NBC has confirmed the premiere date of its new Quantum Leap reboot. It’s set to premiere on Monday, September 19.
For those who don’t want to click the link, Dr. Song is the Leaper, taking the place of Dr. Sam Beckett. Caitlin Bassett is the hologram/Observer, Addison. Ernie Hudson plays Herbert “Magic” Williams, a career military man who is the head of the project. So, it looks like it took two actors to fill the role of the late Dean Stockwell as Al.
It doesn’t look like it will be that much different from the original show. I’ll give it a try since Donald Bellisario and Deborah Pratt are two of the producers. Bonus, Deborah Pratt will play the voice of Ziggy again.
The same “Magic” Williams Sam Beckett leaped into in Vietnam? Huh.
I also wonder whether having a non-white lead will ease some of the problematic aspects of the premise that weren’t as visible in the original run (e.g. the “white savior” implications of leaping into minority characters).
One thing I’m NOT looking forward to: if they keep the “within the leaper’s own lifetime” premise, seeing the backward limit pushed forward to a time in which I was alive.
I hope they can be smart and incorporate a well developed storyline that is respectful of the original series. Perhaps something like this new lead trying to save Dr. Beckett and getting caught in the time loop would make sense.
I don’t think it would be a good idea to never reference the original series, as if it didn’t happen, since so many people tuning in will have been fans of the original series.
Everything I’ve seen about the new series shows that it is a continuation of the old one, with a certain amount of direct reference.
Remember the VietNam episode where Sam saved his brother’s life? The soldier he leaped into was called Herbert “Magic” Williams. In the new series, the project head is called Herbert “Magic” Williams. It’s the same guy.
I definitely think that the series could be done with Bakula. Sure, the show depended on his skills and his relationship with Al, but I don’t remember anything super special that only one actor could ever pull off.
There also, in my circles at least, has been a bit of a revival of the popularity of the original show, with people talking about rewatching it. And the shows with new seasons that seem to do well tend to have that pattern. They might not last as long as the original series, but they get a decent amount of shows in.
I think it could do well, and will be very interested.
Great comments and thanks for talking about this as I hadn’t heard!
yes to what people have said and it will be interesting to see what they do. I just watched the finale of Strange New Worlds and, no spoilers, it did a great job of being its own thing while paying tribute to TOS. I’m hopeful this can do the same.
I’m curious if they are going to bring in the evil leaper story sooner?
Well, ya know, to me this show was all about the dichotomy between the ridiculously hot nice guy, and the sharp-dressed bad boy. The choice is obvious, of course, but I never tired of pondering the possibilities.
I’d like to see some smart callbacks to some of those original jumps.
Like, what if this new jumper jumped into somebody right after Sam had jumped out of them, and there were these references to what had happened in the original episode? Or they jump into somebody previously referenced in an earlier episode as benefitting from Sam’s previous jump. Or the person jumps into somebody who is interacting with somebody that Sam is in (although that would obviously be harder to pull off).
To the audience of the original, that was all stuff that they were familiar with, it was one of the draws. I don’t know if today’s audiences are going to be as interested in leaps set back in the 50s and 60s.
Time travel is weird, and so it may be that the changes that Sam made meant that the project never happened and he never went back in time. This could be a new project that is completely unaware of the “previous” one until it is successful and they meet an older Scott Bakula who shows them the ropes.
Of course, the original Quantum Leap envisioned a 1999 with much better technology for the most part than we have still today. Maybe Sam’s hopping about was responsible for that.
It will be interesting to see where they go with this, I’m willing to give it a try, though I have to admit to some skepticism based on how bad some reboots of popular 80’s shows have been.
I expect the time frame will shift to the new characters lifetime. He might be born in July 1987 and is 35.
It would cover the late 80’s,90’s,00’s, and all the way until now. That would only overlap with Sam for a few years.
There’s a lot of new history. Two wars, both Trade Center, attacks, Bill Clinton, Bush, Obama etc.
I can see Sams replacement leaping into Linda Trip and telling that story from her viewpoint. Probably tries to change history and warn Monica before anything happens. Fails and history repeats.
In reviewing online discussions of the reboot, it does look like the show is existing in a universe where Sam did exist; they are indeed trying to find him.
Additionally, I note that there’s a couple of cast members part of the “team” trying to solve the mystery of Sam’s whereabouts. One of the team - Ben - ends up leaping himself, but the rest are still outside the machine. This suggests that this show will have parts of episodes in the “present”, while that didn’t happen in the original.
