One Step Beyond (1959–1961)
8/10
Ooo Ooo Eee Oo Oo, Ooo Ooo Eee Oo Oo............What's that? It's the opening theme, silly!
16 May 2014
THERE HAS ALWAYS been a need to be scared. Whether it was the telling of ghost stories around the old campfire, reading poems or stories by Edgar Allen Poe, listening to an old time LIGHTS OUT Radio Show or screening Todd Browning's Dracula with Bela Lugosi; the result is all the same. We get scared, if just a tad.

SO TOO, TELEVISION has had its share of chiller thrillers. We still see reruns of THE TWILIGHT ZONE daily, here in Chicago. Other than that, we had THE OUTER LIMITS, THRILLER, ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS and Rod Serling's second entry in the category, NIGHT GALLERY.

SO, AS WE just discovered, ONE STEP BEYOND lasted a full three seasons. Series host/guide/narrator, John Newland, also Directed the episodes; being all 90 half hours. That would make Mr. Newland a most prolific Director.

BEING THE LATE 1950's to early '60's, there was a much stronger link and identification with sponsors. Hence, during ONE STEP BEYOND's three year run on ABC TV Network, the series was always called by the name : ALCOA PRESENTS: ONE STEP BEYOND.

NO REVIEW OF this series would be complete without the music. Written by Harry Lubin and Edited by Gilbert D. Marchant, it was haunting, highly memorable and thoroughly appropriate for the series. Whether it be the theme or any of the incidental, it was as responsible for the show's success as anything else.
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