Al Calavicci
Encyclopedia
Rear Admiral Upper Half Albert “Al” Calavicci USN is a fictional character
on the science fiction
drama
Quantum Leap, created by Donald P. Bellisario and played by Dean Stockwell
.
, he was forced to put Al into an orphanage
and Trudy into a mental institution, which was common practice for the mentally handicapped in the 1940s. A few years later, Al’s father returned and the family was reunited until Al’s father developed a serious case of cancer
. After the death of their father, Al and Trudy were once again sent to the orphanage and the institution, respectively.
Al was a troubled, but by no means dangerous, youth. To keep himself out of trouble, he explored many hobbies, including acting and boxing
. At one point, Al ran away from the orphanage and lived on the road with a pool shark
, but after his mentor and friend was arrested, Al was returned to the orphanage. When Al was 19, he went to the mental institution so he could be reunited with his sister, but discovered that she had contracted pneumonia
and died, likely due to the institution’s negligence.
As a young man, Al joined the United States Navy
and became a pilot. It was there that he met his first wife, Beth. Al and Beth were married, though due to various duty assignments, they spent little time together. It was during these years that Al would be involved in the Apollo Program
and was a member of the command crew of Apollo 8
. Sometime between this and his first marriage, Al had a brief relationship with a Navy trauma nurse, Lt. Lisa Sherman. It was during this time that Al was accused of raping
and murdering his commanding officer’s wife (he was found innocent after another pilot confessed; the death was accidental).
In the late 1960s, Al began a series of tours in Vietnam
, and the distance between him and Beth started to put a strain on his marriage. In early 1969, Al was captured by the Việt Cộng
and would be a prisoner of war
until 1973. By the time of his release, the Navy had declared Al as missing in action
and probably killed in action
; after a period of mourning, Beth re-married. A heartbroken Al, after returning to the United States, had a subsequent series of failed marriages; a running gag
in the series was Al remembering something about one of his ex-wives, but he could not remember which one. Thus, Beth was always the great love of Al’s life.
In the years that followed, Al would rise through the naval ranks, eventually becoming a Rear Admiral
. Much of his later military career is unknown. He does, however, retain his naval rank which may mean that he still works with the Navy in some limited way while devoting the majority of his time to PQL. Over the years, he would marry four more times, each marriage ending in divorce
, as he sought to fill the gap left behind by his first love, Beth. As his personal life started deteriorating, Al started to abuse alcohol
. While working on the Starbright Project, Al first met Dr. Sam Beckett when, in a drunken rage, Al was beating up a vending machine. The two became fast friends, and Sam started to help Al turn his life around. Sam and Al became best friends over the years. When Sam was lost leaping around time; Al was Sam's constant companion and source of support, doing whatever he could to help Sam and at times, thinking of creative solutions to problems that Sam had not.
After the Starbright Project, Sam and Al worked together on Project Quantum Leap
, a time travel
experiment based on Sam’s own theories about time and space. Apart from his role as Sam's observer/assistant; Al's specific role and responsibilities within PQL are never clearly discussed. Given Al's military, it is likely that he occupies a senior leadership position within the project; possibly as a government liaison since he is seen attending government oversight and budget hearings petitioning for continued project funding. It is implied that Al has taken over day to day operational leadership of the project in Sam's absence. While Al is intelligent and vastily experienced in many areas of life; the greatest asset he brings to Sam's various leaps is a fresh prospective to the problems he faces as well as providing valuable information and a source of emotional support to Sam. These things aside, Al has also proved himself capable in other ways. For example, when a killer Sam had leaped into and exchanged places with escaped the PQL facility and gotten into the nearby city; Al went after him and was able to subdue him successfully.
When Sam prematurely activated his time machine and was propelled into the past, it was Al’s duty to remain in contact with him through holographic
projections tuned into their brainwaves (Although it was revealed over the course of the series that Al can also be seen by animals, small children- who 'see the truth'- and the mentally ill, one leap seeing them dealing with a man whose brainwaves were remarkably similar to Sam's own). Over the next few years, Al worked with Sam, providing him with information from their historical database and lending Sam advice and moral support. Al also seems to be able to remember events the way they used to be after Sam has changed them. For example, when PQL was in danger of loosing it's government funding and leaving Sam in the past without assistance; Sam changed history so that the Senator in charge of the review was replaced by an older version of the woman Sam had saved because he had helped her pass her law exams on the first try by correcting her on an important piece of information. Al, in turn, showed surprise at this; apprently remembering things the way they used to be. During Sam’s journey, Al tried to get Sam to change the fate of his marriage to Beth, but to no avail. At one point, Al and Sam’s positions were switched, and Al leaped back in time to 1945. During this mission, Al was injured and placed in imminent danger, but Sam saved him by exchanging places with him again.
Though separated by decades, Sam and Al continued to work closely together until the people at Project Quantum Leap lost contact with Sam. In the series’ final episode “Mirror Image,”, After being caught in a strange leap wherein Sam met strangely parallel versions of people he had met on other adventures; the bartender likens the strong friendship between Sam and Al to that of The Knight of La Moncha and his trusted squire; saying that one would do anything for the other. This, in turn, with the revelation that Sam could control his leaping if he so chose, triggers Sam leaping into Al's wife's home and Sam imparted to Al’s first wife that her missing husband was alive and would someday return home. This event changed Al’s past as he and Beth would remain together and have four daughters. How the change affected his friendship with Sam, or if Sam and Al ever met or if/how Project Quantum Leap was effected remains unclear.
Also, in the final episode, Al reveals that he had an uncle named Stawpah, who worked as a coal miner. Stawpah had spent so much time loading coal that he was permanently stooped over because of injuries. Sam had met Stawpah during the episode, but does not learn of the connection until the end when Stawpah, having saved two other miners from a cave-in, leaps out and disappears. (As Al pointed out, his uncle had been dead for some time by now. One of the other miners also asks Sam how he could have known Stawpah.)
and murder of a commander’s wife. Although in the original history, Al was acquitted, Sam’s actions cause the case to begin turning against Al when he prevents a key witness from testifying because he believes he is there to stop her from ruining her life (since Al was spending time with his younger self, he failed to inform Sam that it didn’t matter what the witness did as she was later killed in a car crash after testifying). Partway through the episode, when Ziggy projects that the odds are 100% that Al will be convicted and executed, Al disappears mid-sentence and is replaced by a man named Edward St. John (with only Sam remembering that Al was the Observer), who reports that "Ensign Calavicci" was convicted and executed for the murder.
In this new continuity, the staff at Project Quantum Leap appeared less emotionally involved with Sam’s various hosts—it is implied that they have little to no contact with the leapee, and Sam and Edward have no apparent connection beyond a professional relationship; Edward even calls Sam “Samuel,” a name that Sam hasn’t been called since he last saw his great-aunt. Other differences include Ziggy now being known as “Alpha” and Tina and Gushie being married. Fortunately, as soon as the odds jump back to 80% in favor of Al surviving—after Sam discovers a cigar in the car where the murder was committed; Al didn’t smoke at this point, so he couldn’t have left the cigar there—Al is restored, with only Sam remembering that Edward St. John was ever even there. This confirms that PQL would still exist without Al, though it would be radically different from the project as we know it.
First Wife, Beth, was a naval nurse. She and Al honeymooned at Niagara Falls. She loves Calla Lilies, Mexican Food and Ray Charles' "Georgia On My Mind". When Al was reported missing in Vietnam she had the navy claim him dead and remarried a lawyer named Dirk.
Second Wife, was Hungarian and liked to throw small appliances at Al. That is all we ever find out about her.
Third Wife, Ruthie and Al also Honeymooned at Niagara Falls. Ruthie was Jewish and her father owned a funeral parlor. At one point she charged Al with emotional abuse for singing the song "Volare" in his sleep.
Fourth Wife, Sharon, wore pink babydolls. She would cut Al's meat for him. This is the reason he states when he says he is a Vegetarian. She also gained their dog, Chester, in their divorce.
Fifth Wife, Maxine, met at a tattoo parlor in Jersey City. Maxine tried to be both a professional Roller Derby girl and an Ice Skater but was unsuccessful. They also honeymooned at Niagara Falls. The marriage ended when Al accused her of cheating even though she hadn't. In the end, she ended up running off with the bricklayer that Al accused her of cheating with anyway.
Other women Al mentions being with during the series include a girl named Danessa while he was at M.I.T., a girl named Martha he met at a Lakers game, a girl named Brenda who works on Project Quantum Leap in the coding department, a girl named Denise who wants to write his life story, another co-worker named Louise that he encounters at a Project Quantum Leap Christmas Party, a stewardess named Oolie, an Egyptian girl who thinks she is the reincarnation of Cleopatra, he mentions making out with Hannah Gretz in the 4th grade and taking Myra Poinchik to an abandoned house in his neighborhood that was supposedly haunted, had a fling with a beauty queen while in flight school who was named Ms. Flight Gunner 1955,he had a serious relationship with a married Naval nurse named Lt. Lisa Sherman in 1957.
During the show he gives many references to his current girlfriend in 1999, Tina, who also works on Project Quantum Leap. They met over a Las Vegas poker table. She does leave Al at one point in the show, having a fling with Gushie, the Project Quantum Leap programmer, but eventually goes back to Al.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
on the science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
Quantum Leap, created by Donald P. Bellisario and played by Dean Stockwell
Dean Stockwell
Dean Stockwell is an American actor of film and television, with a career spanning over 65 years. As a child actor under contract to MGM he first came to the public's attention in films such as Anchors Aweigh and The Green Years; as a young adult he played a lead role in the 1957 Broadway and...
.
Biography
Al was born on June 15, 1934. His father, who worked in construction, immigrated from Abruzzi, Italy and his mother was a Russian immigrant. Al had a younger sister, Theresa “Trudy” Calavicci, who had Downs syndrome. During his childhood, Al’s mother left the family and married another man. His father tried to keep the family together, but when his work required him to move to the Middle EastMiddle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
, he was forced to put Al into an orphanage
Orphanage
An orphanage is a residential institution devoted to the care of orphans – children whose parents are deceased or otherwise unable or unwilling to care for them...
and Trudy into a mental institution, which was common practice for the mentally handicapped in the 1940s. A few years later, Al’s father returned and the family was reunited until Al’s father developed a serious case of cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
. After the death of their father, Al and Trudy were once again sent to the orphanage and the institution, respectively.
Al was a troubled, but by no means dangerous, youth. To keep himself out of trouble, he explored many hobbies, including acting and boxing
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
. At one point, Al ran away from the orphanage and lived on the road with a pool shark
Pool shark
Pool shark or pool sharks may refer to:...
, but after his mentor and friend was arrested, Al was returned to the orphanage. When Al was 19, he went to the mental institution so he could be reunited with his sister, but discovered that she had contracted pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
and died, likely due to the institution’s negligence.
As a young man, Al joined the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
and became a pilot. It was there that he met his first wife, Beth. Al and Beth were married, though due to various duty assignments, they spent little time together. It was during these years that Al would be involved in the Apollo Program
Project Apollo
The Apollo program was the spaceflight effort carried out by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration , that landed the first humans on Earth's Moon. Conceived during the Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Apollo began in earnest after President John F...
and was a member of the command crew of Apollo 8
Apollo 8
Apollo 8, the second manned mission in the American Apollo space program, was the first human spaceflight to leave Earth orbit; the first to be captured by and escape from the gravitational field of another celestial body; and the first crewed voyage to return to Earth from another celestial...
. Sometime between this and his first marriage, Al had a brief relationship with a Navy trauma nurse, Lt. Lisa Sherman. It was during this time that Al was accused of raping
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
and murdering his commanding officer’s wife (he was found innocent after another pilot confessed; the death was accidental).
In the late 1960s, Al began a series of tours in Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
, and the distance between him and Beth started to put a strain on his marriage. In early 1969, Al was captured by the Việt Cộng
National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam
The Vietcong , or National Liberation Front , was a political organization and army in South Vietnam and Cambodia that fought the United States and South Vietnamese governments during the Vietnam War . It had both guerrilla and regular army units, as well as a network of cadres who organized...
and would be a prisoner of war
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
until 1973. By the time of his release, the Navy had declared Al as missing in action
Missing in action
Missing in action is a casualty Category assigned under the Status of Missing to armed services personnel who are reported missing during active service. They may have been killed, wounded, become a prisoner of war, or deserted. If deceased, neither their remains nor grave can be positively...
and probably killed in action
Killed in action
Killed in action is a casualty classification generally used by militaries to describe the deaths of their own forces at the hands of hostile forces. The United States Department of Defense, for example, says that those declared KIA need not have fired their weapons but have been killed due to...
; after a period of mourning, Beth re-married. A heartbroken Al, after returning to the United States, had a subsequent series of failed marriages; a running gag
Running gag
A running gag, or running joke, is a literary device that takes the form of an amusing joke or a comical reference and appears repeatedly throughout a work of literature or other form of storytelling....
in the series was Al remembering something about one of his ex-wives, but he could not remember which one. Thus, Beth was always the great love of Al’s life.
In the years that followed, Al would rise through the naval ranks, eventually becoming a Rear Admiral
Rear Admiral
Rear admiral is a naval commissioned officer rank above that of a commodore and captain, and below that of a vice admiral. It is generally regarded as the lowest of the "admiral" ranks, which are also sometimes referred to as "flag officers" or "flag ranks"...
. Much of his later military career is unknown. He does, however, retain his naval rank which may mean that he still works with the Navy in some limited way while devoting the majority of his time to PQL. Over the years, he would marry four more times, each marriage ending in divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
, as he sought to fill the gap left behind by his first love, Beth. As his personal life started deteriorating, Al started to abuse alcohol
Alcohol abuse
Alcohol abuse, as described in the DSM-IV, is a psychiatric diagnosis describing the recurring use of alcoholic beverages despite negative consequences. Alcohol abuse eventually progresses to alcoholism, a condition in which an individual becomes dependent on alcoholic beverages in order to avoid...
. While working on the Starbright Project, Al first met Dr. Sam Beckett when, in a drunken rage, Al was beating up a vending machine. The two became fast friends, and Sam started to help Al turn his life around. Sam and Al became best friends over the years. When Sam was lost leaping around time; Al was Sam's constant companion and source of support, doing whatever he could to help Sam and at times, thinking of creative solutions to problems that Sam had not.
After the Starbright Project, Sam and Al worked together on Project Quantum Leap
Project Quantum Leap
Project Quantum Leap is a fictional, top-secret, government-run science project involving time travel on the sci-fi/drama Quantum Leap, created by Donald Bellisario.-Overview:...
, a time travel
Time travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
experiment based on Sam’s own theories about time and space. Apart from his role as Sam's observer/assistant; Al's specific role and responsibilities within PQL are never clearly discussed. Given Al's military, it is likely that he occupies a senior leadership position within the project; possibly as a government liaison since he is seen attending government oversight and budget hearings petitioning for continued project funding. It is implied that Al has taken over day to day operational leadership of the project in Sam's absence. While Al is intelligent and vastily experienced in many areas of life; the greatest asset he brings to Sam's various leaps is a fresh prospective to the problems he faces as well as providing valuable information and a source of emotional support to Sam. These things aside, Al has also proved himself capable in other ways. For example, when a killer Sam had leaped into and exchanged places with escaped the PQL facility and gotten into the nearby city; Al went after him and was able to subdue him successfully.
When Sam prematurely activated his time machine and was propelled into the past, it was Al’s duty to remain in contact with him through holographic
Holography
Holography is a technique that allows the light scattered from an object to be recorded and later reconstructed so that when an imaging system is placed in the reconstructed beam, an image of the object will be seen even when the object is no longer present...
projections tuned into their brainwaves (Although it was revealed over the course of the series that Al can also be seen by animals, small children- who 'see the truth'- and the mentally ill, one leap seeing them dealing with a man whose brainwaves were remarkably similar to Sam's own). Over the next few years, Al worked with Sam, providing him with information from their historical database and lending Sam advice and moral support. Al also seems to be able to remember events the way they used to be after Sam has changed them. For example, when PQL was in danger of loosing it's government funding and leaving Sam in the past without assistance; Sam changed history so that the Senator in charge of the review was replaced by an older version of the woman Sam had saved because he had helped her pass her law exams on the first try by correcting her on an important piece of information. Al, in turn, showed surprise at this; apprently remembering things the way they used to be. During Sam’s journey, Al tried to get Sam to change the fate of his marriage to Beth, but to no avail. At one point, Al and Sam’s positions were switched, and Al leaped back in time to 1945. During this mission, Al was injured and placed in imminent danger, but Sam saved him by exchanging places with him again.
Though separated by decades, Sam and Al continued to work closely together until the people at Project Quantum Leap lost contact with Sam. In the series’ final episode “Mirror Image,”, After being caught in a strange leap wherein Sam met strangely parallel versions of people he had met on other adventures; the bartender likens the strong friendship between Sam and Al to that of The Knight of La Moncha and his trusted squire; saying that one would do anything for the other. This, in turn, with the revelation that Sam could control his leaping if he so chose, triggers Sam leaping into Al's wife's home and Sam imparted to Al’s first wife that her missing husband was alive and would someday return home. This event changed Al’s past as he and Beth would remain together and have four daughters. How the change affected his friendship with Sam, or if Sam and Al ever met or if/how Project Quantum Leap was effected remains unclear.
Also, in the final episode, Al reveals that he had an uncle named Stawpah, who worked as a coal miner. Stawpah had spent so much time loading coal that he was permanently stooped over because of injuries. Sam had met Stawpah during the episode, but does not learn of the connection until the end when Stawpah, having saved two other miners from a cave-in, leaps out and disappears. (As Al pointed out, his uncle had been dead for some time by now. One of the other miners also asks Sam how he could have known Stawpah.)
Alternate Project Quantum Leap
In one episode, Sam leaps into Al himself at an earlier period, when Al is on trial for the rapeRape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
and murder of a commander’s wife. Although in the original history, Al was acquitted, Sam’s actions cause the case to begin turning against Al when he prevents a key witness from testifying because he believes he is there to stop her from ruining her life (since Al was spending time with his younger self, he failed to inform Sam that it didn’t matter what the witness did as she was later killed in a car crash after testifying). Partway through the episode, when Ziggy projects that the odds are 100% that Al will be convicted and executed, Al disappears mid-sentence and is replaced by a man named Edward St. John (with only Sam remembering that Al was the Observer), who reports that "Ensign Calavicci" was convicted and executed for the murder.
In this new continuity, the staff at Project Quantum Leap appeared less emotionally involved with Sam’s various hosts—it is implied that they have little to no contact with the leapee, and Sam and Edward have no apparent connection beyond a professional relationship; Edward even calls Sam “Samuel,” a name that Sam hasn’t been called since he last saw his great-aunt. Other differences include Ziggy now being known as “Alpha” and Tina and Gushie being married. Fortunately, as soon as the odds jump back to 80% in favor of Al surviving—after Sam discovers a cigar in the car where the murder was committed; Al didn’t smoke at this point, so he couldn’t have left the cigar there—Al is restored, with only Sam remembering that Edward St. John was ever even there. This confirms that PQL would still exist without Al, though it would be radically different from the project as we know it.
Personal relationships
Al is known as quite a womanizer on the show and constantly talks about his five wives, current girlfriend, and various other conquests.First Wife, Beth, was a naval nurse. She and Al honeymooned at Niagara Falls. She loves Calla Lilies, Mexican Food and Ray Charles' "Georgia On My Mind". When Al was reported missing in Vietnam she had the navy claim him dead and remarried a lawyer named Dirk.
Second Wife, was Hungarian and liked to throw small appliances at Al. That is all we ever find out about her.
Third Wife, Ruthie and Al also Honeymooned at Niagara Falls. Ruthie was Jewish and her father owned a funeral parlor. At one point she charged Al with emotional abuse for singing the song "Volare" in his sleep.
Fourth Wife, Sharon, wore pink babydolls. She would cut Al's meat for him. This is the reason he states when he says he is a Vegetarian. She also gained their dog, Chester, in their divorce.
Fifth Wife, Maxine, met at a tattoo parlor in Jersey City. Maxine tried to be both a professional Roller Derby girl and an Ice Skater but was unsuccessful. They also honeymooned at Niagara Falls. The marriage ended when Al accused her of cheating even though she hadn't. In the end, she ended up running off with the bricklayer that Al accused her of cheating with anyway.
Other women Al mentions being with during the series include a girl named Danessa while he was at M.I.T., a girl named Martha he met at a Lakers game, a girl named Brenda who works on Project Quantum Leap in the coding department, a girl named Denise who wants to write his life story, another co-worker named Louise that he encounters at a Project Quantum Leap Christmas Party, a stewardess named Oolie, an Egyptian girl who thinks she is the reincarnation of Cleopatra, he mentions making out with Hannah Gretz in the 4th grade and taking Myra Poinchik to an abandoned house in his neighborhood that was supposedly haunted, had a fling with a beauty queen while in flight school who was named Ms. Flight Gunner 1955,he had a serious relationship with a married Naval nurse named Lt. Lisa Sherman in 1957.
During the show he gives many references to his current girlfriend in 1999, Tina, who also works on Project Quantum Leap. They met over a Las Vegas poker table. She does leave Al at one point in the show, having a fling with Gushie, the Project Quantum Leap programmer, but eventually goes back to Al.