Enjoying the "Guilty Pleasure" of Time Travel: From the bewitching Veronica Lake to a groundhogged Bill Murray to a sentimental "Wonderful Life," time-tripping narratives make for timeless must-see movies.

• Author: Gehring, Wes D.
• Position: ENTERTAINMENT

EACH SUNDAY, The New York Times "Book Review" section does an opening page interview with a prominent author. Except for rare occasions when a nonauthor celebrity pitches his or her children's book, this is my pivotal Times piece--akin to a child being aware there is going to be ice cream. The questions obviously vary depending upon the author. However, the interviews always include a few standard queries. Probably the most popular one asks, "Does your reading ever involve any 'guilty pleasure' subjects?"

This seldom is a jump-ball situation. Most authors answer the same way I would, "Guilty pleasure reading does not exist." This go-to response is that no matter what authors are research reading for their next book, something from their downtime scrutiny invariably finds its way into their work. It is a narrower variation on Nora "When Harry Met Sally" Ephron's philosophy, "Everything is copy." That is, who knows what will inspire and/or impact a current manuscript? One never can back the wrong horse.

If you forced a guilty pleasure reading/screening topic from me, it would be time travel stories, anything from H.G. Wells' classic novella, The Time Machine (1895) to John Cusack's 2010 film, "Hot Tub Time Machine."

My time tripping fascination also is paying dividends, as it is having an impact on my latest writing project--my career opus, an overview of American film comedy, with a modest print humor foundation.

As I examine various comedy subgenres, each include excellent time tripping examples. For instance, Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) essentially is a personality comedian pinballing back in time: Will Rogers played the title character in the 1931 film. However, many of the following references will be cross listed as compound genres with science fiction or fantasy.

For instance, personality comedy is alive and well in the "Back to the Future" franchise (1985, 1989, 1990), though some might initially label it science fiction, too. Regardless, the first and best installment finds Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) as a contemporary teenager accidently sent back to Nov. 5, 1955. This is the date his sometime comic partner, Christopher Lloyd's zany scientist with the Einstein hair, first decided to create time travel. However, by hooking up with Lloyd's younger self, Marty not only manages to get "back to the future" (by way of a comedy minded DeLorean car, no less), he oversees a fix to his 1985 dysfunctional family.

Another compound personality comedy example with a memorable teaming would be Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones in "Men in Black 3" (2012). Smith has to go back to 1969 and rescue a younger version of his partner (James Brolin) from an assassination. As a necessary footnote here, keep in mind that comic time travel is a no problem bank shot with the "butterfly effect," in which a...