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Synopsis: Schoolteacher Johnny Smith (Anthony Michael Hall) awakens from a six-year coma to discover himself a stranger in his own land as the TV-series version of The Dead Zone launches its first season. Johnny's wealthy mother has died under mysterious circumstances, and a flamboyant televangelist named Gene Purdy (David Ogden Stiers) is in control of the Smith millions. Worse still, Johnny's fianc?, Sarah Bracknell (Nicole de Boer), is married to Sheriff Walt Bannerman (Chris Bruno), and has a young son named J.J. -- who, unbeknownst to himself and Walt, is Johnny's biological son. Of utmost significance is the fact that Johnny, who harbored minor ESP powers before the car accident that had plunged him into a coma, is now a full-blown psychic, endowed with the ability to predict the future and read people's thoughts by touching their hands. As the season progresses, Johnny dedicates himself to using his mental gifts to help people and to prevent impending disasters -- all the while holding down his old teaching job. Johnny's friend and therapist, Bruce Lewis (John L. Adams), and our hero's reporter girlfriend, Dana Bright (Kristen Dalton), both suspect there is more to Johnny's uncanny ability to prognosticate than meets the eye, but in general he keeps his awesome powers to himself. Season-one highlights include Johnny's brief cosmic romance with a woman who may have died 60 years before, his psychic link with a century-old Native American shaman, his disturbing visions while serving on a jury, and his growing suspicion that Rev. Purdy murdered Johnny's mother for her money. In one episode, \ˇ±Netherworld,\ˇ± Johnny awakens in what seems to be a parallel world in which his accident never occurred and he is happily married to Sarah...but appearances, here as elsewhere, are most deceiving. The season ends with \ˇ±Destiny,\ˇ± the first episode of a two-part cliffhanger loosely derived from the 1983 film version of The Dead Zone, in which Johnny receives truly negative \ˇ±vibes\ˇ± when he touches the hand of ruthlessly ambitious congressional candidate Greg Stillson (Sean Patrick Flanery). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Starring: Anthony Michael Hall, Nicole deBoer, Chris Bruno
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