Explanation on why some leap-outs on the DVD's are out-of-order

QL Nut,

what is a "saga cell"? I am completely unfamiliar with that term? (I own the complete series on DVD, btw).
The saga sell is the explanatory opening of the show added with the season 2 episode Another Mother. It was narrated by Lance LeGault. In the subsequent episode All-Americans, it was rerecorded by Deborah Pratt whose narration lasted through the rest of the series. The Saga Sell replaced Sam narrating his past few leaps which was surely becoming tedious after 19 episodes and may have been seen by NBC as an insufficiently concise explanation of the show for new viewers.

Season 2 Saga Sell

"Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Dr. Sam Beckett led an elite group of scientists into the desert to develop a top secret project known as Quantum Leap. Pressured to prove his theories or lose funding, Dr. Beckett prematurely stepped into the project accelerator and vanished. He awoke to find himself in the past, suffering from partial amnesia and facing a mirror image that was not his own. Fortunately contact with his own time is maintained through brainwave transmissions with Al, the project observer, who appears in the form of a hologram that only Dr. Beckett can see or hear. Trapped in the past, Dr. Beckett finds himself leaping from life to life putting things right that once went wrong, and hoping each time that his next leap would be the leap home."

Season 3-5 Saga Sell

"Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished. He awoke 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 when wrong, and hoping each time that his next leap would be the leap home."

Saga sells used to be a big part of classic television in its first few decades for people to decide whether the show would interest them.
 
Only recently was the series Homicide Life on the Street added to Peacock. A series NBC partially owned. It had never been streamed anywhere before. Even though it’s one of the most influential and critically acclaimed tv series of all time. This new attention has lead to a podcast hosted by two of its cast members Kyle Secor and Reed Diamond. This last week they had its creator Paul Attanasio on to interview. He made a very bold statement. He said that the removal of television openings and theme songs is what killed Broadcast Television. All so the networks have a few more minutes to sell ads.

That seemed relevant to the discussion of the elimination of saga cells too. We as fans always complain about the elimation of theme songs and intros, saga cells. But it was refreshing to hear the same from a creator in television. I suspect most writers and producers are quite on the subject because these are business decisions out of their control.

When listening to him say that I was specifically thinking of Quantum Leap. Plus the revival which I was huge fan of too. Quantum Leap as a premise is completely unique from everything else. As a kid it took me a while and multiple episodes to fully understand where Al really was and what the Imagining Chamber was.

I should start a whole thread in revival section on this. The new show was hurt being on NBC and the modern network pattern of eliminating regular intro and credits. It’s more than the music. The credits showed multiple leaps and illustrated each episode is a new time and person. If someone watched only one or two episodes without all that they could think every episode is like that. Credits and music created an identity for each series. Even shows I have not watched in decades, I remember the openings for. Now everything is all the same due to network greed.