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The Best Episodes of Quantum Leap

Every episode of Quantum Leap ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of Quantum Leap!

Binge this in 2d 17h•Peaking at 9.2/10

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

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
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    Quantum Leap Season 3 Episode 1 - The Leap Home (1)
    9.2/10(986 votes)

    #1 - The Leap Home (1)

    S3:E1

    November 25, 1969: As himself at the age of 16, Sam has the opportunity to both win the high school basketball championship and save his family from their sad fates.

    Director:Joe Napolitano
    Writer:Donald P. Bellisario

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  2. Quantum Leap Season 3 Episode 2 - The Leap Home (2): Vietnam
    9.1/10(911 votes)

    #2 - The Leap Home (2): Vietnam

    S3:E2

    April 7, 1970: As a Navy SEAL in his own brother's squad, Sam must determine whether he is there to save Tom's life or ensure the success of the mission on which his brother was killed. Also Al from 1970 was a P.O.W.

    Director:Michael Zinberg
    Writer:Donald P. Bellisario

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  3. Quantum Leap Season 5 Episode 22 - Mirror Image
    9.1/10(985 votes)

    #3 - Mirror Image

    S5:E22

    August 8, 1953: Sam lands in a not-so-ordinary bar in a coal-mining town, where strange things are happening and familiar people don't know him. With the help of another Al, he still has something to set right ... or is there more than one thing he needs to change?

    Director:James Whitmore Jr.
    Writer:Donald P. Bellisario

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  4. Quantum Leap Season 2 Episode 22 - M.I.A.
    8.9/10(816 votes)

    #4 - M.I.A.

    S2:E22

    April 1, 1969: When Sam leaps into the life of an undercover cop, Al explains that his mission is to convince a navy nurse that her MIA husband is still alive, and to prevent her from marrying a lawyer she meets on the day Sam leaps in. But a series of coincidences causes Sam to wonder about the true nature of his mission.

    Director:Michael Zinberg
    Writer:Donald P. Bellisario

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  5. Quantum Leap Season 4 Episode 1 - The Leap Back
    8.8/10(697 votes)

    #5 - The Leap Back

    S4:E1

    June 15, 1945: Struck by lightning, Sam and Al find their roles reversed, as Sam returns to the future, and to a long-lost love, while Al leaps back to 1945 to prevent the death of a returning World War II hero and his former girl friend.

    Director:Michael Zinberg
    Writer:Donald P. Bellisario

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  6. Quantum Leap Season 3 Episode 22 - Shock Theater
    8.7/10(624 votes)

    #6 - Shock Theater

    S3:E22

    October 3, 1954: Leaping into Sam Bederman, a mental patient who is suffering from acute depression, Sam receives an overloaded electroshock treatment, which causes his Swiss-cheesed memory to be replaced by personas from previous leaps. Al, finding himself visible to the mentally absent, must try to complete Sam's mission, and convince him to take another shock treatment, in order to leap Sam out before contact is lost forever.

    Director:Joe Napolitano
    Writer:Deborah Pratt

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    The 20 WORST Episodes of Quantum Leap

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  7. Quantum Leap Season 1 Episode 7 - Camikazi Kid
    8.5/10(893 votes)

    #7 - Camikazi Kid

    S1:E7

    June 6, 1961: Sam leaps into the life of a teen-age hot-rodder who must stop his sister from marrying a wealthy bully.

    Director:Alan J. Levi
    Writer:Paul Brown

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  8. Quantum Leap Season 2 Episode 8 - Jimmy
    8.5/10(780 votes)

    #8 - Jimmy

    S2:E8

    October 14, 1964: Since mainstreaming the mentally disabled is not yet a popular concept, Sam must help Jimmy LaMotta, the "slow" young man he's leaped into, get a job and gain his co-workers' acceptance, to prevent his brother from returning Jimmy to the institution.

    Director:James Whitmore Jr.
    Writers:Robert Wolterstorff, Paul M. Belous

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  9. Quantum Leap Season 4 Episode 22 - A Leap for Lisa
    8.5/10(557 votes)

    #9 - A Leap for Lisa

    S4:E22

    June 25, 1957: Sam leaps into Al Calavicci to prevent the death of his married lover. But when Sam accidentally alters history, and finds out too late about her untimely demise, it could mean the gas chamber for Al and disturbingly a whole new situation at Project Quantum Leap.

    Director:James Whitmore Jr.
    Writer:Donald P. Bellisario

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  10. Quantum Leap Season 4 Episode 18 - It's A Wonderful Leap
    8.3/10(517 votes)

    #10 - It's A Wonderful Leap

    S4:E18

    May 10, 1958: Sam finds himself behind the wheel of a New York taxicab, in the life of Max Greenman, a driver striving to win his own tag, a license to drive his own cab. His mission is aided with the help of a woman who claims to be a guardian angel.

    Director:Paul Brown
    Writer:Danielle Alexandra

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  11. Quantum Leap Season 2 Episode 6 - Good Morning, Peoria
    8.2/10(715 votes)

    #11 - Good Morning, Peoria

    S2:E6

    September 9, 1959: Rock 'n' roll is about to become big, but not in Peoria. That is, unless Sam, as DJ Howlin' Chick Howell, can manage to keep the radio station where he's employed from being shut down by overly conservative town elders.

    Director:Michael Zinberg
    Writers:Chris Ruppenthal, Michael Zinberg

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  12. Quantum Leap Season 4 Episode 4 - Justice
    8.2/10(503 votes)

    #12 - Justice

    S4:E4

    May 11, 1965: Sam must don the robe of a Ku Klux Klansman in order to save the life of an ambitious young civil rights leader, who is trying to register black voters.

    Director:Rob Bowman
    Writer:Toni Graphia

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  13. Quantum Leap Season 4 Episode 6 - Raped
    8.2/10(527 votes)

    #13 - Raped

    S4:E6

    June 20, 1980: It's up to Sam to try to bring a rapist to justice when he leaps into the perp's victim, a young woman who may have been unwilling to press charges against the young man - the son of the pillar of the community.

    Director:Michael Zinberg
    Writer:Beverly Bridges

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  14. Quantum Leap Season 1 Episode 8 - Play it Again, Seymour
    8.1/10(831 votes)

    #14 - Play it Again, Seymour

    S1:E8

    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.

    Director:Aaron Lipstadt
    Writer:Unknown

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  15. Quantum Leap Season 3 Episode 13 - Future Boy
    8.1/10(541 votes)

    #15 - Future Boy

    S3:E13

    October 6, 1957: Sam leaps Kenny Sharp, better known as "Future Boy," sidekick to Moe Stein, host of the kid's show, "Time Patrol," who also happens to be building a time machine in his basement. Unless Sam can prevent Moe's daughter from attempting to have her father committed, Moe is destined to be killed as he tries to hop a freight train.

    Director:Michael Switzer
    Writer:Tommy Thompson

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  16. Quantum Leap Season 3 Episode 19 - Last Dance Before an Execution
    8.1/10(493 votes)

    #16 - Last Dance Before an Execution

    S3:E19

    May 12, 1971: "Just think of someplace far away" is the advice Sam hears as he leaps into Jesus Ortega, a Cuban-American being strapped into an electric chair. A last second stay of execution gives Sam just forty-eight hours to either prove himself innocent or fulfill his mission so that he can leap before the Big Switch is pulled

    Director:Michael W. Watkins
    Writer:Unknown

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  17. Quantum Leap Season 5 Episode 20 - The Leap Between the States
    8.1/10(465 votes)

    #17 - The Leap Between the States

    S5:E20

    September 20, 1862: In a bizarre twist of a genetic coil, Sam leaps into his great-grandfather, Captain John Beckett, during the Civil War. He must not interfere with his ancestor's romance with a riled southern belle named Olivia. He must also avoid being hanged as a Yankee dog by some home guard Confederate soldiers.

    Director:David Hemmings
    Writer:Richard C. Okie

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  18. Quantum Leap Season 2 Episode 9 - So Help Me God
    8.0/10(648 votes)

    #18 - So Help Me God

    S2:E9

    July 29, 1957: Though he can't remember much more than habeas corpus, Sam finds himself the defense attorney for a young black woman accused of murdering the son of the most powerful man in a small Louisiana town.

    Director:Andy Cadiff
    Writer:Deborah Pratt

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  19. Quantum Leap Season 2 Episode 13 - Another Mother
    8.0/10(660 votes)

    #19 - Another Mother

    S2:E13

    September 30, 1981: As a divorced mother of three, Sam's job of preventing his teenage son from running away, never to be seen again, is made more interesting by the fact that his youngest daughter can see both him and Al.

    Director:Joseph L. Scanlan
    Writer:Deborah Pratt

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  20. Quantum Leap Season 3 Episode 5 - The Boogieman
    8.0/10(685 votes)

    #20 - The Boogieman

    S3:E5

    October 31, 1964: Things do more than go bump in the night when Sam leaps into Joshua Raye, a horror novelist on Halloween. Although Ziggy claims he's there to prevent the death of a church deacon, things get even stranger when two more people die without warning.

    Director:Joe Napolitano
    Writer:Chris Ruppenthal

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  21. Quantum Leap Season 5 Episode 4 - Nowhere to Run
    8.0/10(492 votes)

    #21 - Nowhere to Run

    S5:E4

    August 10, 1968: As a Marine captain whose legs were amputated after a mishap in Vietnam, Sam finds himself in a veteran's hospital, where he must prevent the suicide of a fellow patient who would rather be dead than face life paralyzed from the neck down. Making matters worse, his wife seems incapable of accepting the fact that she and Sam's host can still lead a normal life, in spite of his condition.

    Director:Alan J. Levi
    Writer:Tommy Thompson

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  22. Quantum Leap Season 5 Episode 5 - Killin' Time
    8.0/10(484 votes)

    #22 - Killin' Time

    S5:E5

    June 18, 1958: Sam leaps into a tricky situation as an escaped killer holed up in a house with a mother and daughter as hostages. Escape isn't going to be easy for either Sam or his hostages, when the real killer breaks out of the waiting room, stranding Sam in the past, destined to die at the hands of a vengeful sheriff.

    Director:Michael W. Watkins
    Writer:Tommy Thompson

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  23. Quantum Leap Season 5 Episode 7 - Deliver Us from Evil
    8.0/10(518 votes)

    #23 - Deliver Us from Evil

    S5:E7

    March 19, 1966: Things are already on there way downhill when Sam leaps back into Jimmy LaMotta. Despite Sam's inaction, history continues to change for the worst. The cause is unknown until Sam discovers another time traveler on the scene, one who's determined to destroy Jimmy's family, as well as Sam.

    Director:Bob Hulme
    Writers:Tommy Thompson, Deborah Pratt, Robin Bernheim Burger

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  24. Quantum Leap Season 5 Episode 10 - Trilogy (3)
    8.0/10(489 votes)

    #24 - Trilogy (3)

    S5:E10

    July 28, 1978: Sam is an aging lawyer, recruited by Abigail, now thirty-three, to defend her when she is put on trial for the murder of Leta Aider, the woman whose daughter Abigail was accused of killing almost twenty-five years earlier.

    Director:James Whitmore Jr.
    Writer:Deborah Pratt

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  25. Quantum Leap Season 2 Episode 3 - The Americanization of Machiko
    7.9/10(690 votes)

    #25 - The Americanization of Machiko

    S2:E3

    August 4, 1953: As a sailor returning from Japan, Sam brings a foreign wife to a small town. He then has to fight against the prejudice of both a scheming ex-girlfriend, as well as his mother, in order to gain acceptance of his new bride.

    Director:Gilbert M. Shilton
    Writer:Donald P. Bellisario

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Best Episodes Summary

"The Leap Home (1)" is the best rated episode of "Quantum Leap". It scored 9.2/10 based on 986 votes. Directed by Joe Napolitano and written by Donald P. Bellisario, it aired on 9/28/1990. This episode scored 0.1 points higher than the second highest rated, "The Leap Home (2): Vietnam".