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Rating: 
Summary: Do it! Take that "one step beyond"
Review: At long last, someone is releasing episodes of this classic show on DVD. More eerie than "Twilight Zone," this first release includes 12 episodes from the second and third seasons. (VCI promises more episodes are on the way.) The prints used in this first set are pretty good, and it's a treat to see the full 25- to 26-minute versions instead of the butchered ones that aired on the Sci-Fi Channel a few years ago. Some of these shows even have the original "Alcoa Presents" opening & closing titles. If you're a fan of "One Step Beyond," buy this set and hope that VCI releases all 96 episodes!
Rating:
Summary: A Real Treat To See This Old Favorite Again!
Review: I happily received my 2-disc set of VCI's "One Step Beyond" Collection, Volume 1 in the mail today and after viewing 2 of the 12 episodes in the set, I can say without a doubt, as a huge fan of the show, that I am extremely happy and very glad I made the purchase.The two episodes I watched were "Doomsday" and "The Inheritance". Both episodes were complete and uncut and including John Newland's "invitation" to join him for next weeks show, both episodes ran almost 25 and a half minutes. The quality was very good in the V/A department, at least compared to episodes of the show that I have watched on TV and VHS throughout the years. At least with these two episodes, there were no abrupt cuts or fadeouts. Gone were the skips and jumps that plagued all those VHS tapes that Movies Unlimited sold as well as others in previous releases. No more problems with lost dialogue because of the skipping and I hardly noticed any real dirt or those annoying lines that ran through most of the shows in the past. There was a real, general clarity to the episodes, particularly in the opening title sequence. Audio was more than adequate too. Easy to hear and very audible. I don't think VCI did any "real" remastering but IMHO, something was done to make the episodes look like they do in this set. If your a fan of the show or you want to discover it for the first time or rediscover it again, I can't recommend this set highly enough. I think you'll be really pleased. Although I have only watched two of the episodes, I know I was. If enough true "OSB" fans and those generally curious about the show buy the set, there is no doubt a second installment will soon follow.
Rating: 
Summary: John Newland's creepy world is "One Step Beyond"
Review: Okay, so some of the prints aren't the best in world, but so what? It's "One Step Beyond" and we are finally getting to see more than a scattered episode here and there on DVD.
VCI Entertainment did an excellent job of putting this DVD package together and I love the spooky DVD "landscape" created by VCI between the episodes. It's not just your average cheapie compliation of "here's the episodes with no money spent to set the mood."
"Ordeal on Locust Street" is worth the price of admission alone, and John Newlands deadpan intos and outros run a close second to Rod Serling's.
Sure, "One Step Beyond" has always been considered to be the poor man's "Twilight Zone," but that's part of it's charm. It's like a night of cheap thrills at a 1950's drive-in.
I just hope VCI Entertainment is true to it's word and makes available future collections.
So buy this set, sit back, and enjoy Collection #1 of "One Step Beyond."
Rating: 
Summary: Bad Transfer
Review: Terrible picture Quality and bad sound.
Stories are not nearly as good as twilight zone.
Rating:
Summary: Five Stars, Sight Unseen!
Review: The CLOWN!? THE CLOWN is on this set!?!?!?! I am SO buying this right now. I saw that on tv when I was five or six. I couldn't look into a mirror for YEARS afterward... which the crueler among us would say was beneficial. I saw it on a couple of years ago as a patchy, chopped up rerun. From an adult (reasonably) perspective, the episode moves somewhat slower than a drunk snail in a tub of molasses -- and it still scared the bejeezus out of me.
Rating:
Summary: Five Stars, Sight Unseen!
Review: The CLOWN!? THE CLOWN is on this set!?!?!?! I am SO buying this right now. I saw that on tv when I was five or six. I couldn't look into a mirror for YEARS afterward... which the crueler among us would say was beneficial. I saw it on a couple of years ago as a patchy, chopped up rerun. From an adult (reasonably) perspective, the episode moves somewhat slower than a drunk snail in a tub of molasses -- and it still scared the bejeezus out of me.
Rating: 
Summary: One Step Too Pricey?
Review: This series is of the same genre and timeframe as Twilight Zone and this reviewer remembers watching the series when originally aired. Yet while many of the episodes of Twilight Zone are permanently etched in this writer's memory, not a single episode of this series rings a bell, except the presence of John Newland and the very haunting theme score.
Here are synopses of the 12 episodes and ratings (5 stars possible), which aired between 9/15/59 and 11/11/60, each episode being about 24 ½ minutes long. Disc #1 - Delusion - 1 star. Blood donor with a problem. Pretty feeble.
Disc #1 - Ordeal On Locust Street - 1 ½ stars. Birth defect. This writer can conceive several alternative plot developments which would have been much more satisfying!
Disc #1 - Brainwave -2 stars - WWII ship captain wounded. Very predictable.
Disc # 1 - Doomsday - 2 stars - Family curse on first born. Very predictable.
Disc # 1 - The Inheritance - 2 stars - Diamond necklace with a nasty disposition.
Disc # 1 - The Explorer - 2 stars - Three guys lost in the desert. A fourth shows up... Disc # 2 - The Clown - 2 stars - Just don't look in a mirror afterwards.
Disc # 2 - Delia - 3 stars - Apparent time mismatch for love-lost. Twilight Zone quality.
Disc # 2 - House of The Dead - 3 ½ stars - Searching in Hong Kong for love-lost. Twilight Zone quality.
Disc # 2 - Tidalwave - 0 stars! Shrieking (and shrieking and shrieking) woman in distress.
Disc # 2 - Anniversary of A Murder - 2 stars - Crime really does not pay!
Disc # 2 - To Know The End - 3 stars -Precognition predicament of disaster. Twilight Zone quality. The two DVDs are contained in a standard plastic-sheathed DVD case, DVD #1 mounted inside the front cover, DVD #2 the back cover. A laid-in folded glossy pamphlet discusses the series. DVD picture quality is so-so, likely transferred from video tape, with the fuzziness one would expect of a black and white 1959 vintage TV episode. (Vci/Ffi gives no clue.) Sound ghosts are faintly audible with 2 to 3 second delay, bleeding over from adjacent tracks in the first two episodes of Disc #1. Anniversary of A Murder had several significant picture defects. There were occasional jumps and other sporadic picture defects throughout. Sound was consistent with that vintage. One more thing. This DVD is put out by an outfit called VCI Entertainment (Vci/Ffi, vcientertainment.com). As a DVD collector and purist, this reviewer was horrified to find one of those plastic anti-theft strips glued INSIDE the DVD case in close proximity to the DVDs. Such a practice is totally unnecessary and indeed unacceptable to this collector because of the sticky hazards it poses to contamination of that DVD and other DVDs. Such practice may preclude any further purchases from such an offending outfit, depending on their response to this writer's email!
Rating:
Summary: One Step Too Pricey?
Review: This series is of the same genre and timeframe as Twilight Zone and this reviewer remembers watching the series when originally aired. Yet while many of the episodes of Twilight Zone are permanently etched in this writer's memory, not a single episode of this series rings a bell, except the presence of John Newland and the very haunting theme score.
Here are synopses of the 12 episodes and ratings (5 stars possible), which aired between 9/15/59 and 11/11/60, each episode being about 24 ½ minutes long. Disc #1 - Delusion - 1 star. Blood donor with a problem. Pretty feeble.
Disc #1 - Ordeal On Locust Street - 1 ½ stars. Birth defect. This writer can conceive several alternative plot developments which would have been much more satisfying!
Disc #1 - Brainwave -2 stars - WWII ship captain wounded. Very predictable.
Disc # 1 - Doomsday - 2 stars - Family curse on first born. Very predictable.
Disc # 1 - The Inheritance - 2 stars - Diamond necklace with a nasty disposition.
Disc # 1 - The Explorer - 2 stars - Three guys lost in the desert. A fourth shows up... Disc # 2 - The Clown - 2 stars - Just don't look in a mirror afterwards.
Disc # 2 - Delia - 3 stars - Apparent time mismatch for love-lost. Twilight Zone quality.
Disc # 2 - House of The Dead - 3 ½ stars - Searching in Hong Kong for love-lost. Twilight Zone quality.
Disc # 2 - Tidalwave - 0 stars! Shrieking (and shrieking and shrieking) woman in distress.
Disc # 2 - Anniversary of A Murder - 2 stars - Crime really does not pay!
Disc # 2 - To Know The End - 3 stars -Precognition predicament of disaster. Twilight Zone quality. The two DVDs are contained in a standard plastic-sheathed DVD case, DVD #1 mounted inside the front cover, DVD #2 the back cover. A laid-in folded glossy pamphlet discusses the series. DVD picture quality is so-so, likely transferred from video tape, with the fuzziness one would expect of a black and white 1959 vintage TV episode. (Vci/Ffi gives no clue.) Sound ghosts are faintly audible with 2 to 3 second delay, bleeding over from adjacent tracks in the first two episodes of Disc #1. Anniversary of A Murder had several significant picture defects. There were occasional jumps and other sporadic picture defects throughout. Sound was consistent with that vintage. One more thing. This DVD is put out by an outfit called VCI Entertainment (Vci/Ffi, vcientertainment.com). As a DVD collector and purist, this reviewer was horrified to find one of those plastic anti-theft strips glued INSIDE the DVD case in close proximity to the DVDs. Such a practice is totally unnecessary and indeed unacceptable to this collector because of the sticky hazards it poses to contamination of that DVD and other DVDs. Such practice may preclude any further purchases from such an offending outfit, depending on their response to this writer's email!
Rating:
Summary: Simply the best video quality on the market for OSB
Review: VCI Entertainment has put out most definitely the best prints available of OSB anywhere. I was nearly knocked out at the video quality when I watched this DVD, having always loved the series but like everyone else, having to endure the characteristic horrible prints of TV reruns over the years. I don't know where VCI got these prints but I hope they continue releasing the series, as their prints are by far better than the crap used by the other companies selling OSB DVD's on Amazon. Beware all others regarding quality, but I will admit that if VCI does not step up to the plate, I may be forced to settle for the same old poor quality prints of the other compilations. The quality of the video, along with the ability to buy all 12 of these episodes on one DVD, has made this OSB release the best value by far.
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