 1958, advises a 12-year-old Donald Trump that investing in New York City real estate would be a good way to get rich, and that there will one day be a crystal tower on 57th Street and 5th Avenue. That building is the Trump Tower.
  • In "Goodbye Norma Jean," Sam inspires the title of the last film Marilyn Monroe ever completed. In Sam's universe she died before The Misfits was made.
  • In "Dr. Ruth," Sam leaps into Dr. Ruth Westheimer. While Sam deals with a case of sexual harassment in the past, the real Dr. Ruth (in the waiting room) helps Al get over his inability to express his love to a woman ever since his first wife left him. It appears that the point of Sam leaping into Dr. Ruth was for Dr. Ruth to help Al, rather than Sam to help the victim (Westheimer appeared as herself in this role). However, while defending a victim of sexual harassment from her harasser, a woman stops to listen to what Sam is saying, and when her companion speaks to her, we hear that the woman listening is Anita Hill.
  • In "The Leap Between the States," Sam leaps into his own great-grandfather during the American Civil War, who is charged with helping runaway slaves escape through the Underground Railroad. The house servant and conductor of the stop gives himself the last name of "King," and Al explains that he is the ancestor of Martin Luther King, Jr..
  • In the episode "Memphis Melody," where Sam leaps into Elvis Presley, a young saxophonist in a music contest from Hope, Arkansas is addressed as "little Billy C," a reference to Bill Clinton.
  • In the second season episode "All Americans," Al notes that he is watching Super Bowl XXX and that the Steelers are three points behind. The game did in fact feature the Steelers, who trailed the Dallas Cowboys by three points—20-17—midway through the fourth quarter. This is notable because the episode was filmed over six years before the game actually took place.

[edit] Final episode

The series is somewhat unusual in that it has a science fiction premise, but little science fiction- or fantasy-oriented storytelling, instead focusing on the personal journeys of Sam and the people he encounters. Even in its final episode, the show refuses to resolve many of its own technical and holistic questions, choosing instead to leave things open-ended and focus tightly on what is arguably the series' overarching message: that a single person can change the world, one life at a time.

The final episode was in fact intended to be an end-of-season cliffhanger, but after the series was not renewed for a sixth season, it was revised to function as a series finale.[citation needed] The original ending had Al's Vietnam-era picture "leaping" into a portrait of Al sitting with Beth and their four adult daughters. In both the alternate ending and the episode as broadcast, the leap effect eventually recedes into darkness, and text on the screen informs us that "Dr. Sam Becket never returned home."

[edit] Music

The theme for the series was written by Mike Post.[1] The theme was re-arranged for the fifth season.

Scores for the episodes were composed by Post (36 episodes), Velton Ray Bunch (24 episodes), and Jerry Grant (10 episodes).[2]

Throughout the series, Sam is called on to perform music. This includes singing and playing the piano and guitar.

Due to copyright clearance issues, some of the music was replaced for home video and DVD releases.

[edit] Episodes

Main article: List of Quantum Leap episodes

[edit] Guest stars

A number of celebrities guest-starred on the series over the course of its run, including Debbie Allen, Bob Saget, Charles Rocket, Neil Patrick Harris, Lydia Cornell, Brooke Shields, Roddy McDowall and others; Chubby Checker, Dr. Laura Schlessinger, and Dr. Ruth Westheimer appeared in episodes as themselves. Several future stars made guest appearances, including Jennifer Aniston, Michael Beach, Terry Farrell, Diedrich Bader, Robert Duncan McNeill, Jason Priestley, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Carla Gugino, Teri Hatcher, Marcia Cross, Eriq La Salle, Patricia Richardson, Patrick Warburton, Claudia Christian, James Morrison, Gregory Itzin, Lauren Tom, Jane Sibbett, Amy Yasbeck, Michael Stoyanov, Tia Carrere, and Beverley Mitchell.

[edit] Awards

  • Emmy Awards
    • 1989: Outstanding Achievement in Hairstyling for a Series (for "Double Identity")
    • 1990: Outstanding Cinematography for a Series ("Pool Hall Blues")
    • 1991: Outstanding Achievement in Makeup for a Series ("The Leap Home" (Part 1))
    • 1991: Outstanding Cinematography for a Series ("The Leap Home" (Part 2))
    • 1993: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Editing for a Series - Single Camera Production ("Lee Harvey Oswald")
  • Golden Globe Awards
    • 1990: Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV (Stockwell)
    • 1992: Best Performance by an Actor in a TV-Series - Drama (Bakula)
  • Directors Guild of America Awards
    • 1991: Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Shows - Night (Michael Zinberg, for "Vietnam")
  • Edgar Awards
    • 1991: Best TV Series Episode (Paul Brown, for "Goodnight, Dear Heart")

[edit] Other media

[edit] Non-fiction

[edit] Novels

Ace Books published a series of novels due to the show's popularity, beginning in 1992 and continuing until the year 2000. While not considered canon, the novels were met with approval from Bellisarius Productions and Universal Studios. Being non-canon, the novels tended to deviate from series norms and also attempted to provide explanations for conventions that went unexplained in series episodes. For example, in Quantum Leap: The Novel (a.k.a. Carny Knowledge):

  • Sam is depicted as exchanging bodies with subjects he leaps into; he suffers from the degenerative results of polio on the 'leap-ee's' body for the duration of the story's leap.
  • Ziggy is identified as female both in personality and by reference as "her" and "she" by those present at Project Quantum Leap.
  • The novel states that Sam used brain cells from himself and Al in the creation of Ziggy (implying that Ziggy is a form of wetware computer), and that this "link" was the reason why Ziggy could transmit an image of Al to Sam's mind. This is also used to explain why Al can recognize changes in the present due to Sam's actions while others remain unaware.

Novels in order of publication:

  • Julie Robitaille: The Ghost and the Gumshoe. CORGI BOOKS, London 1990. ISBN 1-85283-397-1
    • Re-published in U.K. by BOXTREE LIMITED, London 1994

[edit] Comics

Cover of Quantum Leap #10, art by C. Winston Taylor

Innovation Publishing produced a series of comic books which ran for thirteen issues from September 1991 through August 1993. As with the television series, each issue ended with a teaser preview of the following issue and Sam's exclamation of "Oh, boy." Among the people Sam found himself leaping into in this series were:

Issue Person Date
1 High school teacher in Memphis, Tennessee March 25, 1968
2 Death row inmate who must prevent a murder on the outside June 11, 1962
3A Part-time Santa Claus December 20, 1963
3B Student researching sub-atomic physics April 2, 1968
4 Contestant amid the quiz show scandals August 15, 1958
5 Reporter whose daughter claims to have seen a UFO November 14, 1957
6 Teenage girl with an identical twin sister February 12, 1959
7A Professional golfer with the mob after him 1974
7B Bus driver who discovers child abuse May 19, 1953
8 Bank robber, while the leapee tours the Project with Al 1958
9 Lesbian on parole after twelve years in prison for murder June 22, 1969
10 Stand-up comedian who befriends a fading silent movie star June 13, 1966
11 Doctor studying the effects of LSD on human subjects July 1958
12 Gas station attendant with a lot of time on his hands April 24, 1958
13 Alien aboard an orbiting craft June 5, 1963

Few of the comic stories referenced episodes of the television series, with the notable exception of #9, "Up Against A Stonewall": Sam leaps into Stephanie Haywood, a central character in the episode "Good Night, Dear Heart". The story in the comic book begins with her parole, about a week before the Stonewall riots.

[edit] Fan films

 This section needs references that appear in reliable third-party publications. Primary sources or sources affiliated with the subject are generally not sufficient for a Wikipedia article. Please add more appropriate citations from reliable sources. (July 2009)

Quantum Leap: A Leap To Di For (2009) Writer/Director Christopher Allen and RACSO Motion Pictures, present this not for profit fan film, continuing the journey of Sam Becket after the events of the final television episode.

Synopsis: Sam Becket has leapt into a 26-year-old American male on a visit to Paris, France. Finding himself with a beautiful young British girl, all seems well until Sam discovers the exact date... August 30, 1997, twenty-four hours before the death of Princess Diana.[3]

Filmed on location in Indianapolis, Indiana. Premiered at the 20th anniversary Leapback convention in Hollywood, California, March 27 2009. With an international FREE Internet release April 18 2009.[4]

With a cast consisting of: Deborah Pratt, Beth Horn, Joshua Ramsey, Ed Ernstes, Niki Hurrle Warner, Ladonna Pettijohn, Chelsea Marie Rogers, David Briggs, Nathan Bechtold, and many others.[5]

[edit] Home video releases

In the 1990s, a few of the episodes were released on VHS. In the United States, these included "The Pilot Episode" ("Genesis"), "Camikazi Kid", "The Color of Truth", "What Price Gloria?", "Catch a Falling Star", "Jimmy", "The Leap Home", "Dreams", and "Shock Theater". In the United Kingdom, they were mostly released in pairs, selling as "The Pilot Episode" (on its own), "The Color of Truth" and "Camikazi Kid"; "The Americanization of Machiko" and "What Price Gloria?"; "Catch a Falling Star" and "Jimmy"; "The Leap Home" and "The Leap Home Part II - Vietnam"; and "Dreams" and "Shock Theater".

1998 brought the DVD release of "The Pilot Episode", containing only the episode "Genesis" and chapter selection.

For many years, despite many requests from fans, the official word from Universal was that more releases (such as season box sets) would be very unlikely due to the high level of music recordings used in episodes, creating numerous copyright problems. This was resolved with the DVD releases in 2004, which replaced much of the library music with generic music (causing a protest by fans in the process).

The Region 1 version of Quantum Leap: The Complete First Season came out in North America on June 7, 2004, containing all of the episodes as they were originally broadcast (except for "Play It Again, Seymour"), along with some bonus features.

Universal was unable to obtain music rights for all of the music in Quantum Leap: The Complete Second Season, in the case of the Region 1 version. Some were replaced with generic instrumental music. This, as mentioned above, outraged many fans and inspired a letter-writing campaign, demanding such a modification be corrected. The most criticized instance[citation needed] was the removal of Ray Charles's "Georgia on My Mind" from the season two finalé, "M.I.A.", during a scene in which Al dances with his first wife Beth. Subsequent Region 1 DVD releases continued to feature music replacement, but Universal did begin including a disclaimer on the package indicating such (this disclaimer also began to appear on other releases of various other Universal series, such as Magnum, P.I. and The A-Team).

All seasons have been released on DVD in the UK; Season 1 was released on November 8, 2004 (music intact), Season 2 on October 31, 2005 (music intact), Season 3 on December 12, 2005 (music intact),Season 4 on June 26, 2006 (music partially intact) and Season 5 on December 26, 2006 (music unknown).

All five seasons are available on DVD in Australia; Season 1 was released on May 2, 2005 (music intact), Season 2 on February 7, 2006 (music intact) and Season 3 on June 7, 2006.

Quantum Leap: The Complete Fifth season was released on DVD November 14, 2006 in North America, with "Blueprints from the original Time/Imaging chamber set" as the only extra. This release was not affected by music replacement. The first season is also available on Hulu, with the original music score.

[edit] DVD releases

Universal Studios Home Entertainment has released the entire series on DVD in Region 1, 2, and 4.

Season Region 1 Region 2 Region 4
The Complete First Season June 8, 2004 November 8, 2004 May 2, 2005
The Complete Second Season December 14, 2004 October 31, 2004 February 7, 2006
The Complete Third Season May 10, 2005 December 12, 2005 June 7, 2006
The Complete Fourth Season March 28, 2006 June 26, 2006 November 2006
The Complete Fifth Season November 14, 2006 December 26, 2006 February 21, 2007
Seasons One - Five
(The Ultimate Collection)		 N/A* October 8, 2007
(only available in R2)		 N/A*
  • There is however a region free boxset.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Mike Post (I) - Filmography by TV series". Imdb.com. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0006236/filmoseries#tt0096684. Retrieved on 2009-07-05. 
  2. ^ ""Quantum Leap" (1989) - Full cast and crew". Imdb.com. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096684/fullcredits#music_original. Retrieved on 2009-07-05. 
  3. ^ "Quantum Leap: A Leap to Di for (2009)". Imdb.com. 2009-04-26. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1323028/. Retrieved on 2009-07-05. 
  4. ^ "© RACSO Motion Pictures - Since 1993". Racsofilms.com. http://www.racsofilms.com/start.htm. Retrieved on 2009-07-05. 
  5. ^ "Quantum Leap: Casting". Racsofilms.com. http://www.racsofilms.com/QL-casting.htm. Retrieved on 2009-07-05. 

[edit] External links

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