Quantum Leap Boss Promises NBC Reboot Will Address Sam Beckett’s Leap Into Magic From Original Series
Does Quantum Leap’s Herbert “Magic” Williams (played by Ernie Hudson) remember Sam Beckett (played in the original series by Scott Bakula) jumping into him? NBC’s continuation of the time-travel series will provide an answer in the coming weeks.
Episode 4 will address the leap in question, which occurred in a Season 3 episode of the original series featuring Christopher Kirby as a young Magic, showrunner Martin Gero tells TVLine.
“[Magic] does explain, from his point of view, that leap,” Gero hints. “Ernie [Hudson] gives this phenomenal monologue. It’s so beautiful. It might be my favorite scene of this first chunk [of episodes]. It’s really, really special.”
Quantum Leap picks up nearly 30 years after Sam’s unauthorized jump, with Ben Song (Kevin Can F**k Himself‘s Raymond Lee) also making an unauthorized leap through time. After Ben’s team failed to bring him back home in the season premiere, his days traveling through time and space are far from over. According to Gero, Episode 5 will see the physicist land in the 1870s for a thrilling Western adventure.
“We’re doing a Western,” the EP shares. “We’re telling some stories that have not been told about the West, and that is very exciting for us.”
The episode was filmed at the historic Western backlot at Universal Studios in Los Angeles, where the original Quantum Leap also shot an episode. Original series co-creator Deborah Pratt, who executive-produces the NBC reboot and voices the A.I. unit “Ziggy,” was on hand for filming.
“She’s been a real connection to the past show and is there every day with us,” Gero says. “As a fan of the original show, I don’t want anyone to mess it up. To be able to have Deborah… She’s been banging this drum for 20 years, being like, ‘We got to bring the show back.’ It’s so exciting, not only to do it, but to be able to do it with her.”
I guess the leaping has improved in 30 years as Sam could only leap to the years after he was born.
He did a Civil War leap due to some ancestry shenanigans. I wonder if this is due to the new code Ben uploaded
I love Scott and loved the original show. I hated it was cancelled and the ending was written before hand and they never were able to give a proper ending by having Sam make it home. This reboot/sequel seems pretty good and paying homage to the original. I wish Scott would check his ego at the door and get involved in this show and do an episode or two in which they get him home!!
If Scott is not up for it maybe Q.L. can recruit actor Galen Gering from NBC soap Days of our Lives, who looks a lot like a younger Scott to play Sam on his return home, just to close out the original story!
i love Galen Gering but he does NOT look like a younger Scott Bakula in any way.
and why do you assume it’s Bakula’s ego?
Why do you assume it is due to Scott Bakula’s ego that he did not want to participate? Maybe he wanted the show and the actors to shine and do well on their own without him coming in just to bring in viewers. Hopefully, when the show is renewed for a second season, Scott will reassess and decide to come on.
I remember reading an article when this version was first proposed and he was asked to come back in a reoccurring role and he said no. It was right after his new pilot was not picked up. As a BIG fan of Scott I was glad his new show was not picked up and was hoping he would have went on to do the Q.L. reboot/sequel, see I loved the show way back been when and hated NBC for not giving it a true close out final episode, bringing Scott home. From what all I read Scott felt burnt by NBC for their actions, and by saying no to the reboot, it was kind of saying screw NBC, but good luck to the cast and crew, seeing it was not their doing. I REALLY hope Scott changes his mind and does come back!!!
The problem with the Scott hates NBC theory is that he has done other pilots for NBC over the years. He also starred in the pilot for a show called Unbroken, which filmed in April, right after the Quantum Leap pilot was filmed in March. Scott turned down the Quantum Leap pilot in January. NBC was going to pick Unbroken then decided not to. Shaun Cassidy, the creator and writer of the show, said in mid July that Universal was shopping it around. Haven’t heard anything else since then.
I was the Location Manager for 5 years on that show. Nice to have it Quantum Leap. back.
I wish them all the luck.
Going to be really hard to fill Scott Bakula’s
Leaping shoes!!!! PS. Scott Bakula is really a great person to work with!!!!
Well, Magic’s perspective should be that he went to the future and stayed in the waiting room. Not wild that this show seems poised to ignore this detail. The leaper doesn’t possess people
We don’t know what happens when the person Sam replaced goes home. At least, I don’t remember that ever coming up even though that’s an obvious topic Sam should have asked Al about. I’ve always hoped that their memories of the waiting room are overwritten by the memories that Sam made while he was them. Afterward, they might think their supposed actions were strange and out of character but they happened and the memories of them ultimately gave them a new perspective on their lives and therefore become better people because of them.
in the episode where he becomes Al, Al explains to his younger self in the waiting room that he wouldn’t remember any of it.
The people in the waiting room have swiss cheese memories too. Bingo couldn’t remember his sister, Trudy’s, name.
I do not think,they will ignore it.I think eventually they will address that Sam leaped into Magic
I hope that they do rescue Sam at some point during the show. They should, at least, give Sam’s story proper closure. In the meantime, looking forward to the next episode.
Thoughts on an episode…
Wouldn’t it be great fun to see Ben leap INTO Sam Beckett’s character? :)
That would be cool if he leaped into Sam just before he leaped to find out what went wrong for Sam, and stop him from leaping, thus saving him and keeping him home, by means of rescuing him!
Wouldn’t that not only erase the earlier show from existence, but also most likely what leads this show to exist?
If Ben stopped Sam from leaping in the first place then all the things Sam changed, including Tom being alive and Beth waiting for Al, would never have occurred.
Not sure how they’ll address, the western episode, but like I said in another post, the episode in the original series, “The Leap Between the States”, didn’t make sense, Sam leaping back that far contradicts Sam’s string theory that time travel is limited to his own lifetime. Sure they tried to explain it in the episode that he was too genetically similar to his great-grandfather and leaped into his great-grandfather’s lifetime. But how would he be too genetically similar to someone that only makes up 1/8 of his genetic history?
Inbreeding
Lol, that would explain it, but that would be a far different show.
Yes. Game of Thrones.
This show is the best show on TV right now!!And I hope they have many more seasons.Maybe like 20 seasons!This show will have alot of viewers!Great show!
there’s been 1 episode
For me personally I watched it one night they show sucks won’t watch it again ever I was watching all five seasons of the original series this thing doesn’t even fit into the right atmosphere with it as a viewer personally I won’t watch it
i don’t remember his episode. what happened, does anyone know?
Magic’s episode was The Leap Home Vietnam. The episode where Sam saved his brother, Tom, from being killed.
In that episode Sam used magic spotty to save his brother while I kept trying to encourage them to save the prisoners. He wanted to convince him that saving the prisoners was his real mission. Sam convinced himself that saving his brother was his real mission. At the end of the episode we find out the reason I wanted to save the prisoners is because he was one of them
i’m really not sure what you just wrote, and why you are saying “I” when it wasn’t you.
He meant to put Al but messed up.
Are Sam’s wife and daughter mentioned in the series at all?
In the new Quantum Leap? There has only been one episode so far that we have seen. They can’t bring up everything all at once. Al’s daughter, Janice, is part of what caused Ben to leap so who knows what they have planned ahead.
Yeah but you would think they would have a big role in the episode.
The original series.Not mention in the new one,as of yet.
Does anybody know why the photo of Al Calavicci played by Dean Stockwell shows him wearing captain’s shoulder boards instead of rear admiral’s shoulder boards? Also, he has a weaselly expression on his face which suggests that he was playing the role of Captain Binghampton in that photo. Generally, commemorative photos show a person in the uniform of their highest rank achieved.
Someone said they used a photo of Dean Stockwell as Captain Binghampton for that photo instead of a picture of Dean as Al in his Admiral uniform, which would have made more sense. They probably thought no one would notice. You would think they would know better by now.
Having not seen the original, that was a question I had after watching the first episode of the reboot. Do the people being leapt into know what is going on, or when the leap is over did they lose time?
Sounds like I’ll get an answer.
Scott Bakula is not involved, so I have absolutely zero interest in this.
In the original,Sam Beckett could only leap within his own lifetime.Of course,they had one episode,he became a Civil War Soldier.Their excuse,was that it was his ancestor.There was a episode,where Sam may become involve in a gunfight similar to a Western.It was still set within his lifetime,however.
Magic is supposed to address it in episode 4.