The actual title of this series was Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond. It was an American anthology series created by Merwin Gerard. The original series was broadcast for three seasons by the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) from January 1959 to July 1961 (96 25-minute episodes). You could consider it a Poor Man’s The Twilight Zone despite its paranormal plots and claims of realism. Check out some of the soon-to-be Stars who appeared in the series:
Luana Anders (“The Burning Girl”)
John Beal (“The Lovers”)
Warren Beatty and Joan Fontaine (together in “The Visitor”)
Whit Bissell (“Brainwave”)
Robert Blake (“Gypsy”)
Charles Bronson (“The Last Round”)
Walter Burke (“The Front Runner”)
Veronica Cartwright (“The Haunting”)
Louise Fletcher (“The Open Window”
Joan Fontaine and Warren Beatty (together in “The Visitor”)
Arthur Franz (“The Call from Tomorrow”)
Ronald Howard (“The Haunting”)
Werner Klemperer (“The Haunted U-Boat”)
Robert Lansing (“The Voice”)
Cloris Leachman and Marcel Dalio (together in “The Dark Room”)
Christopher Lee (“The Sorcerer”)
Robert Loggia (“The Hand”)
Jack Lord (“Father Image”)
Patrick Macnee (“The Night of April 14th”)
John Marley (“The Night of the Kill”)
Ross Martin (“Echo”)
Patty McCormack (“Make Me Not a Witch”)
Ann McCrea (“Night of the Kill”)
Yvette Mimieux (“The Clown”)
Elizabeth Montgomery (“The Death Waltz”)
André Morell (“The Avengers”)
Patrick O’Neal (“The Return of Mitchell Campion”)
Maria Palmer (“The Secret”)
Edward Platt (“The Burning Girl”)
Donald Pleasence (“The Confession”)
Suzanne Pleshette (“Delusion”)
Paula Raymond (“Emergency Only”)
Pernell Roberts (“The Vision”)
William Schallert (“Tidal Wave” and “Epilogue”)
William Shatner (“The Promise”)
Torin Thatcher (“Doomsday”)
Yvette Vickers and Mike Connors (together in “The Aerialist”)
Robert Webber (“The Captain and His Guests”)
Peter Wyngarde (“Nightmare…”)
If you’re a fan of The Twight Zone, you might enjoy these episodes. I picked up this 4-DVD box set at a Library Sale for 50 cents. Well worth it! Have you ever seen One Step Beyond? It was shown on the SCI-FI CHANNEL in the 1990s. GRADE: B
Watched these as a kid but I don’t remember them very well. They seemed to be a sort of low rent Twilight Zone. It does look like they had some decent names involved.
Steve, I was surprised there were 96 episodes of ONE STEP BEYOND. Yes, Low Rent TWILIGHT ZONE describes this series perfectly.
I would have been 14 when this started, and it certainly would have been the sort of thing I’d have liked, but the only thing familiar about it is the title. Which means I probably watched at least a few episodes. I wouldn’t be interested in revisiting it.
Michael, the paranormal aspects of ONE STEP BEYOND get a little tedious after awhile. I watched these DVDs in small doses.
Nope, no memory of it whatsoever, though it is possible I saw an episode here and there. Sounds like a winning purchase.
Jeff, although ONE STEP BEYOND is a Low Rent TWILIGHT ZONE series, it was well worth 50 cents!
Actually there is one thing I remember about the show and that is the intros by John Newland.
Steve, John Newland was no Rod Serling.
How often, anywhere, has Whit Bissell been designated as a “star”? I always note his presence in an old movie or tv show. Most recently I saw him in He Walked By Night on Movies! channel a couple of weeks ago. He was a reliable character actor usually cast in Everyman roles. How many readers of even this blog know him at sight? Long time ago I got a smile out of John Nieminski, when I suggested Whit should be cast as him in a biopic.
Art, I confess that Whit Bissell has never been on my radar as a “Star.” But, Whit seems to show up in a lot of old movies and TV shows.
Great line, Art! Whit Bissell and John Nieminski, separated at birth.
I started high school in 1959. l have no recollection of this show, so I probably didn’t watch it. I was probably studying, reading or listening to the radio.
Rick, ONE STEP BEYOND actually showed up on TV a few months before THE TWILIGHT ZONE.
I remember it, and when I saw what you were reporting on my immediate reaction was also a low rent Twilight Zone, as was The Outer Limits! Whit Bissell not a star? Other than producing excellent carpet sweepers, he starred in The Time Tunnel and, as noted, made hundreds of appearances as a character actor!
Bob, I’m going to have to pay more attention to Whit Bissell!
I think it was an ep of One Step that I vaguely remember. Something about a psychiatrist who was treating a man who thought he was a sea monster or was afraid he was going to turn into one. As I recall, I hung in to the end expecting to see the monster, but he made his appearance off screen and I felt cheated. Like you said, low rent. Does this sound like an episode, or am I remembering it from another show?
Art, I think your memory is prodigious! Yes, I’m pretty sure that was an episode in the ONE STEP BEYOND series, but it’s not included in this box set.
Between them, I believe that Whit Bissell, William Schallert (also on the list above), and Olan Soule (not on the list above, but according to IMDB, he was in an episode of the show) played a mild-mannered white guy in the supporting cast of every movie and TV series of the era. From what little I recall of ONE STEP BEYOND, it certainly fell short of TWILIGHT ZONE. On the other hand, it had to have been superior to Spielberg’s wretched AMAZING STORIES series from the ’80s.
Fred, you’re right about Spielberg’s AMAZING STORIES.
Excellent list, Fred. Add Herbert Anderson to the list.
Quite a deal, George. It comes to a penny an episode. I do not know the program. The IMDb shows Merwin Gerard and Lawrence B. Marcus wrote most of the episodes and John Newland directed 96 of them. That is a lot of work in two and a half years.
Elgin, those were the days when TV series used to have 30+ episodes in a season. Now, we get limited series like STAR TREK PICARD with 10 episodes.
Anthology series often had more episodes, as the cast and continuity weren’t worked so hard…
The slightly later ALCOA PREMIERE/ALCOA THEATER was rather a better product, such as with this Alfred Bester fantasy with Elizabeth Montgomery and Fred Astaire:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHHcMVBQ5M0
The lack of “True Weird” conceit helped. I don’t know how everyone else seems to have missed the endless repeats of OSB.
Todd, I always preferred THE TWILIGHT ZONE to ONE STEP BEYOND.