Interesting Observations/Facts/Questions about Quantum Leap

So it was a book as well? Interesting.
I'm interested in seeing this film now just out of curiosity.

It was originally a book by William March, then it was adapted as a Broadway play and then the 1956 movie was made. Patty McCormack played the little girl in both the play and the movie.

Actually that's exactly what happened with Sam in Trilogy part 2. Sam conceived Sammy-Jo with Abigail in 1965 making his 12 year old self of the time a father.

lol we were on the same page on this one, though I had the date wrong. I thought Sammy Jo was born in 1966 and Sam was already 13.
 
How's this for a spinout:

If Sam had had sex with his great grandmother when he leapt to the Civil War, he could have ended up being his own great grandfather :p

funny_celebrity_pictures_he_is_his_own_grandpa_futurama_pic_dump-s492x454-139419-580.jpg
 
Except that would not have happened because he knew better than to let himself get that close. Now had they never determined that Olivia Covington was his great grandmother...true that leap could have gone a whole different way...down creepy road. XD
 
Except that would not have happened because he knew better than to let himself get that close. Now had they never determined that Olivia Covington was his great grandmother...true that leap could have gone a whole different way...down creepy road. XD

Well if he hadn't found out until he'd done the deed it would make sense in story... And it would also explain why his great grandfather's DNA is a match for his own - since it WOULD have been his own DNA :p
 
Well if he hadn't found out until he'd done the deed it would make sense in story... And it would also explain why his great grandfather's DNA is a match for his own - since it WOULD have been his own DNA :p

Actually no.
Had he conceived his grandfather instead of Captain John Beckett, Captain John Beckett would not have been his great grandfather, he'd be his own great grandfather.
Unless you want to get into the body/soul debate. Personally I do not, I know where I stand with that and I've voiced it enough times.
See my Random Measures review if you've never seen any of my body vs. soul posts.
 
what are you all talkin about sam knew that woman was his granny and even if he didnt know it ziggy would make sure he found out.i mean if you could go back in time would you have sex with your granny?:banghead:banghead
 
what are you all talkin about sam knew that woman was his granny and even if he didnt know it ziggy would make sure he found out.i mean if you could go back in time would you have sex with your granny?:banghead:banghead

No, I am saying that if they really wanted to mess with the viewer's heads, they would have had it happen BEFORE Al tells him that she's his granny :p
 
Leaper, Lightning McQueenie is only exploring a hypothetical scenario.
You are correct though, once it was identified that Captain John Beckett was his great grandfather Olivia Covington would come with the data. So there was no avoiding it because there was no avoiding DNA testing John since it was needed to determine the means of Sam leaping outside his lifetime.
 
I especially love the episode "Leap Between the States" because it gave us a possible way for Sam to leap outside his lifetime or into a situation he normally wouldn't be able to. I've read some fanfiction of him leaping into a great uncle during World War 1 using the same logic, and also another with him leaping into Ziggy (he could do this because part of himself is in Ziggy). Since then I haven't been able to find either story :( if anyone is able to help me, please do :)
 
It is quite a clever concept.

There is also a published Novel in which Sam leaps into his ancestry, much farther back then Leap Between the States.

Independence by John Peel features Sam leaping into Samuel Beckett his several times great grandfather during the Revolutionary War era. While needing to keep an eye on his ancestor's closest friend whose life he must save, he also falls very in love with his ancestor's wife who heavily resembles Donna to the point where its excruciatingly difficult for him to refuse her when she wants sex and even just to sleep beside her.

It's very well done.
 
Ah watching 'Black on White on Fire' and totally forgot the indication that Sam remembers Donna in this episode.

She loves him so much, Al.
When she looks at me,
I feel like she wants to just...
crawl inside and never come out.
There was only one woman
that ever looked at me like that.
 
Ah watching 'Black on White on Fire' and totally forgot the indication that Sam remembers Donna in this episode.

She loves him so much, Al.
When she looks at me,
I feel like she wants to just...
crawl inside and never come out.
There was only one woman
that ever looked at me like that.

If it was Donna that is :p
 
If it was Donna that is :p

Right but I can't think of who else, it seems kind of pointless that they'd throw in that line in reference to a random woman we don't ever even know about. But then again it is Bellisario who was known for giving the 'everything is subject to change' excuse and see my Obsessions review where I discover that there is a lot of evidence that there wasn't much interest in developing the idea of Donna in comparison to the references to Beth being special to Al.
 
Right but I can't think of who else, it seems kind of pointless that they'd throw in that line in reference to a random woman we don't ever even know about. But then again it is Bellisario who was known for giving the 'everything is subject to change' excuse and see my Obsessions review where I discover that there is a lot of evidence that there wasn't much interest in developing the idea of Donna in comparison to the references to Beth being special to Al.

We definitely know it wasn't Abigail or Tamlyn since they came much later (and Abigail didn't see Sam). And I doubt 25-year-old Nicole was looking at 15-year-old Sam that way while she was teaching him piano (I hope not anyway). Lisa is the only other woman from Sam's past if I remember correctly. But assuming there was no unnamed woman we never heard about in Sam's past, my guess if I had to choose between Donna or Lisa is the quote refers to Donna (even if they did do a lousy job at meaningfully building up the relationship between her and Sam).
 
We definitely know it wasn't Abigail or Tamlyn since they came much later (and Abigail didn't see Sam). And I doubt 25-year-old Nicole was looking at 15-year-old Sam that way while she was teaching him piano (I hope not anyway). Lisa is the only other woman from Sam's past if I remember correctly. But assuming there was no unnamed woman we never heard about in Sam's past, my guess if I had to choose between Donna or Lisa is the quote refers to Donna (even if they did do a lousy job at meaningfully building up the relationship between her and Sam).

Perfectly deducted, I agree wholeheartedly. Especially since we know Lisa didn't have much of an interest in him, she kinda teased his crush on her actually so I doubt she ever directed a 'crawl inside and never come out' look towards him.
 
I agree that there's about a 99% chance that it's Donna he was talking about (especially because he couldn't really recall who that person was - again backing up my theory that Sam has subconsciously blocked Donna out).

I was just making the point that, despite him refusing to have sex with anyone he didn't love, with how quickly and how often he does fall in love, that it's quite plausible that in his time he has split a lot of women in half ;) so there is still a chance he may have been talking about someone else.

Another possibility is he may remember how Diane McBride looked at him when she thought he was her husband.

On a completely unrelated topic, today is Bruce McGill's (Weird Ernie / Al the Bartender) birthday. Here's hoping we can one day arrange an interview with him for the Quantum Leap Podcast :D
 
Something I recently thought of - in Camikazi Kid, why didn't Sam leap into wearing braces like his host? They were clearly visible on Cam hahaha.
 
Probably because that would have taken a lot of work and it was the first season, so a lot of concepts were still being developed like the Imagining Chamber door. Notice in the first few episodes it opened on the side like a standard door in a home rather than sliding up.
 
An in-universe reason: Permanent or semi-permanent attachments to the human body probably do leap out to the Waiting Room if Sam leaps in - such as breast implants, pacemakers, hip replacements. Braces are a semi-permanent attachment, so they can be considered a part of the human body and so would leap out as well. Same reason why the bullet inside Zoe leapt out with her as well I expect...
 
Excellent logic which also fit's as a solution to the confusion over Billy Jean's baby (which I'd always thought). It too would be considered a semi-permanent attachment via the umbilical chord.

In regards to Zoey, I agree. She had to have taken that bullet with her, how else would her leapee have returned unharmed?

This also clarifies the moment in Dr. Ruth where Al presented her with a duplication they'd created of her glasses.
True we had a contradicting portrayal of a leapee with glasses early in the series in season 1's How the Tess was Won but that was obviously a unique situation for two reasons:
1.) It was the first season and as I've pointed out before the concepts were not developed.
2.) The presence of Sam wearing glasses in this leap would have ruined the intentional mystery of the reflection. The viewer wasn't supposed to know why the other characters looked down at Doc.
 
I think we can all agree that there's no way the baby can have stayed inside Sam, it just could not survive. The question is, what happened to the baby?

I think that it ended up in the safety of limbo :)
 
Limbo makes the most sense, the same which would have had to happen to Alia's bullet in Revenge since it hit the leap light not her. This is a concept Tina even suggests in the novel Foreknowledge and that this must be what happens to Sam in between leaps.
 
Limbo makes the most sense, the same which would have had to happen to Alia's bullet in Revenge since it hit the leap light not her. This is a concept Tina even suggests in the novel Foreknowledge and that this must be what happens to Sam in between leaps.

Limbo is one possibility. Sam also may simply be moving through the time stream in between leaps (or the space/time continuum). He is a time traveler and is traveling in body ( :) ); it's plausible to assume there is some kind of movement from time to time and place to place.

I'm not as much of a fan of the '8-1/2 Months' episode as other QL fans, though I like that they attempted to tackle the issues that they did here and it's definitely one of the better mpreg stories I've seen on television. So I never really thought about the science behind exactly what happened with Billie Jean's baby, other than for whatever reason the baby leaped out before Sam and Billie Jean did. You've all offered some interesting theories to explain it.
 
8-1/2 Months isn't my all time favorite QL episode, but the idea of Sam leaping into a pregnant girl was an interesting one...And as usual his response when he realized what was happening was priceless. His line to the doctor/medical staff: "I am not going to have this baby, believe me" (or something to that effect) was a great one. And then when he had his cravings and he was in labor just before he leapt. LOL. The limbo theory makes sense; of course they had to do something. A man having a baby is just too far out a concept, and it hasn't worked in films or television as Blue Enigma pointed out.
 
Agreed, 8 1/2 Months while the humor was very enjoyable (how can it not be?) doesn't sit right with me for it's negative message that it's ok for a teenager to be a parent and in doing so making a statement against adoption. My best friend's younger sister is adopted so it's a strong subject for us.
Though we do appreciate that they gave Sam a line stating that he supports adoption so at least we know that he didn't completely agree with this leap and what he was doing.

Still there are much more positive ways they could have leaped Sam into a pregnant female. Or a more sensible way to have written the Billy Jean concept because teen pregnancy is a very good subject for Quantum Leap , this particular execution was just poor.
 
There's nothing at all wrong with adoption. There are some girls who keep their babies and do okay though. In those cases they probably have a lot of support from family. Raising a child is a lot of work in the best of circumstances though, so I can understand why girls would choose to give their babies up for adoption.

It's been awhile since I've watched the episode, but if I'm remembering right, in the original history Billie Jean gives up her baby and regrets it. And part of the purpose of the leap was to reconcile her with her father also I think.
 
That's just it.
Billy Jean's circumstances were NOT supportive. No one wanted her (Sam) to keep that baby and she's in high school she can't even support herself. The father didn't want HER let alone, that one woman was kind enough to put her up but even she didn't want that baby until she was thrown together with the father at the end with good reason. She was actually the one it was least fair to ask.
So you can feel that it shouldn't have worked.

Regret or no it doesn't sound like such a wrong. Sorry.

You are right though under the right circumstances I might have bought it. For example had the reconcile with the father been the primary objective and keeping the baby just happened to be a bi product of that it would have worked.