Oh Boy! ‘Quantum Leap’ Showrunner and Star Preview the Timely Revival

It’s Thursday afternoon (September 15), four days before NBC’s highly anticipated Quantum Leap revival is about to debut, and true to form, time is not on Executive Producer Martin Gero‘s side.

“We’re actually finishing episode one today, getting it ready to air on Monday,” Gero tells Decider as we begin our interview on the series. “So, I may just for a moment need to divert my attention briefly elsewhere.”

You wouldn’t know that Quantum Leap is in a race to the finish line from watching the confident pilot, which stars Raymond Lee as Ben Song, the new man stuck leaping through time; but the entire industry is under a VFX crunch thanks to too many projects, and not enough time to finish them. Particularly for a network TV show that had its debut announced well in advance, there’s not a lot of wiggle room to move a premiere date for a show, even one that depends on effects like the time-twisting Quantum Leap.

“Well, it’s a total nightmare,” Gero said, laughing, when asked about producing a show that jumps through time. “As a writer, the writer in me is like, ‘Oh, the greatest.’ And then the showrunner in me is like, ‘Why did we ever think this was a good idea?’ Because we’re basically doing a pilot every week.”

Lee agreed with the assessment, adding that, “I’m almost a perpetual guest star in every one of these episodes. I’m leaping to their series, regular stories… I’m having to introduce myself to a whole new cast of actors.”

For those not familiar with the original show, it was created by Donald P. Bellisario, and ran for 97 episodes from 1989 until 1993. Starring Scott Bakula as Sam Beckett, a man forced to jump through time into other people’s bodies, solve their problems, then leap to another time period, it was unceremoniously and abruptly canceled at the end of the fifth season. The finale, in fact, is notorious for not bringing original leaper home, while also ending his televised journey with a white on black title card that misspelled his last name.

This new Quantum Leap is looking to correct some of the mistakes from the past. Though star Bakula recently posted on Instagram that he won’t be involved in the new series, and wished the new cast and crew luck, the original’s DNA is all over the revival. Not only does it revolve around the same Quantum Leap program that lost Sam Beckett three decades earlier, as fans will discover there are a lot more ties to both Sam, and his trusty buddy Al (the late Dean Stockwell).

“Audiences now, they’re looking for a greater sophistication in the serialized aspect of the show, and also a serialized character story, as well,” Gero noted. “Obviously, Sam and Al had a character arc, but it was done very slowly over the course of five seasons. So, for us, it was important to be able to create a version of that, where we could have all those plates spinning, where we could still be doing the awesome leaps every week, but that we could have a big mystery as to, ‘Why did he jump? Why now? Why didn’t he tell anyone? What the fuck’s going on?'”

Crucial to this new take is star Raymond Lee, who is (not literally) leaping into Sam Beckett’s shoes as Ben Song, the leader of this new Quantum Leap program. Though Lee noted that he connected with the material because it’s “the ultimate fish out of water story,” something he explained he’s felt in his personal life, it’s perhaps important to note that Lee is of Asian descent. Particularly in 2022, when matters of identity have become the forefront of online and off conversation, having an Asian man leap into different times and different faces was something vitally crucial to both Lee and Gero, and Quantum Leap‘s main watch-word: empathy.

“The theme of an Asian person going back in time and having to deal with deep levels of empathy for those who maybe have perceived this Asian person a certain way is a very interesting idea,” Lee said. “I know that it carries deep value in seeing it. And I feel very fortunate that, A, that there is a show like this out there. B, that there are creatives involved that we’re okay with making the decision to make the lead person be Asian. And it means a lot for representation for folks who look like me and have my shared background to see themselves on screen, doing what Ben Song is doing.”

Supporting Ben in this journey is the team back home. And unlike the original, which only occasionally flashed to Al’s brightly lit lab in the future, Ben’s team gets nearly as much time on screen as the leaper himself. First and foremost is Caitlin Bassett’s Addison, Ben’s girlfriend, who is his “Al,” sending her hologram into the past to help Ben on his missions. The twist? Ben, like Sam before him, lost his memory in the time jump. So Addison remembers they’re together; Ben does not.

“It’s so much fun working with her,” Lee said. “She is hilarious, whip-smart, and it’s impossible to think that she hadn’t acted before. And her background in military intelligence really aids in the way that she makes her choices.”

Added Gero, “It’s really tricky. It’s the world’s worst long distance relationship.”

Also on the team are Mason Alexander Park as tech genius Ian Wright, Nanrisa Lee as security expert Jenn, and Ernie Hudson as Herbert “Magic” Williams, the leader of the team who has a tie to the previous series: Sam, as we’ll discover, leapt into his body in Season 3’s “The Leap Back Home: Vietnam”.

“Ernie is such an incredible actor,” Gero said. “And the back story that comes out in episode four is so beautiful, one of my favorite scenes. It also allows both new and old viewers of the show some insight into like, ‘What does it feel like to be leapt into? What does that mean to you? How does that affect your life? Once Sam leaves, then what?’ And you’ll see that the origin story for this new incarnation, is very much tied to match its past.”

As the new Quantum Leap continues to unfold — the production is currently filming episode seven of the series — expect many ties to the past, and twists on concept, too. For example, while the old program restricted Sam Beckett to his own lifetime, Ben’s new algorithm changes things dramatically.

“With the new algorithm, our leaper is allowed to go beyond his own lifetime,” Lee teased. “The one that we’re in currently is really cool. It’s perfect for a Halloween episode. I don’t know how much I can tease about that, but it was a time during the Salem Witch Trials.”

Fingers crossed, they’ll be able to finish it on time for Halloween. Oh boy.

Quantum Leap airs Mondays at 10/9c on NBC.