I just got the The Very Best of One Step Beyond DVD set yesterday. I've seen this show before, but just wanted to mention you can get this set of 50 episodes for like 13 bucks. The film looks old, but it doesn't bother me watching it. It sort of adds to the whole spookiness of the show.
This classic old black and white show is much scarier than your garden variety horror movie and there isn't even any gore. These shows are based on real stories. It's difficult to know sometimes where speculation and public record meet but that adds to the total mystery and eeriness of the show.
Usually at the end the host comes on like Rod Serling except he usually gives some real unknown or rarely heard of fascinating facts.
For instance did you know that years before the Titanic sunk a book was published in 1898 under the name Futility. This book described a ship very similiar to the Titanic that sank in April in the North Atlantic on a iceberg just like the Titanic. Just like real life there were not enough lifeboats for the passengers. There are also similarities between the size (800 ft length against 880 ft for the Titanic), speed (25 knots to 23 knots for Titanic). The most odd similarity of all was the name of the fictional ship was called Titan
Also after one episode there was another interesting story about an experiment in gardening written about in a 1959 Time magazine. Two rows of seeds were planted in the same area with the same amount of water, etc. One row was prayed over and the other row was cursed. The row of seeds that was prayed over grew much larger and healthier plants while the cursed row barely grew at all.
One Step Beyond Opening Narratives:
Version #1: "Have you ever been certain the telephone would ring within the next ten seconds? Or have you ever walked down a strange street before and had the feeling you knew what laid beyond the unturned corner? Yes? Then you've had a brief encounter with the world of the unknown ... a small step beyond. Now take a giant one."
Version #2: "I hardly know what to tell you about the next half hour. Except it was reported as true by those to whom it happened. It has been investigated and no one as yet has been able to explain it or disprove it. Have your ever had the feeling that you knew what someone was going to say just before they said it or have you ever walked into a strange room and had the sensation that you've been there before? Well. if you have, you've taken a small step beyond. Now watch a giant step."
Version #3: "Come, you'll witness things strange, unexpected, mysterious, but not to be denied. Join me now and take One Step Beyond."
Posted: 22 Jun 2007 21:44
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actually sounds kinda scary if you watched it alone late at night in the dark. was this before or after the twilight zone because i'm sensing a lot of sinilarities? and is rod serling the twilight zone narrator? nice price for 1440 min. is it bootleg-ish or quality? __________________
"You...complete me."
Posted: 22 Jun 2007 21:45
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you know, it's stormy right now...no lie, that's pretty funny. or weird. or scary...MUHUHAHAHA (SCARY SMILEY) __________________
"You...complete me."
Posted: 22 Jun 2007 22:10
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From what I've read I believe it came on right like a year or so before the Twilight Zone with Rod Serling who wrote the screenplay for The Planet of the Apes 1968.
The Twilight Zone just became a lot more popular. The strength of One Step Beyond though is the fact it's based on real stories. The music is just like freaky scary. Horror movies today just disturb you. This scares you if you pay attention to the story good enough. It makes you think. Not sure how many modern audiences can stand for that, but anyway the quality of the dvd I got is ok. It's not near as bad as the bootleg stuff you get a comic book conventions. Sometimes that stuff is barely watchable. This is very watchable it's just got lines in it on some episodes, and if you listen real close you can hear some fuzzy noise in the background. I guess I'm kind of used to watching old stuff so I don't really pay any attention to it. Most people want digitally remastered stuff, and this ain't it. It's more like what you'd see on a local cable channel black and white rerun.
It's like if you were watching it with somebody and you yelled boo all of a sudden at the end. You might end up with spilt popcorn all over the place. The only thing is you have to be patient to get to the end. That's where they usually get you. I like shows that make you think. You know if you go to a video store now, you'd be hard pressed to see anything that would qualify for a thinking man's movie, and I don't mean like critically acclaimed movies either. Those movies suck, I mean like something with a sci-fi edge that does more than show effects. Something like The Final Countdown or the Time Machine
They've got some famous actors in One Step Beyond. So far I've seen Charles Bronson from another dvd I bought a while back. It only had like 3 shows on it not 50 like this one, and last night my wife recognized Cloris Leachman. Don't know a lot about her. I think she played on 101 Dalmations.
Posted: 23 Jun 2007 21:33
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get this, my bro bought all of the "scrubs" seasons after seeing a couple of the shows' episodes. it's racey for a tv show, but it's really funny all the same. anyway, masi oka, or hiro, form heroes was in this episode i jut saw. he played a japanese american at the hospital but it was funny to see him in a cameo. this was before ehroes and he's pretty skinny so it was funny seeing him there. masi's a pretty cool dude even before heroes, he was on this effects team that worked on movies like the pirate trilogy. his interview was for the 2007 san diego comicon, an dhe was just a fairly ordinary person trying to act, before heroes, how about that?!? masi interview __________________
"You...complete me."
Posted: 24 Jun 2007 18:30
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Hiro is probably the best TV character to come around in a long time.
Posted: 25 Jun 2007 21:53
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yeah, i like him and a couple other guys, like monk, earl, and even spongebob on occasion. __________________
"You...complete me."
Posted: 25 Jun 2007 22:33
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Monk is good, and those two guys from Psych are hilarious. Bruce Campbell supposed to be on a new show on USA network on Thursday night. He's not the main star, but I think he's going to be a regular. The show is about a secret agent of some sort. I think it's called Burn Out or something like that. Premiers this coming Thursday.
Posted: 13 Jul 2007 00:43
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Made this clips of a very interesting episode on George Washington. Did you know that no one apparently could hit George Washington at point blank range? Several bullet holes were found in his clothes after one battle, but he was never wounded. 2 horses were actually shot out from under him, and apparently in one battle he was practically the last man standing.
Posted: 13 Jul 2007 20:58
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Now thats a leader!
Posted: 13 Jul 2007 21:33
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They don't make them like that anymore. You know I think the problem we have nowadays is that we are victims of our own success. Tough times are needed to make tough honorable men. Don't get me wrong I love indoor air conditioners, fancy cars, and a good economy, but seems like sometimes that facing difficulties in life makes men better off for it. The more we get the worse things seem to get.
Posted: 13 Jul 2007 22:49
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completely true. i think it was some romanticist who said, "without society you would get [wild], but noble man." but that's a little off the point. i know what ou mean, we take it for granted and we all get lazy and are vulnerable to attack. our founders at plymouth were die hard folks. i'm talking about hard ass guys like john smith that gave us a fighting chance. but as long as we have marines and nukes, i feel safe...and a president wiht his head on right. having another clinton as president would shake that secure feeling, but i'll try to avoid that so not to upset anyone. __________________
"You...complete me."
Posted: 14 Jul 2007 01:22
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I'm supporting Fred Thompson at this point. I like him the best out of all the candidates I've seen so far. He's from Tennesse which is one good point, second good point is he signed an autograph for me, and actually came to my rinky dink area. Seemed like a cool guy with common sense.
