Quantum leap revival/reboot

CastorTroy

Sure looking at NBC shows, aren't most of them mostly story of the week with maybe one or 2 ongoing threads? I noticed there are none I watch but the 3 Chicago series, Blacklist, SVU, New Amsterdam.

StevenToast

No one loved quantum leap more than me when I was a young lad....i remember sky 1 would show the same episode at 5pm and 10pm (they did the same with star trek tng)...sometimes i would watch both showings!

Watched a few episodes recently on syfy and just felt very underwhelmed......i found myself questioning the stories & plotlines that my younger more innocent self would let slide!

Suckit

I came across this tonight. It's from the end of May last year, but does seem to lend some ideas of what direction it could take if it was to get a reboot, a few ideas that I got from it have already been mentioned on this thread.

https://arstechnica.com/video/watch/unsolved-mysteries-unsolved-mysteries-of-quantum-leap-with-donald-p-bellisario

Agent Coulson

‘Quantum Leap’: Helen Shaver To Direct & EP NBC’s Reboot Pilot

https://deadline.com/2022/02/quantum-leap-helen-shaver-direct-ep-nbc-reboot-pilot-1234930855/

El_Duderino 09

I loved the show as a child. Really fond memories of when the parents were away and watching Quantum Leap.

I tried to watch an episode recently and was shocked at how i wasn't entertained by it at all. Really bad.

Sometimes it's fine for a programme to end and stay ended. Bringing it back would probably be a disaster.

What would be the point of it? It was an extremely progressive show for its time. Making an audience play the show through the eyes of a black person or a bloke with downs syndrome or whatever capers he got into. Now we have all kinds of documentaries that expose us to that kind of thing.

It was great back in it's day. Leave it there as a pleasant memory.

fritzelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118616589#Comment_118616589

Could say that about a great many shows from the 70/80/90's - be the same in 40 years when you look back at stuff from now probably

Loved Man from Atlantis, Tomorrow People etc - looking at them now they are terrible

RGARDINR

It could be very good now as you did have other people from rival country leaping as well so could have them trying to change things in history to advance their cause and they have to stop it.

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118616986#Comment_118616986

I suppose they were novel for their time and pushed the envelope back then. Now the envelope has been pushed way beyond that show and its gone from being novel to being old hat.

I also think I probably enjoyed it because I was a child. I had a childish sense of humour and the shownwas suited to me back then. There's no way I'd watch it now if I'd never seen it before. The nostalgia is the best aspect of it for me.

Fair enough if they want to remake it. I probably wouldn't watch it. But I don't watch most TV shows that are made so it'll be no skin off either my, or the production's nose.

JP Liz V1

NBC casts Raymond Lee as lead

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118733313#Comment_118733313

This will drive the anti woke crowd mad. But the whole show was very woke for its day, though that herm wasn't in use at the time. It pushed the envelope, hitting the hot button issues of the day in a very liberal direction, back when it was made and it will do the same in the reboot.

Transgender stuff, asylum seekers, people who can't afford healthcare, people living on minimum wage, immigrants, BLM, feminism and so on. It'll drive those people who oppose this stuff bonkers and they probably won't realise the original was doing that stuff with the contemporary issues of the day - but they were young back then and probably supported the Liberal stuff back then.

fritzelly

Who is he, thought they were casting a woman in the lead role?

CastorTroy

Not familiar with the actor but look forward to seeing how he gets on.

Slydice

Looks like this is one of his first big commitment shows.

IMDB saying recently he was Sam in the Kevin Can F**k Himself series

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3100463/

Which is kinda amusing.. you know.. having been.. Sam.. in a past life..

no?

too much?

😁

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118734509#Comment_118734509

Ha! He goes through the whole process and the final eposode of the final season is where he leaps into Sam and we realise it was actually a prequel to the original, not a sequel.

icdg

Quantum Leap always was at its best when it was kept simple. Sam leaping into the body of an ordinary person (only within his own lifetime to date, according to the shows established rules) with an ordinary problem or issue. Little or no memory of his own time. Al providing the comic relief and well meaning but a lot of the time useless guidance.

It didn’t work so well when they started complicating things with Sam leaping into well known real people, or encountering evil leapers, or leaping outside his lifetime. Or horribly rearranging the theme tune in the final season.

Agent Coulson

Erine Hudson joins the cast.

Hudson portrays Herbert “Magic” Williams, a Vietnam veteran and head of the time travel project at Quantum Leap. Using a bit of politicking and his military know-how to keep the Pentagon at bay, Magic buys the team some time to rescue Ben but expects answers once he’s back.

https://deadline.com/2022/03/quantum-leap-ernie-hudson-nbc-reboot-pilot-1234973289/

CastorTroy

Saw someone point out that Herbert "Magic" Williams was who Sam leaped into in The Leap Home Part 2. So looks like it could be continuity.

Looking quickly online, it seems people he leaps into don't remember being in the waiting room but maybe Magic has some memories or just feels protective of the project.

Useless Lump

I had just read that Hudson has signed on to play the head of the Quantum Leap project and that it is a sequel series.

These two things make me happy.

Since they are going to the effort of making it a sequel and in the show the characters are reviving the Quantum Leap Project twenty years after Beckett’s final leap (surely one of the goals is find out what happened to him) I think it is safe to say that Bakula will show up at some point.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118754683#Comment_118754683

Nice.

It had been already been confirmed that this is a sequel series but I’m very that the press released didn’t mention that Hudson is playing a character that Beckett inhabited in the original.

Useless Lump

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118733505#Comment_118733505

I heard that too and at the time thought it won’t be as funny when a female Leaper inhabits a man as it when Bakula portrayed female characters.

I wonder if the producers thought that too?

silverharp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118733407#Comment_118733407

have you quantum lept in from 2016? being primarily excited about the show hopfully "annyoing the right people" sorta implies that you are only secondarily concerned about the show being any good. Also if we are playing the imagination game I'd more wager that the "anti woke" reviewers for example wont be angry but that if the show parades itself as going to be "super woke" then the reactors can enjoy the schadenfruede that the show most likely will not be any good and falling ratings etc. so at least their ire if any would be directed at the producers and writers, not other fans

I liked the show but dont remember much about it now however to the extent that it might have shown marginal people and make a point of it, by definition it would have been a little edgy for the time. That doesnt apply today when they are nonstop discussions in the media and social media so it wont be edgy just boring and predictable.

At the end of the day most people dont care about 80's reboots outside of very particular shows and this wouldnt be one of them so i dont think there are going to be any great gotchas for you to enjoy.

pixelburp

Being a "network" reboot, I really can't see how this is going to set itself apart enough to be a success: maybe if HBO, Netflix or a channel with a bit of creative swagger had a pop there'd be a chance this could be interesting; some structural or tonal change to the premise maybe, or an especially creative talent headlining the production. Instead it just smells of a factory US Network TV production, trying to join the queue of reboots and reimaginings. I mean sure, it could be good - there's always a chance with these things. But for now I'm definitely mostly 🤔 rather than 😄

fritzelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118761243#Comment_118761243

Been a few decent reboots (and some stinkers) recently so don't count it out yet

Useless Lump

Ernie Hudson’s character is described as the project leader who goes to Washington DC to try keep the project alive after Dr. Lee disappears - this means that unlike the original we would now see both the present day and the time that the Leaper is in.

I hope the hologram companion isn’t just an actor on the set - it would be good if they used special effects to make the actor appear hologram like but still fit in with the hologram from the original.

Useless Lump

And hopefully they don’t go white washing history to make the stories “acceptable”.

not much point in a time travel tv series that pretends prejudice, etc didn’t exist

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118764535#Comment_118764535

I think the way things are ATM there's little chance the show could whitewash without getting a lot of backlash. Some people will still whinge though, if the show did decide to show American history was a bit racist; I remember similar from some regarding Timeless (the last network show centred around time travel).

fritzelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118764586#Comment_118764586

Please god don't be 4400

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118764668#Comment_118764668

Oh that was rebooted too, wasn't it? Not good?

fritzelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118764674#Comment_118764674

Essence of the show was pretty much all blacks are subjugated and all white people are bad, ohhh and here's some passing semblance to the original show

Suckit

There seems to be a big ish cast, so will it be like The Time Tunnel, where there could be two stories running at any time. A story happening with the team keeping the project working, and another story with whatever is happening where the leaper is?

Also, is there no hologram this time?

"(Caitlin) Bassett will star as as Addison, a project lead at Quantum Leap headquarters who operates state-of-the-art technology to communicate with an individual time traveling in the past, likely similar to how Al communicated with Sam via hologram in the original show."

I wonder is the name Addison a nod to Anita W. Addison.

Useless Lump

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118765086#Comment_118765086

I suggested the same above because Hudson is a main cast member and the leader of the project so therefore the series is about Raymond Lee and also the team back at HQ.

I didn’t know more cast had been announced. This Addison is obviously the new Al.

It would be cool if we get to see Addison with Lee (like Bakula and Stockwell were) but also if we sometimes see to the communication from just her point of view in the present day.