Dr. Samuel John Beckett is a fictional character and the protagonist on the 1989-1993 science fiction television series Quantum Leap , played by Scott Bakula .
73-607: Scott Stewart Bakula ( / ˈ b æ k j ʊ l ə / ; born October 9, 1954) is an American actor. He is known for his roles in two science-fiction television series: as Sam Beckett on Quantum Leap – for which he was nominated for four Primetime Emmy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards (winning one) – and as Captain Jonathan Archer on Star Trek: Enterprise . From 2014 to 2021, he portrayed Special Agent Dwayne Cassius "King" Pride on NCIS: New Orleans . A Tony Award -nominee for his work on Broadway, Bakula starred in
146-409: A "quantum leap" between each time period. (How exactly these things are accomplished is never explained, but it has been suggested that this theory borrowed heavily from van Strickum's closed timelike curve . ) Keeping this principle in mind, Sam's leaps were generally limited to periods within his own lifetime; he could not leap to a date prior to his birth or into his own future. There were, however,
219-525: A Hollywood writers' strike in 1988, he returned to New York to star in Romance/Romance on Broadway, which ran from May 1, 1988, to January 15, 1989. For his performance as Alfred Von Wilmers and Sam, he was nominated for the 1988 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. Afterward, he landed the lead role opposite co-star Dean Stockwell in the science fiction television series Quantum Leap (1989–1993). Bakula played time traveler Dr. Sam Beckett , who
292-493: A decorated naval officer; a brilliant computer programmer known simply as Gushie; and Dr. Donna Eleese, the love of Sam's life, whom he met in 1984. Five years after the Starbright Project, Sam and Donna were engaged, but Sam was jilted at the altar on June 5, 1989, and never saw Donna again. On Sam's third leap, he meets Donna years before their actual engagement. Realizing that Donna's damaged relationship with her father
365-557: A dog. Sam was a child prodigy , learning to read at the age of two and do advanced calculus in his head at the age of five. By the time he was ten, he could beat a computer at chess . Sam also played piano in a concert at Carnegie Hall when he was nineteen, plays guitar, is a good dancer, sings tenor , and his favorite song is John Lennon 's " Imagine ". Beckett has a photographic memory , an IQ of 267, likes dry or light beer, and likes microwave popcorn. Sam also knows several kinds of martial arts and has been afraid of heights since he
438-552: A few exceptions. In "The Leap Back," Sam switched places with Al, who leaped back into 1945, and later in the episode was able to leap himself back into Al's place in the past. The explanation was that the simo-leap with Al had left Sam with enough of Al's genetic coding that he could leap back past his own lifetime (since it was still within Al's). In "The Leap Between the States," Sam was able to leap outside of his own lifetime and found himself in
511-463: A flood in 1957, whose first husband was an abusive alcoholic named Chuck. They divorced and she is now married to Navy officer Lt. Jim Bonnick. They have lived in Hawaii with Thelma Beckett since 1974. Sam's father suffered a fatal heart attack in 1974 while Sam was in college; the guilt of his absence during his family's time of need would stay with Sam for years. Beckett graduated from high school at
584-480: A guest appearance on Two and a Half Men as a sleazy car dealer, Jerry. In August 2013, it was announced Bakula would have a recurring role in the first season of HBO's new series Looking . He also appeared in the film Geography Club (2013). In February 2014, Bakula was cast as the lead in a backdoor pilot for the NCIS spin-off series, NCIS: New Orleans , which began as a two-part episode of its parent series in
657-440: A man unaware that someone else is in love with him). To lead Sam and the audience from this confusion comes Al, an observer from Sam's own time, except Al has to convince Sam he is not a hallucination but a hologram tuned to Sam's brainwaves that only Sam can see and hear, but convincing an amnesiac he is real is difficult. Al conveys to Sam a theory to return Sam to the present: that an unknown influence (God, Fate , or Time)
730-428: A number of occasions: As stated above, in the final episode of the show Sam learned from a bartender named Al (played by Bruce McGill , who also appeared in the first episode as a different character) that Sam was in control of his leaps and could have returned home whenever he wanted. The bartender reminded Sam that he created Project Quantum Leap to help the world, and that in each leap he changed people and events for
803-474: A primarily underground complex. In 1995, after constructing the necessary machinery, including a holographic imaging chamber and a supercomputer ("Ziggy") with access to vast historical databases, the project's funds were running thin. Eager to prove his theories, Sam prematurely stepped into the nuclear accelerator chamber and propelled himself back in time. In the pilot episode, Sam awoke in 1956, having exchanged places in time with an Air Force test pilot. He
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#1732876226849876-508: A reporter and occasional love interest on the sitcom Murphy Brown . In 1995, Bakula appeared on the cover of Playgirl . He played the titular Mr. Smith in the sole season of Mr. & Mrs. Smith in 1996. He voiced Danny Cat in the animated film Cats Don't Dance (1997). He played the aging veteran pitcher Gus Cantrell in Major League: Back to the Minors (1998), the final movie in
949-446: A script was being worked on and that while he would be in the movie, he would not have the main role. Bakula performed various songs from his career for a one-night-only performance entitled An Evening with Scott Bakula at Sidney Harman Hall on January 18, 2008, as a benefit for the restoration of the historic Ford's Theater. Bakula had three appearances in 2008. He appeared as Atty. Jack Ross in an episode of Boston Legal , "Glow in
1022-492: A shared Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Ensemble Acting for his performance in the 1985 Off-Broadway production of Three Guys Naked from the Waist Down ; he would later appear in its Pasadena Playhouse production. The success of Three Guys Off-Broadway brought him attention, and when his next show, the musical Nightclub Confidential , which co-starred his wife Krista Neumann, moved to Los Angeles, he moved there at
1095-474: A single-disc DVD featuring five episodes ranging between seasons one through four: "Designing Women (Pilot)" (season 1), "Killing All the Right People" (season 2), "Reservations for Eight" (season 2), "Big Haas and Little Falsie" (season 3) and "They Shoot Fat Women, Don't They?" (season 4). On September 28, 2010, Shout! Factory released Designing Women, Volume 1 , a single-disc DVD featuring seven episodes from
1168-469: A year or two, you come back." The tour was gonna start in August and the tour never started and school did, and then the tour fell apart, and there I was sitting at home. So I was left holding the bag, basically, and then had to decide where to go from there. And I applied, was applying to other schools. I was gonna go to a Mormon theatrical kind of school, and the more I looked at it the more I spent time examining
1241-605: A younger sister. The family surname comes from Czech and Slovak ancestry, translating literally to "stick in one's throat" (spelled bakuľa) but also meaning "liar". He attended Jefferson College , followed by the University of Kansas for a time, but left, saying: ...because I was offered a tour of Godspell , a national tour that was from St. Louis. I thought that sounded great, and I went to my parents and I said "I want to do this tour", and they said, "Go ahead, maybe it will get it out of your system. And you come back to school in
1314-457: Is Anthony Bouvier ( Meshach Taylor ), an ex-convict who is hired as the company's deliveryman and later becomes a full partner. By late 1986, Julia and Suzanne's mother, Perky ( Louise Latham ), comes for a visit with her outrageous best friend Bernice Clifton ( Alice Ghostley ). Perky does not stay long and moves to Japan, leaving Bernice in Atlanta, where she begins to spend time with the others. At
1387-433: Is established, there are no further leaps prior to that date aside from the exceptions mentioned above. Al explains the string theory in the pilot episode, and Sam, recovering his memory of the theory, explains it to Donna in the second episode, "Star-Crossed." This theory is later revealed to have been relayed to by the leaped Sam Beckett to an actor and would-be time traveller Moe Stein in "Future Boy" (whose original theory
1460-400: Is like a length of string; one end represents birth, the other represents death. If one were to tie the ends of the string together, their life becomes a loop. Next, by balling the loop together, the days in one's life would touch one another out of sequence. Therefore, jumping from one part of the string to another would allow someone to travel back and forth within his own lifetime, thus making
1533-590: Is lost in time, though the Project was restarted by Herbert "Magic" Williams, one of Sam's previous leapees, with the hopes of eventually bringing Sam home. Designing Women Designing Women is an American television sitcom created by Linda Bloodworth-Thomason that aired on CBS between September 29, 1986 and May 24, 1993, producing seven seasons and 163 episodes. It was a joint production of Bloodworth/Thomason Mozark Productions in association with Columbia Pictures Television for CBS. The series centers on
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#17328762268491606-411: Is startled to see a stranger in the mirror as he prepares to shave. Others also see Sam as the person he displaced. As Sam would soon discover, quantum-leaping had an unforeseen side-effect: He was struck with partial amnesia ; he describes his own situation with the analogy of his brain being like a hunk of Swiss cheese , with his memory full of holes and lacking some personal information about his past,
1679-404: Is the reason why she can never commit to a relationship (as her father left her, she subconsciously feels that any man she meets will inevitably abandon her and thus prevents them from doing so by leaving them first), Sam drives Donna out to reconcile with her father so that she might get some closure . We learn later in the episode "The Leap Back" that as a result of this, Donna never leaves Sam at
1752-542: The Major League trilogy. He also played Jim Olmeyer, the same-sex partner of Sam Robards ' Jim Berkley, in the film American Beauty (1999). Bakula played Jonathan Archer , captain of Earth's first Warp 5 interstellar starship, on Star Trek: Enterprise from 2001 to 2005. In 2006, he reprised the role of Archer for the Star Trek: Legacy PC and Xbox 360 video games as a voice-over . Bakula starred in
1825-612: The American Civil War in the life of his great-grandfather; the explanation was that Sam's close genetic link with his ancestor allowed him to do this. This was also partly due to an "error" that was referenced and then corrected by Ziggy, implying that Sam would not be able to pull off a similar feat again and was once more limited to his own timeline. Two early episodes, "Play It Again, Seymour" (which took place on April 14, 1953) and "The Americanization of Machiko" (which took place on August 4, 1953) had Sam leaping into dates prior to
1898-454: The series finale tells us Sam never gets home, but in our terms, it was for the next four years/five seasons, the duration of the show) that Sam would continue to travel back and forth through time, swapping identities with various people and as a tagline for the show reiterated, "setting right what once went wrong." Sam's theory of time travel , developed with Professor LoNigro, is based on an expanding, but finite, universe . A person's life
1971-494: The "choir-boy" Sam mental anguish (it is established that, unlike Al, Sam takes vows of marriage very seriously) and to facilitate his leaping, Donna forbids Al or anyone else from alerting Sam that he is married. A few months later in 1989, Sam and Al spearheaded Project Quantum Leap , a time travel experiment based on the string theory Sam had developed while at MIT. The PQL facility was located in Stallion's Gate, New Mexico , in
2044-610: The Dark" , which aired on February 12, 2008, on the ABC network. From March 4 – April 20, he starred as Tony Hunter in the world premiere of Dancing in the Dark at The Old Globe in San Diego, California . Dancing in the Dark is based on the movie The Band Wagon (1953). Bakula appeared as the character Chris Fulbright in the five-episode run of the Tracey Ullman sketch comedy series State of
2117-755: The Past" (season 5), "And Now, Here's Bernice" (season 5), "This is Art?" (season 5) and "The Pride of the Sugarbakers" (season 5). CBS ran reruns of the show in their daytime lineup at 10:00 a.m. ( ET ) from April 1991 to June 1992. Subsequently, Designing Women aired on the Lifetime cable network for over a decade. Despite its popularity, the show left the network on August 4, 2006. A 90-minute retrospective special, The Designing Women Reunion , aired on Lifetime on July 28, 2003, reuniting Burke, Potts, Smart, Carter and Taylor in which they shared memories from their time on
2190-612: The Quapaw Quarter. Both homes are listed on the National Register of Historic Places . When the show debuted in CBS's Monday-night lineup in 1986, it garnered respectable ratings; however, CBS moved the show several times to other time slots. After dismal ratings in Sunday night and Thursday night time slots, CBS placed it on hiatus and was ready to cancel the show, but a viewer campaign saved
2263-426: The Right People" (season 2), "Heart Attacks" (season 2), "Return of Ray Don" (season 2), "Big Haas & Little Falsie" (season 3), "The Wilderness Experience" (season 3). Disc 2 – "The Naked Truth" (season 3), "Stand & Fight" (season 3), "Nightmare from Hee Haw" (season 3), "Julia Gets Her Head Caught in a Fence" (season 4), "Julia & Suzanne's Big Adventure" (season 4), "Foreign Affairs" (season 4), "A Blast from
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2336-623: The Union on Showtime. Bakula appeared in the dark comedy film The Informant! (2009) as Brian Shepard, an FBI agent. In April 2009, he began a recurring role on the television series Chuck as Stephen J. Bartowski , the eponymous character's long-lost father. From July 31 to August 2, 2009, he starred as Nathan Detroit in three performances of Guys and Dolls at the Hollywood Bowl . Beginning in December 2009, Bakula began appearing as Terry, one of
2409-472: The United States, Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary . Midway through the seventh season, Julia is stranded in the airport while attempting to attend Clinton's first inauguration , in an episode ("The Odyssey") that aired five days prior. Earlier in the series, Charlene mentions working for Clinton during his Arkansas governorship. Another Clinton-related joke was the introduction during the sixth season of
2482-489: The age of sixteen and, following his brother's advice, attended MIT in the early 1970s. While at MIT, Sam and his mentor, Professor Sebastian LoNigro, developed a string theory of time travel ("Her Charm"; see below). Sam went through four years of MIT in two years, and continued through various colleges to eventually obtain seven doctoral degrees in music, medicine, quantum physics , archaeology , ancient languages , chemistry , and astronomy , but not psychiatry or law. In
2555-425: The altar, and they are married to this day. However, before "The Leap Back" Sam has no current memory of Donna and his marriage. The reason for this is twofold. First, Sam's "Swiss cheesed" brain caused him amnesia in regard to his marriage. Second, Donna understood that in some cases, in order for Sam to successfully leap, it would be necessary for Sam to have romantic encounters with various women. In order to spare
2628-416: The audience knows very little about Beckett, much as he knows little about himself due to holes in his memory dubbed the "Swiss cheese effect"—a side effect from the time travel (an effective trope to allow the writers to add to the character as the show went on). Eventually, it is revealed that Beckett is a true Renaissance Man , equally good at math and science and the arts. His skills allow him to adapt to
2701-415: The better. Although Sam wanted to go home, he instead chose to return and inform Beth that Al was still alive. The final caption of the show tells the audience that, in the end, Sam never returned home; with the title card at the end somewhat unceremoniously announcing it, and also with his last name misspelled: "Dr. Sam Becket [sic] never returned home." Several episodes of the 2022 revival confirm that Sam
2774-494: The breakfasts he made in "One Strobe Over the Line," "What Price Gloria?" or "Liberation." He was able to make chitlins with Al's help in "The Color of Truth," but it is not shown whether or not anyone ate them. As a young adult in the 1980s, Sam was a key member of the Starbright Project (details on the nature of the project were not revealed on the show), where he would meet some of his closest and most trusted friends: Al Calavicci ,
2847-403: The business. Naïve but sweet-natured Charlene Frazier ( Jean Smart ), who worked as a secretary for Julia's late husband, Hayden, also invested half of her savings at Sugarbaker's and works as office manager. Charlene's next-door neighbor and recently divorced best friend, Mary Jo Shively ( Annie Potts ), is the main interior designer of the firm and also a full partner. Alongside the women, there
2920-553: The comedy-drama series Men of a Certain Age and guest-starred in the second and third seasons of NBC 's Chuck as the title character's father, Stephen J. Bartowski . From 2014 to 2015, he played entrepreneur Lynn on the HBO show Looking . Bakula was born in St. Louis, Missouri , the son of Sally ( née Zumwinkel ) and Joseph Stewart Bakula (1928–2014), a lawyer. He has a younger brother and
2993-416: The date later given as his birthday, August 8, 1953. Although these would appear to be continuity errors on the part of the show, creator Donald P. Bellisario has proffered the explanation that Sam's life dates from his conception rather than his actual birth, and thus dates such as these which are less than nine months prior to August 8, 1953, would be valid leap dates. However, once Sam's proper birthday
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3066-412: The design firm and also rents her home. Charlene's sister Carlene ( Jan Hooks ) move in with her. Carlene also begins working at Sugarbaker's, filling the office manager vacancy that older sister Charlene left behind. Allison (Duffy) left after the sixth season. Texan widow Bonnie Jean Poteet ( Judith Ivey ), was written in for season seven. These changes failed to hold the attention of viewers who enjoyed
3139-581: The end of the fifth season, actress Delta Burke left the show after a much-publicized feud with the show's producers, so her character, Suzanne, moved to Japan to join her mother, Perky. Actress Jean Smart also left at the beginning of the sixth season after deciding she wanted to spend more time with her young child. To handle Smart's departure, her character, Charlene, moved to England with her Air Force husband and their daughter. Julia and Suzanne's obnoxious cousin Allison ( Julia Duffy ) acquires Suzanne's share of
3212-440: The few things that Sam cannot do is cook; two of his onscreen attempts at this, in the episodes "Another Mother" and "Good-bye, Norma Jean" failed humorously, as did his attempt at baking in "Liberation." He did, however, cook a meal for the colleagues of the husband of the woman he leaps into in "Liberation," and there was nothing to suggest that it was anything other than a normal meal that everybody ate with no problems. No one ate
3285-564: The first season: "Designing Women (Pilot)", "A Big Affair", "Design House", "I Do, I Don't", "New Year's Daze", "Monette", "And Justice for Paul". On June 5, 2012, Shout! Factory released Designing Women – 20 Timeless Episodes , aimed for casual fans to enjoy the series without buying full season sets. The 2-disc DVD set included the following episodes, ranging from seasons one through five: Disc 1 – "Designing Women (pilot)" (season 1), "New Year's Daze" (season 1), "Monette" (season 1), "Oh Suzannah" (season 1), "Ted Remarries" (season 2), "Killing All
3358-542: The liberal views expressed by her onscreen character. However, she did support liberal causes, such as civil rights and same-sex marriage. Carter cut a deal with the Thomasons in which Julia would sing a song in a future episode for every liberal-leaning monologue. Shout! Factory has released all seven seasons of Designing Women on DVD in Region 1. On September 2, 2003, Sony Pictures released The Best of Designing Women ,
3431-446: The lives of four women and one man working together at an interior design firm in 1980s Atlanta, Georgia , called Sugarbaker & Associates. It originally starred Dixie Carter as Julia Sugarbaker, president of the design firm; Delta Burke as Suzanne Sugarbaker, the design firm's silent partner and Julia's ex-beauty queen sister; Annie Potts as head designer Mary Jo Shively; and Jean Smart as office manager Charlene Frazier. In
3504-400: The most consistently absent detail being his marriage to Donna (with Donna preferring that Sam not be reminded of their marriage so that he can more easily commit to the people his hosts are in love with and thus solve whatever he is there to accomplish, consoling herself about Sam's 'cheating' by reasoning that his amnesia means that he is not technically cheating on her but is the equivalent of
3577-600: The movie, Shatner interviews Bakula at his ranch in California where they discuss the pitfalls that come with a career in television. In September 2011, Bakula starred in Terrible Advice by Saul Rubinek at the Menier Chocolate Factory. In April to May 2012, he guest starred in the last five episodes of Desperate Housewives as Bree Van de Kamp's criminal defense lawyer and third husband. In April 2013, he made
3650-518: The musical Shenandoah , a play which also provided his first professional theatrical role in 1976, at Ford's Theatre , in 2006. Bakula is heard singing "Pig Island" on Sandra Boynton 's children's CD Philadelphia Chickens , which is labeled as being "For all ages except 43." Scott Bakula said that he might be starring as Sam in a Quantum Leap film as stated in TV Guide Magazine along with Dean Stockwell . At Comic Con 2010, he announced that
3723-483: The network lost the rights to air the show in 2008. The series aired on ION Television in 2007 and has also aired on Comedy Gold , TV Guide Network , and Logo . In recognition of the show's 30th anniversary, getTV began running the series in June 2017 with nightly blocks featuring 30 fan-favorite episodes, after which the series began airing regularly on the network. As of Spring 2021, Antenna TV airs two episodes of
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#17328762268493796-573: The original cast of the first five seasons. Designing Women was cancelled after the seventh season. The exterior of the house seen in the series as the location of the Sugarbakers' design firm is the Angelo Marre House located in the historic Quapaw Quarter district in Little Rock, Arkansas . The home of Suzanne Sugarbaker seen in the series is the Arkansas Governor's Mansion , also in
3869-536: The pilot episode, Sam is told he only has six doctorates; this was later retconned to seven. He speaks six modern languages including English, Spanish, French, Russian, German, and Japanese, but not Italian or Hebrew . He knows four extinct languages , including Egyptian hieroglyphics . He is proficient in martial arts such as Judo , Karate , Muay Thai , and Taekwondo . He has won a Nobel Prize for physics, which he remembers during one leap ("Disco Inferno"). For this, TIME called him "the next Einstein ". One of
3942-429: The prissy character, Allison Sugarbaker, who makes it quite clear to the others that she attended Wellesley College , Hillary's alma mater. An early third season episode ("The Candidate") also revolves around Julia running for commissioner ; she debates on television against a conservative candidate, to whom she eventually loses. In reality, Dixie Carter was a libertarian -leaning Republican who disagreed with some of
4015-451: The right thing no matter what, although when the leaps hit close to home, he tends to lose perspective and make irrational decisions; at those times, he requires Al to guide him back to the right path. Sam Beckett was born at 12:30 p.m. EST on August 8, 1953, in (fictional) Elk Ridge, Indiana , to dairy farmer John Samuel Beckett and his wife, Thelma Louise Beckett. As a child, he had two cats, named Donner and Blitzen, but never had
4088-572: The school side of it. I just realized what I really needed to do was just pick up, pack up and go to New York. Bakula moved to New York City in 1976. He made his professional debut in the 1977 national tour of the musical Shenandoah . He made his Broadway debut in 1982 as an understudy in the short-lived musical Is There Life After High School? The following year, he appeared as baseball legend Joe DiMaggio in Marilyn: An American Fable , which only ran 17 performances. He received
4161-406: The series, and also featured interviews with the Thomasons and various writers. Actors Alice Ghostley , Hal Holbrook , Gerald McRaney , and Richard Gilliland also took part in the special. The series also aired on Nick at Nite beginning October 2, 2006; however, it quickly left and later appeared on its sister network TV Land , airing at various late-night and morning times occasionally until
4234-404: The show and returned it to its Monday night slot. The show's ratings solidified, and it regularly landed in the top 20 rankings. From 1989 through 1992, Designing Women and Murphy Brown (which also centered around a strong, opinionated female character) aired back-to-back, creating a very successful hour-long block for CBS, as both shows were thought to appeal to similar demographics. The show
4307-472: The show on weeknights at 12:00 and 12:30 a.m. ET, while FETV airs the show weekdays at 3:00 and 3:30 a.m. as of March 2021. As of August 28, 2019, the series is available for streaming on Hulu . The episodes are not the original versions aired on CBS, but syndication edits, which contain an altered opening credit sequence and choppy edits to allow more time for commercials. As of 2024, all 7 seasons are available on Prime Video. Burke returned as
4380-687: The spring season of 2014. In 2016 Bakula appeared as a guest judge on the HGTV show Brothers Take New Orleans with Property Brothers hosts Jonathan and Drew Scott. He made a cameo appearance as himself in the season 12 opening episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia . In October 2023, it was announced Bakula would return to the New York stage in the world premiere of The Connector , featuring music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown and book by Jonathan Marc Sherman, and directed by Daisy Prince. The show
4453-410: The third season, Meshach Taylor was given a starring role for his previously recurring character of delivery man and later partner Anthony Bouvier. Later in its run, the series gained notoriety for its well-publicized behind-the-scenes conflicts and cast changes. Julia Duffy and Jan Hooks replaced Burke and Smart for season six, but Duffy was not brought back for the seventh and final season, and she
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#17328762268494526-698: The three lead characters in TNT's hour-long comedy/drama Men of a Certain Age . In 2011, Bakula performed a voice cameo in the film Source Code as a slight nod to his character on Quantum Leap , with his catchphrase of "Oh, boy." and appeared in the feature-length documentary The Captains , which was written and directed by William Shatner , Bakula is interviewed by the original Star Trek captain about his life and career leading up to his performances as Captain Jonathan Archer in Star Trek: Enterprise . In
4599-458: The urging of his California agent, Maggie Henderson, and his New York agent, Jerry Hogan. As Bakula recalled in 2000: I call [Henderson] up and said I got a show, I'm gonna be out there, I'm coming out in January. So it'll work out because it's time for pilot season and I'll be doing something so people can come and see me. ... And then I coincidentally had done a Disney Sunday Night ABC movie that
4672-411: The various situations in which he finds himself, although many of those situations still take him off guard with comical results. Beckett tends to fall in love easily, yet be naive about women; his travelling companion Al Calavicci has playfully called him a "Boy Scout." He also learned painful things from his past that likely inspired him to travel through time in the first place. Beckett tries to do
4745-429: Was "hardly ever home for four and a half seasons" of Quantum Leap , so he chose to prioritize his family life on later projects. His Star Trek: Enterprise contract required that filming be completed by 6 p.m. every Wednesday so he could have dinner with his family. During filming of NCIS: New Orleans , he returned home to Los Angeles every weekend to spend time with his wife. Sam Beckett Initially,
4818-507: Was a top 30 hit for three seasons, from 1989 to 1992, in which the 1989–1992 seasons made it the most successful of the time and helped CBS, which struggled in the ratings around the late 1980s. A move to the Friday night death slot in fall 1992 caused ratings to fall again and the series to be canceled. Show creators Linda Bloodworth-Thomason and Harry Thomason were strong supporters of longtime friend and then- Democratic nominee for President of
4891-471: Was gonna come out some time in the winter. It was the time to go. Came out here on New Year's Day , 1986. The show I did turned out to be a big hit out here. It got me a lot of attention out here and I jumped onto the TV sitcom Designing Women in the beginning and was able to do that pilot ... and things kind of took off. He was cast in two short-lived series: Gung Ho and Eisenhower & Lutz . During
4964-502: Was nine years old. In his teen years, Beckett's family was dealt a hard blow when his older brother, Tom, was killed in Vietnam on April 8, 1970, but Sam leaps into his brother's unit and saves him on that day. Tom (Thomas Andrew Beckett) was a good athlete , an All-State basketball player, an Annapolis graduate, is a Navy SEAL Commander, and has a wife named Mary. Sam has one sister named Katie (Katherine Elizabeth Beckett), born during
5037-518: Was performed from January 12, 2024, through March 17 at the MCC Theater . In August 2024, Bakula played the title role in a production of Man of La Mancha in Peterborough, New Hampshire . Bakula married Krista Neumann in 1981. They had two children before divorcing in 1995. He married actress Chelsea Field in 2009 after a 15-year relationship. Bakula and Field have two children. Bakula says he
5110-492: Was replaced by Judith Ivey . Julia Sugarbaker ( Dixie Carter ) is an elegant, sophisticated, outspoken woman who is the co-founder and president of Sugarbaker & Associates, an interior design firm located in her own home in Atlanta . She is partnered with her younger sister, Suzanne ( Delta Burke ), an attractive, selfish, self-centered former Miss Georgia World, who invested her money but does not have an official position within
5183-523: Was simply connect the beginning and end of one's life) who explains the full version on his television show in response to a viewer question from young Sam Beckett who, at that time, was still a child living in Indiana ; only his own lack of resources prevented Moe from creating Project Quantum Leap decades before Sam. Though explicitly forbidden by his own guidelines to alter the past for his own benefit, Sam did alter his own history and those of his loved ones on
5256-428: Was trapped by a malfunction of his time machine to correct things gone wrong in the past. His performance in the show earned him a Golden Globe Award (along with three nominations) and four Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series , as well as five consecutive Viewers for Quality Television Awards for Best Actor in a Quality Drama Series. From 1993 to 1995, he played Peter Hunt,
5329-413: Was using Sam to correct a mistake in the past — in this case, saving the life of the pilot Sam had displaced, who was killed in an experimental aircraft in the original history. When Sam corrected the timeline, he lept forward, but not all the way home; this time, he found himself assuming the identity of a minor-league professional baseball player named Tim Fox. For the rest of his life (an epilogue in
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