User Reviews

(Some Spoilers) Double feature "New Twilight Zone" episodes involving first, "Profile in SIlver", a time traveler from the year 2172 doing a historical study of the John F. Kennedy, played by Andy Robinson, administration. This time traveler just happens to be one of JFK's future descendants Harvard history Professor Joe Fitzgerald, Lane Smith. Smith carries on him, against time travel regulations, a 1964 Kennedy half dollar as a good luck charm.

Told by his one the spot controller, also from the year 2172, and fellow historic researcher Dr. Kate Wane, Barbara Baxley, not to mess with the past but only observe it Joe, on a spur of the moment, in fact goes out of his way to prevent JFK from getting assassinated. At first being hailed as a hero from JFK on down it soon becomes apparent that Joe in having saved JFK's life has torn a hole in the space time continuum! That hole will guarantee the destruction of not only mankind but life on earth as we know it in a nuclear exchange between the USA and USSR!

***SPOILERS*** It's then with Dr. Wange's, who knew all about this in advance, help Joe together with JFK pulls off the "Big Switch" by Joe replacing the president, as President Kenndey, on the motorcade in Dallas Texas on that faithful afternoon of November 22, 1963. As things turned out Joe gave up his life to save mankind and the president John F. Kennedy was transported to the year 2172, as Joe Fitzgerald, to see his vision of the future that he strove so hard to accomplish while he was alive in the 20th century become a reality!

(Some Spoilers) In the second "New Twilight Zone" feature, "Button Button", there's this couple the Lewis' Arthur & Norma, Brad Davis & Mare Winnigham, who get a visit, after receiving this strange button machine, from the "Buttom Man" himself a Mr. Steward, Basil Hoffman. Told by Mr. Steward that all they have to do is press the bottom machine, within 24 hours before he takes it back, and get rich by receiving a cool $200,000.00 in cold cash tax free! The only drawback to this transaction is that by pushing the button someone on earth that neither of the Lewis' know will die!

After debating the issue in having someone get killed by pressing the button and getting the 200 grand for doing it Norma decides against Arthur's advice to finally press the button and strike it rich! *** SPOILERS*** Well Norma and Arthur do get the 200 G's from Mr. Steward the next day and at the same time someone that neither the Lewis', or us in the audience, don't know ends up dying for it.

***MAJOR SPOILER***The kicker to this whole story is that the button machine will now be reactivated and given to another unsuspecting couple, who don't know either Norma and Arthur, with the very same instructions by "Button Man" Steward!

This TZ episode number 20 from season one featured two pretty decent segments that involve choices dealing with the future and the course of history. And as one can see it's really okay to let history and life live it's own self out.

First segment titled "Profile in Silver" involves the tale of a professor from Harvard who's from the future and he gets to travel to 1963 in Dallas to see the famous ride of President Kennedy, and he is able to prevent his assassination. Only this sets off a crazy and very bad chain of events it's a total rewrite of history. Only this professor of historical time travel knows how to write a historical and patriotic end.

Second segment is strange and uncommon "Button, Button" involves a strapped cash California couple(Brad Davis and Mare Winningham)who are struggling to make ends meet. Yet their luck is about to change for the better or will it come to doom them later? As when a strange mystery man in black shows up at their apartment door with a delivered strange box the deal is like a deal with the devil. If they push a certain button someone they don't know will die and they collect $200,000! Win win or will the luck turn about fair play or a doomed luck of the draw when the box is taken from them and given to someone they don't know! I guess death for everyone is only right! Overall good episode that deals with chance and history.

I saw Profile in Silver ages ago, and it was quite intriguing about what would happen if JFK survived and time travelled into the future. Very sublime stuff.

I also wonder the same about Marilyn Monroe. Now that would be a fascinating combo - JFK and Marilyn together into the future.

John Hancock's brilliant "Profile in Silver" takes on time travel and possibility of stopping the Kennedy assassination, particularly the time fabric repercussions that result from JFK's ancestor from 2072 (Lane Smith, great as usual) interfering with Oswalt's gunfire in Dallas, 1963. 2072 has time travel, and Lane Smith is allowed to return back to 1963 to see his ancestor, JFK, in Dallas on the day of his assassination. He's compelled to save JFK and, in doing so, causes a time fabric catastrophe he'll need to fix. Such damage control isn't all that this episode has going for it, as Andrew Robinson has one of the best roles of his career, getting a chance to portray JFK, relaying the shock and awe of not only meeting his ancestor but learning of time travel and his own execution. Louis Giambalvo is JFK's Secret Service, figuring out that Smith is not just some Harvard professor who happened to be in the right place to rescue the POTUS, discovering the "profile in silver" coin dropped on the floor accidentally of their plane. Look for Jerry Hardin (Deep Throat of The X Files) as Lyndon B Johnson (!), telling JFK about tornadoes rustling up in Austin. Barbara Baxley makes an appearance as an associate of Smith's from his time, discussing with him at the beginning about the limits on them when it comes to time travel. Although Smith's heroism at the end is admirable (a unique take on "trading places"), the recognition that it is a logical flaw that wouldn't help the fabric of time might skew some viewers' opinion of the story, but I just found satisfaction in the thought behind it. I accepted it for the heart behind what Smith does and how JFK was allowed a "reprieve" to be inspirational elsewhere. Perhaps this might not hold up to close scrutiny, but again the heart was in the right place. Maybe JFK wasn't as romantic a figure as Andrew Robinson paints him as, but at least the story recognizes that even if rescued from death he could have still been involved in worldwide calamity. His decision to return to Dallas to face his own death so that the time fabric would be salvaged certainly recognizes him as a man of integrity and peeks into a moment where crisis intervened upon what should have been cause for celebration. Cool gadgets such as a watch that communicates time fabric complications and theories and a camera that plays back recordings in time. 8/10

Mare Winningham is wholly unpleasant housewife who wears a constant scowl and never has a nice thing to say to her nervy, stuttering night shift hubby (Brad Davis). A box arrives one morning and it contains a device with a red button that is later explained by visiting Basil Hoffman to offer $200,000 is she pushes it. By pushing it, though, someone she doesn't know will die! The entire tale is about whether or not Winningham pushes the button, all the while, fussing with her husband or just snarling at him. Mare has never been as purely unlikable as she is in this episode of the Twilight Zone. Brad is a harmless pushover who tries to get along with Mare, but she is a miserable soul with no redeeming qualities. When Basil looks at her and tells her (once taking the device back) that someone she doesn't know would be getting it, the close-ups are amusing. Mare realizing someone else might decide on her fate for big bucks leaves us wondering if she would get her just desserts. If you really thing about it, there's just not much to this story! I don't think a soul watching wouldn't believe she wouldn't be willing to push the button and feel little pity for the poor victim that would be sacrificed because of her greed. 4/10