One Step Beyond

Anyone who has ever had a chance to see any of the original episodes of One Step Beyond has truly experienced great television, the way it should be even today in our so called "state of the art" world.

It really doesn't take a whole lot to make a great, convincing program. The mood and music and stories behind each episode is disturbing even now. My hubby found a 2 CD box set of the series that only cost us $5.00! But what great episodes they are. I would really like to own all of the series, if they are still available.

Once again, One Step Beyond was real television. Forget about the new reality shows of today. I'll gladly take one step beyond back to the way real great t.v. shows were meant to be.

One commenter offered the proposition that "The Twilight Zone" was not a very good show and "One Step Beyond" was much better. There is truth to the latter statement. Step was a truly wonderful show, and I might add, MUCH freakier and scarier to a little kid. "The Burning Girl" episode killed me. And the one they did about the San Francisco earthquake was awesome. Suffice it to say that I spent a few nights awake wondering about this stuff. Unlike the Twilight Zone, Step featured stories that were somewhat based in fact, or at least believable to people who believe. But I have to take the original poster to task. He made it sound as if Twilight Zone sucked. I can assure you, it did not.

These shows aired when television was still in it's infancy. As was the writing, the directing, the acting and all that goes with it. In both cases, there were experiments. Nobody knew how it would turn out. But one thing is certain. BOTH shows helped to create the sci-fi dramas we accept as so commonplace today. There was NOTHING commonplace about the "Willoughby" episode of the Twilight Zone. Nor was there anything commonplace about the Burning Girl episode of One Step Beyond. They were both wonderful shows that broke ground for the future. That being said, when are the One Step Beyond episodes coming back for viewing? I sure miss them.

There have been so many comparisons between this show and The Twilight Zone I may as well add my own two cents on the subject. These two shows were both hosted and created by men who had been active in live television. Rod Serling had been one of the top writers of the live so-called "golden age" of TV drama in the fifties, while John Newland had been a prominent actor on the small screen during the same period. Alcoa Presents (rerun as One Step Step Beyond, and best-remembered by this title) actually preceded the Zone by half a second, and ran for less than three full years. TZ has a bigger cult audience, but OSB (as I prefer to call it), has its admirers, of which I am one.

The Zone was liberal in tone, dark and moody in its photographic style. Its set designs, particularly its street scenes, were reminiscent of film noir. While the Zone's stories were all fiction, many adapted from short stories, OSB's producers claimed that its stories were all based on fact. The different styles of the two shows can be seen in the way their hosts presented themselves. Serling was dark, intense, urban and verbose. Newland was light, mild, laconic and somewhat effete. While Serling seemed like the sort of guy you'd see at the ballpark or at the fights, Newland was the kind of guy one might expect to turn up at the opera. Serling came off as very American in all respects, while Newland could almost pass as British.

OSB presented each episode as if it were the truth, only slightly dramatized. There was nothing on the surface to suggest that the show was in any way about the supernatural or ESP. The sets were unimaginative, prosaic, and often seemed flooded with light; as the overall visual style of the series was not that different from a commercial,--or an episode of the Loretta Young Show. What made the shows creepy were the acting, which was often excellent, and Harry Lubin's eerie, otherworldly music, which kicked in whenever something weird was happening. The actors tended to react to the strange goings-on realistically,--as it they were choking to death, had just seen a ghost, talked to a dead person or had witnessed a murder that had happened twenty years earlier--and the "startle reactions" on the faces of the players, plus Lubin's beyond the grave music, could send chills down one spine. This was a million miles from the often sentimental and didactic Zone, which seldom went for straight horror, straight sci-fi or straight anything unless there was a "meaning" (i.e. a point, a lesson), while the only lesson one learned from OSB was that "such things exist, such things happen". Chilling television, this was, and story-telling with a vengeance. "You want meaning?", Newland seemed to ask the viewer after each episode, "Go find it for yourself. My job is to give you the facts".

As for the inexplicable "One Step Beyond"-"Twilight Zone" rivalry (if you can call it that), where do I begin? First of all and most important, they were both excellent shows, each in its own way. "Zone" is undoubtedly a popular and well-known classic, while "Beyond" is a lesser known near-classic with a relatively small but loyal following. Also, the latter was not based on fictional works, but dealt with strange events that were supposed to have actually happened.

Rod Serling was a better host than John Newland, but then he had a much stronger screen persona. Since the stories Newland introduced were supposedly true, his understated, scholarly approach was more appropriate, and there was no need for cleverly written lines and sardonic wit. They both served their respective shows well, and in the long run it matters not one iota who hosted what, or if there were no hosts at all. Each series was driven by the quality of their stories, and neither would have lasted longer than the standard thirteen episodes without an interesting tale to tell.

And since "Zone" was on twice as long as "Beyond", it obviously produced more episodes, and that's not always a good thing. Let's face it, there were quite a few poor stories that most of us avoid whenever they turn up (you know which ones they are). On the other hand, I have never seen a single episode of "Beyond" that wasn't interesting and entertaining. So the latter series actually had a better track record of consistent quality. Not bad for an also ran.

The production values on "Beyond" were certainly on a par with the average half hour show of that time, and since there were no spaceships or aliens, no lame effects were used. And it employed the talents of performers who invested their material with conviction and authenticity to spare, from long-established character actors to rising stars, such as: Christopher Lee, William Shatner, George Grizzard, Charles Bronson, Louise Fletcher, Patrick O'Neal, Robert Loggia, Suzanne Pleshette, Pernell Roberts, Patrick Macnee, Paul Richards, Edward Binns, Jack Lord, Ross Martin, Donald Pleasence, Elizabeth Montgomery, and even Warren Beatty.

As for the stories, there's too many to choose from, and limiting examples to only a couple was a tough call, but two of my favorite episodes are as follows:

In "Doomsday", the great Torin Thatcher appears as a 17th century lord who condemns a witch to death. She sets a curse upon him, his son dies, and so it will be with the lord's descendants, for generation after generation, that each head of the family will be predeceased by his eldest son and heir. Nearly 300 years later, the current head of the family (Thatcher again) is on his deathbed, and his eldest son is terrified, waiting for the curse to strike as it always has before. But then... It's a tragedy with a twist.

In "The Devil's Laughter", another great, underrated character actor, Alfred Ryder, plays John Marriott, an English murderer waiting to be hanged in 1895. The frightened man is eventually led up to the gallows, the noose is placed, and the lever is pulled. But the rope breaks. After being revived, Marriott is no longer afraid, and calmly goes to the gallows again. But the trap door won't spring. Finally, Marriott receives clemency and is set free. And then... The story is both grim and funny, and very well done.

As for the "based on actual events" aspect of the series, "based on actual claims" would be more accurate. I had heard about some of the claims elsewhere, and so they were indeed based on something which supposedly took place. Whether you believe these actually occurred, or were the product of the supernatural or a more reasonable explanation, is beside the point. That they could have happened, or that someone claimed as much, gives the series an extra shudder or chill that "Zone" can't duplicate. And episodes were always recounted in an intriguing and compelling manner.

Unfortunately, the last I saw of "One Step Beyond" was at least six or seven years ago on the Sci-Fi Chanel, where "Zone" episodes now reside ad infinitum. It's long past time to resurrect the former for another round or two, or three. It's also time to give this otherwise underappreciated series the respect it deserves. While admittedly not as great as the other show, "Beyond" nevertheless has carved out its own niche as the best of its particular genre.

This is a show that never gets the respect or attention of its' better known relatives, "The Twilight Zone" and "The Outer Limits".

The show has a simpler format than the above mentioned series but is, or as a result of, able to maintain an air of "hey it could happen" throughout each episode.

Most of the performances are well done by the various actors, with only some being ham fisted.

Newland's performance as the convert host also enhances the production as does the haunting music.