One Step Beyond - The Final Chapters coming from Mill Creek Entertainment (1 Viewer)

[tanaleaf]

Thanks, Tom -- I'll look for that episode.

I have noticed, in my limited viewing so far, that there is certainly more incidental music by Lubin in OSB as a whole than is represented on the soundtrack CD (or LP) -- music underscoring all sorts of moods and moments. But so far, I haven't come upon any additional tracks of the specifically "spooky/creepy" sort in any of the episodes I've viewed thus far.

I guess I'm a little surprised, since I went into OSB already familiar with the seemingly much broader range of hauntingly spectral music Lubin provided for OUTER LIMITS's second season. In the course of those 49 OL episodes, Lubin composed a fair number of distinct "eerie" themes and motifs (think "Wolf 359," "Counterweight," "Keeper of the Purple Twilight," "Demon With a Glass Hand," etc.).

I suppose I was hoping to find a somewhat similar range and variety of such ethereal music somewhere among the 96 episodes of OSB. Maybe it's there, and I just haven't run across it yet. But so far, at least, it just seems like those two tracks I mentioned ("Fear" and "Weird," both of which are on the soundtrack album) are all there is. I hope I'm wrong, and there's more....

 

[todd s]

So did we ever find out if the Mill Creek release has the missing episodes and is the complete series??

 

[Larry Tate]

If i read it correctly what is on the Mill Creek Site is the 50 episode DVD set not the cancelled DVD set which contained the remaining 47 episodes.

So we are still in the Dark as to when or if they will reactivate that release that was cancelled last spring.

Larry Tate

 

[Bob Hug]

I suspect the hold-up on the remaining 47 episodes may lie with the show's public domain status, or lack thereof. While most of the episodes of "One Step Beyond" are in the public domain there are at least a dozen episodes, perhaps more, that are still under copyright and would have to be licensed from the copyright owner. Although most of Mill Creek's DVD releases are of the public domain variety, they have licensed some TV shows here and there ("Philip Marlowe," "Howdy Doody"). Possibly they are pursuing licensing of the copyrighted episodes. The other possibility for them would be to release all of the remaining PD episodes and skip the copyrighted episodes.

 

[JeffT.]

It is interesting to encounter an individual who appreciates and is a fan of composer Harry Lubin which is most commendable. I myself have the selfsame mentioned ONE STEP BEYOND soundtrack CD.

I am a devout fan of the entire THE OUTER LIMITS tv series and there is still the spark of creative inspiration and innovation evident in the 17 second season (1964-65) episodes that were produced, however, in comparison with frontline talents the formidable likes of Conrad Hall and Dominic Frontiere the substantially lesser (or more limited) contributions of Kenneth Peach and Harry Lubin makes these journeyman craftsmen seem like secondary talents by stark contrast...at least in my own estimation!

I never really liked Mr. Lubin's weaker theme scoring for the second season main opening titles of THE OUTER LIMITS and the music heard in the closing titles is simply a reorchestration and reprisal of his previous ONE STEP BEYOND theme.

It would be great if all this attention focused specifically on ONE STEP BEYOND would spark an effort in a quality DVD release of this (often) exceptional and fascinating tv series. But with all the inferior public domain source materials easily accessible and in circulation chances are probably slight that such an ambitious undertaking will ever be attempted.

But who knows?

Jeff T.

 

[tanaleaf]

You know, I would not argue against Dominic Frontiere's first season OUTER LIMITS scores being, on the whole, superior in many ways to Lubin's second season OL scores.

Nor would I argue against OL's Stevens/Stefano-helmed first season itself being superior in almost every way to OL's Ben Brady-helmed second season.

But OL's second season episodes have their winners. And OL's second season music has its moments.

Compared to Frontiere, Lubin may suffer overall. But, taken on its own terms, Lubin's music has certain charms of its own -- and particularly with regard to his specifically "eerie" or "creepy" pieces (that harmonic minor stuff, those tritones, that soprano vibrato, that theremin-like timbre...). These "charms" have grown on me, and I find myself hankering for more.

I did just watch the "Message From Clara" ONE STEP BEYOND episode, and it did indeed have a *fresh* hauntingly spooky passage I had not heard before. I hope to find additional such gems as I continue making my way through the DVD set.

(Oh, and while Lubin's second-season OL theme is certainly definitely *similar* to his OSB theme, it is not simply a "re-orchestration" or a "reprise"; it's a *different* piece altogether [though admittedly very much in the same musical ballpark -- a "re-working" of the same basic approach, perhaps].)

 

[Ockeghem]

Did someone mention Harry Lubin?

I appreciate the music of both Frontiere and Lubin, for different reasons. I also realize that what one likes is often a matter of taste. For my own part, I greatly appreciate (and favor) Lubin's second season G minor closing theme to The Outer Limits much more so than I do the first season theme. I like the first season theme (for me it meanders aimlessly at times, although it is interesting orchestrally if not as ambitious harmonically); however, the second season closing theme is IMO a 'common practice period' harmonist's dream. I also like the second season closer a great deal more than the similarly-themed music composed for One Step Beyond, and the TOL variations used in (e.g.) Keeper Of the Purple Twilight during Ikar's ant-stamping tirade.

There is much to admire about that theme both melodically and harmonically -- whether it be the 'other-worldly' minor-major non-dominant seventh chord (G / B-flat / D / F-sharp) progressing to the gorgeous augmented sixth sonority (G / B-flat / C-sharp / E-flat) around which the opening ascending then descending melodic fabric is built, or the haunting dissonances created by the pungent simultaneities of E-flat and D(!) during the dominant ninth shortly before the final re-entry of the opening melody. The harmonic tension in this segment is IMO uparalleled harmonically (again, personal taste, not fact) in television theme music. And then we are given the extraordinary secondary dominant tonality (A / C-sharp / E / G), which, when contrasted with the aforementioned augmented sixth sonority, the root of which resides a tritone apart from this 'new' sonority, the contrast -- in part a result of the function of harmonic memory -- is staggering. The dominant sevenths a tritone apart, as well as the melody moving downward a tritone from G to C-sharp (during the augmented sixth = E-flat 7 and again during the secondary dominant tonality = A7) are for me what makes the theme so creative and memorable (enharmonic equivalents of C-sharp as the third degree of A and D-flat as the seventh degree of E-flat are assumed here).

One of the rhythmic subtleties that I picked up only after listening to this theme for many hours a few years ago too was the repeated figure of the high F-sharp. For years, I had thought that it was prolonged. I eventually discovered the (very subtle and gently accented) repeated notes that continue to haunt the more I hear them. The eventual resolution upward to G is almost worth the price of admission for me.

Addendum: Another element of that theme I love is the nearly seamless entry from the sound effect to the opening notes which one hears on the GNP Crescendo recording. The sound effect is similar (it may be identical?) to the sound used for the 'wave' effect that you hear as the opening credits are given after the opening music has ended, right before the Vic Perrin voiceover occurs.

It is here if anyone is interested in it:

http://mythemes.tv/series/themes/closing/outerli3.mp3

It opens this short snippet; on the GNP Crescendo recording, I believe it opens and closes the track. It is not completely seamless, but it hints strongly as to what is to come.

 

[tanaleaf]

Scott, you have a PM.

 

[Ockeghem]

Tanaleaf,

Got it, and thanks.

I once wrote to Joseph Stefano, and eventually to Dominic Frontiere. I told them both how much I appreciated their work in TOL.

I was overjoyed to see that Stefano was going to be working on the 1990s version of The Outer Limits. I like many of those episodes, but my heart will always be with the original.

Sorry to have taken this thread off topic.

I own the fifty episodes of One Step Beyond that most know about on this Board. I've worked my way through the first ten or so episodes. It's a very interesting show, and one which I don't recall a whole lot about. I saw them originally when I was very young.

 

[JeffT.]

Well I am not going to discourage anyone in their preference of the second season contribution by Harry Lubin on THE OUTER LIMITS tv series. Art is after all art! There are those who better associate their own recollections of the show with Harry Lubin's radically different scoring albeit I personally consider Dominic Frontiere's grandly majestic and more versatile compositions better representative of my own remembrances of THE OUTER LIMITS. Nothing will ever satisfactorily measure up to Mr. Frontiere's incomparable work on this classic 1960s SF tv series and I have to wonder what other brilliant orchestrations this great talent would have come up with had he remained for a second year (in addition to Joseph Stefano and Leslie Stevens).

Provided is a weblink to Harry Lubin's original ONE STEP BEYOND theme music which while possibly not exactly identical is still very similar nonetheless and served as the basis for Mr. Lubin's THE OUTER LIMITS theme:

ONE STEP BEYOND THEME (Click Here).

Jeff T.

 

[Ockeghem]

I found the theme. Nevermind.

 

[Ockeghem]

Jeff,

The link you provided worked yesterday, but for some reason it is not working this morning. Anyway, when I went searching for an alternative link, I found the following interview with John Kenneth Muir of One Step Beyond fame. I thought you (and others) might find it interesting.

John Kenneth Muir's Retro TV Files: One Step Beyond

Addendum: I found a link to the theme here:

http://www.televisiontunes.com/One_S..._-_Ending.html

 

[Ockeghem]

I posted the following in the Halloween film challenge thread, but thought there might be people who like One Step Beyond yet don't necessarily want to post in that thread.

We watched The Dead Part Of the House last night (1959).

This is a wonderful offering from this spooky series. It starred a couple of people I recall having watched (and admired) in other shows (Philip Abbott of The F.B.I. and Joanne Linville of Star Trek -- episode: The Enterprise Incident).

A man's wife dies tragically, and he is left with his daughter (she's about eight or nine). Both of them have moved to this house in which the little girl's aunt lives. The episode shows the man's deep resentment of his daughter (for whatever reasons); the child befriends the housekeeper/servant, and eventually she makes 'friends' with the ghosts of three girls who used to live in the house and who 'live' upstairs in the 'dead part of the house' (the nursery).

The adults think that the three friends she speaks to are actually three dolls that have been left behind in the aunt's house. No one believes her when she tells them that the dolls (ghosts) talk to her. However, later in the episode, she knows where a secret music box is on a very high shelf (she could not have known it was there, as it was way in the back and too high for her to reach). She also learns to dance the Charleston somehow, even though no one living taught her the dance. (This is relevant to the extent that the three girls lived in the home during the roaring '20s.) The episode takes a few twists and turns, but eventually the father realizes that he loves his little girl, and that he must somehow accept/reconcile his wife's death, but not at the expense of abandoning his daughter.

 

[Alain-Michel]

Hello All!
It's not quite a year since we all got enthralled at the prospect that Mill Creek would/could/might/perhaps/maybe issue the "Part II" sequel to the 50 episode set that many of us have in our possession.

Has there been any news or press releases in the intervening months regarding this matter!?

Many thanks and best wishes to us all,

Alain

 

[Alain-Michel]

I have just been "re-viewing" my OSB set and came across an episode in the "coming next week" segement. I was watching the episode, "Front Runner."

In the closing remarks for netx week's show, John Newland described it as, "Next week, we will visit India. Still remote, mystical, mysterious even in the jet age. We will watch a young American couple as they are swept along in a drama that could only happen in India, where the soul is considered infinite."

Does anyone recall the name of this episode? I can't recall it, and I don't recall seeing it.

Hope you all are still out there, as I know it's been a long time since we all chatted about this wonderful ABC show that most of us used to watch on t.v.

Alain

 

[Jack P]

Considering that CBS/Paramount is going to release the complete first season from the original 35mm film masters, I don't think Mill Creek or any other PD label is going to be releasing anything more.

 

[Alain-Michel]

Well, it has been a l-o-n-g 16 months since there was a post about the OSB issue from Mill Creek!


A visit to their website has nothing new regarding info.


So, as Jack P. stated above, perhaps we are at the end of the Mill Creek road!


I will check back here occasionally, in the hopes that some company will, finally, put together a complete anthology of this curious, unique and eerie series, of which there are so many dedicated fans; so many willing to purchase the complete 97 episode series.


Have a wonderful year, everyone!