Story by Jeremy Bertrand Finch and Paul Chitlik
 
Directed by Paul Tucker
 
Original Airdate - October 4, 1986
 
Starring:    
 
Mimi Kennedy - Christie Copperfield
Joseph Hacker - Marc
Barbra Horan - Shauna Bell
Christopher McDonald - Delivery Man
Martin Doyle - News Editor
Bob Delegall - Sales Manager
John D. LeMay - Ted
Harry Stephens - Young Man
Cynthia Kania - Young Woman

 

  
Story:
     


Christie Copperfield, a news anchor for a local TV station, worries about looking older, since her appearance is part of her job; she also is dating a younger man, which adds to her worry. A fellow news anchor gives her a card for "Aqua Vita," which she says will help her look younger. Christie finds out that Aqua Vita is simply water, and the first bottle is free. After her first drink she looks years younger, and she's sold. But the price quickly goes up for the water, to the point that she stops buying it. Christie soon finds out that if she stops drinking it she'll look much older than she is, very fast, and she's now in a lot of trouble.

  

 

"Aqua Vita" was directed by Paul Tucker, who didn't do much before or after this, and was written by Jeremy Bertand Finch and Paul Chitlik. Finch and Chitlik went on to be story editors on the third season of the NTZ, not an auspicious accomplishment. This episode just kind of marches stodgily onward, and isn't all that interesting.

Mimi Kennedy was rather stolid in this segment and seemed an odd choice to play a news anchor. She can play wacky, as she has shown on "Dharma and Greg," but here she is just a bit too uninteresting. We don't get a clear idea of why anyone would be interested in her. Joseph Hacker plays her boyfriend Marc, and he's at least more animated.
Christopher McDonald plays the water salesman, and he's the only one in the teleplay having any fun. He gets to menace Mimi and her friend Shauna, and leer meaningfully into the camera. Without him the segment would be completely comatose.

Based on the way the second season was going, it certainly seems like things were already changing on the new Twilight Zone. People who would go on to write for the awful third season were becoming more prominent in the credits, and the stories were looking suspiciously like the pieces that showed up in the third season. It seems like the regime change was definitely underway earlier than anyone had known.