Review Quantum Leap (1989)
- Thread starter Hux
- Start date
LOL, I thought Dean Stockwell made for nice eye candy as well. I adored him in this. Agree with the OP however, that the stories often as not were fairly mundane. On the other hand, when they tried to get topical or 'controversial' (I'm thinking of the 'smackdown' JFK episode that was apparently produced in response to Oliver Stone's film, in particular) they tended to fudge it pretty dismally. You could probably get by with grittier stories in today's climate, but since I don't think the two leads are easily replaceable, I'd as soon not see an attempt to re-boot this show. Flaws and all, I'd prefer the memory of it as it was.
Hux
Member: Rank 6
Episodes that stand out in my memory were "Raped" and the one where Sam leaps into a monkey.
Raped was fascinating because it such a serious subject matter and yet Sam (a big strapping fella) is dressed as a woman throughout the whole thing. And yet... it never felt silly. It somehow maintained the seriousness. The ending was terrible though.
And the monkey one wasn't as bad as it could've been either.
Raped was fascinating because it such a serious subject matter and yet Sam (a big strapping fella) is dressed as a woman throughout the whole thing. And yet... it never felt silly. It somehow maintained the seriousness. The ending was terrible though.
And the monkey one wasn't as bad as it could've been either.
I always loved this show, but a few years ago I went back to it and it lost a bit of its magic.
duzit
Member: Rank 6
Sadly that seems to happen with quite a few things, not just TV or movies. As we age, I think it takes more to make an impression.
Doctor Omega
Member: Rank 10
“Quantum Leap” Creator Pens Film Revival
“Quantum Leap” creator Donald Bellisario has revealed at Los Angeles Comic-Con that he’s a written a script for a potential film revival of that iconic late 1980s/early 1990s sci-fi series.
Running for five seasons and almost 100 episodes, the story starred Scott Bakula as Dr. Sam Beckett, a physicist whose experiment in time travel leads to an unexpected effect. In each episode he ‘leaps’ into the body of a new person at a different point in the recent past.
To everyone else, he looks like the person he ‘leapt’ into – which included men and women of different ages and races – but we the audience see him as Sam. Each person he leaps into plays a small but crucial part in history and he spends the episode trying to figure out who he is and correct a historical mistake the person is a part of.
Helping him along the way is his womanizing, cigar-smoking companion Al (Dean Stockwell) who appears to him as a hologram only he can see. Al gets information by a handheld AI unit known as ‘Ziggy’.
“Quantum Leap” regularly drew acclaim and, though not a ratings smash, had a loyal audience. Over the years there’s been rumors of a follow-up, including a potential sequel series following Sam’s daughter on a quest to locate her father and bring him home. Bellasario appeared with Bakula at the convention yesterday and tells EW:
“I just finished writing a Quantum Leap feature. I don’t know what’s going to happen with it, but I did write it. I write things exactly the same way. I just start writing and I let them take me wherever it’s going to take me. I’m entertained the same way the audience is. So I just put Scott and Dean [Stockwell] in my head, kind of rebooted them, and went from there.”
Bakula addressed the backlash against the original series finale which ended with a title card saying that Dr. Beckett never returned home:
“It was a great episode. Last episodes are always controversial. I always say to writers, ‘If you want a challenge more than writing just an hour of television, write an hour of television that is the last hour of television that that show will ever have on; write it so that it could also come back next fall; write it so that it could possibly become a movie of the week; [and] write it so that it could still potentially be a feature film someday. And make everybody happy… If you go back and watch that episode, [Bellisario] checked off all those boxes.”
Whether Bellasario is doing a full reboot or a restart isn’t entirely clear, but either way we may be getting at least one more leap in the near future.
“Quantum Leap” creator Donald Bellisario has revealed at Los Angeles Comic-Con that he’s a written a script for a potential film revival of that iconic late 1980s/early 1990s sci-fi series.
Running for five seasons and almost 100 episodes, the story starred Scott Bakula as Dr. Sam Beckett, a physicist whose experiment in time travel leads to an unexpected effect. In each episode he ‘leaps’ into the body of a new person at a different point in the recent past.
To everyone else, he looks like the person he ‘leapt’ into – which included men and women of different ages and races – but we the audience see him as Sam. Each person he leaps into plays a small but crucial part in history and he spends the episode trying to figure out who he is and correct a historical mistake the person is a part of.
Helping him along the way is his womanizing, cigar-smoking companion Al (Dean Stockwell) who appears to him as a hologram only he can see. Al gets information by a handheld AI unit known as ‘Ziggy’.
“Quantum Leap” regularly drew acclaim and, though not a ratings smash, had a loyal audience. Over the years there’s been rumors of a follow-up, including a potential sequel series following Sam’s daughter on a quest to locate her father and bring him home. Bellasario appeared with Bakula at the convention yesterday and tells EW:
“I just finished writing a Quantum Leap feature. I don’t know what’s going to happen with it, but I did write it. I write things exactly the same way. I just start writing and I let them take me wherever it’s going to take me. I’m entertained the same way the audience is. So I just put Scott and Dean [Stockwell] in my head, kind of rebooted them, and went from there.”
Bakula addressed the backlash against the original series finale which ended with a title card saying that Dr. Beckett never returned home:
“It was a great episode. Last episodes are always controversial. I always say to writers, ‘If you want a challenge more than writing just an hour of television, write an hour of television that is the last hour of television that that show will ever have on; write it so that it could also come back next fall; write it so that it could possibly become a movie of the week; [and] write it so that it could still potentially be a feature film someday. And make everybody happy… If you go back and watch that episode, [Bellisario] checked off all those boxes.”
Whether Bellasario is doing a full reboot or a restart isn’t entirely clear, but either way we may be getting at least one more leap in the near future.
chainsaw_metal1
Member: Rank 8
Nope. Ziggy was a scientist in the future, who aided Al. The handheld device was simply linked to Ziggy and the AI computer.
I miss that show.
Doctor Omega
Member: Rank 10
Quantum Leap LOST ENDING REDISCOVERED!
Doctor Omega
Member: Rank 10
"Quantum Leap" Returns with Scott Bakula as Sam Beckett
