Last week NBC canceled the new Quantum Leap after just thirty one episodes. Why was the show canceled? for one simple reason, because virtually no one wanted to watch it. Out of a nation of 333 million Americans, only 1.36 million were watching this show. How bad is this number? The 2007 show Viva Laughlin is widely regarded as one of the worst TV series ever made. This show was a comedy/drama and yes, musical (yes, I said musical) about the high stakes world of the casino business in Laughlin Nevada. The show was so bad that it was canceled after airing only two episodes. Three others had been filmed, but to this date have never aired anywhere. When the studio got word of the cancellation, they were actually filming a scene, and immediately stopped in the middle of the scene. As bad as this show was, it had over six million viewers. That is how bad the ratings for the new Quantum Leap were.
So what went wrong? Why did no one want to watch this new Quantum Leap? To understand that, we must first understand the original Quantum Leap.
The Original Quantum Leap
The original Quantum Leap aired for five seasons between 1989 and 1993. The first episode had over 23 million viewers, and the final episode had over 20 million viewers.
The original Quantum Leap aired in the midst of the end of an era of faith based TV programs like Highway to Heaven (1984-1989) and Touched by an Angel (1994-2003). And the original Quantum Leap was just such a program, but with Science Fiction window dressing.
Like the earlier Highway to Heaven, Quantum Leap opened with the camera passing thru a heavenly cloud-scape. Both shows featured a duo in a semi-anthology, with a different setting and supporting cast each week. Each week they would often be helping those supporting characters thru difficult decisions. In Highway to Heaven, Jonathan was trying to earn his wings, and in Quantum Leap, Sam was trying to make the final leap home. Each had a trusty helper who was a little more rough around the edges, and not what they were. In Highway, Jonathan's helper was a non-angel, and in Quantum Leap, Sam's helper was a non-leaper. It is clear to see that Highway to Heaven partially inspired Quantum Leap.
The parallels do not end there. In the very first episode of Quantum Leap, it was suggested that God was guiding Sam's Leaps. In the first episode of Season two, Al testifies to a Senate Committee that God has taken Control of Project Quantum Leap, and is using Sam to make right things that once went wrong. On Catch a Falling Star Sam wants to remain in a leap, but Al points at the ceiling and says that Sam doesn't have much choice, that is up to "Him." And in the final episode Sam meets either God, or God's messenger, in the form of "Al the Bartender", who tells Sam that he has been leaping because he wants to make the world a better place, that he can leap home anytime he likes, but that he can still do a lot more good.
In the episode A Little Miracle Sam says "Leaping around in time has made me realize that, in some strange way, I'm a servant of a Higher Power." In The Right Hand of God, just before leaping, Sam muses to himself about having (in the previous episode) messed with time, saying that the "Big Man Upstairs" would understand, Immediately upon leaping he gets punched in the jaw and says "maybe not." Later in that same episode Sam looks up saying "I sure hope you know what you are doing."
The Power of Prayer
Leap of Faith shows Al's relationship with God. Al prayed for his father when he had cancer, yet his father still died. Al didn't want to have anything to do with God after this happened. However, when he sees Sam lying on the ground with a gun wound, Al begs God not to take him. Sam gets up, alive.
In A Single Drop of Rain, Sam leaps into Doctor William "Billy" Beaumont, returning to his hometown (Clover Bend, Texas), where everyone suffers from drought. Everyone expects him to make rain, but really Sam is there to keep William's brother and his wife together. Nonetheless the people of the area are suffering horribly under the drought, and Sam wants so badly to help them. Al tells him that Ziggy says that, as a matter of history it would not rain in Clover Bend for eight months, one week, four days, two hours, and forty-four minutes. Sam can do a lot of things, but he cannot make it rain, when history shows it didn't rain for months. At one point Sam is in an open field, looks to the sky and prays:
"I don't know who's running this show. I don't know why I was chosen. I bounce around from place to place. I do everything I'm supposed to do. At least the best way I can. But I don't know how to do this one. I mean, You gotta help me. I figure you owe me...for a couple times anyway. You make it rain. You hear me? You make it rain!"
It is a moment very much like Jacob wrestling with God in Gen 32:22-32, and refusing to let go unless God gives him a blessing.
That night, the timeline is changed.... It rains!
Solving Problems with the Bible
In the episode "So Help Me God" Sam leaps into the body of an attorney, Leonard Dancey at the very moment he must plea on behalf of his client, Delilah Berry, a black woman in the Jim Crow South, who stands accused of murder. Based on looking in her eyes, he chooses to plead not guilty.
Sam discovers that she is accused of murdering the son of the most powerful man in town. Believing that a cover-up is afoot, but with a client unwilling to talk, Sam is able to ascertain that his client and the other witnesses have all sworn an oath on the Bible to tell a lie designed to protect the true killer – the murdered boy’s own mother.
Sam prays that God would give him the right words to say as he tries to adjust to being a lawyer. He prays again for help just as the trial starts. Al gets Sam to quote Galatians 5:7-10 to the witness:
7 Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?
8 This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you.
9 A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.
10 I have confidence in you through the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded: but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be.
(Gal. 5:7-10 KJV)
There’s talk of how they are God-fearing women, which is partly why they won’t testify (because they take the oath and the Bible seriously). And of course, Lila quotes the title of the episode at the end when she agrees to learn to read, “So help me God.”
Sam calls the troubled mother to the stand whereupon she confesses to pulling the trigger. Sam secures an acquittal for his client.
Resist the Devil
In the Boogieman, Sam is confronted by Satan himself, who is not happy that Sam has been righting the things that he once made wrong. Satan attempts to kill Sam, who is mysteriously delivered at the last minute (by God?). And in three Season five episodes, Sam encounters evil leapers, who appear to be servants of Satan, trying to make wrong what once went right, and undo Sam's work.
I write all of this about the original Quantum Leap to make the case very clearly, that the original Quantum Leap was faith based, even Bible oriented, programming, and that the Sci-Fi element was just a clever disguise.
The New Quantum Leap
So why did the new Quantum Leap fail so miserably? Why did no one want to watch this new show?
The new show completely eliminated the faith based element that was the very core of the original. God was mentioned only to dismiss the allegedly false theory that the original project team had had, that God was guiding the leaps.
The faith based message of the original was completely replaced by a radical "woke" agenda. None of the ensemble of characters were white men with no gender issues. The only white male, was a cross-dresser. And this appears to be no accident, but is said to have been built into the casting call, effectively, straight white males need not apply. The woke propaganda of the show hit a milestone with the episode Let Them Play written by trans activist Shakina Nayfack, and supporting not only biological males competing with women in women's sports, but even the Gender transitioning of children (minors). That week alone the ratings dropped from 2.1 million viewers to 1.75 million viewers (ultimately winding down to 1.36 million viewers).
Was the Original Quantum Leap Woke?
I keep hearing claims from fans of this recently canceled 31 episode failed Quantum Leap sequel, that the original Quantum Leap was "woke" for its time. Most of these claims seem to come from people who were very young, or not even born during the original run of the original Quantum Leap. I am 58 years old, and my wife and I watched the original Quantum leap during it's original run in the early 90's (it actually started in 89), and are still fans of the original. I was then, and still am, a political conservative. In fact I was, and am, politically involved, and during that time was serving as a GOP convention delegate. Now I would define "woke" (lots of people here have asked for a definition) as a recent term the agenda of the radical extreme left. The term "woke" did not exist in the early 90's and the liberalism of that time was no where near as radical as the "woke" agenda of today. Nonetheless, as a conservative that watched the show during its first run, it was *not* a radical left wing propaganda program, not by any means. The issues that the show tackled, such as racism, were *not* exclusively liberal issues in the early 90's. Conservatives of the 90's were just as opposed to racism as liberals, as we are today. There was only one episode that I can think of that leaned left at all, and that was the episode that dealt with gays in the military. However the show was far from gay-friendly, as the episode Good Night, Dear Heart, earned the ire of the homosexual community for its negative image of lesbians. In that episode a vulnerable emigrant girl is portrayed as having been preyed upon by a lesbian seductress, who ultimately murdered the girl, when the girl fell in love with a man, and decided to go straight and marry him. Certainly anyone who wants to portray the original Quantum Leap as having been "woke for its time" is terribly mistaken. I was a conservative activist then (and now) and was a fan and viewer of the show at the time, and I did not have any problem with the show being too liberal. To the contrary, I saw it then, and now, as a faith building, God friendly show that generally appeals to me as a conservative. So I just wanted to set the story straight here. The original Quantum leap was not "woke for its time". The racism of the 50's and 60's which the program dealt with, was not the status of conservatives of the 90'.
Conclusion
There is nothing like the original Quantum Leap on television today. It was the end of an
era. We will likely never have a sequel or reboot that recaptures this
quality, because the liberal media has a different message they want to
shove down our throats today. But fortunately we can vote by changing
the channel or turning their trash off. And when we refuse to watch,
they lose. The new Quantum Leap is just such an example. virtually no one wanted to watch this show. It was just the latest example of the axiom "Go woke, go broke."
