Quantum Leap (season 1)
The first season of Quantum Leap ran on NBC from March 26 to May 17, 1989. It consists of eight episodes. The show, a late-season replacement, was recognized with a Creative Arts Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Hairstyling for a Series, for the work on "Double Identity".
Quantum Leap | |
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Season 1 | |
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Country of origin | United States |
No. of episodes | 9 |
Release | |
Original network | NBC |
Original release | March 26 – May 17, 1989 |
Season chronology | |
Episodes
No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Leap location & date | Original air date | Prod. code |
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1 2 | 1 2 | "Genesis" | David Hemmings | Donald P. Bellisario | Edwards Air Force Base, Blockfield, California September 13, 1956 / Waco, Texas Summer 1968 | March 26, 1989 | 83549[1] |
In 1995, Dr. Sam Beckett, desperate to prove his time travel theory before the project runs out of funds, leaps before the kinks are worked out of the machine. He ends up leaping into Tom Stratton (played by Layne Beamer), a pilot of the experimental Bell X-2 aircraft, and has to pretend to be the pilot while trying to fill in the holes in his "Swiss cheese" memory. As Tom Stratton, Sam comforts his (Tom's) wife and prevents her from having a premature birth. This is what he was sent to do, allowing him to leap home (he hopes). But instead of leaping home, he leaps into minor league baseball player Tim Fox (Tim Martin) in Texas at the end of the 1968 season, in the middle of a game, where he must make the winning play in order to leap further.
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3 | 3 | "Star-Crossed" | Mark Sobel | Deborah Pratt | Marion, Ohio June 15, 1972 | March 31, 1989 | 65003 |
As Gerald Bryant (played by John Tayloe), a lecherous old professor at a private university, Sam's mission is to stop a young coed from ruining her life by entering into an ill-advised marriage with Sam's host, but along the way, Sam tries to change his own history by reuniting Donna Eleese (played by Teri Hatcher), the woman who will later leave him at the altar, with her father before he ships out to Vietnam. | |||||||
4 | 4 | "The Right Hand of God" | Gilbert Shilton | John Hill | Sacramento, California October 24, 1974 | April 7, 1989 | 65002 |
Sam is Clarence "Kid" Cody (played by Michael Strasser), a crooked boxer who must win the championship in order to win the money that his new managers (a group of nuns) need to build a new church. | |||||||
5 | 5 | "How the Tess Was Won" | Ivan Dixon | Deborah Arakelian | Texas August 5, 1956 | April 14, 1989 | 65004 |
Sam leaps into Daniel "Doc" Young (played by Sloan Fischer), a veterinarian on rural Riata Ranch in Texas, and must decide if he needs to win the love of a wealthy rancher or save the life of an important animal. | |||||||
6 | 6 | "Double Identity" | Aaron Lipstadt | Donald P. Bellisario | Brooklyn, New York November 8, 1965 | April 21, 1989 | 65001 |
On the eve of the Northeast Blackout of 1965, Sam leaps into Mafia hitman Frankie LaPalma (played by Page Moseley) and later leaps into Geno Fescotti (played by Mike Genovese), the Mafia don as the Quantum Leap project tries to bring him home. | |||||||
7 | 7 | "The Color of Truth" | Michael Vejar | Deborah Pratt | Alabama August 8, 1955 | May 3, 1989 | 65013 |
Sam leaps into Jessie Tyler (played by Howard Matthew Johnson), an aging black chauffeur in the segregated South. He must save his wealthy white employer (the widow of the former Governor of Alabama) from dying in a car crash, while persuading her to play a more active role in the civil rights movement. Al has his first experience being noticed by a human other than Sam, although she only perceives him as a ghostly voice. | |||||||
8 | 8 | "Camikazi Kid" | Alan J. Levi | Paul Brown | Los Angeles, California June 6, 1961 | May 10, 1989 | 65014 |
Sam leaps into Cameron "Cam" Wilson (played by Scott Menville), a high school nerd who must prevent his sister from marrying an abusive man, an incident that reminds Sam of the fate of his own sister. | |||||||
9 | 9 | "Play It Again, Seymour" | Aaron Lipstadt | S : Tom Blomquist; S/T : Donald P. Bellisario & Scott Shepard | New York City, New York April 14, 1953 | May 17, 1989 | 65009 |
Sam leaps into private investigator Nick Allen (played by Tony Heller), who is looking for the murderer of his partner in a world akin to a Humphrey Bogart film. His host bears an uncanny resemblance to Bogart and the femme fatal of the piece is played by Claudia Christian. |