Nick of Time

Episode Title: “Nick of Time” Original Air-Date: 11/18/60 Opening narration: “The hand belongs to Mr. Don S. Crane, male member of a honeymoon team en route across the Ohio countryside to New York City. In one moment, they will be subjected to a gift most humans never receive in a lifetime. For one penny, they will be able to look into the future. The time is now, the place is a little diner in Ridgeview, Ohio, and what this young couple doesn’t realize is that this town happens to lie on the outskirts of the Twilight Zone.”

While waiting for their car to be repaired the couple stop in at a diner to eat. While there Don becomes intrigued by a table-top fortune telling machine. After it “predicts” his promotion, and a close call he and his wife have while crossing the street, Don becomes dependent on the machine to make his decisions. Eventually his wife talks him out of the diner, and away from the fortune telling machine. However, as they leave we see another couple enter. This couple did not escape, and come back to the machine to make all of their decisions.

Closing narration: “Counterbalance in the little town of Ridgeview, Ohio. Two people permanently enslaved by the tyranny of fear and superstition, facing the future with a kind of helpless dread. Two others facing the future with confidence-having escaped one of the darker places in the Twilight Zone.”