Jimmy - October 14, 1964 - S2-E8
Factual error: The episode is set in 1964. When Frank and Jimmy first arrive at the dock and some of the dock workers are harassing Jimmy, there is a nice set of period appropriate cars in the foreground that the other dock workers are around, but in the background we see street traffic with 1980s cars driving by. (00:10:50)
Jimmy - October 14, 1964 - S2-E8
Continuity mistake: Near the end of the episode Michael Madsen's character attempts to run over Sam with a forklift, causing the boy to fall into the water and almost drown. As the boy is falling into the water, there is a wide shot of the action. In the scene, a box is being pushed over the edge into the harbor. In the close shot following, the box is gone, as are other items nearby.
Jimmy - October 14, 1964 - S2-E8
Revealing mistake: When Sam is helping Frank clean his truck, an old couple passes as they are talking. Watch the shadows on the left side of the frame right before they enter. The shadows pause for a second, and then the couple walks on screen as they are being cued by the director.
Chosen answer: Per the Quantum leap page at http://www.scifi.com/quantum/episodes/season5.html. 8 August 1953: An enigmatic leap lands Sam in a Pennsylvania tavern, as his own grown self on the day of his birth. As Al and Gushie work frantically to locate him, Sam befriends a wise bartender (popular character actor McGill, who'd appeared in a different role in the very first "leap") and a group of coal miners. As a host of familiar-looking faces pass through the bar - with different identities than Sam remembers - Sam ponders his life of leaping with Al the bartender, who tells Sam he controls his own destiny. Pressed for more, Al the bartender simply shrugs and says, "Sometimes, 'that's the way it is' is the best explanation." Sam realizes he must right at least one more wrong before he can go home, and leaps back to tell Al Calvavicci's wife Beth (from "M.I.A.") to wait for Al, who will survive Vietnam and come home to her. The closing title cards state that Beth and Al have four daughters and will shortly celebrate their 39th wedding anniversary ... and that Sam Beckett never returned home.
Boobra