New NBC Time Travel Show Echoes QL - JOURNEYMAN

Enterprise

Project QL Intern
Mar 3, 2006
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Although we are practically slaughtering lambs and offering them to the dark god's at the TV networks to make this show happen, is nobody else worried that any new potential audience (That's IF the show goes ahead in the first place...) would consider this pretty samey to the new NBC pilot Jumper - The cash in/shameless rip off of QL about a cop who can leap - sorry jump into criminals and people in danger? :eek

Also, just to put a nail in the coffin they've got a new, younger sidekick - aka:smart mouthed hot teen.

Just a thought, you wouldn't want the audience quitting on the show before they see it because it's similar to a new show, even if that was a rip of QL.
 
Yeah...sounds pretty QL-ish to me, but I guess there's only so many types of series you can make.

Althought I must admit, the first line of your post was the good laugh I needed this morning.

And if this show does well, it might show promise for bringing something back like QL, sort of marketing it as 'the original'.
 
Boy, are there really terrible shows today. Nothing is inspiring or new. It's all models trying to act as if they know something.
 
If anything's a ripoff of QL, it's "Sliders". That's always bugged me, even though they have a group of members, but it's that leaping around that they do. I've never liked that show, particularly for that reason.
Hmm, I wonder about that new show mentioned above...
 
A teenage sidekick? Hahaha! Some of you may remember that NBC wanted Bellisario to have Sam leap into the future possibly with a teenage sidekick near the end of it's run. That's when Bellisario pulled the plug and tried shopping it to other networks.

Guess NBC finally found a way to get the old teenage sidekick gag in there. :hmm
 
Julie said:
If anything's a ripoff of QL, it's "Sliders". That's always bugged me, even though they have a group of members, but it's that leaping around that they do. I've never liked that show, particularly for that reason.
Hmm, I wonder about that new show mentioned above...

You know I always thought the same thing. I thought it was a good show until they killed it by trying to make it more "hip" by killing off the Arturo(SP?) character and replacing him with a wooden actess who was only eye candy. The sci-fi channel picked it up and just killed it completly.
 
LadyKayoss said:
I found a news article about this new pilot:

http://www.cinemablend.com/television/All-Roads-Lead-To-NBC-Pilot-2746.html

Can't say I like the comment about Al. It doesn't exactly make me want to watch the show...
Sounds interesting. I love that guy in Rome, I'll give it a try.

I have to agree with the Al comment. Yeah they were corny jokes, but that's what made him great.

Hopes for a new QL project might hinge on the success or failure of this show. If the show is a hit NBC will have no reason to make another QL since the show is so similar. If it fails it might have the same effect. Why make the same show that just tanked. The only way I can see how this might be positive for a new QL is if the similar shows keep being compared, like the above article. If the new show doesn't pan out and NBC keeps hearing this drum beat, it might give them pause to look at a possible QL show instead.
 
LadyKayoss said:
I found a news article about this new pilot:

http://www.cinemablend.com/television/All-Roads-Lead-To-NBC-Pilot-2746.html

Can't say I like the comment about Al. It doesn't exactly make me want to watch the show...

That article pissed me off... I've always loved Al. The person who wrote that thing needs to be informed that comedic relief is important.

I'm not watching this new show. It just doesn't look like something I want to be watching... and I've had little to no interest in most shows coming out, anyways.
 
New show echoes QL

A while back someone posted that NBC was developing a pilot that sounded an awful lot like QL. Well... it's coming. It's for real.

http://television.gearlive.com/tvenvy/article/q107-nbc-could-have-been-a-contender/

The relevant part of the article:

"Scheduled for Mondays at 10pm ET, the dramatic Journeyman is being touted as a “romantic mystery” and focuses on a San Francisco newspaper reporter (Kevin McKidd, whom fans may recognize from HBO’s Rome) who begins to travel through time. By what device and means he travels is the mystery – he just, unexplainably, begins to do so. While on this time-traveling adventure, he tries to “fix” people’s lives. I’ve actually seen this show. I’ve seen it on NBC, back when it was called Quantum Leap and starred Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell. The show ran on the network from 1989 to 1993 and focused on the life of Dr. Sam Beckett, a scientist who stepped into a quantum leap accelerator and began randomly leaping backward into the past, appearing in different people’s bodies. Al, played by Dean Stockwell, helped him in holographic form by telling him how to “fix” whatever situation he’d leapt into. How is Journeyman different? I’m not sure, but Quantum Leap is still in syndication for those who are interested."

Sorry for messing up your day... :hmm
 
alsplacebartender said:
Well, why don't they just bring back Quantum Leap is they're going to go and do Journeyman?! Geez. I'll probably watch it though just to see what the deal is.

Agreed. I have not heard of this show until I read this thread but that's really a lame rip off, a Cop that can jump into criminals and people in danger, and do what? *raspberry*:p
 
Yeah, and you know the horrible dilemma?

It's my bet that NBC/Universal has created this show thinking "hey, we've got tons of fans of QL--maybe they'd watch something like this"... But the problem is that if the show does well, they'd go "well, hey, forget QL--we've got a new hit on our hands", and if this show does bad, they'll think "oh, well, I guess people aren't into that kind of show anyhow; guess we'll just move on to something else".

Either way, I'm worried that the Network Nozzles won't be able to see past their own ratings greed and see what people are TRULY asking for. We're not asking for a copycat, we're asking for the real deal!!!

:Love To All:
~ Joy ~
 
tina_als_girl said:
Yeah, and you know the horrible dilemma?

It's my bet that NBC/Universal has created this show thinking "hey, we've got tons of fans of QL--maybe they'd watch something like this"... But the problem is that if the show does well, they'd go "well, hey, forget QL--we've got a new hit on our hands", and if this show does bad, they'll think "oh, well, I guess people aren't into that kind of show anyhow; guess we'll just move on to something else".

Either way, I'm worried that the Network Nozzles won't be able to see past their own ratings greed and see what people are TRULY asking for. We're not asking for a copycat, we're asking for the real deal!!!

:Love To All:
~ Joy ~

Yeah well said, that is scary and now that you said it, its got me worried too. :(
 
For anyone who wants to see more, here's another link:

http://www.nbc.com/Fall_Preview/Journeyman/

I can understand why people making a new show wouldn't want to be tied to DPB's very specific--and complicated--concept for QL. They want to "reimagine" it with the freedom to go in different directions. Also, I don't really want to see a new series called Quantum Leap. It can't be the same, and it would only fall short of the original. I base that guess on the TV movies I've seen that were made after a series. They all sucked. Big time. Even those that had the original cast. I would rather be content with what we have than end up with something that I would hate anyway.

So, anyway, I doubt I'll watch this new show. I never stay up until 11 on Monday. :\
 
NBC's only hit this season was Heroes (which to me is ripped straight from X-Men), and while they have other critically acclaimed shows like 30 Rock, they've been disappointments in the ratings. Then you have the eighteenth (or is it seventeenth?) season of Law & Order and other long-running shows like ER (that show's still on the air?). Throw in a little garbage Reality TV, and you've got a pathetically desperate network. Here's to hoping those knucklehead execs use their brains this time and not move around their only hit's time slot like they did with Quantum Leap.
 
Yeah I noticed that Heroes seemed to be the only show ever talked about thats on NBC, and I don't like that show I did watch for the first few eps but then I started getting uninterested.
 
Hello everyone. It's been a long time since I did anything around here but lurk, heh. Every so often I stop by and see if there is any news about anything new QL related. As someone who watched QL from the very beginning in 1989, I find myself hoping, against my better judgment, from time to time that maybe, just maybe there may be a new post with something promising.
Here's my (reality dosed, not nostalgically imagined) belief regarding things - I don't believe QL will live again in any form without DPB finding the time and desire to breathe life into it again, which seems increasingly unlikely. NBC/Universal might try to throw out things based loosely on QL's concept like this new show, Journeyman, but you have to believe by now that if they were in any way interested in re-making QL in any kind of form, they'd have already tried it, or at the very least made some inquiries that would signal even a slight interest.
I know the story about Callaway's script and the now-removed IMDB article. From visiting this site over the years I've seen enough to make me think that if there was so much as the faintest whiff of anything remotely, slightly, somewhat, possibly indicating a new QL project, one of the veterans here would have heard about it.
Anyway, just my two cents, which isn't even worth that much. LOL We've all hoped for things that never came to pass. I just believe a QL return is just another one on the list. But hey, isn't the reason we would all love a new QL because the original was so great? Grab your favorite episode, slide it in the DVD player, and just enjoy!
 
I don’t want to sound too dramatic, but I was outraged when I saw this post about a new NBC series that ‘echoes’ Quantum Leap.
After reading all the articles about it by the television channel and reviews, it seems to me that ‘Journeyman’ (lame title by the way) is a diabolical Frankensteins monster of a TV show grave robbing from TV shows that are no longer running.
Looking at the plot I can spot at least 3 ‘influences’ in there:
Life on Mars – being that he’s travelled back in time as himself without knowing why, and the mixes sci-fi with drama.
Lost / Heroes - as it sounds like the mystery of why he’s there will be revealed like these eg. mysterious entities (DHARMA and Hanso) and of course… Quantum Leap!

Looking at the QL community and other forums not everyone agrees with this, and there are differences, such as it’s the guy leaping – sorry ‘journeying’ back, not into other people, no super computer and hologram to help him (that comment about Al by the way :realmad ) and narrative details such as how its happening and that he can change his own future, but to me these are only superficial and the premise is the same.
If more proof is needed look at NBC’s fall preview, which in a synopsis says ‘Dan finds himself traveling into the past with a purpose – impacting people's lives for the better’… sounds a little too much like ‘driven by an unknown force to change history for the better and ‘striving to put right what once went wrong’.
And to my despair I agree with many that say ‘Journeyman’ may spell the end for QuantumLeap.


Originally Posted by SonOfSam
Hopes for a new QL project might hinge on the success or failure of this show. If the show is a hit NBC will have no reason to make another QL since the show is so similar. If it fails it might have the same effect.

However if NBC does address the ‘similarities’ with Quantum Leap it could hopefully ignite new intrest and, not nessecarily a new series, but just more fans to swell our numbers.
Journey man = Quantum Leap, minus the comedy and the heart.
 
I hate to bring this up, boys and girls, but even Quantum Leap borrowed elements from past time-travel shows. Even still, however, it didn't appear to be a blatant rip-off like Journeyman seems to be.
 
QL Nut said:
I hate to bring this up, boys and girls, but even Quantum Leap borrowed elements from past time-travel shows.

Yes, we had a chat here a while back about QL's similarities to the 60s series Time Tunnel. We can say that QL is a much better show, but maybe there are fans of Time Tunnel out there somewhere who think QL is a ripoff! I think every TV show these days borrows elements or themes from earlier shows. It's hard to avoid when there have been so many shows over the past 60 years.
 
I saw the teaser two nights ago, and it did catch my attention... I too was immediately struck by it's BLATANT similarity to QL. I don't know what will happen to it... it seems that whenever any network gambles a lot on a show, it flops more than a fish does on deck.

One thing to keep in mind is the landscape of TV has dramatically changed since QL originally aired. Over saturation has lead to bland rehashes of the same old thing. A buddy of mine who works out there said most networks are scrambling to get the leftover Trek viewers who were left hanging.

Magical shows like QL, and even the original Star Trek show were unexpected hits because no one saw them coming.

Its when we least expect a hit show like QL that we'll be taken by surprise. My bet is this new rehash, uhmm... reincarnation, uhmm... NEW show by NBC doesn't have the heart and soul to make it truly special. QL's heart is what made it work, and still popular to this day.

Okay, off the soapbox for now! :p

~Kirok
 
LadyKayoss said:
Can't say I like the comment about Al. It doesn't exactly make me want to watch the show...


On the contrary, I felt as if the comment was a personal feeling by the author of the article. The author doesn't like the character of Al Calavicci. I reccommend watching the pilot to see if you like it. Put aside the fact that it's a ripoff of QL and watch it. :)

~Steve B.
 
Speaking of Quantum Leap rip-offs, what about that web comic called HALEY... about a girl who died in a plane crash and now rides a comets tale back and forth to Earth possessing the bodies of women all throughout history to win souls for God or the devil! AND she has an angel who assists her when a change is made... some nerdy angel named Skippy! What a rip!

waitaminute, waitaminute... I WRITE THAT!! Say, isn't imitation the best form of flattery? Well, Haley is, after all, openly a QL-inspired story. And I must disagree... Sliders is NOTHING like QL, other than the whole different place each episode thing... time travel and alternate Earths are two different sciences, aren't they? Anyway, I've seen the same storylines used in and out of TV Land history. And we will see more.

So go read Haley and let me know what you think... if you dare:

HALEY

See Ya'll Next TIME...