Al Calavicci

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2008)

This article describes a work or element of fiction in a primarily in-universe style. Please help rewrite it to explain the fiction more clearly and provide non-fictional perspective. (December 2009)

Rear Admiral Albert “Al” Calavicci is a fictional character on the science fiction drama Quantum Leap, created by Donald P. Bellisario and played by Dean Stockwell.

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 East, 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). Sam leaped in and saved her one leap.

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. 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.

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. 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. Over the next few years, Al worked with Sam, providing him with information from their historical database and lending Sam advice and moral support. 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,”, 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 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 rape 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 are never even allowed out of the Waiting Room and have little to no contact with the rest of the staff, 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 being referred to as male rather than female—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 brick layer that Al accused her of cheating with anyway.

Other women Al mentions being with during the series include a girl named Vanessa 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.

Trivia

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (February 2008)

• Al speaks fluent Italian and Russian, and is comprehensive in Hebrew.
• Al’s trademark cigars were Dean Stockwell’s idea. Said Stockwell: “It was a good way to get free cigars for five years.”
• Al appeared in a variety of loud or exotic outfits throughout the series. Why the character dresses like this is never explained, though Al says in “Future Boy” that the sober suit his lawyer was forcing him to wear to court was “boring.” In terms of the series’ production, it could be assumed that this was to reflect the show’s projection of the near-future fashions of the mid-to-late 1990s, or possibly to allow casual viewers to immediately differentiate between Al (who is not actually “there”) and other characters. The idea to have Al appear like this came from Donald P. Bellisario, the show’s creator, as mentioned on the series 1 DVD documentary A Kiss with History: Remembering Quantum Leap.
• After Beth, Al had unsuccessful marriages to an unnamed Hungarian (“Leaping In Without a Net”), a Jewish woman named Ruthie (“Thou Shalt Not...”), a woman named Sharon who occasionally sues him for more alimony (“Future Boy”), and Maxine, with whom Al honeymooned at Niagara Falls—as he did with Beth and Ruthie (“Honeymoon Express”). Al frequently teaches Sam about certain things it would be unlikely for Al to know about, claiming that he got the knowledge from one of his wives.
• Al was active in the civil rights movement in the 1950s, demonstrating against racial segregation (“The Color of Truth”).
• In the episode “Deliver Us from Evil,” Al says he does not eat meat.
• Al appears to be a strong environmentalist, outraged at ships dumping garbage into the ocean (“Sea Bride”). This rage almost distracted him from helping Sam, whom a gangster had thrown in amongst the trash of the Queen Mary at the time. He also rants about Styrofoam cups taking too long to be broken down in nature ("One Strobe over the Line").
• Al is deeply superstitious, believing strongly in the supernatural and paranormal such as the devil (“M.I.A.”), Egyptian curses (“The Curse of Ptah-Hotep”), and vampires (“Blood Moon”). However, he remains skeptical about the existence of UFOs (“Star Light, Star Bright”), and claimed that the psychic powers of Tamlyn Matsuda (“Temptation Eyes”) amounted to coincidence.
• Al, unlike Sam, loved the disco atmosphere of the 1970s (“Disco Inferno,” “Private Dancer”), and even had a manbag.