A Walk Through The Night Gallery: the Often Forgotten Successor of Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 ต.ค. 2024
- This is my comprehensive review of "Night Gallery" the anthology horror show that ran from 1969-1973 and was hosted by Rod Serling, the creator of "The Twilight Zone".
Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.
The Cemetery from the pilot, by far the scariest episode ever.
Cream of the crop actors... I loved this show... I particularly recall the episode "The Big Surprise" starring John Carradine... it had a great ending scene.
I agree. That episode stood out to me, also.
@@carolanndenton5933 No, that's the one with Roddy McDowell yelling, "Portefoy! This picture has been altered!" "Big Surprise", creepy old John Carradine has kids digging to find a "Big Surprise". It's a big surprise, alright!
My all time favorite is "A Feast of Blood". I saw it when I was real young and it really stuck with me...
"Cool Air" was an adaptation of the H. P. Lovecraft story of the same name.
Such an underrated show, I also own the entire series. My favorite segment is probably a Feast of Blood. I just consider the tale so brutal and Macabre compares to others, and Sheila really doesn't deserve her fate. I can't help but love it.
The caterpillar got me
Green Fingers scared the living hell out of me as a kid
Me too !!!!!!
I had lot of female relatives on my Grandmother's side raised on farms. All naturally had Green Fingers.
😂😂😂😂@@paulhunter6742
Ditto. My Mom liked that episode, because the old woman was Elsa Lanchester AKA the Bride of Frankenstein.
FYI, actually, his name was Rod SERLING, not "Sterling."
I was just gonna say.....
This is one of the first TV shows I can remember watching.
The most memorable episode to me, as a young boy back then, was the one where a little boy can predict the future..It starred Clint Howard as the seer.. The ending leave me an ever lasting impression...Love it.
I feel the same way!
It has been a reference point for me in a few conversations along the way!
ArteJohnson in deejay booth
No one ever mentions it , but I always assumed that the true meaning behind the caterpillar episode was intended to be psychosomatic and not actually real. That there actually was no physical caterpillar, but that he was tricked into believing it's existence. Otherwise the storyline wouldn't really make any sense at all . First of all an earwig eating it's way through the brain wouldn't be possible, second the idea of someone entering the wrong room would have been feasible if the intended victim were a single man, but considering that the culprit would have noticed that there's no woman in the bed would have been obvious that he had entered the wrong room, and the fact that the doctor openly admitted in public that he chose to just let the man suffer instead of making any effort to destroy the eggs would land him in prison and his career would be over
Thank you for pointing this out-you make some very good points.
Righto. It's a creepy episode, but even as a 12-year-old I knew A) ears don't go to the brain, they go to the throat through the Eustachian tubes and B) the brain itself has no feeling.
Episodes with Werner Klemperer and Francis Lederer are favorites.
They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar is a close look at how nostalgia can warp human perspective and cut someone off from those around. It's not horror per se, but the midlife crisis Randy is experiencing is. By the way, his wife did not leave him; she died.
Thank you for pointing out that crucial fact.
In addition to being from an unproduced script left over from "The Twilight Zone", "Tearing Down Tim Reillys' Bar" was also the last time Rod Serling was up for an Emmy "
Sorry for the lower picture quality I tried to get that fixed but if you're seeing this then I hope you enjoyed the video anyways
You better watch that Dark Boy joke man. You don't wanna get poked flagged or reported or whatever they do on youtube
@@lukeharbolt7681 Stop it with your ignorance. Can't you see they're trying to run a legitimate channel for the viewers enjoyment? They don't need people like you to screw things up for them when all they're trying to do is provide an enjoyable service. Beat it, and take your foolishness elsewhere. Get lost.
I am. No problem. It's Night Gallery
That’s Rod SERLING!
i have most of this series being an old Twilight Zone fan and your comments here are right on the money and greatly appreciated. I like how you defined the episodes into categories
... very interesting and well done.
3:46 He was on Star Trek and played the Vampire on the original Kolchak The Night Stalker movie in 1972 !
Barry Atwater! Appeared in The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street and was unforgettable as Vegas- prowling undead Jonas Skorzeny!
Why do you call him Sterling? It's Serling....
If your forty five or older it's just a habit. I think also because it sounds more appropriate since he's Jews? I don't know maybe there's something else I'm missing. It's not a big deal it's just showing you're age.
Serling. Sterling. Tomato. Tomoto. Potato. Potatoe.
Some people have no attention to detail, that’s what’s driving the whole Mandela effect movement.
@@markgreene1162 what does age have to do with it? More like ignorance.
@@RobGa66 what if your name was Dick? Rick Dick tomato tomato what idiocy
I just subbed. Deliveries in the rear is actually historically correct. Doctors used to pay grave robbers in the Victorian age England for cadavers to use in medical study use. So I really can't call it morally grey or bad writing.
The Night Gallery was far better known in Hong Kong than the Twilight Zone in the early 1970's.
Clarification: The series began life with the 1969 pilot TV movie, original NBC airdate: Saturday, November 8, 1969. Then the first season came in the Fall of 1970, the series was canceled in the Spring of 1973. So 1968 wasn't the year it started. The final season of 1972-1973 was when it was cut from an hour to a half-hour.
Not a great series but it was the best thing on TV at the time; I remember waiting until 11pm on channel 40 for each episode. We actually watched this together.
Very true. Also the Midnight Special concert series.
Couple of comments...
Serling's original script for Clean Kills had no supernatural elements to it. The son ended up killing the father, cut off his head and mounted it. It was deemed too much for network TV at time.
The Sixth Sense wasn't a Serling show, nor was it an anthology. It starred Gary Collins as a psychic investigator looking into different cases each week.
It was evident
The son didn’t kill his father. After his father forces him to go hunting, he comes home and the butler, who was brought over from Africa by his father, chants some spells and the next scene we see is his father’s head mounted to the wall. The servant did it, not the son.
@carolynholody9281 the son killed the father in Serling's original script. The network rejected this, and it was changed prior to filming
Peter Whitney's last role was as a gravedigger in 1972 .Whitney died shortly after the episode with Cornell Wilde.Whitney payed a ruthless captain in a 1953 episode of Superman where smugglers made their own treasure.He was also on Bonanza in 1960 and The Beverly Hillbillies in 1963. Whitney seemed ill in the Night Gallery episode in 1972 when he was only 54 .
Man … I saw a vid just like this a couple weeks ago and bought the whole series on DVD for 14 bucks on Amazon , TOTALLY worth it .. I mean it’s like 80% 70s BS BUT … that other 20% is pure GOLD.. and I mean they all don’t SUCK they’re just not the twilight zone by any means , I remember my grandad watching it but I didn’t remember ANYTHING about it besides Rod Serling … great show!!
The Twilight Zone had some real "dogs" in it, too, as Serling called them. The difference is that even when the Twilight Zone was bad, it managed to avoid being comically bad (and it remained interesting). And unfortunately, instead of going with the classical music of the Twilight Zone (which defies era), they went with wild, twangy, sometimes disco-type 70s music, and that dated the show horribly. But the ones Serling did, he gave the show a proper vibe and atmosphere. Laird didn't seem to know how to do that.
I get the sense that the network saw it as meaningless pulp and just wanted to make it as wild and gimmicky as possible, seeing it as a quick buck and not something that would stand the test of time. But when you get episodes like The Cemetery, The Waiting Room, Class of '99, and They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar, you can see what the series could have been if they'd gone with Serling's vision and spent a little more money on effects and better music.
@@ko7577 that’s a pretty fair assessment all around and I have to say I agree with every point you made. Especially the point about the network not wanting to put much effort into it , it felt like they just wanted cash in on Serlings face prefacing each segment and not thinking at all about the show ever having any life outside of when it originally aired in the 70s.
Also, I think maybe I sounded a little too harsh of a critic in my first comment I really DID enjoy the whole Night Gallery series for what it was even the not so great episodes and I guess it was unfair to compare it to The Twilight Zone because they are two very different shows and productions. I would definitely recommend anyone that enjoyed twilight zone to check out night gallery 100% but also to know going into it they are two very different shows despite their similarities. Great stuff though for sure even in all of its dated 70s glory and camp
@@MrJermeyp Thanks for going into it more, too, I love to talk about Night Gallery! I view the show as Serling's final messages to earth before departing from it. He died just two years after it went off the air. So when we watch Night Gallery and catch those few gems where his voice gets through the cheap network effects and Laird's goofy gimmicks, we are watching the final words of a dying man and a man who still had very important things to say. It's his goodbye. So it makes wading through all the horrible ones worth it to find those rare moments where you can hear Serling's voice get through one more time.
I will say this about 70s TV: I was born in 1975. So my first memories of TV are the late 70s. And I still to this day, it's the only era of television I can't watch and that I can't relate to at all. Maybe it's where they were just first experimenting with color, and they went overboard with it, maybe it's the disco music that never came back, or the over-the-top hairstyles, but something about 70s TV always comes across as cheap and campy like you said. And Night Gallery is a gem buried in that era. I'd say maybe 15 of them - All Serling episodes - would hold up today and could be remade.
I've always thought it a shame that networks keep remaking Twilight Zones. Why? Throw some money at Night Gallery. It was such a cooler concept and in Serling's hands could have been something wonderful. So take his parting words to humanity and redo that thing the way it should have been done in the 70s. It would be amazing to see.
@@ko7577 Very good points. I was born in 1969, so I can remember TV shows from around 1975 and after.
I agree that most of 70's TV usually come across as cheap and campy. However, 2 exceptions come to mind, which are "Hawaii Five O" and "Kung Fu" starring David Carradine. I recently bought the DVD sets to those, as well as 'Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" and "BattleStar Galactica".
The only reason I watch "Buck Rogers" is to see the gorgeous Erin Gray, and to hear Twiki say "Bidi Bidi Bidi Bidi" and then walk around the house saying it to drive my wife crazy. LoL
"BattleStar Galactica" is actually pretty good, but not on the same level as "Kung Fu" or "Hawaii Five O". Just my humble opinion.
"Pickman's Model" gave me a few nightmares. I lived in a very old house. I was a bit leery of going into the basement. "They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar" was very well-acted by William Windom. That episode came to mind when my old bar; where I worked as a bartender; was razed and converted into parking lot.
You have lived a fairly intriguing life.
Night Gallery wasn't Twilight Zone, but managed to be an excellent series despite network/studio interference. I understand Rod Serlings (note his names correct spelling) unhappiness, but he didn't give himself enough credit regardless. Rod had a good eye for other writer's tales which made good adaptions. Writers whose stories were adapted include Conrad Aiken, August Derleth, Fritz Leiber, Jr., H P Lovecraft of course, and A.E. Van Vogt, among others. I believe Night Gallery represents Rod Serling's darker imagination, though. Serling was haunted by a fear that his talent would someday run out.
PS "Green Fingers" has haunted me for over 50 years now.👻
Big Surprise w/John Carradine (top notch horror)
Sterling?! His name is Rod SERling! Not Sterling! He's a writer, not made of silver!
Agreed! It’s hard to take a presentation like this seriously when you can’t get Rod Serling’s name right! Many people on this thread have dismissed this VERY annoying and disrespectful error as “no big deal”. Well, I’m sorry but it is a big deal! If you’re going to take the time and care to mount this type of project, which by the way is an acceptable critical analysis, then for god’s sake, get the effing name right! Serling was an undisputed genius and master of the television medium. His name is presented in big block letters during the credits of every episode. Sterling??!!! For god’s sake, go easy on the vermouth!
@@seank.9764 It would be like critiquing Shakespeare and calling him Shakesbeer. If you don't even care enough about your subject to get his name right, don't critique.
I WAS FIVE IN 68, and the ageing painting scared the life out of me. the haunted arts an crafts shop was terrifying, matter of fact i put off so much fear energy it attracted a spirit who slamed doors and windows in our home.
The real problem with "The Little Black Bag" was the gender of the oppositional character. It was Angie, the doctor's nurse in Cyril Kornbluth's story. Turning off the bag, and Angie's non-intentional suicide in front of a prospective plastic surgery patient was the end of the story. I believe it ended, "she slit her throat". But I still appreciated that the story had been dramatized. Most of your critique is criticizing a translation for faults of the original.
I love the show too and appreciate your video and commentary - one thing to note is that Rod Serling is not pronounced as "Sterling". Thanks
Rod Serling did not have creative control over this show. They just used his face and had him narrate. That had to bother him a lot.
By the third season, he'd lost control of the show, but you can see him fighting to make it great in season 2. Midnight Never Ends, The Waiting Room, Class of '99, you can see him hitting his stride, but every time he does, a Jack Laird comedy sketch comes in and ruins the entire thing. By season 3, they'd cut him out of things and were giving almost full control to Laird, and the results showed.
I read that Serling thought because of his reputation in the industry, they'd just give him control without an official executive producer title, and he soon learned differently. Night Gallery could have been every bit as good as Twilight Zone if the network had retained faith in Serling and given him the power he needed to control the show. The 4 episodes in one format was a disaster, too. It didn't allow for the better stories to set the tone and then fully play out. "Rushed" is how I'd describe Night Gallery. But the classic ones, the ones Serling did, those are every bit as good as Twilight Zone, just shorter.
Love.this show watch it every sat.
THIS WAS BEST I EVER SAW YET!
I love "Night Gallery" and watched it first run with my dad, who admired Rod Serling. I enjoyed your analysis of the series. I must disagree with you about "Brenda", which I have always found chilling and disturbing. I believe this is about a budding psychopathic child. She finds a strange entity or monster, but the question is, who is REALLY the monster here? I don't think they are urging sympathy for this child at all: the drama illustrates that she is a bad seed, just starting on an evil, cruel career. That's my 2 cents, anyway.
I wasn't surprised he rated it so low (it is low on other lists too), and your idea certainly 'uses' the creature as a metaphor which makes sense. I really liked the episode, thought she played a strange kid with extreme emotions very believably. Good acting. But my take on the episode says something about me: I was very empathetic for the creature, it seemed to have done no harm (but presumably would have?) and yet got trapped in a pit and encased in rocks for eternity through no fault of its own. I need to watch it again, the ending is quite sad for everyone/thing
@@jamesrav I agree! A really interesting and disturbing episode. I like your take on it.
@@SMtWalkerS I guess it was time to watch it again, I seem to do so every 10 years. One thing I noticed this time was during the first 'chase' scene, the thing seems to either give up due to being tired, or is 'dejected' that she is scared and stays well ahead of it. It slouches over quite noticeably and stops, I wonder what the intent was. Sad or tired?. The ending scene is just as baffling as ever, although this time I got the impression that the thing sent her a mental message, since she excitedly says "Yes, yes !". Or did she just come to some conclusion on her own? I guess that's what makes it intriguing. Apparently a well-known female author (margaret st. clair) wrote the short story, some guy has a site 'reviewing' the short story. He's also baffled as to what the 'born' references mean. Definitely not your run-of-the-mill episode.
@@jamesrav Definitely. It's been awhile since I watched it; time for a re-watch. I will look for those things you pointed out. A good "put on your thinking cap" kind of episode.
Just a correction, 'The Sixth Sense' had nothing to do with Rod Serling.
The maid in hell's bells makes me smile every time.
I really disagree about "Brenda". It is faulted and ambiguous, but the ending is what saves it. The actress (Laurie Prange) seems to get into the zone, and I'm always moved by it. The thing to remember about Night Gallery is that the episodes vary quite a bit, and some are quite bad. "Logoda's Heads" is an example of a very bad episode. Many episodes have faults but are still quite good, and "Brenda" is an example of this. The 3rd season is a big decline in quality, overall.
Not part of Night Gallery, but an example of how an original short story can be modified by later screen writers for the good, or bad, is "Who Goes There" by John Campbell, Jr. This was the inspiration for "The Thing from Another World." The idea, from the title, is that the creature could be a "shape shifter" able to fool humans into thinking it was also human. That is lost on the 1951 movie, but John Carpenter's THING definitely picks up on this.
"The Sixth Sense" (integrated into the syndicated package of "Night Gallery") wasn't a product of Rod Serling; it was a faiiled one season series from Universal TV, used to extended the syndication package of NG.
I didn’t like The Sixth Sense- I thought it was lame.
Starring Gary Collins as the psychic Dr. Rhodes. Aired on ABC for the 1972-1973 season.
True enough.
The syndication of Night Gallery was a chop shop in every way. They cut out so much of the good parts that some of the episodes don't even look recognizable.
my favorite episode is the tune in dans cafe i have the serries 🙂
Jeeeez! I loved this dang show!!!❤️🤧😁 Back in the day, it was ketchup and Geraldine Page on everything fer me, please.
I’m reminded of her maniacal cackling in Whatever Happened To Aunt Alice!
You know his name is Serling, NOT Sterling
I forgot how many well-known actors appeared. Although the long list became VERY tedious. 4:00 long, and it seems padded, suss.
This was my start into the Macabre as a kid
I love Night Gallery and have many favorite episodes/segments........although I would like to comment on a couple of stories that I don't care for, but seem to get high marks from many fans of this series 'They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar' is well acted but I don't think it's that great...it's more of a 'self-pitying piece' by Rod Serling- I think he was really experincing that in his personal life.......and 'Dead Weight' I think that is about the worst Night Gallery story....and yet some fans of the series go on about how 'brilliant' that segment is
Tim Riley’s Bar is very reminiscent of one of Serling’s early gems Patterns which also focused on an older person facing the inevitability of their own obsolescence. Another theme he loved to explore was the idea that you can never go back. Remember the TZ episode Walking Distance with Gig Young? The magic of childhood is impossible to recover. Such a sad reality for so many of us!
His name was Rod Serling not Rod Sterling.
Post PS Phantom Farmhouse is strange cheesy and just plain AWESOME. David Carradine is and always will be the man
Thank you my one like.
It's adapted from a vintage pulp magazine tale by Seabury Quinn, (1889-1969).
I remember it well.
And now, Mr Serling
Great show,70's style.
Should have lasted longer .
Let's not forget, Night Gallary only featured Rod Serling did not have creative control over Night Gallary. As Scott Zicree notes in his book, The Twilight zone companion:
"In agreeing to do Night Gallary, Serling made a sisable error in judgement. From the outset, he had no intention of having anything to do with the production end of the series (in 1969 he'd said, "There's not enough money in the world to take a guy over forty and make him go through that grind again-that is, at least not me") but he did assume that the producers would defere to him in matters of policy, seeing as how the show was billed as "Rod Serling's Night Gallery."
Such was not the case, Time and time again, the producers sacrificed quality for shock value. Night Gallary quickly became exactly what Serling had so desperately tried to avoid when he had rejected Tom Moore's Witches, Warloocks and Warewolves proposa five years ago. "On Twilight zone I took the bows but I also took the brickbats, and peoperly, because when it was bad it was usuallly my fault." Serling said, "But when it was bad on Gallery, I had nothing to do with it -yet my face was on it all the time. . ." Page 434, (c) 1982,1989 The Twilight Zone Companion 2nd edition Marc Scott Zicree
It's Serling, not Sterling goddammit!
lol
I had a crush on Joanna Pettit when I was a kid. Still do at 56. She was so beautiful!
There are no shows like this any more. Shame
There's probably loads, I'm not too well versed in modern horror anthologies and even I still know there's creepshow and the twilight zone remake but from what I've seen of new ones, I wish there wasn't still shows like this. lol
Weiredest was the house the woman dreamed of herself ***strange &odd
"Silent Snow, Secret Snow" by Conrad Aiken
Is it clear why "The Caterpillar" is called that, instead of "The Earwig," which is the insect that is placed in the ear? Also, take a closeup of an earwig. They have large pincers on their tail, which adds to the reason why the insect couldn't just back out of his brain easily. *I don't recall noticing earwigs at home until after I saw this episode of Night Gallery, and then I thought them hideous.
This TH-cam segment brought to you by the word, caveat.
I have this show on dvd and I am currently watching it. I just started watching season 2, and the show is a bit of a disappointment. So far, the opening has been the scariest thing. However, there were some big name actors/actresses who appeared on the show. Joan Crawford, Patty Duke, Sally Field, Dean Stockwell, Vincent Price, Bill Bixby just to name a few. As I watch each episode, I look the episode up on IMDB and check about the cast.
None of these are morality plays , they show the horror of the story.
It's SERLING, not Sterling, dammit!
Yeah, many of those old episodes were obtuse and just plain weird. My absolute favorite Night Gallery episode was The House as it contained a kind of nested reality theme
Why do a whole video that just critiques the creativity of this show? You trash all of these episodes for their shortcomings when there was no other programming like it on tv back in the late 60s early 70s? Serling would be the first to admit to the weaknesses of the Night Gallery and he lost all creative input into the show by the end of its 3 year run anyway. Serling would also admit that his writing style did not age well in the sense that his love for dialogue sometimes trumped the plot of the story. Sometimes Serling just talked too much! It’s rare for Hollywood writers today to emphasize the dialogue over the action. Great example is Breaking Bad which had very few (if any) monologues and relied extensively on the action of the scene it was depicting. Serling is a time capsule and belongs to another time and place in this history of tv. Jack Laird screwed around with the production of NG and mostly worsened the quality of the episodes. There are some that are still good and hold up, like the kid who predicted earthquakes. In any event I would have preferred a video of you describing the best episodes of the series instead of the worst.
If you watch the whole video you just might find what you were looking for
Serling. Not Sterling.
Interesting analysis...but the guy repeatedly mispronounces Rod Serling's name as "Rod Sterling"!
I think you ve missed much of the suBtlety of these episodes. You keep mentioning that the stories are simple. Well what do you expect from a sixteen minute episode. You ve gotta put the meat in the sandwich cause the customer s in a hurry. This show and of course twilight zone were MILES ABOVE anything else on TV at the time. Viz Family affair the Brady bunch gilligan s island. Why do you think such distinguished writers and actors vied to be in numerous episodes. One of the HUGE fights between rod serling and his directors and the producer jack laird who was admittedly an oddball was over creative control which serling lacked to a great extent in this series. Laird was infamous for rewrites blocking and even casting minutes before the show was recorded. I am positive jack laird killed rod serling with a heart attack resulting from the stress from those last few years of working with him. Serling was a perfectionist. Laird was a rewrite the whole piece in six hours introduce two new characters put a new coat of paint on it rely on pro versatile actors and get it in the can by six o clock. Whew. Next. The odd couple. . Rod born Dec 25th 1924. Died of a heart attack June 28th 1975 aged 50. Not recommended by four out of five doctors
wow
Excellent quality cheers
Who's Rod Sterling???? Lol
O loved night gallery
Rod Sterling?
Yeah I'm not sure why but I always thought that's how it was said. I learned after the video was done that it was Serling not Sterling
@@DailyDoseMain don t spend too much money on serling silver
Although serling quality is amongst the highest on the silver screen
Yes, it’s SERLING!
@@DailyDoseMain Which is really inexplicable because his name is spelled in huge block letters in the intro to Night Gallery.
I think your being kinda nit picky about this show I mean your correct on points but c'mon it is what it is it would be like pointing out all the things in reality that could not happen on Bewitched or I dream of Jeannie. I mean what do you expect a horror series from the early 70s to be flawless?
So I'm a little confused about what your point is. You admit that these are flaws and that they are valid critiques. I agree that many of the segments are flawed, I also think many of them suffer from small flaws but are otherwise good to great. Many segments are also fine. I meant for this to be an overall review, looking and both the good and the bad
SO. NOT. ALL. OF. NIGHT. GALLERYS STORIES. WERE. SCARY BUT. THEY. MADE. THEIR. STATEMENT
I thought I was hearing things, you did misspell his name which is odd since you have so much to say about the stories themselves
It's kind of weird because Serling's name is actually spelled in blazing block letters to Night Gallery's intro. It's introduced as "ROD SERLING'S NIGHT GALLERY."
Excellent thanks
Maybe the sun would have been too much for new 12 hour eyes? So they picked nighttime....
Clean kills and trophies is not that bad of an episode. His head on the wall through black magic was creepy. It's a horror tale. What's wrong with you.
I think u missed the concepts / points of some of the episodes.. especially in the beginning
I'd love to hear what ones in particular
It's "Serling", not "Sterling" - Gimme a break.
Absolutely!!! My thoughts exactly..I mean, c'mon, we"re talking abt. a genius here. Is it too much to ask to get his name right???
The assessment of Brenda is so clueless it's appalling.
several others have mentioned it was one of their favorites (me too). It was certainly different. It did have one of the dumbest lines I've ever heard, when the guys are 10 feet from it and one yells "that must be what we saw the other day!" Ya think ??? . The ending was as touching as anything featuring two people, and for some reason I was empathetic towards the monster.
NEW - CLEE - ER 😊
"Ranges from Rod Serling fabulous to Not Rod Serling Disastrous."
If you want to find the great ones, please look for the ones written by Rod Serling. The series had one big problem: Jack Laird. His type of production, humor, and writing didn't survive the 70s, and he took more creative control of the series as time went on. Even the 3-4 stories an episode format ruined the show. You couldn't say "Remember the one about," you had to say "Remember the one about ____... and ____... and _______... and _______." I'm pretty sure Serling himself was disgusted with the series by the end of it. The comedy especially was just ridiculous.
Also, Night Gallery went through a chop shop when it went into syndication. So you're sometimes missing context when you're watching a re-run of this show. There might be one very important conversation that clarifies everything, but it's completely stripped out of the re-run, so the conclusion doesn't make as much or even any sense.
You can get a sense of how classic the show could have been with these episodes:
The Cemetery
The Waiting Room
Midnight Never Ends
The House
Certain Shadows on the Wall
The Doll
They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar
Class of '99
Cool Air
The Caterpillar
Rare Objects
The rest is a mess of Jack Laird's outdated, even goofy humor, and subjects that don't stick with Serling's formula. I have no idea why the network went with Laird over Serling, but it was the 70s. 70s TV didn't age well in general (dated colors, hairstyles, fashion, and décor - and most lethal to the show, the music). Maybe for the era, Laird's vision was more appealing, but time reveals all things. And the thing is this: In Serling's hands, Night Gallery could have been flipping amazing. The best of Night Gallery episodes are even better than the Twilight Zone, but those episodes are few and far between. The Twilight Zone's being in black and white and going with more classical music allowed it to look less dated today than Night Gallery does.
under rated? or just not able to live up to TZ?
I will steal a moment to plug the video and warn people about the 5 best and worst segments video of this same show. Don't watch it if you are a fan. This daily dose however is strong. I recommend you watch the show yourself. It's not twilight zone though. Those are extremely big huge epic shoes to fill.
The 70s had really bad hair...
Where could I watch this show today
Unfortunately I think the DVD box set is the easiest way
I would have enjoyed this video more if the narrator didn’t keep mispronouncing names and words.He repeatedly mispronounces”Serling” as “Sterling”.
It's all but saying, "I just skimmed AI info about this show and didn't even bother to watch a single one." Night Gallery's introduction is introduced as "ROD SERLING'S NIGHT GALLERY" in blazing block letters. Can't miss it.
📺 movie pilot episode great story
If I had a dollar for every time he called him Sterling, I’d have about 20 bucks.
Probably more than that lol
OPEN TOPIC: Did YOUR AREA get Night Gallery RERUNS in syndication in the late 1970s / early 1980s > ? ME: No we did not get NG reruns EVER . But my friend in Wash. DC got it ! I/m in NY.
SERLING - - - - - not Sterling, what a dummy
I always Brenda was one of the better Night Gallery episodes precisely because the main character was never portrayed as sympathetic , redeemable etc... the end always struck me as her cumuppance and quite ambiguous in how the audience is meant to feel about it.
I always thought the creature was an externalization of brenda herself; although she knows the difference between good and bad the creature is simply a primitive form that is beyond good or bad. she also has a psychic link because she leaves the door open and it goes directly to her house and she revels in the fear it creates.
SHOW...APPRECIATE...DON'T CRITIQUE...
Our hair was NOT BAD!!!...Just misunderstood...Society made it bad.😢
This guy is mistaken on so many things... To say that "Brenda" is one of the worst episodes is just plain dumb, and to not mention "Secret Snow, Silent Snow" as one of the best, is also very misguided; not to mention the many mistakes in basic information about the show in general, which by the way was just great, is a clear signal that this guy is not to be trusted at all with his commentary and criticism on the subject. On the other hand, is nice to see someone talking about this great and most underrated gem.
Like secret snow a lot but I don't understand it at all
some people have interpreted it as the boy's having autism or descending into a schizoid state. the snow represents his being blanketed by a separation from active life, the muffling effect of the snow, covering and hiding everything indicates his dislike of the noise and dirtiness of life.
Didn’t care for Secret Snow. I didn’t understand it.
Love that one, the imagery is haunting. The fact that you don’t understand it is what makes it so intriguing.
It about a child’s love of snow what there to miss. Oh yeah also it may of been an early form for writing about autism.
imo you nothing but criticized it...shame..great early 70 series.
Can we watch these night galleries or is it just talking about them find this very annoying less talking just let’s get on and watch them
that's not how transformative content works I can't just post them but you can buy the DVD
What a brainless comment! It’s called TH-cam. People come here to experience exactly this type of content. If you just want to watch the episodes and not be “annoyed” by critical analysis then buy the DVDs for god’s sake!
Another weak entry from TH-cam's vast array of Amateur Hour hosts and critics.
What’s with the Dark Boy joke?
Could the credits go on any longer?
It was annoying as fuck.
I don't click dislike often, but this time I did.
It just drags on and on and on and on and on.