NBC orders a Pilot Episode for a Quantum Leap Reboot

[Somecrazyaussie]

That would make this a sequel. Not a reboot. I hate when people label continuation of an existing story as a reboot.

Exactly. That rubs me up the wrong way too.

[tv horror]

Actually Dean Stockwell's character Al had a happy ending so he would not have needed to come back. They could also have Scott Bakula play Al's guiding role.

[Jokerz79]

The new show is said to take place 30 years after the original now the original ended in 1993 meaning 2023 when this likely will air is 30 years into the future. But in the show present day was the "near future" of 1995 to 1999 so shouldn't the new show be set in 2029?

[Somecrazyaussie]

I'd be surprised if SOME fans of the original "Quantum Leap" series don't want this.

Fans want a continuation. Not sure if they'd be down for a full on reboot. I count myself in this camp.

[Somecrazyaussie]

Why not? The show has a cool premise so I don't see the issue?

Some shows are of their time and should be left as such. You get the odd reboot that works, but so many fall flat on their faces. The new Magnum P.I is slick, but it doesn't come anywhere near the original. As cool a concept as Quantum Leap was, it was Bakula and Stockwell that made it what it was. You can't replicate that chemistry. So why try?

[90'sCartoonMan]

That would make this a sequel. Not a reboot. I hate when people label continuation of an existing story as a reboot.

Yeah, really. A reboot is a brand new continuity, but a sequel builds on what has already been established. Shouldn't be too hard to make the distinction.

I have to wonder how this show would handle the mere idea of going back and "righting what once went wrong" in history. The old show addressed a lot of social issues when this country wasn't fiercely divided on almost everything. Now, the show might get swallowed up in reactions to its "message" more than its stories.

That's a definite risk. The show would have to make sure they don't end up being tone deaf.

[JBatmanFan05]

I definitely would be interested in a Cobra Kai-type quality continuation. With Bakula, the more Bakula the better even.

I love Quantum Leap. I hope they don't turn me off with whatever they do, I hope they don't make me want to ignore this.

Quantum Leap is one of my favorite shows of all-time, but it's definitely a product of its era. I always thought QL was a Highway to Heaven series with time travel. That kind of television was made in a FAR less cynical time than today. It'll be interesting to see how modern audiences react to it.

And it not betray itself like with the Picard show, it better not get cynical. It better retain its optimism and heart.

[JBatmanFan05]

I thought about how Bob Saget (RIP) was actually in a very strong episode of QL, in Season 4, episode 21 "Stand Up." He did a tremendous job as an hot-tempered Vegas comedian, unable to admit he's in love.

[Jim Kelly]

In "The Leap Back--June 15, 1945," season 4, episode 1, Sam and Al exchanged places. So they leapt back in Al's lifetime, allowing the show to go further back in time. If a new show had Sam Beckett in the Al role, they could do episodes like that where Scott Bakula's character would end up, oh boy, in another body and further back in time than a younger leaper.

[Styles]

'Quantum Leap' reboot has found its new time-traveling hero

[Vakanai]

I agree with those concerned about the show being a project of its time and how television and now streaming has changed. One of the best aspects of QL was that every episode was a new place, a new time, a new scenario. One episode he's a gay man in the military, another he's a teen black girl with dreams of being a singer, another he's a rape victim taking her attacker to trial. There was no through line beyond the basic premise, what happened last episode had no bearing on the next. It reveled in the episodic format, it thrived because of that episodic format. But today you just can't do episodic storytelling anymore, it's all got to be part of a multi episode story arc. Instead of leaping from time to time every episode he'd spend the next four episodes in one time for a story arc, so we get 3 leaps max in a 12 episode season. And somehow what happened in the last leap affects this new leap. Instead of righting what once went wrong he'd have to correct history because his leaping is causing all kinds of butterfly effect impacts on the timeline and making things worse. Just...no. If they make this, I want them to stick to the premise, each episode is a standalone story where he is in a different place and time and making it better. Don't "prestige television" it!

[Nods]

Yeah I don't know about this...a big part of Quantum Leap was Scott Bakula being an everyman. I think we all knew what direction they were going in...because this seems to be the case with every reboot. The big issue is what are the episodes going to feel like when you have a POC playing another POC. Sam always started at point A...we acknowledged as the audience that hes going to be in a bad situation to right the wrong. But by putting a minority in the role you're basically mixing the metaphors...putting a hat ontop of a hat

[ChrisIII]

Wonder if they'd do something like Loki, with someone keeping track about how Sam has altered time. Or maybe shed some more light on the evil Leapers.

[j9ac9k]

Yeah I don't know about this...a big part of Quantum Leap was Scott Bakula being an everyman. I think we all knew what direction they were going in...because this seems to be the case with every reboot. The big issue is what are the episodes going to feel like when you have a POC playing another POC. Sam always started at point A...we acknowledged as the audience that hes going to be in a bad situation to right the wrong. But by putting a minority in the role you're basically mixing the metaphors...putting a hat ontop of a hat

That's a problematic issue - not the issue you presented, but that attitude. This is the 21st century where we as a culture are beginning to understand that a straight white male doesn't represent "every man" (he was also a scientific genius who knew martial arts - how was he an everyman?) - he represented a straight white male and the show was looking at history through that lens. There's no "mixing of metaphors" with a POC lead, this is just a more complicated environment to tell stories that doesn't have the same naive and mainstream-centered POV.

[Jim Kelly]

I agree that Sam represented the tired trope of using a white person for the dominant culture to identify with, to make learning about other cultures and orientations easy for that dominant group to go along with. For example movies like GANDHI and CRY FREEDOM used this device, also. However, if you take it seriously, the Quantum Leap made Sam non-binary and pan-racial. He was fundamentally changed as a being, to go beyond the confines of one sex or one race and become something greater. To me this is an ideal--and it's what every writer is trying to do in their work--because writers try to put themselves in the skin of every character they create. It's a hard problem I've wrestled with all my life. On the one hand, people should have the right to tell their own stories. But then that means a white straight male can only write about other white straight males. A black Lesbian can only write about other black Lesbians. A two-spirit Musqueam can only write about two-spirit Musqueam. We're left with writers each in their own silo and only writing about their own experience and not trying to imagine themselves in the boots of other people.