Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Doctor Sam Beckett 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. Beckett prematurely stepped into the Project Accelerator, and vanished...

He awoke to find himself trapped 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 appeared in the form of a hologram that only Dr. Beckett can see and hear.

Trapped in the past, Dr. Beckett 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..."

Note: This column first appeared on Jim Hill Media on June 10th, 2004.

With today being Leap Day, it seems appropriate to repeat it.

Sunday, March 26, 1989. If you tuned in to your local NBC affiliate that night, there was a two-hour drama scheduled. As television shows go, this one was definitely different. Different enough that it developed an audience in its first season. And of all things, on a Friday night - the toughest night for any show. Why is that, you may ask? Because that's the night when the demographic groups most prized by advertisers tend to be not watching television. Those young viewers with the most disposable incomes are usually out and about doing all the things young folks do, and consequently, are not at home in front of their televisions.

For some reason, I taped that two-hour show. If memory serves, I watched it as well. It had an interesting premise (as described in the quote above). We all have had times in our lives when we wish we could have done something differently. This show took that concept and ran with it. And it didn't hurt that this time traveling "do-gooder" was (as all of the Leap ladies are so fond of reminding me) easy on the eyes. In fact, in that first season of eight shows, there seemed to be a preponderance of incidents where our hero, Dr. Sam Beckett (as played by Scott Bakula, managed to appear without his shirt or in one episode (Camikzai Kid) in nothing but his socks and an empty cardboard box. If it helps build the fan base, well... During the five-year run of this show, only one other actor had a regular role in the series. That was Dean Stockwell as the Observer, Admiral Albert or Al Calavicci.

Now if you consider where these two guys were when QL began production, it's pretty good that they ended up together there. Scott was fresh from his Tony-nominated performance on Broadway in the musical, "Romance, Romance" and Dean was hot from his performances in the movies "Blue Velvet' and "Married to the Mob". Usually, there would have been a couple of unknowns working on a new show like this. But even from the beginning, this was destined not to be just like any other television show.

Producer and series creator Don Bellisario had been involved with a fair number of television shows, including a couple of genuine hits such as "Airwolf" and "Magnum P.I." --both of which put his talents as a helicopter pilot to semi-regular use. On the "Quantum Leap - Season One" DVD's, he relates the tale of his pitch of the show to then NBC president, Brandon Tartikoff. In trying to give his quick and dirty version of the show, Don somewhat confused Brandon, who then asked his to explain it so that his mother could understand.

Obviously, he did, because the network picked up the show and ran with it. The second season - a full twenty-two episodes - saw Wednesday night as a new home, and saw its audience grow as the result. So, why was the show different from the rest of the usual hour-long dramas in prime time? Well, for a start, every week found the show in a different situation. With a different location. In a different time or year. There were new guest stars and different music, costumes and sets. And the cast and crew managed to pull it all off in a very believable way. As the show developed we learned more about Sam and Al and became involved in their lives as well as those Sam leapt into each week. As many of the challenges they faced were like those we faced, there was an emotional investment for audiences on more than one level.

Scott made a good choice for Sam on a number of levels. He was athletic, played a number of sports, so they put him into situations based on that. And they made use of his other talents as well. One episode in particular, "Catch A Falling Star", had him on stage as an understudy for the lead actor in a touring company of "Man of La Mancha" (which made use of other Broadway actors including John Cullum (Tony winner in 1975 for "Shenendoah" and Ernie Sabella (most known by Disney fans as the voice of "Pumba" from the "Lion King", but also appeared in the role of "Nicely Nicely Johnson" in the recent revival of "Guys and Dolls" with Nathan Lane [the voice of "Timon" also from the "Lion King"] as "Nathan Detroit"). While he had sung in other episodes, this one truly showed audiences what he could do. During the show's fifth and final season, a soundtrack album was released with many of his vocal performances from the show being recreated in the recording studio.

Dean as well was right at home in his role as the Observer. And he was no rookie when it came to working in front of a camera. He started as one of MGM's child discoveries in 1945 in such films as "Anchors Aweigh" (with Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra), "The Boy With Green Hair" , "The Secret Garden" , "Kim" (with Errol Flynn) and went on to critically acclaimed performances in classics such as "Sons & Lovers" and Sidney Lumet's "Long Days Journey Into Night". He went on to become a staple of television with guest appearances on many shows. Among those were "Wagon Train", "Playhouse 90", "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", "The Twilight Zone", "The Defenders", "Burke's Law", "Dr. Kildare", "Bonanza", "Mannix", "Mission Impossible", "Night Gallery", "Police Story", "Streets of San Francisco", "McCloud", "Hart to Hart", "The A-Team", "Miami Vice", "Murder She Wrote" - get the idea he knew a bit about television? And using a cigar as a prop got him five years worth of his favorites Chavelos. But as the story arc of the series developed, we came to understand why his character as "Al" couldn't hold on to a relationship, and saw "Sam" set right that wrong in his last leap of the series. Al's wise cracks and snappy remarks were the perfect comments in many of the series greatest moments.

All in all, a fine show. Considering what it takes for a show to get to the pilot stage and actually be aired, it's almost a miracle we ever see any show. So, a five season run is almost a lifetime when it comes to television. All told there were ninety-five episodes from start to finish.

Now for me, "Quantum Leap" was something of an awakening as well. A trip to Los Angeles during the summer of 1989 (to attend a Star Trek show put on by Creation out at the LAX Hilton) introduced me to the community of AOL and the world of online chat rooms for us Apple and Mac users. When QL's second season began, I found other fans of the show and organized our own little chat session on a Saturday night. That led to bigger and better things with the creation of a forum for Television Fans, file libraries and a dedicated chat room, where the chats took off. Eventually, I joined AOL's Remote Staff as the forum and chat room host.

That little weekly chat led to joining folks in 1992 (February 29, Leap Day appropriately enough), first for ceremonies for Dean Stockwell's star on the "Hollywood Walk of Fame" (between Liza Minnelli and Donna Summer) and then the following day for the first Quantum Leap convention at the Universal City Hilton. Thanks to producer/writer Deborah Pratt, this event was a great look behind the scenes into "our favorite" television show. There were panel discussions on all aspects of the show including special effects, art direction, writing/producing, a charity auction, a fan costume contest and a fashion show of costumes from designer Jean-Pierre Dorleac. Then we were treated to a great discussion of the series by many of the guest stars. But the top event of the day was first the arrival on stage of Don Bellisario, followed soon after by Scott and Dean. A question and answer session with all three of them was the perfect finish to the event.

1993 saw another QL event at the Hilton as the show was about to wrap production on the fifth and final season. Met up with more of the folks from those AOL chats and had another great time. One lucky fan even won a walk on appearance in the show's final episode, "Mirror Image". Don Bellisario wrote that one and certainly left fans with more questions than he answered.

The show's last season saw a series of high profile "leaps" with bigger "kisses with history" including Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley and Lee Harvey Oswald (who Bellisario had actually spent a small amount of time with during his years in the Marines). Rumors had NBC pressuring Bellisario to make changes (that he did not wish to at that time) in the show for another season that included a young female leaper off in search of Sam and Al. Universal Vivendi ultimately ended up with the rights to the show, and Bellisario went on to other projects including "JAG" and "Navy NCIS", now at Paramount - where Scott Bakula ended up on "Enterprise" - complete with a guest role for Dean Stockwell! (Dean went on to an even more popular role as one of the new Cylons on the revived “Battlestar Galactica”.)

The more realistic assessment was a decline in the all important viewer numbers, even though the show scored well with it's demographics of younger male and female viewers. Fan support was strong in those early Internet days, but the network had survived fan barrages earlier in the shows run, including one on air spot for the show that tongue-in-cheek acknowledged a very successful letter and postcard campaign to save the show from cancellation. NBC did run a "Leap Week" series of shows every night on several occasions to build numbers for QL, including a series of promos with Sam and Al appearing in other shows from the network's line-up. NBC went on to other shows instead of "QL" in the 1993 fall season.

Still, it remains a favorite of fans, who know that someday, Dr. Beckett will make that leap home...