Quantum Leap is an American science fiction television series created by Donald P. Bellisario and starring Scott Bakula as Dr. Sam Beckett, a physicist from six years in the future (during the series' original run) who becomes lost in time following a time travel experiment, temporarily taking the places of other people to "put right what once went wrong".
Dean Stockwell co-stars as Al Calavicci, Sam's womanizing, cigar-smoking sidekick and best friend, who appears as a hologram that only Sam, animals, young children and the mentally ill can see and hear.
The series aired in the USA on NBC from 26 March, 1989 to 5 May, 1993. There are 95 hour-long episodes in five seasons.
Quantum Leap originally aired in South Africa on the old SABC service in the early 1990s. It later aired on DStv's M-Net Series channel, on SABC2 and on TopTV's Fox Retro channel. See "Seasons" below for seasonal broadcast dates and times.
Season 3 premiered on Fox Retro on Tuesday 14 August 2012, at 18h50. New episodes broadcast daily, on weekdays. There are 22 episodes in the third season.
Synopsis
Theorizing that one could time-travel within his own lifetime, Dr. Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula) leads an elite group of scientists into the desert to develop a top secret project known as Quantum Leap.
Pressured to prove his theories or lose funding, Dr. Beckett prematurely steps into the project accelerator... and vanishes. He awakes to find himself in the past, suffering from partial amnesia and facing a mirror image that is not his own.
Fortunately, contact with his own time is maintained through brainwave transmissions with Al, the project observer, who appears in the form of a hologram that only Dr. Beckett can see and hear.
Trapped in the past, Dr. Beckett finds himself leaping from life to life, putting things right that once went wrong and hoping each time that his next leap will be the leap home.
Seasons
Note: these broadcast details are for the run of the show on Fox Retro only. Broadcast details for the run of the show on other channels are not available.
Season 1 (9 episodes)
Premiere: 2 July 2012 | Finale: 12 July 2012 | Weekdays, 18h50
Season 2 (22 episodes)
Premiere: 13 July 2012 | Finale: 13 August 2012 | Weekdays, 18h50
Season 3 (22 episodes)
Premiere: 14 August 2012 | Finale: 12 September 2012 | Weekdays, 18h50