Shark Bytes

I was saddened by the finale. Yes, Sam did the right thing and fixed Al's life with Al's true love, Beth, but we find out Sam never goes home. What about Donna, Sam's wife, is she expected to continue to wait for him knowing he'll never come back?

As to why Sam didn't just send himself a letter when he Leaped home, it's probably because then all the good he'd accomplished would never have happened. And as he says himself, he always does the right thing.

I don't think it every jumped the shark per se, but of my least favorite episodes, almost all of them were from the fifth season. I think of it like I think of X-Files; it didn't suck at the end, but the 'classic' stuff from the middle seasons was the best of it. And of course the last five seconds were absolutely terrible. I understand of course that it was a rush job because they were expecting another season, but I like my happy endings. I also disliked how they led us on to believe that God was controlling Sam's Leaps until the very end when no, surprise, it's Sam. I felt that they shouldn't have touched that whole debate directly in one episode; should have left it alone if they didn't have time to answer it properly. But anyway, despite all the negatives I've listed here, I don't think QL ever jumped the shark, and it remains one of my favorite series to this day. I'm still holding out hope for a QL movie; I don't care if it takes til Scott's 60. Hey, it happened for Indiana Jones.

One of the best shows EVER. They just aired the Beth Episode where Al goes home on ION and it was an emotional experience for me. I forgot how much i loved QL.
Yes, some eps were bad but is the case with any show especially one so inventive. Mostly, the message is incredible and I miss it.

Time travel is so messy.
Remember when Al died and Roddy McDowell was Sam's partner along with Alpha (Ziggy)?
Remember when Sam realized that he was changing history because an Evil Leaper had already messed up history?
The last episode showed that Al's life would have been fixed, but that Sam just carried on alone afterward. But wouldn't Roddy McDowell have showed up with Alpha? And what if the Bartender (who was the Air Force Commander in the Pilot Episode) was an Evil Leaper trying to get him lost in time?
Or what if what the Bartender said was true, that the only person leaping him around was himself. Couldn't he fix all the wrongs in the time stream within his lifetime and then leap back into his own body moments after his first leap, resuming his own life? This being true, couldn't he leap into his brother and save his life. Couldn't he leap into his dad before every meal and lower his chance at a heart attack? Sure, but then why would he want to leap through time later in his life, and then he wouldn't actually leap, he'd cure cancer or something. Then by not leaping, wouldn't have set things straight, so he would have grown up wanting to change history so he would have invented time travel, creating the most mind boggling time paradox ever experienced by mankind, possibly destroying time itself?
Whew!
Time travel is so messy

Watched the show when it originally aired, and was a fairly young kid at the time (10-14 years old). I still get choked up watching the last episode. Looking back, it did have some bad episodes, but never jumped the shark in the true meaning of the phrase.

And for "Oh boy" if he/she still reads here, how come Sam never sent himself a letter in the future? I asked that to my older brothers when it first aired.

Having "God" and the "Devil" were JTS for me.

I have a few favorite episodes of QL and the first is when Sam leaps into himself when he is like 12 or 13 still living on the farm. He is really there to win the basketball game or something, but he keeps trying to save his older brother from being killed in Vietnam...in this episode, he sings John Lennon's song "Imagine" and it literally gives me chills when I see the re-runs of it. Another favorite of mine is when Sam leaps and he's in Vietnam...at the very end of the show, he sees a line of soldiers and a photographer snaps the pic, and when it gets developed...the soldier that the pic was taken of turns out to be Al. Again, this gave me chills.

This was a very good show. You don't really see too many shows or movies anymore that are original ideas or have new stuff in them....a lot just do the same old thing every week. I give big props to the creator of this show and I'm sorry it got canceled.

This show Jumped over a hundred sharks, all due to one cheesetacular moment during the series. Picture this, Sam has leaped into a Mental hospital and one of the patients just happens to be able to see Al. I forget exactly why but somehow they work into the plot that this guy is somehow illiterate, So in what has got to be the MOST cheesey, shmaltzy, and just downright ridiculas moments in televison history, Al teaches him how to read by rapping the alphabet! I couldn't believe it! I mean up till then this show had been a big fav of mine but when that happend I just wanted to slap the producer of this show! The downward spiral soon came after that when the episodes seemed to venture farther and farther into the relm of mindless fluff. But That moment takes the cake.

I don't know why everyone seems to think that the last episode of QL was so bad. I thought it was brilliant. We seem to want everything tidied up and handed to us with a pretty bow with a tag that says 'complete'.

What would you expect Sam to do? He was a genuine good guy. He saw the pain Al was in when he could not save his marriage to Beth. I think Beth truly was the love of Al's life, and if Sam could help, especially on that one thing that he did not help with before, then he could put right the ultimate wrong, huh?

Also, I think they left it open ended, just in case they could bring it back. I prefer the first scenario.

Great show. Ahead of its time. Pun intended, but not.

Peace.

I just saw one of the early season episodes on ION last night where Sam, as a college professor, meets his future wife Donna in the past, 12 years before they are supposed to be married (reread that last line; it'll probably make sense later). Teri Hatcher was absolutely drop dead gorgeous back in the day. If Sam could get her, it gives a genius like me hope. I hadn't seen that episode in a while; it brought me back. It reminded me of what made the show so spectacular. I'm glad to have it back on television, and now I am re-inspired to go out and get the remaining seasons on DVD. See you in the future.

Quantum Leap is back on TV. With as much fanfare as I've been seeing on the net about the show, I've gotta see what it's about. The first show was pretty amazing.

what can i say? quantum leap was great!!! i own all the seasons o dvd. Al and sam have a great partnership in the series..its like they were m8s for life..
the oswald episodes was done for the show because of the 30th anniversary of kennedy's death..
but i agree it was pointless..but education in a way.
I admire the show and found funny at times when al thought he was leaping at the radio show.. was well funny...
Sam's leaps were suppose to be in his life time..not alot in the 90's as he created quantum leap 1999.. it was mainly 50' 60' 70's and early 80's.. still never mind it was still fantastic for its day...still is for me..
I enjoy when he leaps into a teen ager and women and i found when he leaped into a chimp...very funny. Wasnt always a man which was very good..
Al is great as he is sex mad...I just love the partnership they both have in the show and that hit it off from day one..
I hope they dont bring the show back for many reasons... they are old and i would like to remember them as how they are now in the old show..But sam is still bouncing around in time so the show is an opening...PLEASE DONT!!!!
They are Knight Rider...I can see it now!!!CRAP!!! 80's were the best...

After much careful thought and consideration, I have devised a (time-consuming) plan to get Sam back home.
1. Get Sam in a "leap" as close to 1999 as possible. (For the sake of argument, we'll say 1995).
2. Have Sam NOT complete his "mission" and live life as the "jumpee"; the "jumpee" alternately lives in the 1999 timeline.
3. Sam, as "jumpee" successfully lives to reach 1999 "again". Al helps Sam find his way back to the (particle accelerator?) in New Mexico. Sam destroys the machine before it can be used, therefore restoring history to the way it should have been.

The drawbacks I could see from this potential scenario are as follows: the "jumpee" is stuck in 1999 until time is restored (but later placed back in their own time with no recollection of what happened); and Al's first marriage is also a casualty, as Sam never went back and told Beth that Al would return from the war. A sacrifice, but one I believe Al would make for his colleague. I would have loved to have seen a special two-hour finale along these lines. Maybe it can still happen...

I think that every show has at least one moment you can look back on and say you learned something. (As a quick example, I will use "Full House". Stephanie had to spell the word "mnemonic" as in mnemonic device. At the time, I thought it was spelled with a p, as in "pnemonic", which is wrong, and I remember it to this day).
The moment where I learned something on this show? The episode where Sam kidnapped the baby, and the baby was having trouble breathing (asthma or something). Sam gives the baby coffee and says it acted like a "bronchial dilator". That advice helped me later on in life, as I began looking for other bronchial dilators to assist with my own breathing. I thank Quantum Leap for that and many other moments.
On a different note, I liked reading "Oh boy's" "what if" questions. Here's one for you: What if Sam had been five minutes late on the jump when he was Lee Harvey Oswald?