# If Quantum Leap were remade today... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 24, 2019, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-quantum-leap-were-remade-today/835961 "2019-06-24T11:36:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2019, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-quantum-leap-were-remade-today/835961/1 "2019-06-24T11:36:28Z")
…and you assume Sam is the same age as Scott Bakula was when the first one premiered, the earliest year they could leap to is 1984. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2019, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-quantum-leap-were-remade-today/835961/2 "2019-06-24T11:52:52Z")
And you just know that one of the season finale cliffhangers would be on the Twin Towers in 2001… ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2019, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-quantum-leap-were-remade-today/835961/3 "2019-06-24T12:05:55Z")
And if Back to the Future were remade today, and retained the relative times, the ‘past’ section would be set 4 years after the original came out. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2019, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-quantum-leap-were-remade-today/835961/4 "2019-06-24T13:12:25Z")
If you were to do _American Graffiti_ today going back 11 years would take you to 2008. It would have a rap dominated sound track, no cruising and no radio station. Rated R, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2019, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-quantum-leap-were-remade-today/835961/5 "2019-06-24T13:56:06Z")
If _The Final Countdown_ were remade today and they went back the same number of years, then they could attend the premier of the original _The Final Countdown_. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2019, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-quantum-leap-were-remade-today/835961/6 "2019-06-24T14:21:50Z")
Time has stagnated. The difference between American Graffiti (1973) and the year the movie was set (1962) is a lifetime. The whole world had changed. You make a period movie set 11 years ago now, and I’m not sure anyone would notice. And if you went back in time 9 years to see Bart Simpson’s birth, it would be in season 21 of the show. If you say Bart was 9 in Season 1, (and aged normally, of course) then he is “older” now than Homer was in the first season. ---
**Author:** ![GESancMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gesancman/32/2923_2.png) [@GESancMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GESancMan)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2019, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-quantum-leap-were-remade-today/835961/7 "2019-06-24T14:41:34Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > …and you assume Sam is the same age as Scott Bakula was when the first one premiered, the earliest year they could leap to is 1984. We can do better than that. The show was set several years in the future. IIRC, the first season took place in 1995, which would make Sam 42 years old when the show premiered. Thus the earliest year he could travel back to is 1977. I’m basing this off of the episode where Sam and Al traded places, which I think was in Season 4. At one point during that episode, Al said that the “current” year was 1999. ---
**Author:** ![GESancMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gesancman/32/2923_2.png) [@GESancMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GESancMan)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2019, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-quantum-leap-were-remade-today/835961/8 "2019-06-24T14:43:28Z")
Oh, wait… but if we’re going off of the same premise, and the show is set in like 2026, then we’re back to 1984. Didn’t think that through. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2019, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-quantum-leap-were-remade-today/835961/9 "2019-06-24T14:50:33Z")
> [@GESancMan](#): > > We can do better than that. The show was set several years in the future. IIRC, the first season took place in 1995, which would make Sam 42 years old when the show premiered. Thus the earliest year he could travel back to is 1977. > > I’m basing this off of the episode where Sam and Al traded places, which I think was in Season 4. At one point during that episode, Al said that the “current” year was 1999. The year the moon was blasted out of orbit, and two years after the Jupiter II took off. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2019, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-quantum-leap-were-remade-today/835961/10 "2019-06-24T15:10:23Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > The year the moon was blasted out of orbit, and two years after the Jupiter II took off. Right after the Eugenics Wars. You do remember, back when Khan ruled most of the world? About a decade after Manhattan Island became a prison? ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2019, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-quantum-leap-were-remade-today/835961/11 "2019-06-24T16:51:08Z")
My 17yo daughter was talking to me about how she loves Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, etc. Looking at the relative time and ages, this would have been the equivalent of 17yo me, in 1984, going on about the 1929 stylings of Eddie Cantor, Fats Waller, Al Jolson, “Tiptoe through the Tulips”, all back when music was good, before Bing Crosby came around and ruined everything. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2019, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-quantum-leap-were-remade-today/835961/12 "2019-06-29T21:50:32Z")
Well, let’s not forget that eventually the show began chafing against the idea that Sam could only leap within his lifetime when it used a heretofore unknown loophole about leaping into ancestors so they could do a Civil War adventure late in the final season. I would assume that any remake would just do away with the restriction altogether. It’s not like it’s all that crucial to the premise to begin with. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2019, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-quantum-leap-were-remade-today/835961/13 "2019-06-30T00:24:56Z")
If they were to make a re-make, I would watch that. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2019, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-quantum-leap-were-remade-today/835961/14 "2019-06-30T22:50:36Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > And if Back to the Future were remade today, and retained the relative times, the ‘past’ section would be set 4 years after the original came out. …And the ‘future’ section would–as with the original–show flying cars. And fifteen years from now, that would still be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2019, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-quantum-leap-were-remade-today/835961/15 "2019-06-30T23:08:15Z")
> [@Snooooopy](#): > > Well, let’s not forget that eventually the show began chafing against the idea that Sam could only leap within his lifetime when it used a heretofore unknown loophole about leaping into ancestors so they could do a Civil War adventure late in the final season. I would assume that any remake would just do away with the restriction altogether. It’s not like it’s all that crucial to the premise to begin with. Did they ever even explain why one could only leap within one’s own lifetime? ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2019, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-quantum-leap-were-remade-today/835961/16 "2019-07-01T07:11:13Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Time has stagnated. The difference between American Graffiti (1973) and the year the movie was set (1962) is a lifetime. The whole world had changed. You make a period movie set 11 years ago now, and I’m not sure anyone would notice. I can name a few different populations who would notice quite readily, depending on what they tried to do and who they tried to do it with. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2019, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-quantum-leap-were-remade-today/835961/17 "2019-07-01T07:33:41Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > Did they ever even explain why one could only leap within one’s own lifetime? I could have sworn the finale said that it was never a real limitation, and just due to Sam’s subconscious, but I can’t find any reference online. Maybe it was just something I came up with, due to the idea that Sam was always subconsciously in control of where he leaped. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2019, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-quantum-leap-were-remade-today/835961/18 "2019-07-01T07:56:32Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > Did they ever even explain why one could only leap within one’s own lifetime? I believe because of the quantum string theory, which compared a man’s lifetime to a piece of string. If you take a string, tie the ends together, and roll it up into a ball, each point on the string becomes closer to other points on the string by magnitudes of distance. It therefore takes less energy to travel between points on the string. At least, that’s the explanation I heard. Although, Sam did leap back to the Civil War, but that’s because he had leapt into his own great-grandfather. I also once posited a leap into Captain Jonathan Archer of the _USS Enterprise_ NX-01 in the 22nd century using this principle. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![WildBlueYonder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ce7236/32.png) [@WildBlueYonder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildBlueYonder)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2019, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-quantum-leap-were-remade-today/835961/19 "2019-07-01T23:23:27Z")
Liked the show and wouldnt mind a remake…use the same lead actor or who would be a good replacement? Some of those episodes were very good. When he played a female were some of the best. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2019, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-quantum-leap-were-remade-today/835961/20 "2019-07-01T23:46:43Z")
> [@WildBlueYonder](#): > > Liked the show and wouldnt mind a remake…use the same lead actor or who would be a good replacement? > > Some of those episodes were very good. When he played a female were some of the best. Scott Bakuala currently stars in _NCIS New Orleans_, so he’s probably pretty busy these days. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-quantum-leap-were-remade-today/835961.md?page=2)