Quantum Leap | |
---|---|
Genre | Science fiction |
Created by | Donald P. Bellisario |
Starring |
Scott Bakula |
Narrated by | Deborah Pratt |
Theme music composer | Mike Post |
Composer(s) | Velton Ray Bunch |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of seasons | 5 |
No. of episodes | 97 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Producer(s) | Donald P. Bellisario Deborah Pratt Harker Wade |
Location(s) | California, USA |
Running time | 45 minutes |
Production company(s) |
Belisarius Productions Universal Television |
Distributor | NBCUniversal Television Distribution |
Release | |
Original network | NBC |
Picture format |
SD: 4:3 (broadcast/DVD release) HD: 16:9 (streaming) |
Original release | March 26, 1989 | – May 5, 1993
External links | |
Website (NBC) |
Quantum Leap is an American science-fiction television series that originally aired on NBC for five seasons, from March 1989 through May 1993. Created by Donald P. Bellisario, it starred Scott Bakula as Dr. Sam Beckett, a physicist who leaps through spacetime during an experiment in time travel, by temporarily taking the place of other people to correct historical mistakes. co-stars as Admiral Al Calavicci, Sam's womanizing, cigar-smoking companion and best friend, who appears to him as a hologram.
The series features a mix of humor, drama, romance, social commentary, and science fiction, and was named one of TV Guide's "Top Cult Shows Ever".
Quantum Leap follows the narrative of Dr. Sam Beckett (Bakula), a brilliant scientist who has become stuck in the past as a result of a time travel experiment gone wrong, and his attempts to return to his present, the late 20th century, by altering events in the past for the better, with the aid of a hologram of his friend Admiral Al Calavicci (Stockwell), monitoring him from Sam's present.
In the series premiere, Sam has theorized the ability to travel in one's own lifetime and is the lead of the government-funded Project Quantum Leap, operating from a secret laboratory in New Mexico; Al oversees the project for the government. When Al learns that funding for the project is in danger of being pulled because no demonstrable results have come from the project, Sam takes it upon himself to step into the Quantum Leap accelerator to prove the project works and is sent into the past. When Sam gains consciousness, he finds himself suffering from partial amnesia, and is more surprised to find that his appearance to others, including what he sees in the mirror, is not his own face. He finds that Al has come to his aid as a hologram that only Sam can see and hear, as it is tuned to his brainwaves. Al, working with the project's artificial intelligence Ziggy (voiced by Deborah Pratt), determines that Sam must alter an event in the current period he is in so as to re-engage the Quantum Leap process and return home. Al helps Sam overcome some facets of his "Swiss-cheese memory" and provides information on history as it originally happened. He also updates Sam on future events and relates possible outcome probabilities using a handheld communication device in contact with Ziggy. The device is often temperamental and must be struck a few times as it emits electronic beeping and whirring sounds before the information is revealed. With Al and Ziggy's help, Sam is able to successfully change history and then leaps out, only to find himself in the life of someone else in a different period of time.