Series synopsis
Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction is an American documentary mystery reality television series that premiered on FOX on May 25, 1997. It ended on September 5, 2002. It stars James Brolin, Jonathan Frakes, Lewis Smith and Pasha D. Lychnikoff.
Can you tell the difference between fact and fiction? Several stories of strange, mysterious and incredible occurrences are chronicled during each episode. It is up to the viewer to decide which stories actually happened and which were completely fabricated by the show’s writers. The answer is revealed by Jonathan Frakes at the conclusion of each episode.
Premise
Can you tell the difference between fact and fiction? Several stories of strange, mysterious and incredible occurrences are chronicled during each episode. It is up to the viewer to decide which stories actually happened and which were completely fabricated by the show’s writers. The answer is revealed by Jonathan Frakes at the conclusion of each episode.
Cast and characters
Leading cast
- James Brolin as Self - Host
- Jonathan Frakes as Self - Host
- Lewis Smith as Steven (segment "Last Man On Earth")
- Pasha D. Lychnikoff as Alec Wizowski (segment "Surveillance Camera")
- Daphne Ashbrook as Mrs. Johnson (segment "Kid in the Closet")
- Al Sapienza as John (segment "Number One with a Bullet")
- Brian Haley as Roger Parks (segment "Firestation 32")
- Danielle Nicolet as Sharon's Friend (segment "Number One with a Bullet")
Supporting cast
- Jim Metzler as Mr. Foster (segment "The Viewing")
- Thom Barry as Cal Sawyer (segment "On the Road")
- Eric Christian Olsen as Adam Foster (segment "The Viewing")
- Joe Howard as Russ Johnson (segment "The Tractor")
- Jewel Staite as Carly / Shannon (segment "The Fine Line")
- Toni Kalem as Mona Watson (segment "The Apparition")
- David Underwood as George Watson (segment "The Apparition")
- Jean St. James as Ghost (segment "The Apparition")
- Tim DeZarn as Raymond Edmondson (segment "The Electric Chair")
- Kevin Jackson as Lee Calvin (segment "The Electric Chair")
- Raymond Lynch as (segment "The Electric Chair")
- Roger Hampton as (segment "The Electric Chair")
Guest cast
- Lewis Smith as Steven (segment "Last Man On Earth")
- Pasha D. Lychnikoff as Alec Wizowski (segment "Surveillance Camera")
- Daphne Ashbrook as Mrs. Johnson (segment "Kid in the Closet")
- Al Sapienza as John (segment "Number One with a Bullet")
- Brian Haley as Roger Parks (segment "Firestation 32")
- Danielle Nicolet as Sharon's Friend (segment "Number One with a Bullet")
- Jim Metzler as Mr. Foster (segment "The Viewing")
- Thom Barry as Cal Sawyer (segment "On the Road")
- Eric Christian Olsen as Adam Foster (segment "The Viewing")
- Joe Howard as Russ Johnson (segment "The Tractor")
- Jewel Staite as Carly / Shannon (segment "The Fine Line")
- Toni Kalem as Mona Watson (segment "The Apparition")
Episodes
This series spans 5 seasons with 57 episodes.
| Season | Episodes | First aired | Last aired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Season 0 | 12 | October 31, 2021 | November 1, 2025 |
| Season 1 | 6 | May 25, 1997 | August 3, 1997 |
| Season 2 | 13 | January 23, 1998 | July 24, 1998 |
| Season 3 | 13 | January 21, 2000 | August 11, 2000 |
| Season 4 | 13 | June 27, 2002 | September 5, 2002 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lucky Numbers / Everything has its Place / Candle in the Woods / Awakening of the Gift | October 31, 2021 |
| 2 | The Guardian Angel / El Muerto / Towers / Lucky Loser / Hickey | October 30, 2022 |
| 3 | Gettysburg / The Nun / Connected / Vanished In The Woods / Noisy Neighbors | October 30, 2022 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
The Apparition / The Electric Chair / On the Road / Number One with a Bullet / Dream House A frightening image in a mirror turns out to be both a curse and a blessing for a woman; a man, facing the electric chair, gets an unlikely reprieve during his execution; a father and daughter get an improbable invitation to meet at a sentimental place; the best friend of a woman murdered by her philandering husband fires a errant revenge shot which "reappears" years later; a house hunting woman comes across a large house which exactly matches the one in her dreams. |
May 25, 1997 |
| 2 |
The Viewing / The Subway / Kid in the Closet / Justice is Served / The Tractor The son of a funeral owner gets a late night visitor who defies logic; a couple's eerie experience on the subway has life changing consequences for an elderly neighbor; a child's irrational fear of the closet leads to tragic consequences; a man on trial for killing his partner is distracted on the stand by the ghost of the deceased; a bitter man, confined to a wheelchair, is put to the test when his granddaughter gets in danger's path. |
June 1, 1997 |
| 3 |
The Prophecy / Couch Potato / Love Over The Counter / Imaginary Friend / Last Man On Earth This episode features the following cases: The Prophecy; Couch Potato; Love Over the Counter; Imaginary Friend; Last Man on Earth. |
June 8, 1997 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
The Plane / The Gun / The Portrait / The Pass / The Caller A plane flies itself and saves a man from disaster, a gun that refuses to fire on innocent people, an artist has the power to end suffering, two boys at a hospital decide to visit the morgue and one of them discovers the body of his identical twin brother, a radio psychiatrist gets calls from his deceased son whom he had abandoned years ago. |
January 23, 1998 |
| 2 |
Firestation 32 / The Computer / The Girl Next Door / The Wallet / The Woods Little Stevie Hansen is just dying to become a firefighting hero. |
January 30, 1998 |
| 3 |
The Wall / The Chalkboard / The Getaway / The Prescription / Summer Camp This episode features the following cases: The Wall; The Chalkboard; The Getaway; The Prescription; Summer Camp. |
February 6, 1998 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Morning Sickness, The Curse of Hampton Manor, Wax Executioner, Blood Bank & Ring Toss "Morning Sickness" - A girl gets all the symptoms of pregnancy, but the tests say she's not. When they do surgery they find a baby octopuss in her. "The Curse of Hampton Manor" - (true story of Helmsly manor) A greedy woman sells a cursed house to couple. After the husband loses his wife and will to live, the greedy woman gets the house and is electrocuted in the bathtub. "Wax Executioner" - A woman is almost murdered in a wax museum, and the only apparent suspect is the creepy executioner figure, that someone keeps moving, but leaves no footprints. The artist and his brother didn't want to accept the fact the executioner figure was used as the body of an evil spirit. Everytime the guillotine fell, the figures hands were on the rope. "Blood Bank" - A nurse treats a weird patient during a break in at the blood bank. She find empty bags of blood in his bathroom. Was he a vampire? "Ring Toss" - A crooked con artist tricks kids out of money in ring toss, until an old man becomes the only winner and wins everyone toys. He threatens the old man, until he has to fix the haunted house ride. They all hear him scream and found him hung with one of the rings by an electronic dummy who looked like the old man. |
January 21, 2000 |
| 2 |
One for the Road, The Music Box, Two to One, Damsel & The Horn "One For The Road" - A truck driver is in his favorite diner and meets a friend of his. Everyone in the truck stop thinks the truck driver is acting strange. Later the truck driver finds out that the friend he was talking too was killed in an accident earlier in the day. "The Music Box" - Two women were shopping and one woman discovered a special music box that reminded her of a lost love. When she found out it did not work she decided not to buy it. When having second thoughts and returns to buy it only to find out that her lost love was there and bought the item for her birthday and now the music box began to work. "Two to One" - A man pawns his grandfathers watch for extra cash. When borrowing the money from a friend he returns to get the watch back only to find out they sold it the day before. That night the guy had a dream that the pawn shop lied to him and had the watch and a robber was going to steal it. The guy turned to the store to find things happened like his dream to only this time he got his watch back. "Damsel" - A woman looking for that special an in her life goes to a fortune teller to find out that she was looking too hard and that the special man would find her. A few days later the woman spots a good looking hitchhiker and assuming this was her man which turns out to be a killer. During the attack a hikers comes from the woods and saves her and he turns out to be the man that finds her. The man also turns out to the son of the fortune teller. "The Horn" - A mortician visits his friend an antique dealer and discovers a special item called a death horn. The mortician makes a bet with the dealer that he could not sell an item associated with death. The dealer loses the bet and the mortician arrives to collect on the bet and find no one in the shop. At the last minute the mortician hears the death horn and discovers the dealer has a heart attack and saves his life. |
May 26, 2000 |
| 3 |
The Find, The Golden Cue, The FBI Story, The Gravedigger's Nemesis & Last Rites "The Find" - A newlywed couple run across an old motorcycle. The motorcycle is an out of production mint condition classic bike. The man takes a joy ride on the bike and hits a woman that disappears along with the motorcycle. The EMT describes the same accident the man had but it happened 54 years before to a young couple and the man was the only one to ever ride the bike which they believed that they released the spirits. "The Golden Cue" - An older man purchased a pool hall only to lose it to the young pool hustler. The old man stays around sweeping floors. The owner gets mad at the old man for talking about the golden cue while he was shooting. At closing time a strange man enters the pool hall and challenges the owner. The owner keeps running the table until the stranger makes one final bet for the pool hall. The stranger takes down the golden cue, breaks and sinks the 9 ball. The stranger turns out to be a legendary pool hustler that quit pool 15 years before because he went blind. "The FBI Story" - A young local cop had a dream of becoming an FBI agent. The young cop was accepted to the FBI academy and then disappeared on his way to the acedemy with some money. 5 Years later an FBI agent arrives in town to investigate a counterfeit ring. The sheriff starts to suspect the FBI agent and asks him along on a body that was found in the swamp. The body was the young cop and the FBI agent confesses that he killed the young cop. In the attempt to flee the swamp the FBI agent was sucked into the bog and died. "The Gravedigger's Nemesis" - Two young boys hire on as grave diggers and work for an evil grounds keeper. The two boys and grounds keeper hear and see an old woman. The old woman haunts the grounds keeper until he dies in the old woman's grave. "Last Rites" - A woman is called into an attorneys office because she attended a funeral. The women was there researching the artwork of the cemetery. The woman sees the chapel and decides to enter. While inside she finds out it is a funeral and she stayed because no one else showed up. The lawyer informs the woman that she gets the dead man's estate of 34 million dollars do to the fact she was the only one who showed up for the funeral. |
June 2, 2000 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
The Devil's Autograph, Mail Order Degree, The News Stand, The Murder of Roy Hennessey & Mysterious Strangers "The Devil's Autograph" - A man lies about not murdering his wife, and was not guilt in the court of law. The man told his lawyer after the case he murdered his wife, and gave him his $1,500.00 pen. The lawyer chased the man into the elevator and told him he didn't want anything of his, and he would get the devil's autograph, but the man just laughed it off. The elevator door shut him in, and he fell to the floor and the pen went through his heart. "Mail Order Degree" - A business man made a lot of money off of cheating people and scams off of his commercials. He had so much money, that he had to hide it behind a hidden door behind his work chair. A few days later, the business man started feeling drastically sick, but one day his secretary found him dead and almost bald in his chair. It ended up that the room he hid his money in was filled with radiation, and died of radiation poisoning. "The News Stand" - One day, a poor fifteen year old teenager found a book of "Mysterious tales" under a garbage can in perfect condition, so he went to a news-stand to trade it in for $20.00 cash, and the news man's sandwich. The man hires him to work at the news-stand, and was really good to the teenager, and he started trusting the teenager so much, that he let him run the stand alone for sometimes days at a time. After not appearing for a week, the teen received his answer by a man in a cloak saying the man was diagnosed with a tumor in his head six months beforehand, and gave the boy a note. The note revealed that the news-stand man was his father that beat him, and he was sorry, so he gave him everything he earned in his life. "The Murder Of Roy Hennessey" - Two girls were doing a project in a cemetery, and see a man run out of the cemetery with a handgun. After his departure, the girls ran to see what he shot, he shot a man and the man was in critical condition - almost to the point of death. The man's last words were "Tell them that Roy Hennessey was killed by Jerry Fletcher. Tell them! Tell them!". The girls told the police the story, but when the police went to investigate the man's dead body, it was nowhere to be found. The police had Jerry Fletcher in the police car, because Jerry had ended up robbing someone's house and was in police custody for seventy-two hours. It turns out the girls saw a murder that took place two years beforehand. "Mysterious Strangers" - Two wet men showed up at an old's lady named Zorelda's house one evening. The asked if they could step in near the fire, so she accepted and told them to change out of their wet clothes and into her husband's clothes. She told them about the death of her husband, and how she had to borrow $900.00 to pay her mortgage. The next morning, Zorelda work up and discovered the two men not there, but a note that said "Here is $900.00 in nine $100.00 bills", so when the banker came to her house, she gave him the $900.00 bills. When the banker left her house, two men robbed him and took off their masks, and they ended up being the two wet men that ended at at Zorelda's house the night before and revealed themselves as Frank and Jesse James. |
June 27, 2002 |
| 2 |
Writer's Agent, Crypt Ghost, The Doll, Hubert's Curse & Shared Vision "Writer's Agent" - A writing agent promised to give his client, Mary-Jane Layden, a deal to get her book, "Love Tides" published, but he wanted her to give him $2,500.00. She refused, saying she already gave him $12,000.00. They started fighting for a little while, until the writing agent pushed her to the floor and she died. The man hid her body beneath the company's plants, and took off. The... |
June 27, 2002 |
| 3 |
Out of Service, When I Was Big, The Greedy Investor, Seven Hours of Bad Luck & The Secret of the Coins "Out Of Service" - A boyfriend and girlfriend (businessmen) are spending three nights of camping with each other, until the girlfriend tells the man that there was a man missing and a killer on the loose. Naturally, the man wants to leave the woods but she persuades him to stay. The next day, they wake up and take a walk in the woods trying to not remember about the killer, but then they spot... |
July 4, 2002 |
Production
Release
| Original network/platform | FOX |
|---|---|
| First aired | May 25, 1997 |
| Last aired | September 5, 2002 |
| Runtime | 43 minutes |
| Status | ended |
| Schedule | Wednesday at 20:00:00 |