Night Gallery

Night Gallery was Rod Serling's follow-up to The Twilight Zone which aired on NBC from 1970 to 1973. Serling functioned primarily as the on-air host of Night Gallery and did not have the same control of content and tone as he did on Twilight Zone.

Related Topics:
Rod Serling - The Twilight Zone - NBC - 1970 - 1973

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Serling appeared in an art gallery setting and introduced the program by showing and discussing a painting of a scene (usually by artist Tom Wright) from that night's story.

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Night Gallery regularly presented stories from classic fantasy, including H. P. Lovecraft, as well as original works.

Related Topics:
Fantasy - H. P. Lovecraft

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The series was introduced with a pilot TV-film aired in 1969 which featured the directoral debut of Steven Spielberg and one of the last acting performances by Joan Crawford. Unlike the series, where the paintings merely accompanied an introduction to the upcoming story, the paintings themselves actually appeared in the three segments, serving major or minor plot functions.

Related Topics:
Steven Spielberg - Joan Crawford

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Night Gallery was nominated for an Emmy Award 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 Make-up) for the second season episode Pickman?s Model.

Related Topics:
Emmy Award - They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar

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The series attracted criticism for its use of comedic blackout sketches between segments in later episodes, and for its splintered, multiple-story format, which contributed to its uneven tone. Despite these distractions, Serling produced many distinguished teleplays, including The Caterpillar, Cool Air, The Doll, Green Fingers, and The Messiah on Mott Street. Notable non-Serling efforts include The Dead Man, A Question of Fear, Silent Snow, Secret Snow, and The Sins of the Fathers.

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By the final season, Serling, stung by criticism and ignored by the show?s executives, all but disowned the series.

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In order to pump up the number of episodes available for syndication, the 60-minute episodes were reedited into 30-minute episodes, with many segments either severely cut or extended using newly shot scenes and stock footage to fill up the time. Meanwhile, episodes of a short-lived supernatural series from 1972, The Sixth Sense (TV series), were also incorporated into the syndicated version of the series with Serling providing newly-filmed introductions to those episodes.

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In recent years, the original, uncut version of the series has been shown on the Starz movie networks, thus fans can now see the episodes in their original format for the first time in 30 years. A DVD collection of the first season's episodes was released in 2004.

Related Topics:
Starz - DVD - 2004

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For more information, visit http://www.nightgallery.net or refer to the companion guide to the series, Rod Serling's Night Gallery: An After-Hours Tour (Syracuse University Press, 1999).

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