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Will Sam Beckett Return Home? NBC Orders Quantum Leap Reboot Pilot

https://tvline.com/2022/06/29/quantum-leap-plot-details-nbc-reboot/


the series will premiere on Monday, Sept. 19 at 10/9c

“It’s been nearly 30 years since Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished. Now, a new team, led by physicist Ben Song (played by Kevin Can F**k Himself‘s Raymond Lee), has been assembled to restart the project in hope of understanding the mysteries behind the machine and the man who created it.

Everything changes, however, when Ben makes an unauthorized leap into the past, leaving the team behind to solve the mystery of why he did it. At Ben’s side throughout his leaps is Addison (Caitlin Bassett), who appears in the form of a hologram only Ben can see and hear. She’s a decorated Army veteran who brings level-headed precision to her job.”

“At the helm of the highly confidential operation is Herbert ‘Magic’ Williams (Grace and Frankie‘s Ernie Hudson), a no-nonsense career military man who has to answer to his bosses who won’t be happy once they learn about the breach of protocol. (Magic is also clearly an older adult version of a character Sam Beckett interacted with in Vietnam, back in the day.) The rest of the team at headquarters includes Ian Wright (Cowboy Bebop‘s Mason Alexander Park), who runs the Artificial Intelligence unit ‘Ziggy,’ and Jenn Chou (Bosch‘s Nanrisa Lee), who heads up digital security for the project.”

“As Ben leaps from life to life, putting right what once went wrong, it becomes clear that he and the team are on a thrilling journey. However, Addison, Magic, Ian and Jenn know that if they are going to solve the mystery of Ben’s leap and bring him home, they must act fast or lose him forever.”
 
1987SpaceGuy said:
https://tvline.com/2022/06/29/quantum-leap-plot-details-nbc-reboot/


the series will premiere on Monday, Sept. 19 at 10/9c

“It’s been nearly 30 years since Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished. Now, a new team, led by physicist Ben Song (played by Kevin Can F**k Himself‘s Raymond Lee), has been assembled to restart the project in hope of understanding the mysteries behind the machine and the man who created it.

Everything changes, however, when Ben makes an unauthorized leap into the past, leaving the team behind to solve the mystery of why he did it. At Ben’s side throughout his leaps is Addison (Caitlin Bassett), who appears in the form of a hologram only Ben can see and hear. She’s a decorated Army veteran who brings level-headed precision to her job.”

“At the helm of the highly confidential operation is Herbert ‘Magic’ Williams (Grace and Frankie‘s Ernie Hudson), a no-nonsense career military man who has to answer to his bosses who won’t be happy once they learn about the breach of protocol. (Magic is also clearly an older adult version of a character Sam Beckett interacted with in Vietnam, back in the day.) The rest of the team at headquarters includes Ian Wright (Cowboy Bebop‘s Mason Alexander Park), who runs the Artificial Intelligence unit ‘Ziggy,’ and Jenn Chou (Bosch‘s Nanrisa Lee), who heads up digital security for the project.”

“As Ben leaps from life to life, putting right what once went wrong, it becomes clear that he and the team are on a thrilling journey. However, Addison, Magic, Ian and Jenn know that if they are going to solve the mystery of Ben’s leap and bring him home, they must act fast or lose him forever.”
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So looks like the reboot splits the difference between the anthology nature of the original and a serialized story. There will still be individual leaps/stories but combined with a serialized arc back at Project: Quantum Leap. I can dig that.
 
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Yeah. I mentioned a few months/pages ago a one man solo series won't work in today's tv making business. You raise the risk of burnout. For Scott Bakula it ruined his first marriage.

So a team back at a base helps lessen the load a one man or woman lead series would cause.
 
Yeah, that was pretty much what I had been expecting since they reveal more information about this.
 
Jayson1 said:
I don't think anyone was using reboot in 1987. I image they might have called it a update or sequel or even spin-off.
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Yep. I think the new Magnum PI and MacGiver are bona fide reboot. This is an actual sequel. People think that the word "sequel" isn't marketable?
 
Skipper said:
Yep. I think the new Magnum PI and MacGiver are bona fide reboot. This is an actual sequel. People think that the word "sequel" isn't marketable?
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I don't know. A sequel tends to be built around character from one show or movie being used again in another tv show or movie. Reboot might make sense in this case because they are taking the concept but not the characters and doing something different. Granted it's in the same universe still from the old show so maybe it's cross between a reboot and remake.
 
Skipper said:
Just for the sake of curiosity, did people use the word "reboot" with TNG too?
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Doubt it; reboot didn't become common until computers were widespread and the term actually had meaning to regular people.

This isn't a reboot OR a remake. Its a sequel. How many 80s movies (and direct to DVD follow ups later) had sequels that had very few or none of the original cast in it, just the concept?
 
Phoenix219 said:
Doubt it; reboot didn't become common until computers were widespread and the term actually had meaning to regular people.

This isn't a reboot OR a remake. Its a sequel. How many 80s movies (and direct to DVD follow ups later) had sequels that had very few or none of the original cast in it, just the concept?
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Right. It was just a new Star Trek show, set in the same universe. I don't even think it was called a spin-off at the time.
 
Skipper said:
Just for the sake of curiosity, did people use the word "reboot" with TNG too?
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I remember it took some time for the full title, Star Trek: The Next Generation, to catch on, then it eventually became shortened to TNG.

Before all that, my circles called it, "the new Star Trek show" for short.
 
Tosk said:
Reboot has come to be (mis)used to describe pretty much any kind of follow up these days.
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Is it really a "misuse" when it's a slang term to begin with? I mean, the use of the term in fiction is pretty much the opposite of the term it's based on; rebooting a computer means to restart the existing program, not to alter or replace it. And of course the term's etymology is convoluted -- computer "booting" is short for "bootstrapping," which is based on the expression "to pull oneself up by one's bootstraps," which describes attempting a physically impossible act of defying gravity. Even that expression changed meaning over time, as the link explains.

I did some research, and apparently the earliest documented use of the term "reboot" for a media property was in a 1994 Usenet post referring to a reinvention of the Legion of Super Heroes continuity. I checked the Starlog archives, and the earliest use I can find in that sense is in a 2005 David Goyer interview where he explains it as a term from comics, suggesting it hadn't caught on more widely yet. (I think it was around then that I started to see it getting used regularly in discussions of TV or movies, particularly Battlestar Galactica.) So, okay, that was its original usage. However, I also found a 2007 article referring to the in-continuity direct-to-video Babylon 5 revival project as a reboot, so the looser usage was around at least 15 years ago. I've always had the impression that the term was used in both senses at least occasionally.
 
I feel like this has come up before, possibly in this very thread...
There are a couple different usages of "reboot" when it comes to popular media.

In actual professional entertainment-industry publications, you will see the word being used in the sense of giving new life to a franchise that may have been dormant or just in need of a kick in the pants, whether the new production is "in continuity" with the old stuff or not. The new "X-Files" seasons from a few years back "rebooted" that franchise even though they were in the same continuity as the older stuff.

Our use of the word "reboot" as laypeople on the viewing end has come to be much more restrictive, referring specifically to the "in-universe" continuity rather than the overall franchise, and generally meaning that the old continuity is being scrapped and replaced with a different continuity.

Which one makes more sense? "Rebooting" a computer doesn't scrap the whole system and replace it with something new, after all.

Yes, there is a disconnect between the industry and audiences when it comes to terminology. I had a media professor who had years of professional network television experience in producer and executive producer roles, even taking time off from academia each year to continue such work, and he had never even heard the term "jump the shark" even though it was thrown around all the time in fandoms.

Kor
 
Kor said:
There are a couple different usages of "reboot" when it comes to popular media.

In actual professional entertainment-industry publications, you will see the word being used in the sense of giving new life to a franchise that may have been dormant or just in need of a kick in the pants, whether the new production is "in continuity" with the old stuff or not. The new "X-Files" seasons from a few years back "rebooted" that franchise even though they were in the same continuity as the older stuff.

Our use of the word "reboot" as laypeople on the viewing end has come to be much more restrictive, referring specifically to the "in-universe" continuity rather than the overall franchise, and generally meaning that the old continuity is being scrapped and replaced with a different continuity.
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You know, that's what I always thought, but I figured I should research it and check my facts, and all I could find were references to the continuity-reinvention usage, which seems to come from comics in the 1990s. Although the links I found didn't rule out its use in the broader sense by industry insiders; I just couldn't confirm it. (Starlog was a media magazine for the general public, so it might not have used insider jargon. I tried checking Variety, since that's the first publication one would think of if one were looking for industry jargon, but their search system only goes back 12 months.) So thanks for confirming I wasn't deluded all these years.
 
Kor said:
Our use of the word "reboot" as laypeople on the viewing end has come to be much more restrictive
Click to expand...
The viewer end of it is only as restrictive as the individual though, as we all have different personal views of what constitutes a reboot. I myself tend to view it with the computer analogy, so "in-continuity continuations", but you see a variety of people using it for pretty much any continuation.
 
No one has posted yet that NBC requested a second Pilot. The regular cast and their characters are the same. The difference is the Leap. The first was during San Francisco Earthquake in 1989. The 2nd is about a robbery at the Smithsonian. Conjecture is that Earthquake footage will be repurposed into a later episode. I am sure they spent too much money to toss all that Vancouver as San Francisco footage. The advantage of the QL premise is it easier than most to due that.

Reportedly both Pilots are 1 hour with commercials. Which is the norm these days. QL is a very complicated idea to setup regardless of
first mission/leap in a single hour. NBC likely wanted to change the type of genre of that first Leap.

It’s been confirmed that the series will be shot in Los Angeles. Which makes the involvement of a certain Mr Bakula easier to accommodate . Wishful thinking that MAYBE part of this new Pilot. The first was filmed before NBC picked it up for a series commitment. Now it’s a sure thing, plans are being made for future storytelling, and money is available to book major guest stars.... Hoping!
 
I'd wager there is only a 0.0001% chance we don't see Sam at some point in season one. Even if it's fleeting. Like the last scene in the finale. :)
 
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