A shoddy asset flip of the Akira class though. And not 1701, but a really dumb NX-01. And the episodes weren’t very good, so it got canceled after only 4 seasons.
@@DeltaAssaultGaming Season 1-2 are indeed average(as every Trek Show after the original series who aleays had not so good first seasons) but season 3 of Enterprise is good and season 4 is exzellent once Many Coto, who just died a few weeks ago R.I.P took over the Show
My favorite thing about this show is Bakula’s acting. He has to play Sam playing other people. And when you see him in other roles, like Captain Archer in Enterprise, Sam is very different than Archer. Bakula is an excellent actor.
This show and star trek were both saved by a letter campaign by fans. In season 3 the show was moved from Wed to Fridays where ratings dropped. The show creator Bellisario feared cancellation so he got fans to send letters to NBC. They got so many letters the show was moved back to its successful Wednesday night time slot. Fun fact: Quantum Leap fans are called Leapers.
Wow! Never thought anyone would react to this show. Definitely one of my favorite series. Sam and Al were so great together. The show had some really great episodes that touched on some serious subject matter for the times.
Thank you guys for choosing Quantum Leap to react to. Besides being a Star Trek fan, Quantum Leap is another of my favorites. In general it gets better and better. You will find that Dean Stockwell, Al, when he's not being a lecherous pervert, he has many moving moments - like Scott Bakula, a great actor. There are a couple of hoaky stories here and there, but for the most part, they get better & better. Without spoiling, I will say the leaps get more challenging as the seasons progress... Looking forward to your future reactions!
Burma Shave was indeed a real brand. And they actually did put those multiple sign ads up along roads (though it was usually highways, not random roads).
This is the story of two buddies who clumsily make the world a better place. ... Still teared up, during the phone call, and I've seen it more than once.
Scott Backula is fantastic here! As the show goes on Scott is so brilliant having Sam be a distinctive character while have small mannerism of the people he jumps into.
Bellisario said he did the whole leap into his own lifetime thing for a couple of reasons. That it would be relatable...as opposed to going to Ancient Greece or something. Two ...he could use other sets and clothing and cars etc without making them and save money
"You're no Roy Hobbs, either", and the lightning strike were both references to the 1984 Robert Redford baseball movie The Natural. In the first half, Peggy was played by Jennifer Runyon, who had previously been a regular on Charles in Charge, as well as playing the student in Bill Murray's experiment at the beginning of Ghostbusters (1984)
The guy you recognize was Bruce McGill. He's been in a ton of things, not sure what you would have recognized him from. I always think of him as D-Day in animal house. He has 167 acting entries on IMDb from 1977 to 2023. He does eventually play a captain on an episode of Star Trek. You may have seen him as mayor teale if you are watching Reacher
He was also in Magnum P.I. which was another of Donald P. Bellisario's shows. The part where Sam is remembering that his sister married a Jim Bonnick and living in Hawaii is another reference to Magnum as Jim Bonnick was a character in that show.
Back in the days before the breakup of Ma Bell, you could call anyone in your local area (the last 7 digits in you phone number) as often as you like with no additional charges applied. Not so with long distance. If you wanted to call outside your area, you needed to dial the area code and number and different charges would apply. If you weren't careful, it could get quite expensive... Before you do the Star Trek movies, you could react to a failed pilot for documentary series about the making of TOS. They only made one, but it's very well done. It's about 25 minutes long and is called, "The Doomsday Machine Revealed". I wish they had made more of them, but no...
[ I don't mean this as a criticism, just an observation. ] This show's format is like 'Wagon Train', 'The Fugitive' or 'The Incredible Hulk'. The main character moves from community to community trying to sort out the problems of one person, or a small group. There's always a reason he has to move on quickly to the next location. It's obviously a popular format for writers and audiences.
Baseball rule is a dropped 3rd strike, the batter can try to run to third base and must either be tagged with the ball or thrown out at first base. There is a recent viral video of a high school team losing the game because they didn't know the rule and started a premature celebration.
It took me the whole first season to warm up to QL. But the actors and characters were great, and once the concept was fully fleshed out, it became one of my all-time favorites. I remember going to a con and seeing people wearing buttons: "Quantum Leap: Fun to watch, impossible to explain."
I remember watching the first episode as a kid, and I couldn't really get into it. There wasn't enough sci-fi elements for my taste. But a few years later, I caught later episodes and fell in love with it. There's maybe a half dozen episodes that are some of the best moments ever on television. And Scott Bakula deserved all the awards for his performance in this series. There are some interesting sci-fi things and a few twists that come up later, and it's all worth it. The chemistry between Sam and Al makes it all so much fun.
This show is all about Sam Beckett and his Journey. You will become so addicted to Scott Bakula's Sam Beckett. This guy is the Star of his own show for a reason. You liked the chemistry with the wife here? You'll be happy to know Scott Bakula has chemistry like that with every leading lady who comes on the show. His chemistry was so famous back when the show was on that Brooke Shields guest stars because of it. The show only jumps between the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s. But that is a lot of history to tell and they tell it well. You will never guest where they take him. He can jump into anyone or anything?
hope you love the series as much as i did/do - fyi Burma Shave ads on the road were everywhere - on long drives they were a welcome distraction - we boomers remember all the references in the series and that's just for fun
Loved Josh pointing out how the time between when the episode takes place and when the show aired is about the same time as when the show aired and now. So old... 😅
I absolutely love Quantum Leap, it was a staple in the late 90,s on BBC2 along with Buffy and Star Trek funnily enough 😄p.s hope you guys do Buffy again, at least season 2 anyway.
This was a Movie Of The Week, spilt into two parts when the show went into reruns and syndication. The guy with the mustache in the Test Pilot story is Bruce McGill who had a semi-regular role in Magnum P.I. also created by Donald P. Belasario. In fact, it was the success of Magnum in the 80's that allowed him to sell this wild premise as a series. This time travel within Sam's own lifetime was set up so that didn't have to deal with expensive costumes and sets, as going far back in history would have done.
I adore Quantum Leap, it was my first introduction to Time Travel in Science Fiction. The show's explanation of Time Travel is easy to understand and the brotherly chemistry between Sam and Al working together in each adventure made the show timeless.
This is a great series, which doesn't have any really bad episodes. It was one of the best TV programmes on when it first aired, I think that you'll really enjoy it, Alex and Josh.
There's a few Trek trivia in this episode alone. Bakula who'll later play a Captain in one of the shows, and at 19:24, you might recognise that song in one of the later movies!
I watched this first-run all the way through. However the ONLY takeaway memory I had from the pilot was the "they need to paint a white line on the shoulder of the road" thing.
What was really fun each week was the cliff hangar at the end for the next episode, and he would find out somewhat the kind of trouble he was in for and always exclaim : "Oh No!" Sometimes the episodes were dramatic, sometimes extremely humorous.
I'll keep my fingers crossed that you'll watch the whole show. QL is my favorite show ever, and I'm glad you liked the pilot. I always find it very slow, the show gets much better from now on (in my opinion).
LOL. You young people... :) This is kinda like a history lesson as well. Burma Shave was a thing. All the questions that Alex asked are the mystery aspect of the show. We don't know much about the future and why he's leaping at the start. IT's been a long time since I've seen it but I always enjoyed it. Looking forward to your reaction.
Well now, you are watching one of the great TV series ever made. (The "made for modern audiences" reboot is a ghostly shadow compared to the Scott Bakula original.) The "time is a circle, defined by your lifetime" idea has begun to crop up here and there. (Such as "Arrival" (2016). "Dr. Sam Beckett" will leap into a wide variety of people (and a related species) "as time goes by."
I joined the patron section recently to support you guys and have enjoyed the Trek material. But as a kid I was also a big OG Quantum Leap fan. So figured I come back and watch along.
I agree but they really didn’t seem into it. No sense in them watching something a lot of people love and they don’t. It would just frustrate them and us.
We’re old so we watched this when it was new. As for the BurmaShave signs, they were along the road as you passed them they always said something funny. I was born in the late 40s so long drives were boring. Burma Shave was something to look forward to.
Glad you guys are looking at this. Haven’t seen any other reactors doing these old shows. 21:18 when you get to Season 2 Episode 1 you will get your answer to what happens in the future. 21:46 he can only theoretically leap from the time he was born to current time. So if he was Born May 5th, 1955 he shouldn’t be able to leap to May 4th 1955.
It's not set in '89. It might specifically say what year it is later, but to begin with, it's just 'in the near future' but unspecified exactly when. Later on, the change the special effects when Al leaves. He uses a device called the handlink and a glowing door frame appears that he walks through then closes, again using the handlink. The handlink is also what he consults to find what they think Sam has to change.
Roy Hobbes was the character from “The Natural”. The character is the best player in baseball and hits home runs from a bat he made from a tree struck by lightning.
Oh yes. Tons and TONS of guest star each episode. Some you'll recognize as young versions of stars that are still working. I haven't seen the show since I was a kid, but one time I saw a rerrun on scifi, I recognized a young Marcia Cross from Desperate Housewives.
"Weird Ernie" was "D-Day" in National Lampoon's Animal House, Sheriff Farley in My Cousin Vinny, Captain Braxton on Star Trek: Voyager, and a regular on Rizzoli & Isles. When do you plan to react to the 5th and 6th original-cast movies?
Only caught a few episodes over the years, mainly know it fron Family Guy & Robot Chicken references. And the "Am I Re$@^ded" gif meme. And of course I recognized Captain Archer from "Star Trek Enterprise" which was my 3rd Trek show after seeing a dozen episodes of TOS & TNG. DS9 & TOS may be tied for 1st for me l, but Enterprise is almost tied with, but just beaten out by TNG for my second favorite Trek, way better than Voyager in my opinion.
Going from Star Trek to Quantum. I’ll tell you, it’s been a long road to get from there to here. (Your viewers who watched Star Trek Enterprise will get the joke.)
One of the most solid genre shows ever made. It's campy, goofy, serious, fun. The sequel series is good in its own right, but takes itself way too seriously. Not unlike Star Trek and TNG. Quantum Leap is just fun and clever, and the performances of the 2 leads are terrific.
I did the same thing about five years ago - re-watch all of the Star Trek movies, then TNG, then re-watch all of Quantum Leap. lol The concept of Quantum Leap never really gets old. It was a clever premise, and they sold it well. btw, about the "future" timeframe... "Quantum Leap was set roughly six to six and a half years in the future relative to the show's air dates, and so at any given time, Sam and Al would be six to six and a half years older than someone born in 1953 or 1945 in our reality." RIP, Dean Stockwell (1936 - 2021).
35:28 Funny you mentioned Indiana Jones earlier in the vid. That last scene is very reminiscent of Indy, isn't it. lol (Last Crusade was released that same year, of course. The first two Indy movies were already big in pop culture by then.)
Like with all shows that become good classics it starts with a formula. Then once that ground work is done they get to push the stories more, expand the world, and make some thing unique. Like all great sci fi, Quantum leap will play with social issues, morality, and explore what it means to be human. All in a prime time family friendly adventure drama.
The cafe on the highway the pilots stop at is a historical reference. See "The Right Stuff", sometime. And there are signs along the highway between L.A. and Las Vegas, like those old Burma Shave signs. I think they're the ten commandments, now. PS How did you know about the white room??
Hello Josh & Alex, did I hear Josh mention Beyond Belief. If you did not know there was a show hosted by Leonard Nimoy That is very much like Beyond Belief called In Searh of.......about Ufos, Ancient Aliens, Bigfoot, Ghosts, D.B. Cooper and all things Paranormal, and Historical Mysteries. I think most if not all of those Episodes are on RU-vid, thought you might be interested. 😀👍👍
The novels and the sequel series both switch it so that Sam/leapers go into the other person's actual body, which is way better. I loved this show and nearly every episode. There are many moments that make me cry, quite a few that make me laugh. I hope after Quantum Leap, you'll do Stargate: SG-1! But PLEASE Buffy season 2!!!!!!!! As usual, season 2 of Quantum Leap is better than season 1, and season 3 opens with one of the best episodes of the series. And the episode where he leaps into another species? Chef's kiss!
Just discovered you guys. This is one of my favorite shows of all time. If you decide to continue to watch after the first season, you'll have at least 1 more sub!
advice: if you try to analyze any of the time travel logic in the show your heads will end up exploding. Even the writers admit they had no cohesive idea of how the rules of the time travel worked so it kinda changes slightly episode to episode. Honestly though it works to their favor, because by taking a more loose approach to the sci fi, they can utilize the wiggle room to really tell some great great stories that they wouldn't have been able to in a show with a much stricter ruleset.
8:12 Dunno where you recognize him from (pretty sure he's been in tons), but I last saw him in Timecop with Jean Claude Van Damme, and I'm pretty sure I remember him as the guy who slept with Bruce Willis' wife in The Last Boy Scout. And oh yeah, in My Cousin Vinny he was the Sheriff.
Followed TA through the start of their Trek journey and this show is another particular favorite of my own and my family growing up in general. I hope that a modern audience can understand that this show isn't really a hard sci fi type of production. It's really a high concept show that dealt with nostalgia and sentiment and that's not damning it at all because it's for most of its run it does those two things masterfully given network standards of the time. Again, do not expect any kind of rigorous lore (sorry guys😢) or deep scientific or even pseudoscience that makes absolute sense. If you can grant it that understanding you will enjoy the feel good vibes, diving into past Americana and US history with a perfect duo in Stockwell and Scott B. as your affable guides and stories that are done in a standard easy to imbibe slick 80's style network television package. That said... I can't wait for the Trek movie reactions. The same way you should grabt some considerations to QL I hope TA understands the issues most fans and non fans have with the first Trek film, which I do find some things to be both endearing and even cool. Still, man once we get to the sweet spot of TREK II , III and IV? WOW... What a good time you are in for and then it's a skip to TNG!
I grew up on air bases in the sixties. Please forgive me if I seem to forward, but you fine gentleman need to learn a little history. The women were not afraid of airplanes or explosions. They were the wives of test pilots, and they never knew if their husband was coming home. It was new, unreliable tech, and Very dangerous. Also, the reason the AF officer knew about medicine was because he was the flight surgeon. Finally, there was no CGI in the late eighties; it was all hand made animation. As you noted, the writing was MUCH better than the dreck they expect us so swallow today. Just had to get that off my old fart chest.