The BEST episodes of Quantum Leap season 1
Every episode of Quantum Leap season 1, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Quantum Leap season 1!
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.
#1 - Play It Again, Seymour
Season 1 - Episode 9 - Aired 5/17/1989
April 14, 1953: With looks that could double for Humphrey Bogart, Sam is Nick Allen, a private investigator looking for the murderer of his partner and, if he doesn't find the answer in time, himself. The case is solved with a number of Casablanca references as Sam launches a new pulp novelist along the way.
#2 - Camikazi Kid
Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 5/10/1989
June 6, 1961: As a high school nerd, Sam is required to prevent the marriage of his sister to an abusive drinker, with the wedding only three days away. By drag racing the prospective husband, beating him with a car that couldn't have won without nitrous oxide, Sam shows the groom's true tendencies.
#3 - Star-Crossed
Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 3/31/1989
June 15, 1972: As Dr. Gerald Bryant, a literature professor at the Ohio College attended by his one-time fiancée, Sam has to prevent an amorous co-ed from attaching to him and ruining her life. Despite threats to his job, Al gives Sam the information he needs to reunite his star-crossed lover with her father and, maybe, give himself a second shot at marriage.
#4 - The Color of Truth
Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 5/3/1989
August 8, 1955: In the life of Jesse Tyler, an aging black chauffeur, Sam must face discrimination in the South while trying to prevent the death of an elderly white woman. Actions motivated by his own belief in equality cause violent reactions, as Sam tries to convince one of the pillars of the community to change her views on racism and the futility of trying to change a society for the better.
#5 - The Right Hand of God
Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 4/7/1989
October 24, 1974: Having leaped into Kid Cody, a boxer on the take, Sam has to win the championship to fund a new church for his new contract owners, a group of nuns. Sam must face the bookie who counts on him to take a dive in the final bout and, with the help of several trainers, streaking, and Al's appearance in the ring to guide his punches, Sam wins the bout and finances the chapel.
#6 - How the Tess Was Won
Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 4/14/1989
August 5, 1956: As a veterinarian in rural Texas, Sam's mission appears to be winning the love of an heiress to a large ranch. Sabotaged by another suitor, Sam fails and finds that his true goal was to save the life of a sick piglet, and to help an unnamed cohort with a task he's performing.
#7 - Genesis (2)
Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 3/26/1989
#8 - Genesis (1)
Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 3/26/1989
September 13, 1956: Although the Project Quantum Leap (PQL) isn't ready yet, Sam doesn't listen his supercomputer, Ziggy, and hops into the Accelerator and leaps. As Tom Stratton, an Air Force test pilot, Sam finds his memory Swiss cheesed, with only enough left to know that he is not where or when he belongs. Al explains that the Project has gone "a little caca" and that the only way Sam can leap out is by flying the X-2 to Mach 3. Instead, Sam leaps after saving his wife and child, only to find that rather than leaping home, he's leapt into Ken Fox, a minor league baseball player in Texas, at the end of the 1968 season, where he must make the winning play in order to leap.
#9 - Double Identity
Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 4/21/1989
November 8, 1965: Though his goal as a Mafia hitman named Frankie is unclear, Sam follows a list of instructions, supplied by Ziggy in an effort to bring Sam back to the Project. These instructions result in the Great East Coast Blackout and, rather than leaping home, Sam finds himself in the life of the Mafia don who's been jealously preventing a romance between Frankie and the don's girlfriend. Sam believes he knows his mission, and publicly announces Frankie's marriage to the girlfriend, putting himself in a position to call a winning Bingo number.