QUANTUM LEAP: Martin Gero on the ‘Tightrope’ of Balancing the Original Series’ Mythology with the Continuation’s New Stories

QUANTUM LEAP is back, and it’s straddling a delicate narrative line—Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula), the main character of the 1989-1993 series, exists (and is still MIA), but a new doctor is taking center stage.

“The show is so iconic and beloved, it felt crazy to just do a version with a new Sam and a new Al,” showrunner Martin Gero said during the show’s Television Critics Association panel. “It would be set up to fail, essentially. And so for all of us that were involved at the beginning, it really made sense for this to be a continuation of the story with a brand new set of characters, one that could honor the old show, pay service to the old show, but have a really low bar for entry for new viewers.”

“That’s the tightrope we’re walking, right?” he continued. “We want all of the rabid fans of QUANTUM LEAP to watch the show and have it feel like QUANTUM LEAP… it’s an evolution of QUANTUM LEAP, but it feels that way. But, also, there’s an enormous amount of people that are vaguely familiar with the title and are just going to check the show out, clean, and we didn’t want to weigh the show down with a lot of mythology immediately that would make it feel like, oh, I need to watch 90-plus episodes of QUANTUM LEAP before I can start this.”

As a result the premiere takes care to acknowledge the original series, while setting up the life and team around new physicist Ben Song (Raymond Lee), who is currently the one leaping through time.

“You can start fresh,” Gero said. “And then, slowly, over the course of the season, there’s an enormous amount of backstory and mythology from the original show that we’re really excited to share with fans. But it’s done in a way that will feel like a different view on past events for our old fans, so it’s new information for them. And for our new fans, it just feels like we’re still in the middle of the story and it’s coming out organically.”

“Deborah Pratt, one of the original creators and executive producers of the show who’s with us every day on this version—we’re so lucky to have her—she really says that the four tenets of QUANTUM LEAP are hope, heart, humor, and history,” Gero continued. “And Ben really inhabits the first three of those. He’s an incredibly hopeful character. He has a tremendous heart. The show is about empathy at its core, and he has a ton of that to give. And then, also, most importantly, because we want to make a really entertaining and fun show, is the humor. And the humor was a big part of the original QUANTUM LEAP. It’s a really important part of this one. And I think this entire cast, Ray especially, has really taken that on, and trying to find a grounded way to bring an incredible amount of hope, heart, and humor to these episodes.”

And while the two leaping doctors do have their differences, “what connects Ben Song and Sam Beckett are the main tenets of their belief in doing good and what it means to be empathetic,” Lee previewed. “And I think through that, as they pass through bodies, they’ll have a joint experience of agreeing on the fact that they’re both doing right what once went wrong.”

QUANTUM LEAP, Series Premiere, Monday, September 19, 10/9c, NBC

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