“Theorising that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Doctor Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished... He woke 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.” “Quantum Leap” is a show that was created in the late 1980s in the genre of science fiction, humor, and drama. This show aired from NBC, one of the three major networks in the 1980s; therefore, getting many views from the start. It was a really great show that made me laugh and almost cry. This review contains a few spoilers for a few of the episodes of “Quantum Leap”. There are many things that will be included; actors, characters, clothes, episodes with important times, humor in the show, and the important themes that can be learned from this show.

First of all we have Scott Bakula who plays Dr. Sam Beckett and many other characters in other shows and movies; Dwayne Pride; Danny the cat; Captain Jonathan Archer, just to name some major ones. Scott is a brilliant actor starring from NCIS: New Orleans all the way to an animated film called “Cats Don’t Dance”. He does a really good job at bringing out who Sam Beckett really is and he is just a natural at it. Every time I see him on screen, I know whatever I’m watching will be good. The audience can really tell that he puts a lot into his character Sam Beckett; everyone knows he just loves playing him. Then we have Dean Stockwell as Al Calavicci; I really love the humor that Dean gives into this character and there could not have been another person to replace him. He also starred in one episode of NCIS: New Orleans as Tom Hamilton; when Dean was playing Tom Hamilton in the NCIS episode, Scott was very excited about him being in that episode. Dean also starred in the movie “The Boy with Green Hair” as the main character Peter Fry. Dean is just a fabulous actor who started from the musical business into movie business. Scott and Dean had an awesome chemistry together onscreen and off screen. Unfortunately, Dean died November 7th, 2021; the cause was natural, and it was a tragic loss for many. He was a vetran actor; best known for playing Al Calavicci on “Quantum Leap”. The characters that Dean played would live in the hearts of many, and also for Scott.

We have our 2 main characters of the show, Dr. Sam Beckett and Al Calavicci. Sam Beckett is our protagonist; a scientist, choir boy, and married man who was testing out time travel in Arizona, he is currently still back in time trying to find his way home. Sam is a well built character especially because of the “Swiss cheese” effect; this effect causes the brain to have missing bits and pieces of its memory, much like swiss cheese. His memory had some holes in it because he forgot a couple of major things; the memory loss would then be great for producing a backstory. As heard from the prolouge of each episode, he is “driven by an unknown force to change history for the better”; he does all of this willingly, only wanting to leap back home every time.Then we have his best friend Al who is a hologram that only Sam can see and hear, with the exception of animals, little kids, and people with mental disabilities. Al is a lot of things; was married, funny, a soldier, smoker, a friend, guide, and more. He must help Sam with the mission on hand, yet still gets distracted by ladies who cannot see him. He is really important in every episode plot, helping Sam whenever he needs it. I really love him because he is just good at keeping everyone’s spirits high. When he served in the Veitnam War, he suffered a lot and was tortured. When he came back to the U.S., his wife was not there because she thought he died since he was gone for so long. He was super depressed after that event and that is the partial reason he goes after women. Since these two are constantly going back in time, sometimes the computer they are working with is not reliable. It really helps when they see newspapers, cars, and the kind of clothing they have to see who they are.

The clothes that the show has are sometimes very flashy or very dull. I really like the clothing because it shows who, what, and the era that Sam is in; for example, in the episode “Mirror Image” the clothes are very dusty and old-timey for that age, the audience could probably guess what year he is in. For the clothes of the future, what Al wears are very flashy colorful suits that match his personality. Clothes that represented 1999 were really funky and most of the clothing trends in 1999 were not established; mostly because they weren’t in the 1990s yet. The most interesting clothes are the women's clothing. It is hilarious watching Sam Beckett wear these dresses whenever he leaped into a woman. I loved the reaction that he gave off when he saw what he was wearing womens clothing. Most of the time he was wearing tights, heels or flats, dresses, skirts, bras and kitchen aprons. Even during the theme music, there is a clip where he is in a red dress and hits someone with a high heel. Some of these clothes were also trends from important events.

This show also included many important times that happened in America. There were the Watts riots, hurricanes, JFK’s death and much more. These episodes showed that “Quantum Leap” wasn’t just about action, drama, or just humor. They showed these events because they were important to America and Americans. This show really accomplished trying to educate people on the history of America; furthermore, making the show even better. Like during the Watts Riot in San Francisco they had some scenes that would cut out the sound, because someone said a really bad word. It showed what it was like in those important events that were happening in America. There were only very few times that Sam leaped outside of the United States. Like the Vietnam War, that was important to many people back then. Many college students were against the war and protested a lot about it. It made me feel included and really sad about all the bad things that were happening in these events. All of this seriousness can eventually lead to a very tense show, and sometimes we need some parts that give us some higher hopes on what is happening in the show.

Humor helps with the show not become very tense. We obviously have our comic relief, Al, who makes everyone want to laugh. Then we have some of the clothes, jokes and other people that make the audience want to laugh. This can help lead to less sadness in each episode, after all Sam will try to change the past for the better. It’s really funny when Al is constantly trying to hook up with women that Sam is with. He always gets mixed up with his second, third, fourth, and fifth wife. Another funny time was when he was in the mental institute and the mentally ill could see him, they didn’t know the alphabet; therefore, leading to Al creating a very catchy song for it. Then whenever Sam was in women’s clothing, Al would make fun of him and this would crack people up as it did mostly for me. The humor in this show is just absolutely well done and makes everyone happy. Now everyone must remember that “Quantum Leap” is not just a funny, action-packed show, they have themes that everyone can learn from.

There are themes in “Quantum Leap” that teach everyone something. From racism to sexism this show can really teach a lot of things to the viewers. One episode had this guy named Jimmy that Sam leaped into who had down syndrome and was living with his brother Frank, Frank’s wife, and their kid. In that episode Jimmy needed a job or he would end up in an institution and Sam is trying his best to get a job for him. At the end Jimmy gets the job and this goes to show that people with down syndrome are just like any other person, yet it is harder for them to be as independent. Then there was the Watts Riots in San Francisco and that was all about racial discrimination. Sam had jumped into a black man who was engaged to a white woman. The black man’s brother wanted the girl killed because of the discrimination that was happening. At the end, the brother ended up dying for the white woman because he wanted his brother to be happy. This episode taught that discriminating is wrong and everyone is equal, even if they are of different races; it also taught that it doesn’t matter what color you are, they can still love someone. I personally liked these themes that I inferred from watching the show; it made me realize that there is more in every episode. This show has, and still is, teaching me more things than these newer shows with hardly any meaning.

Hence, “Quantum Leap” was awesome at showing these main parts that were talked about above. This show had really good elements in it; for instance, the characters, actors and other things that were talked about above. “Quantum Leap” was an action-filled, funny, informational show, for every episode I watched, I enjoyed and loved. Overall this show had many viewers that were captivated by the plots in each episode, the ending of that episode, and who Sam would leap into next. This show is really for your beginner, average, and advanced science fiction lovers or people who just want something really good to watch. “And so Doctor 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…”