Ernie Hudson jumps into NBC Quantum Leap reboot
He'll be playing a guy in the present day who stops the government from interfering with all the time travelling
Aux News Quantum Leap
Early this year, we learned that NBC was moving ahead with a pilot for a reboot of Quantum Leap, a TV show that you’ve either been quietly obsessed with for 30 years or have possibly never seen or heard of. You either love it or you don’t know what it is, those are the two options. Anyway, if you’re in the “love it” camp, the excitement of the news was deflated somewhat by the fact that original star Scott Bakula is reportedly not involved and original co-star Dean Stockwell died late last year.
But perhaps here’s some news that can smooth over those rough bits: Deadline says Ernie Hudson has joined the cast of the new Quantum Leap as Herbert “Magic” Williams, “a Vietnam veteran and head of the time travel project at Quantum Leap.” Raymond Lee is starring in the show as Dr. Ben Seong, a “world-renowned physicist” working on a time travel project “who gets stuck in the late 1980s with amnesia after using the technology.” Hudson’s character will be the guy hanging out back in the present day, keeping overzealous government inspectors at bay while Dr. Ben travels through time.
That’s a… different take from the original, but it does sound like the events of the original series did happen in this new one, and the Quantum Leap project is being rebooted 30 years after the mysterious disappearance of Bakula’s Dr. Sam Beckett. That means, should this survive past the pilot stage, there could someday be some justice for Sam Beckett—who, spoiler alert, ended the original series still lost in time, never to return.
The new series is coming from Steven Lilien and Bryan Wynbrandt, currently lighting up the network TV charts with the similarly time-twisty La Brea. Original creator Donald P. Bellisario is involved in some way, though it might just be a producer credit.
46 Comments
Let Ernie leap, you cowards!
Wasn’t the “present day” of the original series in the future? Not the distant future, but they definitely had some futuristic-looking cars and things, and that’s why Al always wore such loud suits.
So if this new series is set 30 years after Sam’s disappearance, it’s not the actual present day, but 30 years from the “near future” of the original. And if Ernie Hudson’s character is a Vietnam vet, just how old is his character in this series?!
One episode in season 2 has Al reference Super Bowl 30 as taking place in the “present.” The game was played in 1996.
So if the “near future” of QL was 1996 that sets this in 2026. I suppose that works all right since, at a minimum, it would set Ernie’s character at just about his real age. It’s certainly pushing it though.
I don’t think this is going to be at all related to the original. It sounds like a complete remake. Which we already had with Journeyman.Oh, Sam’s present was 1995 in the original. He never leaped past 1987 or 88.
Didn’t they have some really solid logic as to why this was the case? Although I seem to recall he leaped into his younger self once…and Al!I always thought the ‘evil’ Leapers were a nifty idea that would make for a decent update ie. Two teams, one trying to fix things, the others trying to keep things as they are. Which Timeless kind of did. Hmm.
Didn’t they have some really solid logic as to why this was the case?I don’t remember the specifics of why, but the idea was the Quantum Leap project only allowed one to leap within their own lifetime.The few exceptions to this were when he lept within *Al’s* lifetime (which I think was caused by some sort of lightning strike or other incident) and one time when he lept into an ancestor who they hypothesized was genetically similar enough to confuse whatever determined “his lifetime.”
I do remember the evil leapers but I don’t remember how they explained their ability to time travel. Wasn’t Sam’s project very cutting edge and top secret? who was running the other time machine?
The press release explictly mentions the original project and Sam’s leaping, so this is definitely a follow-up, likely soft-reboor.
Wasn’t there an episode where he leaped into Al in the present day (1995)?
No, he leaped into Al in the 1960s pre-vietnam. Also, he ended up in 1999 when he and Al switched places for an episode.
I liked Jorneyman! And if it hadnt been for that damn writers strike it would have probably had a few seasons*(*as a person I support strikes completely , as a watcher of TV that fucking thing killed or crippled so many damn shows..)I’m guessing its a ‘set in the same universe, mentions the original in the pilot and occasionally but otherwise is its own thing.” kind of deal .Also(wild speculations) It has an overall story arc , 1/3rd of an episode is dealing with stuff in the present (usually in connection with that story arc) the ‘evil leapers’ show up , although the whole God/devil thing is forgotten and its about parallel dimensions, trying to save their own timeline ,if it makes it to sweeps week/end of season one , they pay Scott Bakula to do a five second cryptic tease of Sam Beckett being still alive. Followed by him being in a double episode in series 2 .Oh and it gets cancelled after two seasons and ends on a cliffhanger.
I don’t think this is going to be at all related to the original. It sounds like a complete remake.It’s definitely related. Hudson’s character is the person Sam leaped into in “The Leap Back Part 2: Vietnam” where he saved his brother Tom.
Shit – yeah – Magic. I take it back then.
I mean, I was going to watch the six episodes they air before it gets canceled anyway, but this guarantees it.
That’s not what the article says. It says the events of the original did take place in this show.
Sam’s present is 1999
His first leap was in 1995. Later, in the final season, Al refers to it being 1999. So it’s 1995-1999, if you want to nerd about it.
Wow, just went to Wikipedia to check his age and apparently, if he hadn’t been discharged from the marines for his asthma, he would today be an actual Vietnam vet.
They could probably retcon things as something like ‘everything Sam did in the timeline adjusted us to the one we have now rather than the one it looked like we had in the series’.
He could only travel within his own lifetime… It’s a key point that gets mentioned at the beginning of every single episode. So no, the OG series did not take place “in the future”.
this would honestly be pretty funny, but what if he’s a veteran of a second, later war in vietnam?
They got real good vitamins in the future
The series run from 1989 to 1993, but Sam and Al’s “present” is 1999. 30 years after Sam disappearence is 2029.A Vietnam vet would be around 70 to 80 in 2029, and Ernie Hudson is already 76, so the age matches.
Count me in the “it could be pretty good, but totally not appointment TV” branch.I stopped watching half way through the first season as to my Gen-X eyes it looked like more 80’s Boomer porn. A couple years later I had housemates who watched and started watching and could appreciate it more. Of course, it then got into the evil leaper bullshit. Bakula and Stockwell were good. I will judge this on its own merits.
It was a great show , but yeah there was a hell of a lot of Boomer Childhood Nostalgia* to get it a (then) more mainstream audience.I’m guessing the reboot is going to be spending a lot of time in the 80s and 90s for similar reasons .( unless its the 2000s , in which case I feel very very old)(aka “Sam’s in the Fifties and early Sixties…again!”)
I think setting the reboot’s ”present” as the present day wouldn’t be all that out of whack, since 1995 was 27 years ago. It’s close enough to make it more like a continuation, especially if they manage to work Beckett’s story into the mix.
Giving the apparent protagonist amnesia seems to negate the central point of Quantum Leap, given that Sam knew who he was and that he needed to “set right what once went wrong” to leap out of his current body/time period. Will this new guy just get stuck in the 80s and have everyone back at mission control try to figure out how to rescue him? Why not just send another hologram his way to help out? Uunngghh.
Sam having amnesia is actually a huge part of the original show as he only remembers bits and pieces of his life……and a convenient way for them to randomly decide sam has a new doctorate in something whenever it’s convenient.
Sam had amnesia in the original series, his brain was swiss-cheesed – he didn’t even remember his gf/wife to start with. Nobody knew how to make him leap for sure, but Al would run scenarios on the supercomputer and give him a rough idea of what might work, and some episodes made a point of this being a difficult problem to solve.
Wow, how did I not remember that?
Swiss Cheese
Swiss-cheese memory.
Once the series got rolling it wasn’t something that was mentioned a lot. I had no idea until I finally saw the first couple episodes a while back.
Swiss cheesed!
I think that’s where Ernie comes in.
There’s an episode where Sam is hit by lightning as he leaps, and he becomes the hologram and Al becomes the leaper. Sam remembers Donna and goes to be with her. I say, in that episode they conceive a daughter (not previously mentioned to Sam), who 25 years later (if the present day of the original is 1995) steps into the Quantum accelerator to go find her father. Al will have passed away so you get someone new in to be the hologram, you could update the Quantum Leap project as either being abandoned or more advanced, whatever you like really. Now that I’d watch.
Sam DID have a daughter! Her name was Sammy Jo! He conceived her when he was mid-leap, which certainly raises some ethical concerns (even moreso when you consider that, in the previous episode, he had leaped into the father of the woman he would later impregnate). Sammy Jo even worked on the Quantum Leap project, so your idea could work out quite well.
ah cool! Im only on Season 4 of my rewatch currently so had forgotten that in the 20 years since I last watched! Lets make it his grandaughter then, leaping on behalf of his daughter, who is now head of the quantum leap project. We just made a million bucks. I will now post this thread to myself to trademark it.
a TV show that you’ve either been quietly obsessed with for 30 years or have possibly never seen or heard of. You either love it or you don’t know what it is, those are the two options.This is a great way to describe it. Personally, I fall into the “love it” camp. Any other shows that fall into the love it/don’t know it category with TV viewers? One that comes to mind for me, even more so than QL:Rectify
one of the best shows, period, of it’s time. Just amazingly well done and defied expectations at every turn and just was a slow-burn of incredible acting, writing, and directing. I miss RECTIFY and I loved it- yet, yes, like you said, it’s almost like it didn’t even exist in this timeline. It’s one of those shows I spent all of its seasons trying to get other people to watch (or at least acknowledge that it was in fact a television show one could theoretically watch) and I think I got one person (my wife) to watch. And yes, she loved it, so I guess I was right.Please call my wife and tell her, I was right! Please? Anyone?
I loved it when it first aired – but the fun for me was seeing who/what Sam would leap into each week. Once I knew that, the reruns were not any fun for me.
I also lost interest when he started leaping into the lives of famous people. I liked the show when the ‘important’ stuff happened to ordinary people, not Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe.
While I could really care less about this reboot, I’ll be happy if Hudson gets a good paycheck and a career upcharge from it. TV in San Antonio has a commercial with him for a local high-end ambulance chaser and I’d really appreciate it if this under-stated and under-appreciated actor could put that behind him once and for-all.
In the commercial he can’t even call himself a Ghostbuster but instead refers to himself as “Ghost-busting Ernie Hudson, here!” It’s just depressing.
“La Brea” may be the single worst show I’ve ever watched an entire episode of, and that was the Pilot, which SHOULD have at least been enjoyably campy. SPOILER ALERT
It was not, and it sucked terribly. Just, ridiculously bad and not even fun.This is not a great starting point, to say that the project is being run by the team that brought us that dreck.
Um, did no one catch the fact that “Herbert ‘Magic’ Williams” was an extremely important role in the Vietnam episode (Leap Home, Pt. 2.). Makes this reboot more interesting to me. Maybe we meet Sam’s brother in the “present” as well.
Yeah, “Magic” is the guy Sam leaps into, IIRC. He is supposed to have a reputation for a sixth sense, which makes it easier for Sam to warn the squad about stuff he can’t possibly know.
It’s worth noting that Sam leaped into Herbert “Magic” Williams during season 4’s ‘The Leap Home (Part 2) – Vietnam.