The Stephen King-inspired 1983 feature film The Dead Zone makes the transition from big screen to small in this opening episode of the TV series of the same name. Awakening from a coma six years after a car crash, teacher Johnny Smith (Anthony Michael Hall) discovers that the world he knew has all but evaporated: His wealthy mother Vera (Anna Hagan) has died, leaving her fortune to ruthlessly ambitious televangelist Gene Purdy (David Ogden Stiers); and his fiancée, Sarah (Nicole de Boer), has married Sheriff Walt Bannerman (Chris Bruno), who does not suspect that his son, J.J., is actually Johnny's offspring. And, oh yes: The modest gift of ESP enjoyed by Johnny before his accident has blossomed into full-fledged psychic powers, enabling him to predict people's futures and read their thoughts merely by touching them. After experiencing the first of many second-sight visions, Johnny tries to reunite a Vietnamese mother with her grown child.

After visualizing the murder of a local nurse named Allison (Emily Holmes), Johnny (Anthony Michael Hall) realizes that his psychic visions have enabled him to see through the eyes of a serial killer. Hoping to prevent Allison's death, Johnny offers his services to Sheriff Bannerman (Chris Bruno), who still feels extremely uncomfortable about Johnny's prior relationship with his wife, Sarah (Nicole de Boer). Meanwhile, Bangor Daily News reporter Dana Bright (Kristen Dalton) is determined to get the whole story behind Johnny's unique gifts -- even if it means putting her own life on the line.

Johnny (Anthony Michael Hall) returns to the teaching job he held before the car accident that put him in a coma six years before. In the process, Johnny's confidence in his second-sight powers grows as he tries to save a high school hockey star from a potentially fatal heart condition. Unfortunately, our hero meets with resistance from the athlete's doctors, who refuse to "waste" their time with psychic prophecy.

Johnny (Anthony Michael Hall) agrees to use his psychic powers to reunite elderly WWII veteran Arthur Allen (George Murdock) with the girl he left behind at the Stage Door Canteen 60 years earlier. But, while "seeing" the long-ago sweetheart through the eyes of Arthur's best buddy Tommy (Alvie N. Leeper), Johnny falls in love with the younger version of the woman himself. He also discovers anew that appearances can be deceiving -- in more ways than one.

In this psychic-phenomena spin on the courtroom classic 12 Angry Men, Johnny (Anthony Michael Hall) is called to serve on a jury. The case at hand involves a street kid accused of murdering a store owner. Like Henry Fonda before him, Johnny is the sole holdout in an 11-1 guilty verdict -- but unlike Fonda, Johnny is gifted with second sight, enabling him to see that the so-called facts of the case are not entirely what they seem.

After touching a copy of his late mother's will, Johnny Smith (Anthony Michael Hall) experiences horrific visions of a bathtub gushing blood. Can it be that the ruthlessly ambitious Reverend Purdy (David Ogden Stiers) killed Vera Smith to gain control of her fortune? The truth of the matter has a profound effect on Johnny, who ultimately utilizes what he has learned while investigating his mother's death to help someone else in peril.

While searching for a runaway teenager named Jill (Julie Patzwald), Johnny (Anthony Michael Hall) is the unwitting recipient of hallucinogenic drugs. His gift for second sight grotesquely altered, Johnny experiences visions more weird and grotesque than usual. Ultimately, both Johnny and Jill find themselves fugitives from the law -- and from the dealer who supplied the mind-bending drugs.

Johnny (Anthony Michael Hall) awakens one morning to discover that he is living in an alternate "dream" world, in which his accident never happened and he is happily married to Sarah (Nicole de Boer). However, Johnny still possesses the gift of second sight, as he learns to his horror when he envisions a horrendous explosion at an art festival. Eventually restored to the "real" world (or is it?), Johnny races to prevent the explosion -- all the while uncontrollably fluctuating between fact and fantasy. This episode was originally slated to air on July 14, 2002.

Fired from his job as an electrician, Conrad Hurley (Stephen E. Miller) enters a bank with the intention of pulling off a robbery. When the heist goes awry, the desperate Hurley takes several hostages, including Sarah (Nicole de Boer). In his efforts to use his psychic powers to defuse the hostage situation, Johnny (Anthony Michael Hall) succeeds only in conjuring up a series of nightmarish scenarios which invariably end with someone being killed.