Profit 

Jim Profit works for a multinational company, and isn't above using any means necessary to get ahead, and that includes bribery, blackmail, intimidation, extortion, and even murder. Now ... See full summary »

Stars:

Adrian Pasdar, Lisa Darr, Lisa Blount

1 nomination.

Cast

Series cast summary:
Adrian Pasdar	...	Jim Profit 8 episodes, 1996-1997
Lisa Darr	...	Gail Koner 8 episodes, 1996-1997
Lisa Blount	...	Bobbi Stakowski 8 episodes, 1996-1997
Jack Gwaltney	...	Pete Gracen 8 episodes, 1996-1997
Allison Hossack	...	Nora Gracen 8 episodes, 1996-1997
Keith Szarabajka	...	Charles Henry "Chaz" Gracen 8 episodes, 1996-1997
Lisa Zane	...	Joanne Meltzer 8 episodes, 1996-1997
Sherman Augustus	...	Jeffrey Sykes 7 episodes, 1996-1997

Storyline

Jim Profit works for a multinational company, and isn't above using any means necessary to get ahead, and that includes bribery, blackmail, intimidation, extortion, and even murder. Now everyone at the company, including the president, Charles Gracen are oblivious to his dark side, as a matter of fact, Gracen thinks of him as a golden boy. But Joanne Meltzer, the company's security chief looks into his eyes, she sees something sinister. And when her boss, Jack Walters is looking into some irregularities at the company, he asks Joanne to look into and initially, the person she cornered said it was Profit who was behind it, but when Profit learned of this, he convinced this person to change the story she told Joanne. But Joanne knows that Profit is evil and so she tries to get the goods on him, at the same time, Profit tries to find a way to neutralize her and anyone else who might believe her.

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Plot Keywords:

wrongful conviction | psychopath | sabotage | child abuse | computer cracker | 

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Taglines:

Ambition without conscience can be a dangerous thing.

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

8 April 1996 (USA)

Also Known As:

Jim Profit

Filming Locations:

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Company Credits

Production Co:

New World Television, Stephen J. Cannell Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

45 min (7 episodes) 90 min (pilot)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Series creators David Greenwalt and John McNamara state in the Kills featurette on the 2005 DVD releases, Profit's traumatic upbringing was based on the childhood of a real-life serial killer who had been similarly raised in a box with only a television present as described in the nonfiction novel Whoever Fights Monsters: My Twenty Years Tracking Serial Killers for the FBI by Robert K. Ressler & Tom Shachtman. The relevant passage is located in Chapter 4 titled Childhoods of Violence: "One woman propped her infant son in a cardboard box in front of the television set, and left for work; later, she'd put him in a playpen, toss in some food, and let the TV set be the baby-sitter until she came home again."

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Quotes

Jim Profit: [voice-over] We must welcome adversity and embrace struggle. And no matter what we get from life, never give less than 100%. Of course at the end of every battle-weary day, we fold ourselves into peaceful darkness and find comfort in those gentle words -
[spoken]
Jim Profit: good night.

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Connections

Referenced in Make or Break TV: Profit (2008)

User Reviews

If it had been on HBO it would have buried anything on TV

People often go on about the death of network television and wonder why networks like HBO are simply crushing network TV, and I can point to Profit and say here is a primary example of why Networks can't compete.

This show is simply shocking, revolving around perhaps one of the most evil main characters to grace network TV, with a very dark past, and an even darker present. Fox simply got cold feet because it was just too much for 1996 and the majority of the Bible Belt went nuts over the concepts in this show and just crushed it. It was too smart for Fox which is really unfortunate, but if it had been on HBO two or three years later and they would have been allowed to truly get into the dark angle of this show that only cable networks seem to be able to do, we would be discussing how many Emmy's Adrian Pasdar had won.

I never watched it on TV, and the DVD was my first chance to really get a look at it, and it was simply light years ahead of its time.

-Z