''Night Gallery'' is an American anthology television series that aired on NBC from December 16, 1970, to May 27, 1973, featuring stories of horror and the macabre.

Rod Serling Rodman Edward Serling (December 25, 1924 – June 28, 1975) was an American screenwriter, playwright, television producer, and narrator/on-screen host, best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his anthology television series ...

, who had gained fame from an earlier series, ''

The Twilight Zone ''The Twilight Zone'' is an American media franchise based on the anthology television series created by Rod Serling. The episodes are in various genres, including fantasy, science fiction, absurdism, dystopian fiction, suspense, horror, sup ...

'', served both as the on-air host of ''Night Gallery'' and as a major contributor of scripts, although he did not have the same control of content and tone as he had on ''The Twilight Zone''. Serling viewed ''Night Gallery'' as a logical extension of ''The Twilight Zone'', but while both series shared an interest in thought-provoking

dark fantasy Dark fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy literary, artistic, and cinematic works that incorporate disturbing and frightening themes of fantasy. It often combines fantasy with elements of horror or has a gloomy dark tone or a sense of horror and d ...

, more of ''Zone''s offerings were

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

while ''Night Gallery'' focused on horrors of the

supernatural Supernatural refers to phenomena or entities that are beyond the laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin (above, beyond, or outside of) + (nature) Though the corollary term "nature", has had multiple meanings si ...

Format

Serling appeared in an art gallery setting as the curator and introduced the macabre tales that made up each episode by unveiling paintings (by artists Thomas J. Wright and Jaroslav "Jerry" Gebr) that depicted the stories. His intro usually was, “Good evening, and welcome to a private showing of three paintings, displayed here for the first time. Each is a collector’s item in its own way—not because of any special artistic quality, but because each captures on a canvas, suspended in time and space, a frozen moment of a nightmare.” ''Night Gallery'' regularly presented adaptations of classic

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and d ...

tales by authors such as H. P. Lovecraft, as well as original works, many of which were by Serling himself. During its second season, the series also began using original comic blackout sketches between the longer story segments in some episodes. Rod Serling vehemently opposed their presence on the show, and as such, several of them have no introduction from Serling. He stated "I thought they he blackout sketchesdistorted the thread of what we were trying to do on ''Night Gallery''. I don't think one can show

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wid ...

and then come back with Flip Wilson for 34 seconds. I just don't think they fit." These types of segments were much less frequent in the third and final season. The series was introduced with a pilot television film that aired on November 8, 1969, and featured the directorial debut of

Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg (; born December 18, 1946) is an American director, writer, and producer. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, he is the most commercially successful director of all time. Sp ...

, as well as one of the last acting performances by

Joan Crawford Joan Crawford (born Lucille Fay LeSueur; March 23, ncertain year from 1904 to 1908was an American actress. She started her career as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway. Crawford was signed to a motion pict ...

. ''Night Gallery'' was initially part of a rotating anthology or wheel series called '' Four in One''. This 1970–1971 television series rotated four separate shows, including '' McCloud'', ''SFX'' ( ''San Francisco International Airport'') and '' The Psychiatrist''. Two of these, ''Night Gallery'' and ''McCloud,'' were renewed for the 1971–1972 season, with ''McCloud'' becoming the most popular and longest running of the four.

Music

The show featured various composers. The original pilot theme and background music was composed by Billy Goldenberg. The theme for the first two seasons, composed by

Gil Mellé Gilbert John Mellé (31 December 1931 – 28 October 2004) was an American artist, jazz musician and film composer. Life and career In the 1950s, Mellé created the cover art for albums by Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins. Mel ...

, is noted for being one of the first television openings to use electronic instruments. For the third season, Mellé's theme was replaced with a more frantic orchestral piece by Eddie Sauter. Currently, no music from the show has been released commercially.

Production

Serling wrote many of the teleplays, including "Camera Obscura" (based on a short story by

Basil Copper Basil Frederick Albert Copper (5 February 1924 – 3 April 2013) was an English writer and former journalist and newspaper editor. Mike Ashley, "Basil Copper", in David Pringle, ed., ''St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost & Gothic Writers.''(London: ...

), "The Caterpillar" (based on a short story by Oscar Cook), "Class of '99", "

Cool Air "Cool Air" is a short story by the American horror fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft, written in March 1926 and published in the March 1928 issue of '' Tales of Magic and Mystery''. Plot The narrator offers a story to explain why a "draught of co ...

" (based on a short story by H.P. Lovecraft), "The Doll", "Green Fingers", "Lindemann's Catch", and "The Messiah on Mott Street" (heavily influenced by

Bernard Malamud Bernard Malamud (April 26, 1914 – March 18, 1986) was an American novelist and short story writer. Along with Saul Bellow, Joseph Heller, and Philip Roth, he was one of the best known American Jewish authors of the 20th century. His baseba ...

's "Angel Levine"). Non-Serling efforts include "The Dead Man", "I'll Never Leave You—Ever", "

Pickman's Model "Pickman's Model" is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft, written in September 1926 and first published in the October 1927 issue of ''Weird Tales''. It has been adapted for television anthology series twice: in a 1971 episode of ''Night Gallery' ...

" (based on a short story by H.P. Lovecraft), "A Question of Fear", " Silent Snow, Secret Snow", and "The Sins of the Fathers". Robert Bloch wrote two teleplays for the show. "Logoda's Heads" was based on the story by

August Derleth August William Derleth (February 24, 1909 – July 4, 1971) was an American writer and anthologist. Though best remembered as the first book publisher of the writings of H. P. Lovecraft, and for his own contributions to the Cthulhu Mythos and th ...

. "Last Rites for a Dead Druid" originally was an adaptation by Bloch of the H.P. Lovecraft/ Hazel Heald collaboration " Out of the Aeons"; however, Bloch's script was not used, and the episode was rewritten and retitled, with "Last Rites for a Dead Druid" bearing no resemblance to "Out of the Aeons".

Episodes

Award nominations

''Night Gallery'' was nominated for an

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

for its first-season episode "They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar" as the Outstanding Single Program on U.S. television in 1971. In 1972, the series received another nomination (Outstanding Achievement in Makeup) for the second-season episode "

". Serling himself received an Edgar Allan Poe Award for writing the pilot.

Syndication

In order to increase the number of episodes that were available for syndication, the 60-minute episodes were re-edited for a 30-minute time slot, with many segments severely cut, and others extended by inserting "new" scenes of recycled, previously discarded, or stock footage to fill up the time. In their book ''Rod Serling's Night Gallery: An After-Hours Tour'', authors Scott Skelton and Jim Benson identify 39 of the 98 individual segments that were produced for ''Night Gallery'' as being "severely altered" in syndication. Twenty-five episodes of an unrelated, short-lived supernatural series from 1972, ''

The Sixth Sense ''The Sixth Sense'' is a 1999 American psychological thriller film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. It stars Bruce Willis as a child psychologist whose patient ( Haley Joel Osment) claims he can see and talk to the dead. Released ...

'', were also incorporated into the syndicated version of the series, with Serling providing newly filmed introductions to those episodes. As ''The Sixth Sense'' was originally a one-hour show, these episodes were all severely edited to fit into the half-hour timeslot. The original, uncut and un-edited hour-long version of the series (and without the additional ''Sixth Sense'' episodes) has been shown on STARZ!’s Encore Mystery premium movie cable network. The show has aired in the 30-minute format in some markets through the Retro Television Network in the past. MeTV had broadcast rights for ''Night Gallery'' and aired the show in its edited, 30-minute format, including the edited ''The Sixth Sense'' episodes. From May 21 to May 23, 2016, Decades aired a marathon of the series. On December 6, 2018, Syfy announced that it plans to revive the ''Night Gallery'' series. On April 6, 2020, Comet TV began airing the show.

Home media

Universal Studios has released all 3 seasons on DVD in Region 1 as well as the first season on DVD in the UK. On September 12, 2017, Universal released ''Night Gallery: The Complete Series'' on DVD in Region 1.

References

External links

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Rod Serling's ''Night Gallery'': A Shadowy Museum of the Outre
{{Twilight Zone 1970 American television series debuts 1970s American anthology television series 1970s American comedy-drama television series 1970s American mystery television series 1970s American science fiction television series 1973 American television series endings American fantasy drama television series American fantasy television series American horror fiction television series American thriller television series English-language television shows NBC original programming Television series by Universal Television Television series created by Rod Serling