Quantum Leap has several references to producer Donald P. Bellisario's previous series, Tales of the Gold Monkey, including a character named "Gushie". "Ghost Ship" featured Captain Cutter, who was the main character in Tales of the Gold Monkey.
Sam has leaped into nine women: a secretary, a divorced mother of three, a beauty pageant contestant, a pregnant teenager, a rape victim, a singer in a teenage girl group, a housewife during the women's movement, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, and an inmate in a women's prison.
Sam Beckett and show creator Donald P. Bellisario both share the same birthday of August 8.
Sam has leaped out of the United States seven times: Egypt, Vietnam, a plane over the Bermuda Triangle, Japan, the Soviet Union, a raft in international waters, and England. If Virginia in 1862 is counted (as it was part of the Confederate States of America at the time), this brings the total to eight.
Sam leaped into the year 1958 eight different times, which made it the most leaped into year during Quantum Leap's entire run.
Sam leaped into every year from 1953 through 1987 at least once, except the years 1977, 1984, and 1986.
Quantum Leap came close to being canceled in its third season due to low ratings. However, a letter writing campaign helped save the series and enabled it to continue for two more years.
Throughout the series, Sam meets many "future" famous people including: Buddy Holly; Michael Jackson; Marilyn Monroe and Bill Clinton, as well as leaping into Lee Harvey Oswald and Elvis Presley.
Dean Stockwell was the first to "Leap" through time on an episode of the The Twilight Zone- "A Quality of Mercy", playing a war-hungry US Lt. in August, 1945.
Sam Beckett is revealed to have attended MIT, and his friend and guide Al Calavicci is mentioned to have also spent some time there.
Al Calavicci drives two different Ferarris in the series: in "Genesis: Part 1", he is in a red Testarossa (which is shown from very low angles so as to keep the identity of the car hidden), and in "Killin' Time", he is driving a Mondial Cabriolet.
Ranked #15 in TV Guide's list of the "25 Top Cult Shows Ever!" (30 May 2004 issue).
The character 'Sam Beckett' was ranked #12 in TV Guide's list of the "25 Greatest Sci-Fi Legends" (1 August 2004 issue).
Season One's cliffhanger into Season Two was the teaser for "What Price Gloria?". The next season, three other episodes premiered before "What Price Gloria?" aired.
There were several ideas for episodes which ultimately were never used. One had Sam leaping in as Robert F. Kennedy. Another idea would involve an animated episode. The producers even toyed with the idea of leaping Sam in as a baby. Also, Donald P. Bellisario wanted to do an episode where Sam leaps in as Thomas Magnum (from Magnum, P.I.). It is unclear why that episode never materialized, although in an earlier episode, a character is seen watching "Magnum, P.I.", thus establishing that show as fiction within the Quantum Leap "universe".
Al's cigar was the idea of actor Dean Stockwell, who said it was "a good way to get free cigars for five years".
Donald P. Bellisario's favorite of all his TV shows.
Scott Bakula ad libbed the line "Oh boy!" at the end of an episode. The producer liked it so much that it became the signature final line of each episode, as Sam finds himself in a new body.
Al's call-sign (pilot nickname) is "Bingo".
Sam leaped outside his life a total of four times. Two of the leaps were explained. In "The Leap Back" Al and Sam traded places due to an accident, which allowed for leaping withing Al's life. "The Leap Between the States" revealed that Sam's great-grandfather had a very similar genetic profile and blood type. Two unexplained leaps before his life were "Play It Again, Seymour" (April 14, 1953) and "The Americanization of Machinko" (August 4, 1953), as the series finale revealed Sam's birth-date as August 8, 1953.
However, both were after he had been conceived (which would have been at the end of 1952), so he did technically exist at that point.
Hey, It's That Guy!: In "Jimmy," Mr.Blonde got his start harassing retarded dockworkers before working his way up to cutting off cops' ears.
Willie Garson appears twice in the series, so Mozzie wrote detective novels in the 50s and shot JFK
Sam leaps into (eventual) veteran voice actor Scott Menville in "The Camikazi Kid." As far as history is concerned. Lloyd Irving taught a young Michael Jackson how to moonwalk.
Hilarious in Hindsight: In "All Americans", Al mentions that he's watching Super Bowl XXX and that the Pittsburgh Steelers are trailing by three points. Jump head six years to the real Super Bowl XXX, where the Steelers were playing and did trail by three points until a miraculous comeback in the final minutes.
What Could Have Been: One of the episodes Donald Bellisario was planning for Quantum Leap before it was canceled was for Sam Beckett to leap into Thomas Magnum, thus merging the Quantum Leap continuity with that of Magnum, P.I..
Which would have resulted in a Celebrity Paradox, since in "Another Mother", a character is seen watching Magnum on TV.
