Sarah 103

A huge Yes to all of this. Theme songs probably aren't coming back, which is a shame because I love them. I was just thinking last night that Ian should be the hologram. The character interacting with Ben would bring some much needed humor to the series. I'm guessing the scenes in the lab (which I am not a fan of) are way of cashing in on the NCIS/CSI trend of procedurals that have dominated the ratings for the past 20 years or so.

I watched Crime School. It amazes me that Leo Gorcey never played a young James Cagney. They worked for the same studio at the same time. The resemblance is uncanny. Something that I think is a facinating decision the creative team made is that the parents of the Dead End Kids usually have an ethnic accent or a trace of one, but the kids have the same New York accent. I understand why that's the case, but I think it's a fun detail. I enjoyed the movie.

I agree. I also saw it as being very in keeping with a theme of John Hughes; teenagers might fight with each other, but will come together and set aside their differences when faced with an adult enemy, especially a school authority.

We know they are against dancing and rock and roll. A modern show that I think does a good job is Blue Bloods. The characters are religious, but they rarely make professional decisions based on it. We do not see them using church doctrine to determine how do to thier jobs. I can't come up with a modern sitcom that does the same thing.

My guess is that he was with the younger members. He was hired a youth pastor and we have seen him teaching Sunday School, so my guess is that's where he was. However, I'm surprised he didn't go to Mary to try to help her after he found what happened. It is set in the early 1990s, bit it's a conservative community in Texas, so in many ways it is culturally more like the 1950s. Also, a single unwed mother was still a pretty big deal back in 1992. This was the year the fictional Murphy Brown deciding to have a baby as an unwed single mother was a huge deal. It was famous and people to this day still remember how controversial it was at the time. Conservative politicians were outraged. This episode is set a few years after that. What we are seeing in the show doesn't seem that unrealistic to me.

You are correct. That is the way it works. Series like this are exactly why the term "light drama" exists.

It's a pilot so there was an absolute ton of set-up/exposition, which I won't hold against the episode. Now that we have the players in motion, I will tune in for a few more episodes to see where this is going. The series reminded me of other movies/TV series that I enjoyed. The guy with unconventional methods in a very straight-laced corporate world reminded me of Franklin and Bash. Todd as a guile hero reminded me of Beverly Hills Cop. The family drama reminded me of Psych. Overall, the show wouldn't have been out of place during USA Network's Blue Sky era, which is a good thing/a compliment.

Overall, I enjoyed the episode. Georgie's line about cigarette themed names for his future kid (Winston for a boy, Virginia for a girl) was fantastic and one of the highlights of the episode. I like the way Missy is very protective of her family. While Missy and Sheldon may not understand each other, or like each other, they absolutely love each other. When Sheldon signaled Missy that he wanted to talk late at night, she didn't ignore him. She picked up the walkie-talkie and they started to have a real conversation with him.

This is a place for theories and speculation relating only to the new series. Please keep this spoiler-free.

That was totally my reaction too, then I realized it was a classic old school "tune in next week," which is very in keeping with the old movie serials that helped inspire Star Wars.

I was focusing on the length of dramas/hour long shows because that's what Quantum Leap is. You are both right. Some half hour shows have a running time of 22 minutes but others do have a running time of 18 minutes.

I saw the resemblance to Wall-E as well. B2EMO is adorable.

I agree. It feels like the Ben stories are getting reduced and cut down to make room for the HQ stories. If this had been the original series, there would have been a fun scene of Ben/Sam (the original leaper) trying to figure out how to eat in space or something similar. We aren't getting the fun scenes of Ben figuring out what exists or doesn't exist in the time period, or moments of fun as he explores the era. There isn't time for anything that isn't directly mission related because they have 42 minutes to tell Ben's story and the HQ story. Same here. I loved Al. I watched every episode of the original series eagerly awaiting what crazy/unusual skill Al knew and where he learned it (from one of his ex-wives or his vast unusual life experiences). The remake lacks the fun and humor of the original series.

This is my opinion. Not everyone enjoys every show or has the same likes/dislikes. I'm not enjoying the new show. I am willing to give it a few more weeks, but it may not be for me. It lacks the fun and humor of the original series. Not only does the show have 10 minutes less of story than it did in the 1980s (In the 1980s an hour long show had 52 minutes of story, and today it is 42 minutes), but there is even less because the episode is split between the leap mission and the story back at HQ. Instead of little moments of Ben learning to adjust to his new reality and having a bit of fun or being surprised about what does and does not exist, we only get the big dramatic moments needed to have the big mission story play out.

Scott Bakula as Sam never did it for me. That being said, a huge yes to the rapport, banter, chemistry, whatever you want to call it between Sam and Al being one of the absolute highlights of the original series. I've always been drawn to the wise-cracking sidekick, so for me, Al was one of the best parts of the series.

I agree that Al (athough I adore the character) would not play very well today, but I'm still not sure how I feel about the romance angle in this version. I miss the comedic sidekick angle.

The boxing episode is something that so many TV shows do, it isn't unique to Quantum Leap. It's sort of like two dates in one nights-it's a plotline that multiple series use and not something I associate with Quantum Leap. I'm pretty sure there's a whole page devoted to the boxing episode at TVTropes.com. (I won't post the link here because that website is one of the most addicting ever).

@possibilities was asking about who the original series characters were in another thread, so I thought I'd post this here for anyone who has never seen the original series, but wants to know a bit more about who Sam and Al are. Reading two wikipedia articles is not the same time commitment as watching multiple seasons of an older series. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Beckett https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Calavicci

I agree with you. That's one of the things I liked about the original show. It wasn't trying to prevent the Kennedy assasination or some major national or international tragedy (until the least season when they more or less ran out of ideas). It was about all types of normal people and small stories that make up life. They are big dramatic moments in the life of the individual and those tied to the individual, but not grand historical events. Theme songs are a thing of the past, which is a shame because some were awesome ("Quantum Leap" being one of them). A saga sell to explain the premise might be possible, but we'll see. I thought I recognized the voice, but it sounded "off." Knowing that it's her, the reason the voice didn't sound quite right to me is probably that she has gotten older, which happens and is better than the alternative. I went into this version thinking wall to wall pop hits wasn't going to be part of the show, because music licensing has gotten so expensive since the 1980s. However, I had forgotten with all of the consolidation that has occured and the buying sprees that have happened, NBC/Universal probably has an extensive publishing library/music catalogue they can draw from. I agree. That was never something in the original series I liked. Sam Beckett was a genuis. He spoke multiple languages and had multiple degrees in a range of subjects. The original project Quantum Leap was his idea. Al was a hologram from the present that only Sam could see and hear while time traveling. He was the project observer and would feed Sam the information he needed to accomplish his mission of the week, as well as telling Sam what the mission of the week was. In terms of personality, Sam and Al were total opposites. Sam was the original boy scout, and Al was not afraid to bend the rules if the situation called for it. Al had a somewhat checkered past and a range of random skills, knowledge, and talents that would often help Sam save the day.

I don't like the new Ziggy. It reminds me of the pagers Cheesecake Factory used to give out to let you know when your table was ready.

Sam is still alive and leaping around in time. Al died in 2021 (as way to honor Dean Stockwell, the actor who played him). Because fate, god, the universe, or whoever/whatever is controlling the leaps put him there. Ben, like Sam, doesn't get to decide who he leaps into. The leaps happen, and then he has to complete his mission to leap out and into the next mission. Sam needed to make a positive change. Sometimes that was accomplished through leaping into someone close to the person he was trying to save. There was an episode set in the early 1960s where he leaps into a young teenage boy in order to save his mother's life. He once leapt into a woman in order to stop her friend/roommate from committing suicide. You are correct. Children under 5, animals, and the mentally challenged (not sure what the proper term for it is today, so this is what I'm going with).

Speculation: At some point Ben will cross paths with Sam. Ben will leap into someone, and Sam will have leaped into someone who is part of the same story. Scott Bakula is still alive and still acting so a random one episode cameo should be possible. My guess is sweeps week. (Is sweeps week still a thing?)

I agree. It's a fictional character who's a mythical creature. People are freaking out because they want to freak out over nothing. I've heard of modern Shakespeare productions where the men play women's roles and the women play men's roles. There was a production of Guys and Dolls in I think it was 1990s that was an all or mostly black cast. I'm curious to see how having a diverse cast changes the story, even if the lines are the same. A few years ago I saw Brandy in Chicago. Roxy is usually played by a white actress, but this production used a black actress and it added a new level. Roxy wants to be famous, and in my opinion, casting a black actress made the play a subtle comment on the limited opportunities/avenues for sucess for black women in the 1920s. Fame/celebrity was one of the few options.

Austin Butler was amazing as Elvis. He has better than the movie. He very clearly studied the way Elvis moved and spoke. There were small gestures that seriously impressed me in terms of attention to detail.

I am posting this here because it seemed like the best place. I watched Cars on the Road and throughly enjoyed it. It felt like a vastly superior version of what Cars 2 could have/should have been. Mater on his own doesn't work well, but Mater and McQueen interacting with each other in the same storyline works well.