Quantum Leap

Premiere Date
March 26, 1989

Starring
Scott Bakula as Dr. Sam Beckett
Dean Stockwell as Admiral Al Calavicci
Deborah Pratt as Ziggy

Scott Bakula ("NCIS: New Orleans," "Star Trek: Enterprise") stars as Dr. Sam Beckett, a physicist caught in a time warp, who leaps into the bodies of different people in different time periods in order to "put right what once went wrong."

Sam becomes lost in time after prematurely entering the time-travel accelerator he had been working on as part of a secret government project. Sam's only guidance comes in the form of Al Calavicci (Dean Stockwell, "Battlestar Galactica"), Sam's cigar-smoking, womanizing best friend, who appears as a hologram only Sam can see. Al, a senior officer on the time-travel project, explains that the only way Sam can return to his time is to correct something that went wrong in whatever period of history he leaped into. Using information from the project's artificial intelligence computer, Ziggy (voiced by co-executive producer Deborah Pratt), Al is able to tell Sam what originally transpired in history and what change Sam will have to make in order to leap again. Over the course of the series, Sam leaps into all manner of people and has brushes with many famous figures in history, including Lee Harvey Oswald, Michael Jackson, Marilyn Monroe and Buddy Holly.

"Quantum Leap" received multiple nominations and awards during its five-season run. Both Bakula and Stockwell received Golden Globe Awards, Bakula in 1992 for Best Performance by an Actor in a TV Series - Drama and Stockwell in 1990 for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role. Both actors received four Emmy Award nominations each in their respective categories, and "Quantum Leap" was nominated three times for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series. The show won five Emmys in such categories as Cinematography, Makeup and Editing. The series also received a Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement and two Edgar Awards in 1991.

Notable series guest stars include Jennifer Aniston ("Friends," "Horrible Bosses," "Office Space"), Joseph Gordon-Levitt ("Looper," "The Dark Knight Rises," "Inception"), Neil Patrick Harris ("How I Met Your Mother," "Gone Girl"), Anna Gunn ("Breaking Bad," "Deadwood"), CCH Pounder ("The Shield," "Law & Order: SVU," "NCIS: New Orleans"), Bob Saget ("Full House"), Marcia Cross ("Desperate Housewives," "Melrose Place"), Teri Hatcher ("Desperate Housewives"), Brooke Shields ("Suddenly Susan"), Amy Ryan ("The Office," "The Wire"), Jason Beghe ("Chicago P.D."), Tia Carrere ("Wayne's World"), Nancy Stafford ("Matlock"), Kelli Williams ("The Practice," "Army Wives"), Jason Priestley ("Beverly Hills, 90210") and Eriq La Salle ("ER").

Created by Donald P. Bellisario, "Quantum Leap" aired on NBC for five seasons, from 1989 to 1993.