Early Edition is a science fiction television series created by Ian Abrams which follows the adventures of a man who attempts to prevent terrible events each day, which he learns about by receiving the next day's newspaper the day before it is officially published.
The series aired in the USA on CBS from 28 September, 1996 - 27 May, 2000. There are 90 episodes in four seasons.
Early Edition aired in South Africa on SABC3, on Wednesdays at 19h00. It began airing on DStv's Sony Entertainment channel in 2007.
Synopsis
The show deals with the life of Gary Hobson, a Chicago man (initially a stock broker, later the owner of McGinty's bar) who mysteriously receives newspapers (specifically, the Chicago Sun-Times) a day ahead of time, effectively giving him knowledge of the potential future.
His newspaper apparently gets delivered by an orange tabby cat, no matter where he goes every morning, except on some special occasions.
He then tries to prevent tragedies described in "tomorrow's" Sun-Times from occurring, whereby story text and headlines in the newspaper change to reflect the outcome of his actions.
Within the course of the series, Gary discovers that a few people share his gift of receiving the newspaper "early". The only people, besides Gary, who know about his gift are his parents; his friends Chuck Fishman (a former fellow stock broker) and Marissa Clark (the blind former receptionist at the brokerage); and Erica and Henry Paget, a single mother and her son (Gary gives Erica a job at McGinty's).
On some occasions, he is given the ability to wake up in another time (such as in the early 1900s) to change the past. People who encounter Gary often strongly suspect (or know) that he has a secret, but do not know specifically what it is.
During the course of the series it is never clearly stated where the paper comes from. In one episode, Gary meets the group of people apparently responsible for giving him (as well as others) the Paper. Nothing much is revealed about them except that they have some sort of supernatural abilities, such as being able to mysteriously appear at any location.
In season four, episode 420 ("Time") it is briefly explained why Gary started receiving the paper. Apparently, he was given the responsibility by Lucius Snow (the man who received the Chicago Sun-Times before Gary), after Snow saved Gary's life when Gary was a child.
The responsibility is represented by an object imprinted with the name of the person receiving the paper (Lucius gave Gary a red pen knife). The name mysteriously changes every time the current person decides on a new person to receive the responsibility.
At the end of the same episode, Gary passes on the same pen knife to a young girl named Lindsey Romick who had just lost her grandfather; though it's not shown if she ever begins receiving the paper.