Inevitable Quantum Leap Reboot 'Seems Like a Good Idea,' Scott Bakula Says — 'Sam's Still Out There!'

With the news that CBS’ NCIS: New Orleans is ending after its current season, many wonder where TV vet Scott Bakula will turn up next. Or is the question, where will he leap to?

Already there is a wafer-thin rumor going around that Bakula may reprise his role as Star Trek: Enterprise‘s Captain Jonathan Archer in one CBS All Access/Paramount+ series or another.

But there has always been hope that Quantum Leap, a body-swapping, timey wimey NBC series that many believe ended too soon — and certainly not with the best cliffhanger! — is worthy of a reboot or revival.

Airing from March 1989 to May 1993, Quantum Leap starred Bakula as Dr. Sam Beckett, a physicist who in testing out a time travel theory “leapt” into the body of an Air Force pilot 50 years in the past. In trying to return home, Sam realized he could only randomly leap into other people, in other times. A hologram of his friend, Admiral Al Calavicci (played by Dean Stockwell), offered guidance.

In the series finale, Sam leaped to April 1, 1969 to tell Al’s first wife Beth (Susan Diol) that Al is still alive and will come home. Before the final credits rolled, we learned that Al and Beth in the tweaked timeline never divorced, while Sam himself, alas, never returned home.

As part of a larger interview conducted earlier this TV season, TVLine asked Bakula his thoughts on Quantum Leap one day being revived in some form. This is what he had to say:

TVLINE | Quantum Leap seems to be a show that will inevitably be rebooted. What would be most important to you about a new incarnation of that show?
Oh, my goodness. What would be most important…? That show is very special to me, obviously, so I would wish whoever did it luck. I mean, the idea of walking in another man or woman’s shoes is so relevant and so important right now. We’ve become so divided in our world that the ability to cross that line of politics and just deal with the humanity and the individual person who’s sharing a moment on the planet with you is really relevant.

There was also a quaintness about the show, because it had this period feel because Sam traveled anywhere within his own lifetime. That made it feel a little old fashioned, but I would hope that they get the truth of it and the sentiments of it right, and not try and make it slick. Sam was this naïve kid who just happened to be a brilliant scientist who stumbled on something and all of a sudden was thrown into all of these different lives and worlds and people and situations that he never could’ve imagined growing up in. I would just hope that they would try and keep that, but you know, I don’t know what they’ll do.

TVLINE | Would you want them to reboot the series from scratch, like from square one, or would you like them to extend the mythology? Like, maybe a kid of Sam’s pursues the same tech and goes to find him or something?
Yeah, those ideas have been pitched a lot….

TVLINE | Did he even have a kid, though? I’m trying to remember.
No, but I had two trips home to see my wife, so… there could have been something that occurred then!

TVLINE | He missed his wife lots, that is for sure.
Oh, yes. So, there certainly is a child that could’ve come from any of those trips back. That’s one of the ideas, and it seems like a good idea. We all know that Sam’s still out there, and I always tell people that should be comforting — that he’s still out there fixing things that once went wrong.

[As noted by TVLine reader Nicole, Sam Beckett sired a daughter with a woman he met in a Season 5 episode, while in another man’s body, with a 91.9% likelihood he is the girl’s biological father.]