Product Description

Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Dr. 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. 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4080 in DVD
• Brand: Universal
• Released on: 2004-06-08
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 3
• Running time: 428 minutes

Amazon.com
They'll be dancing (well, leaping maybe) in the streets now that the first season of Quantum Leap, voted one of the 25 best cult series ever by TV Guide, has come to home video, a decade after its final year (1994) on the air (the pilot episode was released on DVD in '98). And why shouldn't they? This is a show, called "an imaginative diversion" by one critic, with a good premise that's cleverly and skillfully conceived, written, acted, and produced--ample evidence of which is spread out over three discs, each containing three episodes (plus some fairly meager extras) from the first season.

Scott Bakula, in the role that made him a star, plays Sam Beckett, a scientist who's part of a time-travel experiment that "went a little... ka-ka." Unable to return to his own time, and aided only by Al (Dean Stockwell, whose rapport with Bakula is one of the series' most appealing elements), his cigar-smoking, peculiar-dressing, sex-obsessed, holographic "enabler," Sam "leaps" unpredictably from one time period and person to another, usually completely out of his element (as a pilot, a boxer, a cowboy, an English lit professor, even an elderly black man in segregated '50s Alabama) and always in a situation that needs to be "made right" before he can leap onward. Generous helpings of humor, drama, physical action, and sentimentality (this is TV, after all) keep things moving, as do references to many other classic films and genres (Driving Miss Daisy in "The Color of Truth," Casablanca in "Play it Again, Seymour," boxing in general in "The Right Hand of God") and what creator Donald Bellisario calls the occasional "kiss with history" (Sam crosses paths with the young Buddy Holly and Michael Jackson, among others). It doesn't all work, as Quantum Leap occasionally becomes too cute and facile for its own good. But that and the set's paucity of bonus material (limited to one passable featurette and brief episode intros by Bakula) are the only real shortcomings of a boxed set that will likely earn multiple spins in the DVD player. --Sam Graham

Customer Reviews

Uh-Oh....Good Show...Extreme cost
Uh-oh. Deja-vu all over again. I won't comment too much on the show itself because anyone looking at this is probably considering buying it or they wouldn't be here reading. Quantum Leap was another of my favorite shows next to Northern Exposure. Unfortunately, like Northern Exposure the first season of Quantum Leap was a late season fill-in that only produced 8 episodes the first season. And like Northern Exposure, this DVD set is overpriced. Shame shame. Taking advantage of paying customers, the companies in charge of distribution should reconsider the cost and how much they may be driving good customers away. 5 stars for the show, 1 for the cost= 3 stars average.

Make All The Seasons Available On DVD!!
Should have been done years ago. Release each season as a boxed set, include the extras, the out takes, the interviews, the gag reels; ring up Scott Bakula, Dean Stockwell and all those concerned if you have to. They'll go for it. Those of us who loved the show deserve the extras. We sure waited long enough for Quantum Leap to be made available on DVD. I don't know about the rest of the fans of Quantum Leap, but I feel a bit like "Sam" with the way the show going to DVD has been handled. The writers of the show left "Sam" high and dry since the show went off the air and the fans have been left to battle excessive commercials and edits when we are lucky enough to catch it on television. It's way past time...Get it out there!

Excellent series, short season
"Quantum Leap" is about Dr. Sam Beckett, a genius who has built a time machine. Sam is sent into the past, finding that his mind is inside someone else's body. Each person has had something gone wrong in what is now the future, and Sam's mission is to prevent the tragedy. The only problem is that his memory is "swiss cheese", with lots of holes in it. His coworker, Al, appears to him as a hologram that only he can see and helps him. A series with a deeper message that small interventions can make a difference. An excellent series that shows how one person can change other people's lives.

Here is a brief episode guide:
Pilot: Genesis, September 13, 1956: Sam goes into the accelerator even though it isn't ready yet. He finds himself an Air Force test pilot.
1. Star-Crossed, June 15, 1972: As a literature professor, he must stop a co-ed from attaching herself to him.
2. The Right Hand of God, October 24, 1974: Sam finds himself a boxer working with a group of nuns as his trainers.
3. How the Tess Was Won, August 5, 1956: Sam becomes a veterinarian who becomes involved with a wealthy heiress.
4. Double Identity, November 8, 1965: Sam has to figure out his mission as a Mafia hit man.
5. The Color of Truth, August 8, 1955: Sam is a black chauffeur facing discrimination in the South.
6. Camikazi Kid, June 6, 1961: Sam is a teenager trying to stop his sister's marriage. (guest star: Jason Priestley)
7. Play It Again, Seymour, April 14, 1953: Sam leaps into a private eye trying to find his partner's murderer.