Sam arrives in 1953 as a private eye who looks like Humphrey Bogart and has to solve the
mystery of his partner’s murder while trying to figure out his relationship with his
partner’s wife and the eager kid at the newsstand.
— Michael Main
Kid, if I’m lucky I’m gonna spend the rest of my life leaping around from one place
to another instead of face down in a pool of blood.
DEBUT
Quantum Leap (s01e09), “Play It Again, Seymour”
(NBC-TV, USA, 17 May 1989).
VARIANTS
Debut. Quantum Leap (s01e09), “Play It Again, Seymour” (NBC-TV, USA, 17 May 1989).
From Los Angeles airport, later in June 1961 ⋙ to New York City, 14 April 1953. Note: into Nick Allen, private eye.
From La Guardia airport, later in April 1953 ⋙ to a bathtub in Detroit, 16 October 1961. Note: At the end of “Play It Again, Seymour” [s01e09], Sam briefly jumps into Samantha Stormer—the first female leapee—who is taking a bath. But Sam doesn’t stay in her body and work through her problems until partway through Season 2 in “What Price Gloria?” [s02e04]. For details, please see the notes for that later episode.
From the imaging chamber at the project lab, New Mexico desert, circa 1996 ⋙ to various locations and times in the episode at an unknown time. Multiple round trips. Note: Al’s hologram.
INDEXER NOTES (SPOILERS!)
Time Travel Trivia—This is the <a href='https%3A%2F%2Fquantumleap.fandom.com%2Fwiki%2FPlay_It_Again%2C_Seymour_%28episode%29%23The_Science_of_Leaping'>first of four episodes</a> where same leapt to a date (<samp>14 April 1953</samp>) that is several months before his birthday (<samp>8 August 1953</samp>).
Kid, if I’m lucky I’m gonna spend the rest of my life leaping around from one place
to another instead of face down in a pool of blood.
1 English variant