Her claim is that the show was ambivalent about that point early on in the show, which affected how the novel tie-ins were written. (She wrote a few of them, therefore, she is An Expert in All Things Quantum Leap.)

If anything, the show was clearer about that distinction earlier in the show.

(She wrote a few of them, therefore, she is An Expert in All Things Quantum Leap.)

Ooooh. How funny. I just unpacked all of my books, and I was eyeing the QL novelizations, which I haven't touched in years. I should probably get rid of them.

Didn't the corporeal body of the person he leapt into end up in the lab in the future? Was that only in the later sucky shows?

And AUGH, no it was most assuredly not Dr. Sam Beckett's corporeal body that made the leaps. It was his spirit/consciousness/soul because otherwise, it wouldn't make any sense, you half-witted, two-toned raving moron!

Hmm. Well, there was the one episode where they were pretty certain he fathered a child. But on the other hand, his body was definitely still hanging out at Project Quantum Leap, since, in the episode where he leaped into the guy holding the woman and little girl hostage, the crazy criminal guy was in Sam's body back at the project. I think that his body leaped when that made it convenient for whatever plot point they wanted.

they weren't stressing too much about continuity in the Quantum Leap writers' room.

The way I always remember it, when they showed people in the lab, is that the same way we saw "Sam" going through the motions of the person's life unless he happened to look in a reflective surface, that we'd see the corporeal body of the person into which he'd leapt, unless they looked in a mirror, whereupon they'd see the body of Sam Beckett.

In the one where he leaped into the runner, whose friend was gay, he could still run really fast, right? I can't quite remember what was going on with that one.

they weren't stressing too much about continuity in the Quantum Leap writers' room.

I remember seeing once someone who'd put together two alternate timelines of Al's life, based on the various dates he gave for things in different episodes. One of them had him getting back from the POW camp in Vietnam several years after all the soldiers were supposed to have returned -- one of the novels was based on that timeline, saying that he actually had returned later and it was a big government secret, and that's why he was able to get funding for crazy projects like QL.

The way I always remember it, when they showed people in the lab, is that the same way we saw "Sam" going through the motions of the person's life unless he happened to look in a reflective surface, that we'd see the corporeal body of the person into which he'd leapt, unless they looked in a mirror, whereupon they'd see the body of Sam Beckett.

True, when we the viewers looked at the body in the lab, we'd see the person he leapt into, but I'm pretty sure that when Al or Tina or anyone else in the lab looked at him, they'd see Sam.

Ahh I must have spaced the leapee being seen as Sam in the lab. It makes sense that it would work for them in the future the same way it worked for Sam in the past. Wait, did I just say Quantum Leap made sense?

Well, there was the one episode where they were pretty certain he fathered a child.

The way I remember that one working was in the episode of that arc where he slept with the woman (and there were just so many ook factors in that arc anyway, since he'd leapt into her father in the first episode) but when he slept with her, he made this big emotional Sam-speech about no matter how he changed after that night, that in that moment, it was really him, which of course, she didn't understand, but I think the idea was that Sam was more completely himself than he'd ever been during any other leap, that there was somehow more of him invested in this particular leap.

i.e., the power of twue wuv.

True, when we the viewers looked at the body in the lab, we'd see the person he leapt into

And remember how often Al would make some leering, pervy comment whenever Sam would leap into a woman.

One of them had him getting back from the POW camp in Vietnam several years after all the soldiers were supposed to have returned

One of my favorite episodes, the one where Sam leaps into "Magic" the guy who ultimately saves Sam's brother and Maggie, the photographer, took the pictures of the POWs and one of them was Al-- at the very end of that episode, as Sam realizes that Al helped him save his brother at the cost of his own freedom, Al shrugs and casually says,

"What the hell-- I get repatriated in '75."

"But you could've been free."

"I was free." (Pointing to his head) "Up here, I was always free."

Bellisario may have played fast and loose with some of his rules, but damn if he didn't have a way with poignant moments. Of course, I also have a seekrit teevee crush on Dean Stockwell, as well.