Unsigned Artists

remembering quantum leap

the greatest thing about quantum leap to me was the concept of being able to jump from one person's life to another and have to try and figure out how to make it as that person. as a kid, i remember seeing the show a few times, but my imagination was constantly running wild with scenarios of how i would react if i was thrown into the life of a famous baseball player or a fighter pilot.

bakula's character, Sam Beckett, was a man of many talents. some of those talents that i can recall from some of the episodes i've watched in the past few years (a close friend has procured all 5 seasons on DVD) include: a Pool Shark, a Baseball Player (more than one episode, i think!), a military Test Pilot (in fact, i think that was the show's pilot. how's that for irony...) and a Pregnant Woman.

Sam's greatest gift though, was that he was an awesome musician. In separate episodes, he was a Blind Concert Pianist, a Glam-Rock Bassist, taught Michael Jackson how to moonwalk, and gave music advice to Buddy Holly AND Elvis Presley.

the one musical episode that always stuck out to me was the one where Sam/Bakula played a younger version of himself, and he played a then-futuristic rendition of "Imagine" for his little sister, who burst into tears (video attached).

side note: the music used in the show almost didn't make it into the DVD series because of licensing issues with many of the songs used. In fact, in season 2, they replaced some of the music:

Universal was unable to obtain music rights for all of the music in Quantum Leap: The Complete Second Season, in the case of the Region 1 version. Some were replaced with generic instrumental music. This outraged many fans and inspired a letter-writing campaign, demanding such a modification be corrected. The most criticized instance was the removal of Ray Charles's "Georgia on My Mind" from the season two finalé, "M.I.A.", during a scene in which Al dances with his first wife Beth. Subsequent Region 1 DVD releases continued to feature music replacement, but Universal did begin including a disclaimer on the package indicating such. - from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_Leap

ack! it's hard to imagine Sam not singing imagine in that pivotal scene in "The Leap Home" in the 4th season. glad they figured that out!