Quantum Leap

[BrianL]

After NCIS: New Orleans ended, Scott Bakula stated in an interview that he wanted to revisit Quantum Leap. I'd be shocked if he doesn't show up at some point.

Yeah, and actors often deny involvement when their appearance is wanted to be kept as a surprise. It's pretty standard practice these days.

 

[Music City Mama]

I'm so glad they brought this back. A couple of years ago, there was a time travel show on called Timeless that I really liked, but they made it a little too complicated and I remember thinking at the time that they should bring this show back. I like that even though there is some back story going on, you can miss an episode and not be completely lost during the next one -- each episode is kind of self-contained. I can't wait for the one to come on that they showed in the trailers where Ben is a hair metal dude from the 80's.

 

[NWOhiogal]

The first one was such a great show, I got so excited during episodes SUCH AS: the Halloween one with the evil Al, the evil leaper, Lee Harvey Oswald (lots of hype, not a lot of reward), and of course the final episode which seemed a little hacky on the writers' part.

My favorite episodes were:

"Catch a Falling Star": Sam leaps into a stage actor understudying a famous singer in a production of "Man of La Mancha" and discovers the piano teacher he had a crush on as a teenager is in the cast. The great John Cullum plays the famous singer, with Janine "Southern Exposure" Turner and Ernie "Pumbaa" Sambello also in the cast. Bonus: Scott Bakula sings! He was nominated for a Tony in 1987 for 'Romance Romance'.

"Shock Theater": A tour de force for Bakula as he leaps into a patient in a 1970s mental hospital who is being subjected to electric shock therapy. The shocks jolt him into other personalities he's leaped into, disrupting his memory of who he really is and threatening to sever his tie to Al and the project forever unless a way can be found to get his memory back. Bakula's acting is astonishing in this episode as he alternates between assuming the personalities of past leaps (including a woman and an old black man in the deep south) and freaking out because he doesn't remember who he is and he doesn't know why Al keeps trying to talk to him.

"MIA": The best Al-centric episode, which finds Sam involved with helping a woman named Beth who, Al reveals, was the one great love of his life. Al struggles with the reality that he can't change - that Beth gave up on him after he went missing in Vietnam and married someone else - and his desperate desire to change his history to one where he didn't become a miserable alcoholic after coming home to discover Beth was gone. Bonus: this episode has GREAT music!

Fun Fact: Don Bellisario was heavily involved in an early 1980s show called "Voyagers!", which involved a hapless time-traveler and his young companion who's a history whiz (the show was marketed to kids.) Part of the storyline in later episodes revolved around an 'evil Voyager' who was running around history messing things up, leaving the heroes to have to try and stop the damage. The concept is VERY similar to the 'evil leaper' and I'm sure Bellisario recycled the idea in QL.

 

[Mysterian]

My favorite episodes were:

"Catch a Falling Star": Sam leaps into a stage actor understudying a famous singer in a production of "Man of La Mancha" and discovers the piano teacher he had a crush on as a teenager is in the cast. The great John Cullum plays the famous singer, with Janine "Southern Exposure" Turner and Ernie "Pumbaa" Sambello also in the cast. Bonus: Scott Bakula sings! He was nominated for a Tony in 1987 for 'Romance Romance'.

"Shock Theater": A tour de force for Bakula as he leaps into a patient in a 1970s mental hospital who is being subjected to electric shock therapy. The shocks jolt him into other personalities he's leaped into, disrupting his memory of who he really is and threatening to sever his tie to Al and the project forever unless a way can be found to get his memory back. Bakula's acting is astonishing in this episode as he alternates between assuming the personalities of past leaps (including a woman and an old black man in the deep south) and freaking out because he doesn't remember who he is and he doesn't know why Al keeps trying to talk to him.

"MIA": The best Al-centric episode, which finds Sam involved with helping a woman named Beth who, Al reveals, was the one great love of his life. Al struggles with the reality that he can't change - that Beth gave up on him after he went missing in Vietnam and married someone else - and his desperate desire to change his history to one where he didn't become a miserable alcoholic after coming home to discover Beth was gone. Bonus: this episode has GREAT music!

Fun Fact: Don Bellisario was heavily involved in an early 1980s show called "Voyagers!", which involved a hapless time-traveler and his young companion who's a history whiz (the show was marketed to kids.) Part of the storyline in later episodes revolved around an 'evil Voyager' who was running around history messing things up, leaving the heroes to have to try and stop the damage. The concept is VERY similar to the 'evil leaper' and I'm sure Bellisario recycled the idea in QL.

I think I remember that MIA one. Didn't Sam leap into Al back when he was in the Navy?

I remember Voyagers! At least vaguely. There was an episode where the boy dressed up as a girl, and they used the Pepper's Ghost technique to fool someone into thinking he/she was a ghost. I think there was a pocket-watch involved. I'll have to google.

 

[NWOhiogal]

I think I remember that MIA one. Didn't Sam leap into Al back when he was in the Navy?

Yes, he did! That was a different episode. They did a lot of fun stuff like that!

I remember Voyagers! At least vaguely. There was an episode where the boy dressed up as a girl, and they used the Pepper's Ghost technique to fool someone into thinking he/she was a ghost. I think there was a pocket-watch involved. I'll have to google.

Yeah, I think that was the "Salem witch trials" episode. The kid (Jeffrey Jones, played by Meeno Peluce) dresses as one the 'ghost' of one of the victims of the trials to convince the townspeople that killing people they think are witches is a bad idea.

The pocket watch you're thinking of is the Omni, the handheld device that controls the time the Voyagers are travelling to. It's a nifty device. My favorite episode is the one where it's malfunctioning and Jeffrey ends up landing in Menlo Park. Thomas Edison ends up disassembling the Omni, cleaning all its tiny parts, and putting it back together after which it works perfectly. Jeffrey then helps Edison invent the electric light bulb. Who knew?

 

[seshat0120]

The episode where Sam leaps into Al is " A Leap for Lisa" in the fourth season.

 

[Imzadi]

Guess it was just me that didn't care for the pilot of the "continuation". Ben Song doesn't seem as charismatic as Sam Beckett, I mean I could very well be wrong and will give the show a couple of more chances but to me it was just meh.

Also Scott Bakula tweeted that he wasn't involved at all with this reboot so I doubt they will find him.

I agree. I LOVED the original Quantum Leap. Scott Bakula's acting was so great as Sam, and Sam being other people, while we still see Sam. He and Al were fantastic together.

I watched part of the new pilot. I didn't care for it. I found the new lead rather bland. I didn't feel there was any chemistry between the two lead characters who were supposed to be engaged. And I didn't like how we saw so much of the lab and all the people there. I liked how the first series had a mystique to what happens in the lab and the team trying to bring back Sam.

I also watched the last couple of episodes when they re-aired QL again. It STILL holds up, even after all this time. Which makes this re-boot even more disappointing.

 

[Imzadi]

"MIA": The best Al-centric episode, which finds Sam involved with helping a woman named Beth who, Al reveals, was the one great love of his life. Al struggles with the reality that he can't change - that Beth gave up on him after he went missing in Vietnam and married someone else - and his desperate desire to change his history to one where he didn't become a miserable alcoholic after coming home to discover Beth was gone. Bonus: this episode has GREAT music!

This was my favorite episode. And I LOVED how they tied it into the series finale. I loved that Sam did the right thing in the end.