History Series / BeyondBeliefFactOrFiction

* GuiltyUntilSomeoneElseIsGuilty: In the "Positive ID" episode, a reporter goes to the local police precinct to find a story, only to be identified as a liquor store robber, and he's even shown footage of him holding the cashier at gunpoint. After spending several hours in lockup where he doubts his own innocence, he's freed and shown the real robber who looks like him. He manages to dig up information on the robber, and it turns out [[spoiler:[[SeparatedAtBirth they are twin brothers given up for adoption]]. While the reporter was adopted by a loving couple, his brother through different foster homes, being abused all the while, until he aged out of the system.]]

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: In "For the Record", a man tells his girlfriend, "You're definitely a girl, I can vouch for that."

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: The show's premise. When a story is revealed to be "true", we are seldom told anything more than something like "according to our research, yes, a similar event did happen," so frankly, ''any'' of the stories could be true given how liberal of a definition of "similar" they used. The host would sometimes provide some vague information as to the location or time period in which the event supposedly occurred, such as "in the New York area in the 1950s," but not always.

* EveryEpisodeEnding: Creator/JonathanFrakes always delivered a pun at the end of every story with a grin, which always related to the story's theme or content. The only time he ''didn't'' do this was in the case of a woman and her daughter being reunited with the woman's [[spoiler: long-lost mother, [[UnacceptableTarget a Holocaust survivor.]]]]

* SpiritualSuccessor: To ''Series/OneStepBeyond'', which was also a GenreAnthology based on allegedly true stories of the paranornal.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: The recently deceased hero of the segment, "Where Have All The Heroes Gone" is a western actor named Lash Connors. However, several details about his life, IE a death by gunshot ruled suicide but believed by many to be murder, the fact that he died right before he was slated to make a comeback in a new TV show, and that he played a beloved character that stood for justice, seem to indicate that he was actually based on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Reeves George Reeves,]] who reportedly does still [[http://www.phantomsandmonsters.com/2010/11/tv-superman-george-reeves-still-haunts.html haunt the house where he died.]] Not unlike Lash, his spirit has also been seen in full costume. [[spoiler: Since the segment was labeled true, it would indicate that the real story was about Reeves and the writers tweaked the details to avoid any legal issues.]] His name is also likely a reference to real Western actors, Alfred "Lash" [=LaRue=] and Chuck Connors.

* AmbiguouslyEvil: The mystery man from "The Warning", who appeared to want to kill the husband, yet it if weren't for him, the man and wife would have died when the elevator crashed.

* BadassNormal: "Second Story Murder" is an interesting example, as it features a somewhat more normal event than suggest anything supernatural happened. Three circus performers do a human tower to murder their sister's abusive husband after he got away with her murder.

** There was another one about a woman's mother disappearing from a hospital room. According to ''Website/{{Snopes}}'', its centuries-old, but again ''Beyond Belief'' presented it as fact.

** In "They Towed My Car", [[spoiler:Edward, the man who wandered around town for his missing car turned out to have been the ghost of the man the trunk of that car]].
* DeathByMaterialism: One segment revolves around a crooked accountant who had a Voodoo curse placed upon him by an angry (former) client. To hide some of the money he's not reporting to his clients (or the government) he installs a [[ConcealingCanvas wall safe]] to keep it hidden from view, but would keep it open when he was alone, because of [[SicklyGreenGlow the money's mysterious green aura.]] Suddenly he starts loosing his hair in clumps, and even teeth, because [[spoiler: by installing his wall safe, he stripped the wall's lead shielding that protected him from X-ray lab next door, and he died from radiation poisoning.]]

* EvilOldFolks: Creator/AlanYoung and Marjorie Lovett in "The Diner" that own a diner who kill homeless people by poison, [[spoiler:accidentally killing their son believed to been killed during war]].

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: Most stories will end with a segment where the host, either Brolin or Frakes, suggesting there might have been some logic explanation to the supernatural events that occur. Although sometimes, the host will point out one situation that doesn't seem to have a real world solution.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: The recently deceased hero of the segment, "Where Have All The Heroes Gone" is a western actor named Lash Connors. However, several details about his life, IE a death by gunshot ruled suicide but believed by many to be murder, the fact that he died right before slated to make a comeback in a new TV show, and that he played a beloved character that stood for justice, seem to indicate that he was actually based on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Reeves George Reeves,]] who reportedly does still [[http://www.phantomsandmonsters.com/2010/11/tv-superman-george-reeves-still-haunts.html haunt the house where he died.]] Not unlike Lash, his spirit has also been seen in full costume. [[spoiler: Since the segment was labeled true, it would indicate that the real story was about Reeves and the writers tweaked the details to avoid any legal issues.]] His name is also likely a reference to real Western actors, Alfred "Lash" [=LaRue=] and Chuck Connors.

* OffingTheOffspring: At the end of "the Diner," it's revealed that one of the elderly couple's homeless [[MercyKill "master plan" victim]] was [[LongLostRelative their son, who the husband believed to have been killed]] in [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar Vietnam.]]

* UncertainDoom: The fate of Clive Kincaid at the end of "The Caller". He's last seen collapsing from yelling at [[spoiler:the ghost of his dead son]] to leave him alone, even though he's the only one who could hear him. After segment, Frakes says that was the last time he was ever heard on the radio, leaving his fate uncertain. Either he died of shock from the experience or lost his career and likely was sent to an institution.

* DeadAllAlong: In "The Getaway", [[spoiler:it turns out that Diane Lerner crashed into the boulder that she claimed to have swerved around; the kids playing in her yard and cryptically informing her that "it's time" are also revealed to have died in a bus accident the same day. They were waiting for Diane to realize/remember what had really happened, so that they could all move on together.]]

* UrbanLegends: A number of stories are based on popular urban legends, such as "killer in the backseat" and "the vanishing hitchhiker". The show shares several stories with ''Literature/ScaryStoriesToTellInTheDark'', another compendium of urban legends. Not surprising, considering the author of the Scary Stories trilogy was one of the executive producers of this series.
* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: The show's premise. When a story is revealed to be "true", we are seldom told anything more than something like "according to our research, yes, a similar event did happen," so frankly, ''any'' of the stories could be true given how liberal of a definition of "similar" they used. The host would sometimes provide some vague information as to the location or time period in which the event supposedly occurred, such as "in the New York area in the 1950s," but they often they didn't even bother with that, usually just stating something along the lines of "according to our research, yes, it happened" while providing no further information.

''Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction?'' (usually shortened to simply ''Beyond Belief'') was an anthology TV show that ran for four seasons on Creator/{{FOX}} from the years 1997-2002. Each episode featured five short stories that involved unbelievable coincidences or the paranormal, and viewers were challenged to judge which were InspiredBy real events and which were entirely fictional. The show was hosted by Creator/JamesBrolin for the first season and by ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' alumnus Creator/JonathanFrakes thereafter with Creator/DonLaFontaine as the announcer. (And yes, he does say "[[InAWorld In a world.]]") Although some of the stories, even factual ones, were extremely far-fetched, it remains a cult favorite and a great source of nostalgia for anyone who watched it during its original run.

->''"Did TropeyTheWonderDog really save CaptainSpaceDefenderOfEarth when he was TrappedByMountainLions? [[spoiler: We got you. It's fiction. We made it up. Not possible. No way. Not a chance. It's false. A total fabrication made up by a writer."'']]

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''Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction?'' (usually shortened to simply ''Beyond Belief'') was an anthology TV show that ran for four seasons on Creator/{{FOX}} from the years 1997-2002. Each episode featured five short stories that involved unbelievable coincidences or the paranormal, and viewers were challenged to judge which were InspiredBy real events and which were entirely fictional. The show was hosted by James Brolin for the first season and by ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' alumnus Creator/JonathanFrakes thereafter with Creator/DonLaFontaine as the announcer. (And yes, he does say "[[InAWorld In a world.]]") Although some of the stories, even factual ones, were extremely far-fetched, it remains a cult favorite and a great source of nostalgia for anyone who watched it during its original run.

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Lee_III Henry Lee]] (aka Lighthorse Harry, the Revolutionary War hero, Governor of Virginia and father of Robert E. Lee) and his wife Anne are the main characters of "The Burial." [[spoiler:Frank and Jesse James]] appear in "Mysterious Strangers." Other stories feature NoCelebritiesWereHarmed versions of historical/entertainment figures.

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: A few episodes feature depictions (whether in life or as ghosts) of real people, including Billy the Kid and Frank and Jesse James. Other stories feature NoCelebritiesWereHarmed versions of historical/entertainment figures.

* AbusiveParents: The deceased stepdaughter in "Secret of the Family Tomb" was revealed to have run away because her biological mother was horribly abusive to her, which led to her running away and dying. After the mother passed away, both put into her stepfather's family tomb, where strange activity causes destruction that leads to graffiti reading "Not Here". [[spoiler:The pastor from the burial reveals the information of the beating to the policeman involved and believes the destruction is the daughter being unable to rest in peace with her mother by her side. After removing the mother from her husband's family tomb, all activity ended.]]

''Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction?'' (usually shortened to simply ''Beyond Belief'') was an anthology TV show that ran for four seasons on Creator/{{FOX}} from the years 1997-2002. Each episode featured five short stories that involved unbelievable coincidences or the paranormal, and viewers were challenged to judge which were InspiredBy real events and which were entirely fictional. The show was hosted by James Brolin for the first season and by ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' alumnus Creator/JonathanFrakes thereafter with Creator/DonLaFontaine as the announcer. (And yes, he does say "In a world.") Although some of the stories, even factual ones, were extremely far-fetched, it remains a cult favorite and a great source of nostalgia for anyone who watched it during its original run.