What was it about?: "Theorizing that one could time travel through his own lifetime, Dr. Sam Beckett 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 his 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. Beckett 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..." The opening spiel neglected to mention that as an aftereffect of his first leap Sam's brain took on the characteristics of Swiss cheese, with crucial details of how it worked buried in his subconscious (as Al told Sam in the pilot, "The only person who can get you back is you").
Why was it good?: The wonderful team of Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell; the emphasis on people rather than science (from Mike Post's warmhearted theme music onwards) and - unlike just about every time-travel saga ever made - precious little concern about altering history; a wide-ranging palette within its premise - although Sam usually only leaped between the 1950s and the present, the receptacles for him were men, women, youngsters, oldsters, the infirm, the fully functional, the fat, the thin... surprisingly, what sounds like his most unbelievable leap ("The Wrong Stuff," in which he leaped into a chimp) came off a lot better than the one where he leaped into Dr. Ruth; stories ranging from drama to comedy to horror; and almose every episode ended with Sam leaping into his next adventure. Of all the time-travel sagas, this is probably the most human; who hasn't wanted to go back and set something right?
Who liked it?: Viewers fond of uplift and happy endings, with escapism and sentiment that didn't approach Michael Landon levels. Time travel fans.
Who didn't?: SF purists; anti-sentimentalists; anyone who started to watch it in its fifth and final season (where Sam not only crossed swords with an evil leaper (except it turned out it was her hologram who was actually the evil one) but also leaped into Dr. Ruth, a vampire, Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe's chauffeur, his own great-grandfather in the Civil War ["The Leap Between The States," the only episode apart from "The Leap Back" that took Sam to a time he wasn't alive in] and in the double-length S5 opener "Lee Harvey Oswald"... guess); viewers with functioning ears in "Shock Theatre" when Al tried his hand at rapping. (You can hear it on the soundtrack album - it's different from the version on TV, but no less appalling.)
Notes: The opening voiceover after the first season or so was from Deborah Pratt (also the voice of the computer Ziggy, and Troian in the episode "A Portrait For Troian"), the show's most prolific writer after creator-executive producer Donald P. Bellisario (Airwolf, Tales of the Gold Monkey, JAG, Magnum,p.i.); the opening episode of season 2, "Honeymoon Express," hinged on Project Quantum Leap having to prove itself deserving of getting funding for another year - interestingly enough, the show itself almost didn't come back for a second season (its first full one); apparently very little children are exempt from the nobody-can-see-Al-but-Sam rule (witness "Another Mother" and "It's A Wonderful Leap" - in both cases Sam is also visible as he really is, which also applies to "Temptation Eyes" and the Evil Leaper episodes); Season 1's "The Color Of Truth" and Season 5's "Trilogy, Part 1" both have the same date (August 8, 1955); Sam does manage to leap home in "The Leap Back," but circumstances prevent him from staying. That, and the fact that if he ever did get back home for good it would be the end of the series (see also Lost in Space, Land of the Giants, Sliders and Star Trek: Voyager, all of which had at least one episode - and sometimes more than one - episode along those lines).
1989: Hairstyling for a Series - Virginia Kearns, "Double Identity - November 8, 1965"; Cinematography for a Series - Roy H. Wagner, A.S.C., the pilot.
1990: Drama Series - "Jimmy - October 14, 1964"; Art Direction for a Series - Cameron Birnie and Robert L. Zilliox, "So Help Me God - July 29, 1957"; Cinematography for a Series - Michael Watkins, "Pool Hall Blues - September 4, 1954"; Costume Design for a Series - Jean-Pierre Dorleac, "Sea Bride - June 3, 1954"; "; Lead Actor in a Drama Series - Scott Bakula, "Jimmy - October 14, 1964"; Supporting Actor in a Drama Series - Dean Stockwell, "Jimmy - October 14, 1964," "Another Mother - September 30, 1981," and "M.I.A. - April 1, 1969."
1991: Drama Series - "The Leap Home, Part 1 - November 25, 1969/The Leap Home, Part 2: Vietman - April 7, 1970"; Art Direction for a Series - Cameron Birnie and Robert L. Zilliox, "The Boogeyman - October 31, 1964"; Cinematography for a Series - Michael Watkins, "The Leap Home, Part 2: Vietnam - April 7, 1970"; Costume Design for a Series - Jean-Pierre Dorleac, "Glitter Rock - April 12, 1974"; Lead Actor in a Drama Series - Scott Bakula, "Shock Theater - October 3, 1954"; Makeup for a Series - Gerald Quist, Michael Mills, Jeremy Swan and Douglas D. Kelly, "The Leap Home, Part 1 - November 25, 1969"; Sound Editing - "Black on White on Fire - August 11, 1965"; Supporting Actor in a Drama Series - Dean Stockwell, "The Leap Home, Part 1 - November 25, 1969" and "Shock Theater - October 3, 1954."
1992: Drama Series - "A Leap For Lisa - June 22, 1957" and "The Leap Back - September 18, 1999"; Art Direction for a Series - Cameron Birnie, Ellen Dambros-Williams and Robert L. Zilliox, "A Song For The Soul - April 7, 1963"; Cinematography for a Series - Michael Watkins, "Dreams - February 28, 1979"; Costume Design for a Series - Jean-Pierre Dorleac, "A Single Drop Of Rain - September 7, 1953"; Lead Actor in a Drama Series - Scott Bakula, "Dreams - February 28, 1979" and Harrison Page, "A Song For The Soul - April 7, 1963"; Sound Editing for a Series - "Hurricane - August 17, 1969"; Supporting Actor in a Drama Series - Dean Stockwell, "The Leap Back - September 18, 1999" and "Dreams - February 28, 1979."
1993: Art Direction for a Series - "Blood Moon - March 10, 1975"; Cinematography for a Series - Michael Watkins A.S.C., "Lee Harvey Oswald - October 5, 1957"; Costume Design for a Series - Jean-Pierre Dorleac, "Lee Harvey Oswald - October 5, 1957"; Editing For A Series (Single-Camera) - Jon Koslowsky A.C.E., "Lee Harvey Oswald - October 5, 1957"; Lead Actor in a Drama Series - Scott Bakula, "Lee Harvey Oswald - October 5, 1957"; Music for a Series (Dramatic Underscore) - Velton Ray Bunch, "Lee Harvey Oswald - October 5, 1957" (Part 1); Sound Editing for a Drama Series - "The Leap Between The States - September 20, 1862"; Supporting Actor in a Drama Series - Dean Stockwell, "Lee Harvey Oswald - October 5, 1957" and "Killin' Time - June 18, 1958."
P.S.: Sam never did get back home.
For more leaping...
Andy's Quantum Leap Website
Leap To Leap
Al's Place
Quantum Leap Crusader's Page