Welcome to Wacky Wednesday down in The Dungeon! So just exactly what is "Beyond Step One?" Why that would be the rest of the staircase, what else could it possibly be? So I was rooting around the torture chamber, and I found this disc that I had totally forgot I had! It has four episodes of the 1950's-60's TV series "One Step Beyond" on it, so let's get steppin' already!
Okay, so the real title was
"Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond," and this was your host John Newland. John was an actor with 38 titles to his credit including "13 Lead Soldiers" in 1948! He also played Victor Frankenstein in the TV series "Tales Of Tomorrow' episode titled "Frankenstein" that we'll be bringing to you in no time at all! John also directed "One Step Beyond," along with a host of other TV shows like "Bachelor Father," "Thriller," and "Alfred Hitchcock Presents!"
"One Step Beyond" was a show based on supposed truths, not fiction like "The Twilight Zone," and each episode was composed of a couple of short vignettes! This was from Season 3, Episode 12, and was titled "Where Are They?" This is Joan Tompkins as secretary Jenny Call! Joan was all over TV in the 60's from "Father Knows Best," to "Bonanza," "Thriller," and beyond!
This tale is set in Chico, California, and for some damn reason, big rocks are falling directly out of the sky!
They even beaned one guy who wasn't smart enough to get out of the way!
Some big city slicker newspapermen come to town to check it out, but they're obviously not the sharpest knives in the drawer!
Look in the sky! It's a bird, it's a plane, NO, run like Hell, it's a bunch of rocks!! That's it, that's the whole story, that's the way "One Step Beyond" rolled! Bottom line, stay away from Chico, man, you never know when the rocks are going to return!
The second story starred Dungeon great Richard Devon as wack job Charles Elton! Richard is no stranger to any regular readers of these pages, because he was in some classics! He was Molak in "Space Patrol," and played Satan in "The Undead," and was Detective Dunston in "Teenage Doll," and was Detective Sergeant Stewart in "Blood Of Dracula," and was Dr. Pol Van Ponder in "War Of The Satellites" etc. etc.
In this story, Richard has invented a pill like object that when dissolved in pure water, turns water into gasoline! Pretty Good trick! These scientists are drinking the water first just to prove he's not pulling a fast one!
Drop, drop, fizz, fizz, oh, what a relief it is!! Richard's willing to sell his invention to the government for a mere 10 million bucks!
BUT....... before they can get the okay, he disappears just as quick as he showed up! Bummer!!
The biggest mystery of the whole show is how did Yvette Mimieux's name get in the credits? It even says it on the box. We can't really be expected to believe that somebody got Yvette and Joan Tompkins mixed up just because they were both blondes now. Maybe there's something to all these mysteries after all!!! Whatever, something strange was sure going on!
I think I can clear up some of that. I have a DVD set of three episodes, and it also has the Yvette Mimieux episode, and it also gets the credits of the two mixed up.
ReplyDeleteAs good as those ghost and ESP stories on ONE STEP BEYOND are, this episode was a nice departure from that, with its falling objects and "mysterious inventor" (both things are very popular in paranormal books).