dsnyder1

I remember watching this in 1968 when it aired.I was a huge fan of Jack Benny(someone please do a biographical movie about him)& of Paul Revere & the Raiders(RIP Paul Revere),so I definitely did not miss it.An all -star cast & excellent script provided an hour of entertainment that almost seemed to end way too soon.I hope this will be brought out on DVD,as an example of in the words of one TV critic of a time when television entertainment was truly entertaining.Jack Benny did a large number of specials between 1965 until his death in 1974.I remember several of them but this one stands out in my mind.In today's politically correct atmosphere,Jack Benny would be Public Enemy #1 with the PC Police,his cheapskate image was obviously inspired by his Jewishness.

This show was sort of a cousin to The Twilight Zone,which premiered the same year,& The Outer Limits,which came along a few years after.Although not as well remembered as the other two,it was as well done & actually ran longer than The Outer Limits.The most basic difference was One Step Beyond was not purely fictitious as the other shows were,but based on actual cases of psychic & otherworldly experiences.The cast list was also very stellar,with such familiar character actors as William Schallert,Olan Soule,Warren Stevens,Mike Kellen,& Joanna Linville performing in episodes.Several future stars such as Elizabeth Montgomery,Warren Beatty,Christopher Lee,& Charles Bronson got exposure in different episodes also.Joan Fontaine co-starred in the episode with Warren Beatty.I first came upon it when a station in Detroit showed repeat episodes in the summer of 1973.I was a regular viewer after the first program.Among my favorites were the episode with Mike Kellen,playing twins separated at birth,& the episode about all the strange occurrences surrounding the Lincoln assassination.I actually knew a person whose father was a US Navy retiree who met someone involved in an incident dramatized in one episode that occurred on a Navy ship in World War 2.I was talking about the show,which aired on a Houston station at the time,I related what happened on the show(he had never seen or even heard of One Step Beyond until then),then told me his father had met this person who was there.I hope SyFy or some other nostalgia channel will pick it up & bring it to a new generation of viewers.It was one of the gems of the anthology genre,a genre I miss.