Will Sam Beckett Return Home? NBC Orders Quantum Leap Reboot Pilot
- Thread starter Ryan Thomas Riddle
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If you think about it from the Sam Beckett never returned home and then look at this season finale if it ends up the series finale
I think at one point Ben said Addison was his home in s1 maybe. So Ben did make it home...
I had the same feeling, but it was more because Ernie Hudson's been around less this season and I figured he was the most likely cast member to get written out. I wonder if there were availability issues from the new Ghostbusters movie, or something else he's doing. Anyway, if he's gone (haven't seen the finale yet), that's a shame, since he's my favorite cast member.
For the second part I was on the edge of my seat the entire time as well. I also loved when Janis revealed her family's deeper connection to PQL based on the OG series finale. Very nice touch. I found it interesting that it appeared that the present day and leap stories were happening synchronously since
the Butterfly Effect didn't happen until a specific moment instead of it happened 40 years ago. Maybe it's the Quantum Bubble Magic mentioned. Personally I would be unhappy if this is the series finale. I just want someone to make it home for real 
I'm fine with this being the end if worse comes to worst. Despite my fears, they mostly pulled off the elusive "works well as a season finale or a series finale".
Dean Georgaris tells TVLine:
Well that's simply not true. Granted there are caveats, and I get their meaning.
Dean Georgaris tells TVLine:
“It was very early on in the process that we landed on the idea that Addison, who we’ve told the audience multiple times was meant to be the leaper, affirmatively chooses to become the leaper — which is also something we’d never seen on Quantum Leap before,” he shares.
Out of curiosity, what was it that they said specifically that made you decide to jump?
Just finished the finale. It was fairly effective, but it had some logic holes. Mainly, given how Ben's changes take effect in real time in the present (as we saw in the climax here), then how could Gideon Rydge have existed to build the quantum chip to find Ben before he ever met Hannah? If Jeffrey/Gideon's entire rise to wealth and power was in reaction to Ben's actions and the stock tips Ben provided, then he shouldn't have been "butterfly-effected" into existence until after the firefighter episode. And would Jeffrey even have been born if Ben hadn't encouraged Hannah to go to college, then helped advance her career? Without him, she might've been stuck in that small town as a waitress forever and never even met Joshua. So having him be around since the start of the season just doesn't make sense by the show's own fanciful temporal logic. They're trying to have it both ways and do a closed-loop story within a mutable-timeline series, and that's self-contradictory.
Also, while it's nice to see the show finally, finally make at least a cursory acknowledgment of the effect of Ben's changes on the present and why they don't affect the team (the "quantum bubble" protecting them), the way the history rewrite was depicted in the climax, with the wind machines and sparks and rising glow and holding hands, seems a bit much. I mean, is that what everyone in the world outside the Project experiences every time Ben changes the past? Or was that just a side effect of the "quantum bubble" breaking down?
I was going to ask why Ben didn't save the race car driver first and then go deal with Jeffrey, but it just now hit me that it's because he would've leapt and lost his chance if he hadn't dealt with Jeffrey first. That went pretty much how I expected -- I knew Ben wouldn't smash his computer and would find a way to win Jeffrey over with words. I didn't expect that he'd do it by showing Jeffrey what it was like to help someone, and I really liked that. (Although it relied on TV and movies' perpetual misunderstanding of how defibrillators work, reducing them to a magic on/off switch for hearts.)
The quote of Mike Post's theme to the original Quantum Leap under Janis's explanation of how she owes her existence to Sam was a nice touch.
The ending was unexpected. If the show gets a third season, I wonder if it'll be a permanent status quo or just a single-episode thing like that time Sam and Al swapped places. I can see it going either way, or being a limited arc. I wouldn't mind seeing a season where Addison's the leaper and Ben's the hologram, though I doubt they'd actually do that.
If they're both leaping together for any length of time, I think Magic should be the hologram, since Ian and Jen would be needed for their own tasks, and giving Ernie Hudson more to do is never a bad thing. Although I liked it when they got to take turns hologramming late last season and early this season, so I'd like to see that continue.
EDIT: And yes, it just struck me how appropriate it was that I ended up watching the Quantum Leap finale on February 29.
Also, while it's nice to see the show finally, finally make at least a cursory acknowledgment of the effect of Ben's changes on the present and why they don't affect the team (the "quantum bubble" protecting them), the way the history rewrite was depicted in the climax, with the wind machines and sparks and rising glow and holding hands, seems a bit much. I mean, is that what everyone in the world outside the Project experiences every time Ben changes the past? Or was that just a side effect of the "quantum bubble" breaking down?
I was going to ask why Ben didn't save the race car driver first and then go deal with Jeffrey, but it just now hit me that it's because he would've leapt and lost his chance if he hadn't dealt with Jeffrey first. That went pretty much how I expected -- I knew Ben wouldn't smash his computer and would find a way to win Jeffrey over with words. I didn't expect that he'd do it by showing Jeffrey what it was like to help someone, and I really liked that. (Although it relied on TV and movies' perpetual misunderstanding of how defibrillators work, reducing them to a magic on/off switch for hearts.)
The quote of Mike Post's theme to the original Quantum Leap under Janis's explanation of how she owes her existence to Sam was a nice touch.
The ending was unexpected. If the show gets a third season, I wonder if it'll be a permanent status quo or just a single-episode thing like that time Sam and Al swapped places. I can see it going either way, or being a limited arc. I wouldn't mind seeing a season where Addison's the leaper and Ben's the hologram, though I doubt they'd actually do that.
If they're both leaping together for any length of time, I think Magic should be the hologram, since Ian and Jen would be needed for their own tasks, and giving Ernie Hudson more to do is never a bad thing. Although I liked it when they got to take turns hologramming late last season and early this season, so I'd like to see that continue.
EDIT: And yes, it just struck me how appropriate it was that I ended up watching the Quantum Leap finale on February 29.
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Wasn't that actually Velton Ray Bunch's theme from The Leap Home ?
"Watch out for that Pinto!!!" Well, if you're going to visit the mid-70's, might as well add some authentic peril for Ben specific to the period.
I was laughing hard at that line and admiring Addison for pointing it out, as any hologram worth their salt should do.
I was laughing hard at that line and admiring Addison for pointing it out, as any hologram worth their salt should do.
I don't know if it originated there, but you're right, I misremembered. It was the theme played under the "Theorizing he could time travel in his own lifetime..." opening narration at the start of the show, at least in the later seasons. And yes, Bunch was the main composer for the whole series, with Post just doing the main title theme.
One thing I found surprising about the finale was that the race cars and uniforms had the logos of actual corporations -- Radio Shack, Texas Instruments, STP, Valvoline, etc. Usually I'd expect them to use fictional corporations.
And Champion spark plugs to restart those stalled-out hearts! 
Timeline changes happening in such a manner are hardly unique to Quantum Leap or Frequency.
The Hollywood Reporter says QL has been cancelled due to being one of NBC's lowest-rated scripted dramas:
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/quantum-leap-canceled-nbc-1235867776/
Disappointing, but in a way, unsurprising. The original QL struggled in the ratings, and only got renewed because NBC head Brandon Tartikoff was a big supporter of the show and kept it around when anyone else would've cancelled it.
So unless the producers can get some other network or streamer to rescue the show, I guess Ben and Addison's fate is in the hands of the fanfic community now.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/quantum-leap-canceled-nbc-1235867776/
Disappointing, but in a way, unsurprising. The original QL struggled in the ratings, and only got renewed because NBC head Brandon Tartikoff was a big supporter of the show and kept it around when anyone else would've cancelled it.
So unless the producers can get some other network or streamer to rescue the show, I guess Ben and Addison's fate is in the hands of the fanfic community now.
Dreadful, Quantum Leap is not just another show, it's a whole genre! No other show can tell stories that way.
not surprised the slightest about the cancellation.
mixed bag:
I loved Ben (played by Raymond Lee), he was awesome and a worthy successor to Sam (and Scott Bakula). Having a Quantum Leap back was nice too.
I disliked the focus on an larger ensemble cast, so much screen time and (unnecessary) drama from the present day HQ stuff and the writing was all over the place too.
the writers only planned season to season too.
Allison (and her actress) had little chemistry with Ben (and Simon Lee) - especially when compared to the sparks between Ben and Hannah.
the NBC night/slot shifting did it's part too.
Could have been good with just Ben and Magic and Calavicci's daughter.
mixed bag:
I loved Ben (played by Raymond Lee), he was awesome and a worthy successor to Sam (and Scott Bakula). Having a Quantum Leap back was nice too.
I disliked the focus on an larger ensemble cast, so much screen time and (unnecessary) drama from the present day HQ stuff and the writing was all over the place too.
the writers only planned season to season too.
Allison (and her actress) had little chemistry with Ben (and Simon Lee) - especially when compared to the sparks between Ben and Hannah.
the NBC night/slot shifting did it's part too.
Could have been good with just Ben and Magic and Calavicci's daughter.
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Raymond Lee.
That's hardly atypical. Renewal is never guaranteed, so it's better to give each season a complete story arc with a satisfying resolution.
Damn. Not surprising, but a bit disappointing after the second season ended on such an interesting cliffhanger. Oh well, that's life on television.
