Quantum Leap continuation to air on Monday 9/19/22

[Dan Druff]

Since everyone influential in Hollywood is around my age now (sorry Hollywood Harry), now is the time for '80s and '90s nostalgia. That's why we are seeing so many reboots, updates, and remakes of beloved series and movies we knew from the 1980s.

Unfortunately, most have them have sucked, with today's writers/producers not completely understanding what everyone liked about the originals.

Among the many misses (Ghostbusters, Head of the Class, One Day at a Time, National Lampoon's Vacation, Punky Brewster, Saved by the Bell, among others), we've had the occasional hit (Cobra Kai).

Now comes Quantum Leap, which I have some optimism can be good. I was a huge fan of the original Quantum Leap. In general, I have always liked a good time travel story, and the entire theme of the show -- a man forced to leap through time into other people's bodies, in order to fix mistakes of the past -- made for endless possibilities.

The main character, Sam Beckett (played by Scott Bakula), was a physicist who built a time machine which allowed people to travel within their own lifetime, but it was never fully functional. Upon the cutoff of funding, he stepped into the machine itself to test it, and was inexplicably forced into 'leaping" into other people's bodies at various points throughout his lifetime, but never into his own.

The creator, Donald Bellisario, was born in 1935, so he was naturally interested in depicting reverse time travel to the '50s and '60s. That's where most of the show was focused. The Beckett character was born in 1953, meaning that all of the show's time travel took place between 1953 and the show's run from 1989-1993. However, Bellisario was already in his mid-50s by the show's run, and seemed to have little interest in the '80s. There were just six of the 97 episodes taking place in the '80s. This disappointed me, as by that time of my life (1989-93), most of my memories were from the 1980s.

This updated version is not a reboot, but rather a continuation, taking place 30 years after the last one ended. Scott Bakula is not involved. Bellisario, now 87, is still involved, but is going to be less hands-on than the first time around.

Perhaps Hollywood Harry can tell us more about what Bakula isn't involved. He was apparently invited but turned it down.


Here is the trailer:




The main character, taking the place of Sam, is an Asian guy named Ben. Unlike Sam, he has no memory of his own past.

The hologram "Al" character is now a woman who both worked with him and was his girlfirend. However, she doesn't reveal to him that they were dating when she appears to him in the past.

The first leap is to 1985.

I do have some concerns about the show:

1) Will it take itself too seriously? One charming thing about Quantum Leap is that it had Sam leaping into ordinary people solving their individual problems. He wasn't saving the world or doing anything spectacular -- just trying to fix whatever situation the person he was occupying got themselves into. This trailer shows him as an astronaut and certain other high importance positions. I hope they didn't forget to put him in ordinary situations and small towns, as those tended to be the most interesting.

2) Will there be a woke message to the whole thing? I'm aware that the original Quantum Leap had some 1990s-era virtue signaling itself, but it was only occasional. I hope this doesn't get destroyed by wokeness. The fact that they felt it necessary to turn the main character Asian and the secondary character female is already a bit concerning -- as if they're feeling required to satisfy the Hollywood woke crew. At least I'm not seeing token gay or trans characters (yet).

3) Will there be too much action and not enough character development and dialog?

I guess we will have to see.

[Harry Hollywood]

Hello, everyone. Dan Druff texted me and asked me to comment on this new Quantum Leap, so I will oblige. Fortunately for him, tomorrow I do not have to be on the set, so I have a bit of time to do this.

It only makes sense they are rebooting Quantum Leap. The show has held up well over time, and in fact the futuristic handheld device utilized by the Al character in the original was not too different from today's smartphones. The show mixed drama, comedy, and sci-fi quite well. It is beloved by many today, and its concept is timeless, so there is no reason it can't be done successfully again in 2022.

I just wrote a post on this, but just as I finished, I got a number of texts from someone connected to the series, who did not answer me when I texted them earlier this evening. This cleared up a lot more for me, so I deleted that post and have started over. I apologize if you read the previous post, which was only up for a few minutes before I removed it.

In 2021, Bakula was contacted and asked if he wished to reprise his role as Sam Beckett in the upcoming new series. Given that his previous series, NCIS: New Orleans, had just ended, he told them that he was very interested. Initially, Bakula believed that he would be the series star. While much older now, he is still healthy and believed himself to still be leading man material, especially in a series which literally revolved around him. When the series was picked up, and Bakula was sent the script in January, he was shocked. He was only a side character, and was taking a back seat to younger and more diverse actors.

As Druff noted, the main character is Asian. The second lead is female. The program head is an older black man. The head of security is female. The chief architect is non-binary. See what's missing? There are no white males starring in Quantum Leap! This was not by accident, but rather by design. These were original casting choices, not decided later.

NBC has made the perplexing decision to aim the series at the 18-34 demographic, rather than the 35-64 one, as I would have expected. This is especially a head-scratcher because the original Quantum Leap was not a show aimed at the young. It was more thought to be an exercise in nostalgia for then-middle-aged viewers who had fond memories of the '50s through '70s.

Here NBC is looking for virtue points, and hoping that propels the show into the hearts of younger viewers. After all, there's a non-binary character, played by an actual non-binary actor! How can younger millennials and Gen Z possibly refuse? I do not know how these executives do not realize that the show's main appeal comes from its nostalgia, and that they have a guaranteed audience of Gen Xers like Druff, provided the show is at least okay.

Bakula told NBC that he was not willing to be a supporting character, and that his interest was in reprising a starring role. NBC then offered Bakula a consolation prize. They said he could star in a different series, entitled Unbroken, a drama about central California ranches and rodeos. They also told Bakula that the door was open for him to change his mind and appear in guest roles on Quantum Leap, as well. They made sure to note that despite Quantum Leap and Unbroken both being new series on NBC, they would not compete with one another in any way, as Unbroken had no sci-fi element whatsoever. It was explained to Bakula that he was perfect as the leading man for a show which was aimed at the 35+ demographic, rather than the new Quantum Leap, where they were going for a younger audience. Bakula was not thriled about any of this, and reiterated his refusal to appear on Quantum Leap as a side nostalgia character.

Then came the other shoe which dropped. In July, NBC dropped the bomb that they didn't care for Unbroken very much, and it wasn't going to air. All of a sudden, Bakula was out of work. Once again it was pitched to him that it was now perfect for him to reprise his role on Quantum Leap, and that there was still time to re-shoot scenes where he was originally intended to be. Bakula stood firm. He politely told them he was not interested. Quietly, he was seething that they first relegated him to the background in the Quantum Leap reboot, and then cancelled his replacement show before it even got going.

Additionally, I was also told that Bakula did not like the script, even putting aside his unhappiness with no longer being a main character. That added to his reservations regarding being on the show. If it failed, he did not want the stench of it overpowering his otherwise successful career. The potential upside simply was less than the potential downside.

Bakula left it open. He told the showrunners that it's a "no for now", but not a hard no. Basically he's taking a wait-and-see approach. If it ends up well received, and better than the script he read, he will strongly consider appearing. If it's poorly received, or if he doesn't personally like it, he will continue to stay away. This allows him to latch onto it if it's working, yet not be associated if it fails. It is also possible that he will never feel comfortable appearing at all, given that they are not budging regarding the prominence of his character.

One other note of interest. Critics were only provided one episode to view. This is a red flag. We are just two days away from airing. I don't know how many episodes are completed, but it has to be several by this point. What would possibly be the reason to only send the pilot? I believe it is possible they realize they have a potential dud on their hands, and don't want critics to sink it before it starts. This also gives them a chance to perform edits if necessary. Typically when a network is proud of a new program they are airing, they provide several to critics to view. The fact that they only provided a pilot is concerning, and shows that Bakula might have been correct in his negative assessment of the script. It is also possible that writing Bakula out of the show left a hole in it, and one which nostalgic fans will find unsettling.

I was also told that the critics had mixed feelings about this pilot. None of them said it was terrible, but apparently few found it to be must-watch television. Among the complaints were spots of poorly written dialogue, and unnecessarily complicated presentation of technology. The original Quantum Leap worked, in part, because the sci-fi element was mostly played down, and the show was really about human problems and relationships. If this is going to be more of a sci-fi action series, the audience is going to be quite disappointed.

Sorry Dan but I don't see this one lasting more than two seasons, and perhaps it will die after just one. However I do acknowledge that many successful shows had awkward pilots which hadn't found their groove yet, so let's not judge too much, too fast. I am afraid that, given the intentional exclusion of white males from the cast list, we are looking at a show which might hang itself with its own wokeness. This does surprise me a bit, as Bellisario was a Republican for most of his life, switching to an independent some years ago. It is possible that he has less say in this whole thing than you might think, given his age, and his actual involvement might be more consultant-like.

I hope everyone is doing well, and I will be back sometime soon.

[BCR]

If they wanted to do a reboot aimed at the 18-34 demo, putting it on network tv seems laughable. Does anyone 18-34 watch network TV, like ever?

[Dan Druff]

If they wanted to do a reboot aimed at the 18-34 demo, putting it on network tv seems laughable. Does anyone 18-34 watch network TV, like ever?

The whole thing seems stupid.

I guess the reasoning comes from original Quantum Leap being popular with teens and young adults, so why wouldn't the reboot also be popular in a similar fashion?

But those were teens and young adults in a different time. There was no web. There was no streaming media. There were no smartphones.

When you relaunch a beloved program from 30 years ago, you're looking to capture the same audience from back in those days -- just 3 decades older. That's the whole point of using the same name and theme. This isn't the time to start inserting non-binary characters, or to stay away from casting white males.

For example, I would like to point to the show on the primetime network show with the oldest audience -- Blue Bloods. That's not a reboot of any kind, but its viewers are mostly elderly, and they know it. It features Tom Selleck, who was beloved to that generation from his Magnum days, and has a pro-police, pro-family, and sometimes patriotic theme. They don't try to get woke. They don't try to reinvent anything. This audience doesn't want that. It's still going after 13 seasons.

Its former lead-in was the Hawaii Five-O reboot, which again had an older audience, for obvious reasons. Again, this show did not try to get woke or do anything overly edgy or counterculture. That show lasted ten seasons.

Credit to CBS for understanding this.

It's possible that they simply felt that Bakula, who turns 68 this year, was too old to be believable in what is a semi-action role. There were a lot of physical elements to the original Quantum Leap, and would you really believe a 68-year-old punching people out half his age, or jumping from moving cars? I understand that, if this was their objection, and if they preferred him as a part-time character instead. When "The Rockford Files" TV movies aired in the '90s, this was one of the problems. James Garner simply wasn't believable anymore in action roles, given he was in his late 60s. But it looks like something deeper here.

[Ryback_feed_me_more]

If they wanted to do a reboot aimed at the 18-34 demo, putting it on network tv seems laughable. Does anyone 18-34 watch network TV, like ever?

The whole thing seems stupid.

I guess the reasoning comes from original Quantum Leap being popular with teens and young adults, so why wouldn't the reboot also be popular in a similar fashion?

But those were teens and young adults in a different time. There was no web. There was no streaming media. There were no smartphones.

When you relaunch a beloved program from 30 years ago, you're looking to capture the same audience from back in those days -- just 3 decades older. That's the whole point of using the same name and theme. This isn't the time to start inserting non-binary characters, or to stay away from casting white males.

For example, I would like to point to the show on the primetime network show with the oldest audience -- Blue Bloods. That's not a reboot of any kind, but its viewers are mostly elderly, and they know it. It features Tom Selleck, who was beloved to that generation from his Magnum days, and has a pro-police, pro-family, and sometimes patriotic theme. They don't try to get woke. They don't try to reinvent anything. This audience doesn't want that. It's still going after 13 seasons.

Its former lead-in was the Hawaii Five-O reboot, which again had an older audience, for obvious reasons. Again, this show did not try to get woke or do anything overly edgy or counterculture. That show lasted ten seasons.

Credit to CBS for understanding this.

It's possible that they simply felt that Bakula, who turns 68 this year, was too old to be believable in what is a semi-action role. There were a lot of physical elements to the original Quantum Leap, and would you really believe a 68-year-old punching people out half his age, or jumping from moving cars? I understand that, if this was their objection, and if they preferred him as a part-time character instead. When "The Rockford Files" TV movies aired in the '90s, this was one of the problems. James Garner simply wasn't believable anymore in action roles, given he was in his late 60s. But it looks like something deeper here.

To me Im honestly getting annoyed they cant seem to come up with anything new in Hollywood. I mean seriously. One damn reboot after another and its mostly been fail. They shouldve learned years ago when they shit the bed with that knight rider reboot. And not trying to sound racist but its like theyre trying to remake stuff with all minorities as the lead characters anymore (besides QL with the Asian dude youve got Queen Latifah as the Equalizer (went full woke switching from white dude to black female lesbian actress.. I mean Denzel was good in the movies I thought at least> the whole black Wonder Years thing to name another). Rehashing the same old shit is whats killing Hollywood not racism and people being unaccepting. Its just going woke like morons with new minority versions of old shows trying to appeal to people. I cant wait till we have Tomas the Tool Man Rodriguez (vs Tim the Toolman Taylor) and his foil some black dude who has ot keep him from killing himself constantly plus some Big tall former Pro ball player behind the fence (oh shit I just wrote the next pilot for them to murder Home Improvement). roflmao.. See how damn hard that was to do. Just face palm (but also it wont be in Detroit itll be like East LA).

[Texter]

Never watched Quantum leap, didn’t realize the show began the same year as Seinfeld.

Watching some of the episodes on syfy now just due to this thread, not bad.

[Dan Druff]

Gonna watch tonight. Harry deflated how much I was looking forward to this. Now I'm going to watch it with cautious pessimism -- expecting it to not be too good, but willing to be open to being pleasantly surprised.

I hope they don't make a big deal about the non-binary character, but rather just have the person there and not bring up their gender at all. But in 2022, who knows?

[Dan Druff]

BUMP

So I've been watching this. Pilot episode was very mediocre. It improved in subsequent episodes, though some were better than others. The woke factor, while occasionally rearing its ugly head via token quips (usually by the nonbinary character), was less than I expected. That was a pleasant surprise, because I really thought this whole series was going to be an exercise in left wing virtue signaling.

Unlike the original Quantum Leap, which was mostly a series of unrelated episodes, they have an ongoing story arc here, including why Ben (the main character) betrayed his colleagues and leaped without anyone's permission. This arc is actually interesting, and they're sometimes injecting new elements to that mystery during episodes which otherwise are about the leap of the week.

Anyway, overall I was enjoying the series, though I still liked the original better.

Then came the awful 12th episode, which aired on February 6. It was a garbage piece of trans propaganda. And when I say "trans propaganda", I don't mean it was an episode about treating adult trans people respectfully. It was about a male-to-female trans teen playing on a girl's basketball team, and it had all the subtlety of a punch to the mouth. The worst point of the episode involved the teen attending some kind of trans kids support group, and one of the dads making a stilted-sounding propaganda speech about how wonderful trans kids really are, while we see an overlay of the various trans kids in the room. The issue of unfairness of a biological male on a girl's basketball team was glossed over, making it all about team cohesion questions, and they completely ignored the unfairness to the opposition. In fact, the trans teen won a game off the bench with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer, in the opening minutes of the episode! Rather than focusing upon how the other team got fucked by this, they made it all about another girl on the same team being jealous of the trans girl, and of course this girl came around later in the episode.

There was very little plot to the episode. It was all trans propaganda, all the time. The show's nonbinary character got to make a speech about how he tried to commit suicide when he was younger. The trans teen was super-wise behind his/her years, and was written to always be the most reasonable person in the room. Those opposing the trans teen in basketball were caricatures of closed-minded bigots. And then there was some weird side story (taking place in the present) of some other trans who secretly met with Ben before he leaped. What??

Oh, and the trans episode took place in 2012, a time when the whole trans revolution hadn't really yet begun. It would be another few years before a real focus upon biological males in women's/girl's sports would become an issue. In fact, this issue never came up once in the 2012 Presidential Election season, yet the episode treated it as if it were a huge controversy of the day, and in fact used modern terms like "culture war", which didn't exist in 2012. So they didn't even get that right.

It was like they made 11 episodes and realized they hadn't infused the show with the intended amount of woke propaganda, so they shot their load here. Awful. This is undoubtedly going to drive away some of the Gen X and Boomer audience who are watching this for nostalgia reasons.

They allowed the episode to be written and directed by a known trans activist, so you can imagine how that went.

To show you how much this ruined the show's momentum, the best-rated episode on IMDB was the one which aired the prior week, on January 30. That one got 7.8/10. The trans episode, just a week later, was by far the worst rated, at 5.5: https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?s...=tt_eps_rhs_sm

If this episode sapped the show's momentum and gets it cancelled, they'll deserve it.

[Harry Hollywood]

Druff sent me some very spirited texts regarding his displeasure with the episode, which he said he just got around to watching tonight, and sent me a link to his post above. He then asked me what I had heard regarding the network execs reaction to this episode, and to the series in general. Funny he should ask because I just had a conversation with someone at NBC about Quantum Leap a few days ago. I told Druff to wait a bit and I would post what I know. So here it is.

The new Quantum Leap is snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. If you go back to my post about the subject prior to the series airing, I stated that perhaps Quantum Leap would hang itself with its own wokeness. That's not entirely what happened, but it definitely is a factor.

Quantum Leap lost 18% of its pilot episode viewers, when they reached the second episode. That is not a surprise, as a large number of nostalgic people aged 40+ were tuning in to see if they liked the series continuation, and about 1/5 of them decided it wasn't for them. When you consider DVR viewers, they actually only lost slightly over 15%. That's actually better than I expected. The pilot episode was not very good, and it was bound to lose some people even if it were good, as you can't please everyone. This was promising to NBC, as they felt it had passed its initial test.

In early October 2022, NBC ordered six more episodes, beyond the initial twelve. They had seen the ratings of three episodes by that point, and while another 5% of the pilot viewers tuned out by episode 3 (to bring the decline to 23%), NBC liked the fact that it was the highest rated new show in the 18-49 demographic. This made them less leery of the woke-tinged reboot, as well as less nervous about the absence of original star Scott Bakula. If a lot of the audience remained under 40, neither of these potential pitfalls would be all that harmful.

The eighth episode aired on November 7, 2022. The show had stabilized in the ratings, and in fact episode #8 was the highest rated one since the second episode. Apparently some of the viewers had come back. NBC now had more data with which they could judge the show's level of success, so they hunkered down in boardrooms in Rockefeller Plaza (the infamous "30 Rock"), and analyzed everything. It was decided that Quantum Leap had achieved most of its goals, namely acquiring enough of a young audience, stabilizing in the ratings, and doing surprisingly well on the Peacock streaming service.

On December 12, 2022, NBC handed the word down to Quantum Leap's production companies. It was renewed for a second season! Hooray!




NBCUniversal Television and Streaming’s president of scripted content Lisa Katz said in a statement, "We’re leaping into a second season thanks to the incredible work by our cast, producers, writers and everyone who has played a role in giving this iconic NBC series a new life. As we continue to bring audiences to our must-watch dramas, it’s gratifying to know Quantum Leap will have a prominent place next season both on our NBC schedule and next day on Peacock."

Is that where we stand today? Unfortunately for the cast, crew, and production companies behind Quantum Leap, the story does not end there. Quantum Leap is now in danger of cancellation. I will conclude in the next post.

[Harry Hollywood]

NBC made a mistake which I can't believe networks are still making in The Year of Our Lord 2023.

I am talking about the hiatus mistake for new series. When you are airing a brand new series, you need to get the audience hooked. You need them to feel as if watching the show is part of their weekly routine. In this case, you wanted people glued to their TV sets every Monday at 10pm to see the antics of Dr. Ben Song and his leaping support staff. DVR users are less important because they tend to skip commercials, so they less affect ad rates.

In order to build this routine, you need consistency. In fact, consistency is the key to success in dieting, working out, or completing personal projects. Once you get out of the habit of doing something, it's easy enough never to go back to it. You build this consistency in the world of network television by presenting the series every single week, with very few down weeks, until the entire first season is complete. Yes, this will result in an eventual late spring and summer hiatus, but by then hopefully you have already built an audience ready to come back for season 2. More importantly, most of the other shows on legacy networks are taking the same summer hiatus, so people's minds are trained to come back in September when everything starts again.

The absolute worst thing you can do with a new series is put it on a months-long, midseason hiatus after fewer than 10 episodes. That is almost always the kiss of death, even for series which seem to be promising in the ratings. Once you get people out of the habit of watching something new, they often don't come back. You just haven't established the routine of watching yet.

I have told this to people in Hollywood time and time again. I first noticed this mistake in the 1980s, but I was too young at that time for my voice to be heard. As I got older and more respected, I started to gently broach the subject with executives with whom I had a good relationship. It's always been a pet peeve of mine. If I make one lasting mark on Hollywood, I'm hoping to end the mid-first-season hiatus mistake before I die. So far it has fallen upon deaf ears.


Quantum Leap had very nice ratings for its 8th episode on November 7. Then they were forced on hiatus until January 2. From what I was told, NBC had always scheduled it this way, planning to evaluate the series after 8 episodes. If they liked where it was going, they would order six more, and give the production time enough to make them, and then run the final 10 almost uninterrupted. If they did not like where it was going, they would either outright cancel the show, or burn the final 4 episodes off in the winter. Either way, this required a minimum hiatus of 8 weeks.

The mistake here was believing that the audience would be so enthralled with the show after 8 episodes that they would return after an 8-week hiatus! Indeed, things have been tough ever since the show came back on January 2. The ratings continue to slip, both in live viewership and DVR watching. A creative episode got some of the viewers back, presumably due to good word of mouth, where Ben repeatedly dies and comes back to life. Unfortunately, as Druff pointed out, it looks like they hit an all time ratings low with this trans episode. This means they probably ruined whatever post-hiatus bump the good episode got them, and are back on the path of rapid decline. All it takes is one dud episode in a new series to permanently send viewers packing.

From what I was told, NBC execs are now second guessing their decision to renew Quantum Leap. Yes, much of the ratings slide is their own fault due to the stupid hiatus thing, but you can't expect network types to ever admit an incorrect move. Instead, they are questioning whether this show really has any staying power, and if perhaps a different new program would be better suited to occupy its slot in the 23-24 season. It should also be noted that NBC execs did not object to this trans episode when it was pitched by writer Shakina Nayfack. They presumably thought it was edgy and would get people talking. Bad miscalculation which a blind man could see from 10 miles away.

Had the show not gone megawoke with that trans episode, and had the network not done this ill-advised hiatus after episode 8, we would be looking at a series almost certain to be renewed.

Am I predicting it will be cancelled? Not necessarily. NBC already announced they were renewing the show, and it will be embarrassing to yank it from the 23-24 lineup at this point. It will be even more embarrassing because right wing pundits will undoubtedly seize upon the trans episode as the series' undoing, which as I stated was only a secondary reason for its decline. But the last thing NBC wants is to have the right wing talking heads I-told-you-soing them, regarding left wing messaging in their programming. Shows fail all the time, but NBC does not want to give oxygen to ideological based reasons for shows losing their audience.

While a Peacock-only season 2 has been thrown around, I don't think that will happen. I believe Quantum Leap will be given a second season, but will have a short leash. That is also what my contact at NBC thinks. A decision has not been made yet, so we can only guess. We both believe it will appear on the fall 2023 schedule, but get yanked before 2024 if it does not rebound in the ratings. We also believe that the producers will be warned to tone down the woke content, as a series on thin ice cannot afford to alienate what few viewers they have.

We shall see if I am proven correct. Not to toot my own horn here, but as you have seen over the years, I am batting a high average regarding the predictions I post here.

[Harry Hollywood]

I have posted a lot about wokeness and left wing bias in Hollywood. This might lead you to believe I am a die hard right winger like Druff, who will probably get mad at me for characterizing him that way.

I just want to clarify that I am not. I was an old style moderate liberal for most of my life. Unfortunately the Democratic Party has mostly lost me in recent years, and I no longer recognize it. As a young man, I was very attracted to the Democratic Party's adherence to civil liberties, free speech, and mostly sensible governing with an eye toward empathy for the downtrodden and troubled. In more recent times I am seeing the party now is mostly about speech suppression and a complete lack of holding anyone to personal responsibility, aside from their political opponents. When I watch Bill Maher's show, another liberal who is not much older than me, I usually completely agree with his social and political rants. Like Bill I feel perplexed and lost by the Democratic Party I thought I knew.

I think I have been pushed rightward a bit more than Bill though. Today I would describe myself as a moderately right leaning libertarian, if I had to pick a label. I did not like Donald Trump, and a lot of today's Republicans in his image disgust me. I am finding myself having a hard time in the voting booth, not knowing whether to support the right wing crazies or left wing crazies. Usually I vote for neither. I wish this country had a viable third party for people like me.

Okay, rant over. Have a nice day wherever you are.

[Harry Hollywood]

Hello everyone in poker land. I am here to deliver some news about the Quantum Leap reboot, and it's not good.

Quantum Leap did indeed have a second season, but my prediction about it was mostly correct. Only 13 episodes were ordered for season 2, which is unusual for a network show in its second year, especially when that sophomore season begins in the fall.

Simply put, NBC no longer had faith in Quantum Leap. Their 13-episode order was the middle ground between their premature public commitment to a second season, and their actual desire to cancel the whole thing.

The reason for the series' failure was already stated in previous posts of mine above. The hiatuses were the main problem. Quantum Leap took a 2-month hiatus after just 8 episodes in season 1, and then a 7-week hiatus after 8 episodes in season 2.

How did these hiatuses affect the show? The season 1 hiatus actually wasn't as bad as you'd think. They only lost about 13% of the audience between episode #8 and #9, which isn't great, but it's not a series killer.

Fortunately for Quantum Leap, Season 2 came out strong, and the ratings were better for those next 8 episodes than any point in the series, except for the pilot. This was extremely promising to NBC, and the chance of more episodes being ordered for season 2, or at least a season 3 renewal, seemed fairly high.

The second hiatus however, lasting from December 13 to January 30, proved to be the final stake in the heart for the series. 39% of the audience left between those two episodes, and they just never came back.

I also mentioned the wokeness of the show. I do not want to sound like a crazy right wing pundit, but this was a secondary factor in the show's demise. Already hurting from the second hiatus, the second episode back was another horrible one penned by trans activist Shakina. Taking place in 1953, this was a ridiculous Indiana Jones ripoff, featuring three sisters (one of whom Ben had leaped into), of which one was non-binary. You read this correctly. They actually wrote a non-binary character for an episode taking place in 1953. Like the other terrible trans episode from the prior season, it contained lots of preaching to the audience about trans acceptance and alternative genders.

The two lowest rated episodes on IMDB? I bet you can guess.

Following the 1953 trans episode, another 15% of the audience left and never came back.

I have no idea why they thought it was a good idea to insert in-your-face trans activism into a legacy science fiction show, especially one struggling to survive. I'm not a violent guy, but I would like to smack the NBC executives who let this occur. Quantum Leap is an NBC property, and they had veto power over this foolishness. They chose not to exercise it. Perhaps they had already decided by the fourth-to-last episode (the second trans one) to cancel the show, so they didn't care. That would be the only explanation which wouldn't explain extreme incompetence.

[Harry Hollywood]

Did the show have a proper series finale?

It did not. Instead, they introduced a new wrinkle, where Ben's fiancee Addison ends up leaping with him. Interesting concept, but we never will get to see it fleshed out, as this was shown in the final minute of the final episode. I guess the only closure we might get is the belief that Ben and Addison get to be together.

However that brings me to my next issue with the show. Ben and Addison did not have good chemistry. Part of this was just the way the characters were written and perhaps the lack of chemistry between the actors, but also because we barely got to see them physically together. For almost the entire series, Ben was interacting with Addison as a hologram.

This created a frustrating situation for the viewer in two ways. First, the lead characters in a romance could literally never touch. Second, Ben was unable to have flings with women in his leaps, unlike Sam Beckett who did it frequently in the first incarnation of the series. This violated the #1 rule of action/adventure series. Always leave the male lead single, so he's free to have flings and romances with various guest female characters who pass through the series.

It seemed writers learned from this mistake. In Season 2, a gimmick was introduced where Ben was missing for 3 years, and Addison presumed him dead and moved on. At first depressed by this, Ben eventually meets a young woman in a 1949 leap, and develops a romantic connection with her. He keeps running into her in his leaps through time, which was theorized by some characters as the leaps being driven by their mutual love. Corny, yes, but the two characters had good chemistry, and I was enjoying their trajectory.

I did start to question some things, though. How would these two characters ultimately end up together? This new female character, Hannah, was supposed to be born in the 1920s. If Ben finally did leap home, Harrah would be either dead or 100 years old, neither of which would be conducive to continuing their romance. The whole thing just seemed hopeless. Unless Ben were to get trapped in time with her, he and Hannah could never be together. Thus, a happy ending was impossible. Indeed, they ended up separating them, and forcing Ben and Addison back together. Just didn't feel quite right to me, kind of like the direction of the entire series.

As you have probably guessed by now, I did watch it all. 31 hours I'd probably take back if I could, but so it goes.