▶ "One Step Beyond" Research: UPDATE (!)

"Reunion", Season (2) Episode (10) video: • ▶ "One Step Beyond": R...
Previous research video: • ▶ "One Step Beyond" Re...

[@tboudr5803]

I am 67 years old and distinctly remember seeing the skeleton in the glider seat when the episode was in reruns in the 1960s. The scene scared me to death back then, and I didn't know that it had been edited out until now. Also, the skeleton is directly referred to on page 109 of "An Analytical Guide to Television's One Step Beyond, 1959-1961" by John Kenneth Muir. "When the dead Hans.... finally lands the glider at the post-war reunion, it is a grinning skeleton who returns in the cockpit". I hope this puts the question to rest.

[@tboudr5803]

@@redblade8160 HAHA! Yeah, I guess I stepped on a rake there! I don't know about being in OSB; probably more like the Twilight Zone. Anyway, I know what I saw and hopefully one day an unedited version will validate that my memory was correct.

[@bobcinquino9937]

I am 73 and vaguely remember a skeleton but am not completely sure.

[@pimpompoom93726]

Likewise. 68 years old here and I also remember the skeleton of the pilot when I first saw this episode. Why do they change these things?

[@caroltenge5147]

I remember it too. One of the most frightening moments on TV ever.....

[@2Sugarbears]

Me too. Also, my mother and my sisters. Mandela effect?

[@amazingpedalkits4274]

I'm sixty four and I saw the episode 'with" the skeleton and no one will ever convince me differently.. Mj Cox, Denver

[@one-step-beyond-1959]

@MJ Cox: I know it's a long time ago . . . but do you maybe recall when in the video you saw the skeleton (?) Was it at that point . . . where Helga looks into the cockpit and screams (?) That still seems the most likely spot . . .

[@olddoggeleventy2718]

@@one-step-beyond-1959 Yes.

[@USNWaveRet]

Yep, I was going to say that I too saw this where the skelton was shown! I'm 65.

[@olddoggeleventy2718]

@@USNWaveRet I'm 68 so we must be right...lol

[@USNWaveRet]

@@olddoggeleventy2718 They know we are right... they want to make us look crazy! LOL ... I have actually noticed many things being removed or edited that I know for fact where there before. I am a genealogist and I have saved newspaper clippings over the years. Today, I when I search, the subject at hand does not come up in the search anymore! Oy Vey!

[@blanchequizno7306]

Thank you for researching this. I saw this episode as a child during the Sunday afternoon reruns, I think, in the early 1970s, and I *distinctly* remember the skeleton in the aviator gear.

[@one-step-beyond-1959]

Video or still of the scene . . . remains elusive. We're still trying . . .

[@marcarch62]

Favorite episode! And appreciation was handed down generationally. Thanks 😊

[@AnotherSixStringerChannel]

Same! I bought the dvd series mostly to find this one and the skeleton scene. It happened

[@williamsweeney7954]

I distinctly remember seeing the skeleton in the cockpit. Scared the bell out of me as a little kid.

[@olddoggeleventy2718]

I remember seeing a clothed skeleton. I know suggestive drama can be very persuasive, and over time can become ingrained in memory. But, I'm certain there was a skeleton.

[@USNWaveRet]

Yep... he was sitting kinda' leaning to one side...it was shown right after she screamed!

[@olddoggeleventy2718]

@@USNWaveRet That's the way I remember it too!

[@one-step-beyond-1959]

@@USNWaveRet Ah. That's specific -- thanks. It seems to me the most likely place . . . because there's a clunky cut to Newland right after the scream.

[@uwantsun]

I remember the skeleton, too. Mouth hanging open and everything.

[@blanchequizno7306]

Yeah. DEFINITELY a skeleton in the aviator gear.

[@USNWaveRet]

I noticed a change in this when I just watched it a bit ago... when she screams, I was waiting for the skeleton shot that never came???? I know what I saw years ago in my youth.... I thought maybe it was 'cancel culture' that has had it removed LOL

[@cardinaloflannagancr8929]

Very interesting thank you for the update. I personally think it was filmed for sure. Though I'm split on whether it aired but only the first time or never broadcast. I'm leaning towards aired once but not in syndication. Which could explain how some remember seeing it. The problem is twofold unfortunately. Studio's would dispose of material much more readily back then due to a variety of reasons. Then you didn't have the general public watching able to record video. So unless some footage was misfiled we may be stuck with just eye witness. Which ask 6 witness to explain a car accident and you'll get 6 different descriptions. It was a car no a truck they were blond no dark hair etc..

[@one-step-beyond-1959]

@Cactus Rider: The original 35mm film of this episode . . . presumably still exists. We just need someone with influence to retrieve it for us . . .

[@nwseaman6945]

Tysm for the update

[@JohnSmith-el6lk]

I myself remember the skeleton and if you consider John Newland describing what was inside the cockpit as if he was talking to an audience that had seen it also.

[@one-step-beyond-1959]

We're still trying to figure it out . . .

[@2Sugarbears]

@@one-step-beyond-1959 So loved this program. Still miss it.

[@tituskamau5554]

Man, that was truly beyond

[@Gancanna]

I remember seeing an unedited version on youtube, several years ago. It had the skeleton in the cockpit.

[@Broken_Arrow58]

I'm sure if someone looked long enough, they'd find a copy of the episode that included the skeleton.

[@one-step-beyond-1959]

LOL We've been looking . . . trust me.

[@blanchequizno7306]

@@one-step-beyond-1959 Lemme check with my friend - I know a guy...

[@Eduardo_Alva_Peru]

holy god!! Is it that no one in the world is going to post the skeleton part on KZbin? oh really? NO ONE ON KZbin OR THE INTERNET IS GOING TO POST THE FINAL IMAGE OF THE SKELETON PILOT??

[@ericcurda2787]

I have a dollar store DVD I bought 16 years ago that has the skeleton..poor quality but excellent proof..

[@one-step-beyond-1959]

@Eric Curda: Here's your chance to have a minute of fame here on this channel (!) Could you provide a screen shot of the skeleton (?)

[@raymondj8768]

FREAKY MAN !

[@rosaryforfamily3984]

Mandela Effect ?

[@Lolabelle59]

I appreciate this update a lot. I first saw One Step Beyond, in syndication (we called them reruns, at the time) in the early 70s. I could swear I saw the skeleton. Just wondering if showing a skeleton like that - as a result of a murder - would have gotten past the censors in the first place. Thanks again for this, and all the One Step Beyond videos.

[@user-mv9tt4st9k]

It might have been a real skeleton (it was common at one time), and someone knowing that edited it out of the syndicated runs.

[@mellisande638]

Thank you, I remember that episode and my brain filled in the skeleton...I waited to see it but assumed with that scream😱 it was a little disappointing but the imagination does wonders!

[@amazingpedalkits4274]

See comment above. All my brothers and sisters say they saw the skeleton! I saw it also.

[@blanchequizno7306]

There WAS a skeleton! It was TERRIFIC!!!

[@one-step-beyond-1959]

Although interesting . . . this is still not definitive.

[@one-step-beyond-1959]

Previously, I gave considerable weight to the recollections of people who remember seeing the skeleton. But the point in the video where I expected that to have taken place (where Helga screams and where there's an awkward cut in the video) . . . doesn't seem to correspond to any likely interpretation of the script. So those arguments for the existing videos being essentially correct . . . seem stronger to me now.

[@one-step-beyond-1959]

@@carlomiller1984 We received some additional documentation about this episode from UCLA. It includes a real life incident in Mississippi that apparently inspired it. I haven't looked at that yet . . . but may make a video about it if it proves interesting.

[@blueseptember314]

Hats off to the librarians! (Speaking as one)

[@billyt6537]

The show that I watched had the Skeleton in the Glider, and I saw it a couple of times. Boy was I Freaked out. That was a Deep Episode. One Step Beyond, One of my Favorite shows Ever.

[@one-step-beyond-1959]

​@@billyt6537 Do you maybe recall when in the video you saw the skeleton (?) Was it at that point . . . where Helga looks into the cockpit and screams (?)

[@kathyj6070]

Hmmm, Mandella syndrome?

[@candyflair7946]

👍

[@arliesam217]

Thank you but I dunno if I'd wanna see Hans though to creepy

[@themobseat]

There's no point in editing out the skeleton. Even when this aired, a skeleton wasn't considered unfit for TV. There's also no point in the woman knowing the pilot's dead, but then running up to open the plane's door and scream anyway. Thanks for the research to answer the question.

[@one-step-beyond-1959]

@The Mob Seat: People here are telling us that she only sees the skeleton after she opens the door . . . and the viewers see it only after she screams. And I think you could be underestimating what happens when a TV series goes into syndication. OSB, in its network run, was at 10pm -- adult viewing time. To sell it in syndication . . . to air during "family" hours . . . in all parts of the country (some parts being conservative) . . . they could very well have changed it. They certainly dropped at least one episode for syndication in that way -- the mushroom episode . . .

[@adamkoch3424]

I remember seeing the pilot when i watched the episode; so I think you may have a mandela effect, though it is unclear if it is your mandela effect or my mandela effect, but I'd say its definitely a mandela effect.

[@jamesmillisky494]

If the skeleton was shown in the original, then why would the narrator give such a detailed description of what she saw? Just food for thought, it seems strange for him to give a such a detailed description if the viewer already saw the skeleton.

[@one-step-beyond-1959]

We don't know. Your argument is persuasive . . . if we assume that there was just one version of this filmed. It's possible that there was more than one: an original with pilot shown (no narrator commentary) . . . and then this edited version (with narrator commentary added to explain/hide the edit).

[@user-mv9tt4st9k]

I thought the same thing about the detailed description at the end. I watched reruns of "One Step Beyond" with my dad when I was little. Maybe there were two versions, one being for markets that were more sensitive to darker content--like a skeleton landing a glider.

[@one-step-beyond-1959]

@@user-mv9tt4st9k Yes . . . lots of possibilities. As of today, we have a lead on a copy of the original 35mm film at UCLA . . . but can't access it until the pandemic is over. So the mystery continues, for the time being . . .