Scott Bakula is trying to break a jinx. Although he has had a successful career onstage—winning a Tony nomination last year for his role in the Broadway musical Romance/Romance—he has frankly had rotten luck on television. There was ABC’s Gung Ho, a little-admired series that seemed destined to be canceled and was. Then came CBS’ Eisenhower & Lutz, a much-admired sitcom that seemed destined for a long life but wasn’t.

Now the square-jawed actor is giving it another shot, playing a time traveler on Quantum Leap, a baby boomer’s sci-fi series on NBC. So far, Leap has taken on a Lutz-like existence: much admired and hoping for a long life. Uh, oh.

Three years, three series, three networks. Is three Bakula’s lucky number? "I hope so, I hope so, I hope so," he says, and there’s no reason to doubt him.

Not that Bakula (whose name rhymes with that of a certain Transylvanian count) is complaining. After all, many actors would trade in their Stanislavski books to be cast but once in a network series. It’s just that after striking out trice, he is understandably wary of his next try.

"I think this show is going to do very well," Bakula says carefully, "but I can’t quite let go of what happened with Eisenhower & Lutz last year. It’s very fresh still. Everybody around here is running around saying, ‘It’s a hit! You guys are golden.’ Well, we’ll see."

Quantum Leap is somewhat of a departure for the 34-year-old actor, best known for light comedy and musicals. He plays quantum physicist Sam Beckett, who travels to various points in history each week, assuming different identities. As a result of these time leaps, however, he finds that pockets of his memory have been damaged. That’s where Al, a zany hologram played by Dean Stockwell (Oscar nominee for Married to the Mob), pops in to lend a hand.

Since nearly all of Stockwell’s scenes are with Bakula, the veteran actor felt his relationship with his costar would be crucial. After working with him for several months, Stockwell not only was impressed with Bakula’s talent, but had become fast friends with him off-camera, as well. "I think he’s got star quality," says an admiring Stockwell, who has worked with some of Hollywood’s finest. "You either have it or you don’t. He has it and he has the craft to back it up."

Bakula, who is St. Louis-bred, became an actor 13 years ago after dropping out of college, where he was pre-law, to join a road show of Godspell that never got off the ground. Undaunted, he moved to Manhattan in 1976 and in three weeks found himself traveling with a production of Shenandoah. More theater work followed, including a 1980 stint in Cincinnati where he played opposite his future spouse, Krista, in The Baker’s Wife, before he moved out west three years ago to try television.

The Bakulas, now married for seven and a half years, live in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles (they also have a farmhouse in upstate New York) with their 5-year-old daughter, Chelsy. Last year the family temporarily relocated to New York, where Dad won rave reviews for his singing and dancing in Romance/Romance. Rave reviews mean little to Bakula, however, who makes it a rule to ignore them.

"I don’t think you can believe them. If you do, you’re in trouble, good or bad," he says. "My wife says I should read them and learn to take them with a grain of salt, but it’s hard to read reviews and not be affected by them."

Although Bakula maintains all of his experiences in TV have been good because he’s learned from each of them he’s still clearly hurt by the cancellation of Lutz. He’s going into Quantum Leap with the knowledge that it, too, may fail, but with the faith that it won’t. "You just have to decide, ‘Are you going to commit to it?’ Then you’re lying on the track and here comes the train," he says, then adds with a stoicism that would make Dirty Harry proud, "go ahead—rip me open if you want to."

Caption next to photo: Don’t call Bakula a hunk: "Hunk means not a good actor. I just hate the whole term."