Quantum Leap
Genesis - September 13, 1956
TV Flash files “Genesis - September 13, 1956” as a desk essential hour — Quantum Leap (1989–1993) on NBC, season 1, episode 1, aired 1989-03-26, 120 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S01E01: listed hour 1 of 95 in the Quantum Leap guide, first listed hour of season 1. It aired 1989-03-26 (120 min). No earlier hour is listed in this guide. Next is “Star-Crossed - June 15, 1972” (S01E02).
Essential hour: “Genesis - September 13, 1956”. Genesis - September 13, 1956 is the leap contract: Bakula into other lives, Stockwell's hologram with a cigar, anthology-with-heart as engine.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Although the Project Quantum Leap (PQL) isn't ready yet, Sam doesn't listen to 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. Leap Details: Tom Stratton, September 13, 1956, Edwards Air Force Base, Blockfield, California / Tim Fox, Summer 1968, Waco, Texas
Viewer FAQ
Where does Genesis - September 13, 1956 sit in the Quantum Leap guide?
S01E01 is listed hour 1 of 95 — first listed hour of season 1, season 1 episode 1.
When did Quantum Leap S01E01 air?
Genesis - September 13, 1956 aired 1989-03-26 and is listed at 120 minutes.
Do I have to watch in order?
Leaps are largely anthology, so you can sample, but Sam and Al's project is the serial heart. The finale's bittersweet math lands harder if you have ridden with them.
In the series
Why this series still plays
High-concept anthology-with-heart — Bakula and Stockwell are a perfect odd couple across time. Sam leaps into other lives to put right what once went wrong; Al's hologram smokes the map. 1980s/90s sci-fi optimism with a lump in its throat. The finale's bittersweet math still hurts. Oh, boy.
Oh, boy — already a wound, already a fandom greeting. NBC's Quantum Leap (1989–1993) dropped Dr. Sam Beckett into other people's lives to put right what once went wrong, Dean Stockwell's holographic Al as cigar-smoking guide. Scott Bakula as time-travel everyman in a new body every week. Donald P. Bellisario's zigzag accelerator: social-issue episodes and genre romps, anthology heart inside a franchise shell. **Five seasons, 95 hours, a body-swap mission structure later genre shows still rent.** Rex can keep the…
Filed against
- Scott Bakula as Dr. Sam Beckett
Scott Bakula's Dr. Sam Beckett leapt Quantum Leap as high-concept anthology-with-heart — putting right what once went wrong, Dean Stockwell's Al as hologram map, 1980s/90s sci-fi optimism with a lump in its throat. Odd couple across time.…
- Dean Stockwell as Admiral Al Calavicci
Dean Stockwell’s Admiral Al Calavicci smoked the map on Quantum Leap — Sam leaping into other lives to put right what once went wrong, hologram as odd-couple compass, 1980s/90s sci-fi optimism with a lump in its throat. Bakula and…