Old-School TV: One Step Beyond- The Aerialist

It's not the TNT Show- sorry.  Instead, let's jump back nearly 60 years, which is just...

Today, we learn the story of...OH GOD- It's It!  It truly has lived forever!

Just do the Math- this is from 1959 and the Book came out in 1986.  27 Years!  Math!!!!

...anyways, we see the tale of some Aerialists, a fancy word for Acrobats.  It's a family job, but there is bickering and in-fighting, especially between Father and Son.

They perform that night and all goes well, until they take the net down and Son loses his grip on Dad!

In the aftermath, the Dad is comatose, but alive.  The Son can't go on performing and tries to make a new life.

When all that slowly falls apart, he decides that he needs penance and goes to commit suicide via Aerialist Activities.  That's a new sentence for the 'I never thought I'd write that' collection.

As he falls, a pair of hands catches him!  They are that of his Father and he is swung back to safety, just before his Brother shows up to see it.

The Son finally goes to see his Father and confirms that he's still comatose.  His body managed to translocate itself to save him though.  Science!

A serious and somewhat bleak one.  This one is oddly-done as it plays out mostly just as a Drama.  We get lots of tension, lots of emoting and lots of arguing.  I kept waiting for the big hook.  It does finally come, but it is brief.  It's not bad per se- just different.  Just picture the most famous Twilight Zone Episodes and then imagine if nothing weird happened until the last five minutes.  For example, you just see Burgess Meredith going through his day and being upset.  When the Episode is nearly up, boom- he goes in that Shelter.  That said, the Episode gets a pretty big pass on this since, you know, TV was literally a new thing.  Many Shows were still taped live and acted out more like Plays than Films or what we would think of as TV.  If this is your first exposure to the Show, it would be an odd one.  I did still like it though and I got to see a somewhat-outdated Credit used to boot...

Next time, it is cliché city (but not in 1959!) as we get creaky floors and a ghost.  How will this age?  See you then...