Ernie Hudson Hopes The Quantum Leap Revival Solves The Mystery Of Scott Bakula's Disappearance - Exclusive
In what may be one of the most controversial series finales of all time, the original "Quantum Leap" left its lead character, Dr. Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula), lost in time forever.
The cult-hit show, which aired for five seasons and ended its run in 1993, followed the physicist as he involuntarily time travels after an experiment gone wrong, temporarily leaping into other people and correcting historical mistakes. At the end of Season 5, fans were left with a less-than-satisfactory ending when the series was unexpectedly canceled and the body-swapping time traveler was left in limbo via an unceremonious title card that flashed at the end of the episode, cryptically explaining that Dr. Beckett never made it back.
30 years later, there's hope that Beckett's fate will be better explained with the new "Quantum Leap" revival, which airs Monday nights on NBC. The series stars Raymond Lee as Dr. Ben Song, the modern-day equivalent of Beckett, and Ernie Hudson as Herbert "Magic" Williams, head of the Quantum Leap time travel project and a Vietnam War veteran who briefly appeared in the original series.
During an exclusive interview with Looper, Hudson admitted he hopes that the revival series solves the mystery of Beckett's disappearance once and for all.
Dr. Beckett's disappearance haunts Hudson's character
Back in the day, Ernie Hudson used to watch the original "Quantum Leap" with his sons, reveling in the idea of time travel and all its endless possibilities.
"I love the idea of 'Quantum,'" he said. "Is it possible to time travel? If it was, what would that mean? All those questions that series kind of evoked. When they said they were doing this new [series] ... I was really excited about it and excited to have a show that families could watch and be in whatever political divide and still have a conversation about it. It's one of those things I felt was really thought-provoking and could appeal to a lot of people."
As for the controversial ending to the original, Hudson couldn't believe his own eyes when it aired. "I went, 'Really? What?'" he said. "It raised more questions. How do you leave somebody out in the ether somewhere, and why?"
That ending haunts Hudson's character, whom Dr. Beckett leaped into in a 1990 episode titled "The Leap Home, Part II," where he helped Williams (played by Christopher Kirby at the time) and his platoon survive the Vietnam War. 30 years later, Williams is the head of the Quantum Leap project, where he hopes to right the wrong of what happened to Beckett.
"For my character ... that's one of the things that bothers him the most is that we left this guy hanging out there," said Hudson. "Is he still out there? Can we retrieve him? How can we fix this? Hopefully, this new series will address that. I don't know how Scott Bakula feels about that, but I would love to see that addressed in a real way."
So far, Bakula has passed on appearing in the "Quantum Leap" revival, but Hudson is still hopeful the series can "at least explain what happened to him," even if Bakula doesn't reprise his role.
Tune in to the "Quantum Leap" revival on Mondays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.