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

It was always strangely ironic to me that Scott Bakula starred in an NCIS spinoff. The original being created by Donald Bellisario who created Quantum Leap. BUT at a time when Bellisario had no involvement in that show anymore.

Scott is one of my favorite actors but I barely watched NCIS New Orleans. Never really watched the original. Those procedural show are just not my thing at all.

I do know that Scott has always spoken very highly of Don. He gave him the perfect role that every actor dreams of and helped launch his career.

Others have said it. I am not surprised that this new incarnation is focusing more on the Project. The original moved more in that direction in the last season. Most of all it takes the burden off the lead actor. Scott speaks very fondly of the show but publicly has admitted many times that that hectic work schedule ruined his first marriage. He was in almost every scene and barely saw his wife and first two kids. His contract for Enterprise was written to have firm end times for his filming each day.

I think there are ways to keep the show still feeling like Quantum Leap while showing more of the Project. Some of the supporting cast might not be in every episode. This is just the Pilot. As they start doing regular episodes they might discover what works best and what cast, actors are vital.

It’s worth mentioning the details on that cast list might be misleading. Often fake character names used to preserve secrets until first broadcast or later. We know from the final episode that Al had daughters. Who would all be adults now. I would be shocked if one of them is not a regular. Jenn the “quirky” head of security would be my guess. Likely followed their father into the military. Plus inherited his quirky personality. Of course all speculation on my part.
 
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Out of curiosity, I was reading the page on the original series on Wikipedia where was cited a line used in the intro of the episodes: "putting right what once went wrong and hoping each time that his next leap will be the leap home".

This is interesting. Obviously it's just a narrative device to tell stories, but it implies that there is a universal "right" and "wrong". So these concepts are either not simple relative moral constructs but absolute truths like gravity, or there is a Higher Being who decides what is right. Both options leave me perplexed and I wonder how the topic will be addressed in the new series because, you know, we are a more demanding audience today :). The other thing that strikes me is that it is clear that there is no "butterfly effect" in the Quantum Leap universe. The present remains virtually untouched by whatever Beckett does, except little things like when they manage to get the money back for the project (and the story of Al's wife).
 
Helen Shaver to direct the Pilot.

https://deadline.com/2022/02/quantum-leap-helen-shaver-direct-ep-nbc-reboot-pilot-1234930855/

She's worked on a lot of good shows, including plenty of genre stuff but I still remember her from her days an an actor on "Poltergeist: The Legacy".
I knew that since last weekend.

The source of that casting list was the Fate’s Wide Wheel Podcast. https://fateswidewheel.com/ It was new to me. They are just fans but they say their source is someone who works at NBC. The recent episode discusses what they were told. They admit that they know more than they feel comfortable revealing at this time. They do allude specifically they know details of this mysterious Janis woman who is going to be a reoccurring character.
 
I read that also and was confused. I thought it was already a done deal that he was connected to the show.
 
Just had a different thought. What if that mystery character isn't his daughter but Bakula himself and this stuff of him not being connected is media trickery to maintain the surprise?
 
Just had a different thought. What if that mystery character isn't his daughter but Bakula himself and this stuff of him not being connected is media trickery to maintain the surprise?
That definitely occurred to me. Sam is a Leaper. We could first see him as another character before we know it’s Sam... meaning Scott Bakula.

Keep in mind that was a casting list. It’s fully legitimate but not something in a press release. Scott Bakula could totally be part of this Pilot but not something they are going to announce in advance. There wording is very coy. Worth noting that no one has been announced in the cast yet.

I have my own doubts that this mystery woman Janis is the one that is secretly Sam. Only because they are casting for a reoccurring role. Not a one time character who is revealed to be Sam. While we see them as simple reflection in later episodes.

However they handle Sam I hope they do not drag out the mystery too long. There are going to be many viewers who will bail if they do not see Scott Bakula in the first episode.
 
What if Janis is his daughter but he has leaped into her. Maybe the mid-season break happens and we finally see Bakula only then he leaps out and she leaps back in and we meet her, the real her for the first time only she has a vague memory of whatever waiting room she was in so you introduce this extra level of mystery to what Sam Beckett is out their doing.
 
This feels like to many people. The first show really only had two regulars in Sam and Al. What are all these people going to be doing if most of the story stuff is happening in a past setting.

Guess we're gonna be spending more time at Project Quantum Leap than we ever did on the original. Wonder if that means they're leaving all the arc-based serialization intrigue there so that we get episodic leap stories, cutting between the two. That I'd be okay with.

Because one of the strengths of the original was the anthology nature of it. A new leap. A new self-contained story.
 
Even if they stay more at Project Quantum Leap I hope they realize that part of the fun is seeing the Leaper leap into many different people and different situations. The variety of settings with a new one every week I think was important because you never knew what kind of story you would get.
 
Even if they stay more at Project Quantum Leap I hope they realize that part of the fun is seeing the Leaper leap into many different people and different situations. The variety of settings with a new one every week I think was important because you never knew what kind of story you would get.

Precisely. 100%. The whole "and hope the next leap would be the leap home" was just a hook to keep us watching. It wasn't the ultimate goal of the show.
 
Sounds fun. They should do something like this with Sliders
season ender has to be Becket leaping into Arturo. (but which one). Rhys-Davies has expressed regret for the show Sliders could have been with better writing. Somehow I think he'd be up for it.
Not that it would happen. Would be fun though.
 
If this is a reboot and not a continuation, they've lost me before they even start.

No Bakula, no viewership. Not even interested.

That Sliders crossover would be epic though - comic book maybe? Speaking of, did they ever actually do anything with the Arturo switheroo possibility? I don't think I saw much past mid season 2, and I haven't watched it since first-run.
 
Source: Deadline

Raymond Lee has been cast as the lead
in NBC’s hourlong pilot Quantum Leap, a reboot of the beloved 1990s sci-fi drama.

He will play Dr. Ben Seong, a spiritual successor to Scott Bakula’s Dr. Sam Beckett from the original series.

Lee’s Ben Seong is both a scientist and man of faith.
He’s a world-renowned physicist working on a time-travel project known as Quantum Leap.

In the reboot, it’s been 30 years since Dr. Sam Beckett (Bakula) stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished. Now a new team has been assembled to restart the project in the hopes of understanding the mysteries behind the machine and the man who created it.

Written and executive produced by La Brea EPs Steven Lilien and Bryan Wynbrandt and executive produced by Blindspot creator Martin Gero as well as Quantum Leap creator/EP Don Bellisario and EP/co-narrator Deborah Pratt, the follow-up series is set in present time though there is a nod to the original, which launched in 1989.

Using the Quantum Leap technology on himself, Ben Seong gets stuck in the late 1980s with amnesia, with the last part also reminiscent of Gero’s Blindspot.

Bakula has been in talks for a possible involvement but he is not attached to the project at this time.
 
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