Quantum Leaping
Through History
Quantum Leap covered four decades between the
1950's and the 1980's as well as a leap into the Civil War period! Here are all the
encounters with real-life history!
Watch the special feature
"A Kiss With History" on
The Complete First Season DVD!
|
|
1862
1953
The neurotic kid in the
airport near the end of "Play it
Again, Seymour" was supposed to be a young Woody Allen in April, 1953. In
actuality, Woody was 18 years old in 1953.
1954
In the scene before we find
out that Sam has disappeared in "Sea Bride,"
the public announcement system says, "Paging Mrs. Thatcher, Mrs. Margaret
Thatcher." (Margaret Thatcher became the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in
1979.)
- Once again as a famous person, Sam leaps into
Elvis Presley just two days before he gets discovered on July 5th. (Memphis Melody)
- Also in Memphis Melody, Sam is waiting with Al to go onstage when we hear the announcer say "Now
come on, let's give a hand to little Billy C. all the way from Hope, Arkansas!" This
is of course Bill Clinton, the former president of the United States. However, the writers
must have overlooked the fact that Bill didn't change his last name from Blythe to Clinton
until he was 15 years old. He was 8 years old in this episode. Watch a video of this
scene here.
1955
1956
A new manned
flight altitude record of 126,200 ft. was set by Capt. Iven C.
Kincheloe flying the Bell X-2 in 1956. The show (Genesis)
portrayed the X-2 breaking Mach 3 but in reality it was an X-3 aircraft that broke the
barrier.
Sam started idea for Trivial
Pursuit (Genesis)
Sam gives a young Buddy
Holly the lyrics to Peggy Sue. (How
the Tess was Won)
When Sam is in the Bermuda
Triangle, Al tells him that the ship "Cyclops" disappeared in 1918... 26 years
before the co-pilot was supposedly picked up by it in 1944. (Ghost Ship)
1957
1958
1959
1960
On April 4th, 1960, Sam tries
to prevent the death of Marilyn Monroe. She actually died two years later in August of
1962. (Good-bye, Norma Jean)
On May 14th, 1960 and American
spy plane was shot down over Soviet airspace. Al tries to convince Sam to change that
event in "Honeymoon Express."
1961
On January 31, 1961, (one week
after this episode takes place) Ham the chimp blasted off from Cape Canaveral and traveled
157 miles in a Mercury capsule before splashing down in the Atlantic ocean. Three months
later the first American human, Alan Shepard, followed him into space. (The Wrong Stuff)
Sam meets a three year-old
Michael Jackson in the bathroom in June and teaches him the moonwalk. (Camikazi Kid)
1962
1963
1964
February 7th, 1964 - The
Beatles arrived at JFK airport in New York (Blind
Faith)
February 9th, 1964 - The
Beatles performed on 'The Ed Sullivan Show' for the first time. (Blind Faith)
President Lyndon Johnson
signed the Civil Rights Bill into law on July 3, 1964, the day before Sam leaped into
Butchie. (Runaway)
Sam meets horror novelist
Stephen King on October 31st, 1964 and gives him the ideas for Carrie, Cujo, and Christine.
He would have been 19 years-old in the episode. (The
Boogiem*n)
1965
On August 11th, Sam leaps into
the Watts riots in "Black and White
On Fire."
Doctor Zhivago" is
playing at the cinema when Sam and Frankie's family walks down the street. Dr Zhivago was
one of the biggest films of 1965. (Double
Identity)
The Great Northeast Blackout
of 1965 took place on November 9th. Double
Identity reveals that the power outage was started by a hairdryer.
1966
1967
On October 20, several hundred
people marched to the Justice Department in Washington DC to turn in a thousand draft
cards. On October 21, thousands of people demonstrate against the Vietnam war in
Washington DC. The coordinator was Jerry Rubin (co-founder with Abbie Hoffman of the
anarchist radical 'Youth International Party'). Sam Beckett refers to Hoffman in the
episode "Animal Frat."
1969
1971
1972
1974
- Sam performs the Heimlich Maneuver on Dr.
Henry J. Heimlich, thus giving the doctor the idea, which he publishes that year. (Thou Shalt Not)
1976
1985
|
