March 26, 1989 : I was 12 years old on this, the date, that the pilot for Quantum Leap aired. My sister was 11 and we were hooked. Each week we tuned in to watch where the show was taking us next through the eyes of the main character Sam Beckett. That was nearly 37 years ago. I can hardly believe that myself. The show, sadly, had only a 5 season run. The last episode aired in May of 1993 and by then I was 16. I haven't seen the show since. Just a few weeks ago I decided to see if this was on any streaming network anywhere. I subscribe to a few after all. The only place I found was Amazon Prime Video and it's extremely over priced as you pay per episode or buy an entire season at a time. I wondered why a beloved 37 year old show was nowhere to be found. Apparently Netflix used to have it, Hulu perhaps and maybe Roku channel...but today..nada. Well the fans are out there and I found out the reason potentially is because of music licensing. Many of the episodes have 50s and 60s and other music integral to the episode. Perhaps the cost of getting licensing is too great for these streaming networks. I don't know. I do know that back in the early 2000s Universal put out dvds, however, they replaced all the music with public domain music which fans have said ruined many of the episodes. If you want more information on media that was released go here. In 2017 a bluray set was released said to contain all the original music plus improved video as it is 1080p. That said, the Mill Creek Entertainment set of DVDs released in 2017 claims to contain MOST of the original music; however it is only in 480p and a small aspect ratio. Still, this is the set I chose to buy as it can be played on my modern laptop with my 16 year old external disc drive using the VLC player. So, I've been rewatching this beloved show after 30+ years and loving every minute even though it can't fill my screen size and it looks like watching a VHS tape.
You may not have heard of this show or maybe you did but it's the "reboot" show that came out for 2 season, which by the way, I have not watched. What is Quantum Leap? The series revolves around a scientist with multiple PHDs and an MD...a genius lets say, a child prodigy who was born in 1953. His name is Sam Beckett and the show portrays him as probably the nicest person you would ever meet. He's obviously smart, and an over-achiever and cares about people to his core. He just can't remember much about himself for much of the series but eventually it all comes back. Well, most, not all. He developed a device, with some help of his friends, to travel back in time, which they call leaping. He "leaps" into someone else at a different time period than his current which is supposed to be the future. The show's first episode being in real time 1989, the "future" is about 1994. The future's date isn't disclosed until season 5 unless I missed it and by then it's 1999. They allude to the date however throughout the series saying 20-25 years in the future depending on what year he "leaped" into. The reason why he came up with this project and subsequent experiment isn't all that clear, at least not what I can see. As the series progresses you're made to believe he leaped back to "set right what once went wrong". Perhaps this was the intended goal from the beginning. Sam, being a scientist excited to get his project into the experimental stage, and the threat of losing funding, jumped the gun a bit and put himself into what is known as the "quantum leap accelerator" before it was complete. He woke up in the past in the middle of someone else's life not knowing who he was, where he was, what year it was, or what was going on. This is a recurring theme. What was the unexpected outcome of leaping before it was "ready" is Sam's team could not retrieve him to bring him back home (to the future). Thus Sam continues leaping through time, at random, helping people with their random issues by trying to reset things that went wrong to make their lives better.
Sam has help from his team who are set back into the future (where we rarely get a glimpse of). This includes Gooshi who seems to be the programmer on the project, and an artificial intelligence computer system named Ziggy and there is also Sam's friend Admiral Al Calavicci who is a jack of all trades himself while carrying the title of Admiral in the Navy. Al's reason to be originally involved in the project isn't clear, however Al and Sam's brain's are somehow connected and this affords Al the ability to find Sam in the past. Al shows up in the form of a hologram that only Sam can see and hear (well, Sam and very young children, animals, and mentally disabled) and he is there to help Sam with who, where and what so that he can leap again, always hoping his next leap is home. Their personalities, Sam and Al, could not be more different from each other. The pair work well together. Al is always in constant communication with Ziggy and Gooshi via a hand held device and he's often seen speaking to them and it's understood they can probably see and or hear him as he is in the chamber being projected to Sam.
When Sam leaps into a person that person is sent to a waiting room in the future. This is rarely shown. I can only think of 3 instances where we see this. Apparently what the people in the future see is Sam in the waiting room but it's not Sam on the inside of the physical shell. When Al visits Sam in the past he see's the person who Sam has leaped into as does everyone else around them. Sam can see who he's lept into via a mirror. Sam on the inside, someone else on the outside. Don't think too much about it. There is no explanation really how or why this works or even if this was part of the original project by design. All we do know about Sam's project is it was to allow someone to travel back in time within their own lifetime. In the process Sam's memory was left with holes; things he can't remember about himself or his life in the future. For that matter only Sam would be able to figure out how to get himself home, but Sam can't.
In the early episodes it appears as though Sam may have been un-married, having been left at the alter. Without any spoilers let's just say that leaping through time Sam has changed history many times and even to the point of affecting his own history. Only, Sam can't seem to remember it. In one episode Sam switches places with Al. Who knows why, but it happened and this allowed us to see Sam leap back home to the future where we meet his wife. Sam needed to save Al and there was a mad dash to get there and Sam lept back in time, again, suggesting to his wife that he had updated the retrieval procedure as being home his memory was back. It wasn't meant to be. Sam keeps leaping through time and though he remembers a lot of himself now and his former leaps he never seems to remember he is married. There are quite a few love story lines but for the most part Sam himself is not the one in love, just trying to fix what went wrong for when the other person returns. That said, there are a few times when Sam himself fell in love with the women he was there to help. I often ask, what about his wife? He remembers quantum physics...mostly...he knows he is a medical doctor...he remembers his family and hometown, many details about himself, but he never remembers his wife. Of course if he did the show could have possibly been different if Sam, who seemingly is a moral stand up guy, would have remembered his wife and resisted the temptation.
The 5th season of the show has a very different vibe than the previous 4. I'm not saying they are bad, but they are very different. In real time the show was threatened with cancellation during Season 3. The network intended that to be the last. There was a letter writing campaign by fans and the show hung on for 2 more seasons. Though it's obvious it was struggling which is probably why season 5 was so different. They were hoping to gain more viewers. It apparently didn't work. They even changed the theme song music, which by the way, I hate it. By the last episode there is no closure on the show. I'm not sure why they did that because I think they knew already there wasn't going to be a season 6.
There is so much to love about this classic T.V. show. Scott Bakula with his history in theater was obviously an excellent choice for this role. A talented actor and musician playing all sorts of characters, this just fit. There are several episodes that cover some serious or sensitive topics and they are hard to watch because you can feel it in your insides, the struggles. This is credit not only to the writers but to Scott Bakula for his ability to make you feel right along with Sam. When Sam struggles or Sam is hurting in his heart...you feel it. I loved this show since I was 12 years old. Re-watching it on DVD has brought back that nostalgia and really makes me miss the days of good T.V. like this. Sure some of it is cheesy. Sure some of it might not make sense. Sure some of it might contradict itself episode to episode. Yes, you will see little mistakes here and there...but it's well worth watching. A feel good show with an actor at the center who probably doesn't get enough recognition.
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