#20 Crybaby bridge [S3E1]

Today we review Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction season 3, episode 1! We are back with our season three premiere, baby! At the top of this episode we tweeted out for people to call in and whoever calls first gets to chat with us on the air! The group feels season three is darker and just plain crazier than before. And of course, Jonathan Frakes is as amazing and handsome as always.

Story 1: Morning Sickness—a woman has all the symptoms of pregnancy, but the tests say she’s not. Soon the doctors will make a shocking discovery.

• Frakes explained this story could have been suppressed by the medical community for years. Which makes zero sense.
• Kyle unfortunately brings up that spiders can bite people and sometimes lay their eggs inside the bite. Mark then equally unfortunately looks up pictures of said spider bites filled with eggs. Tiffany is horrified. Jesse would like to point out that this is an urban legend. 

THEN… WE GET A CALL. It’s Seth from Oklahoma (who we “offended” in an earlier episode when we made fun of Oklahoma. But it turns out Seth just likes when Oklahoma is mentioned.)

• Seth explains that he’s a huge fan of the original show, and actually heard of the podcast when Chris stalked a tweet he posted about the show years ago.
• Seth decides to play along for this story, and remembers it being an urban legion = FICTION.
• We ask Seth if he has his own personal Beyond Belief story. He explains his town had a “haunted” bridge that was near a mental institution where a woman gave birth to a child. The doctors took the baby away and drowned it in the creek under the bridge. At night you can hear crying under the bridge. He explains this was an urban legend and the sound of the car on the bridge would make a whining sound that could be mistaken for a child’s wail. Turns out this is a common urban legend called Crybaby Bridge.
• Seth tells us he hopes all the new love for the original show spawns a reboot. We hope so too, Seth!
• After Seth hangs up we all have to decide if we can trust his memory of this story.

Story 2: The Curse of Hampton Manor—after a greedy woman sells a cursed house to a couple, it’s returned back to her… but at a terrible cost.

• Jesse points out a yet another short haircut.
• Kyle recaps the episode, pointing out in the outro that Frakes mentions they’ve changed all the names and locations in this story, but then goes on to inform us it was based on the true story of the Helmsley family who bought a house in the 80’s and were bestowed with a horrible fortune.
• Jesse points out the people who lived in the Amityville Horror house recently came out and said they faked it.
• Tiffany loved the structure of this story. Jesse would have rather seen more of the family’s experience versus the real estate agent’s.
• Kyle wonders if this is just a simple coincidence.

Story 3: Wax Executioner—a woman is nearly beheaded in a wax museum, and the only apparent suspect is a executioner made of wax.

• Jesse points out the ridiculous costume of the painter.
• Jesse wonders where the supernatural source of the story is: cursed wax, a trapped soul, etc. As is, there’s no “beyond belief” motive.
• Kyle points out similar movies: House of Wax and Waxwork. Which could make this fiction.

Story 4: Blood Bank—when a nurse treats an odd patient, someone breaks into the hospital and steals blood.

• At the end they explain that they never told this story because the hospital didn’t want bad publicity. There was a VAMPIRE IN YOUR HOSPITAL!
• The nurse also said “maybe he was pretending to be a vampire because his crime would then go unreported.” Which, honestly, is a ridiculous strategy. Why would he think that this would make it go unreported?
• Kyle remembers when a girl told him she wanted to cut his chest and suck his blood. Hmm.
• Mark thinks this is way too crazy to not be true.
• Turns out vampires are our 4th biggest listenership.

Story 5: Ring Toss—a crooked con artist tricks kids out of money in ring toss, until an old man wins every time.

• Tiffany points out the POV is only from the dead carny. So who told this story?
• Mark thinks the kernel of truth is much simpler.
• Jesse thinks a crooked carny could have easily died at a carnival. He also thinks this story should be called “Conman Carnival.” Not bad.

Break: This week Chris and Mark had to sit down with the Beyond Beyond Belief HR Department to discuss their inappropriate behavior.

The story results are revealed.

• To find out which stories are fact and which are fiction… you must listen to the podcast, or check out the full episode below or on Amazon Prime!