For those old enough to remember, Night Gallery was creator-host Rod Serling's follow-up to The Twilight Zone. Set in a shadowy museum of the outré, Serling unveiled a dark and disturbing collection of canvases as preface to a highly diverse anthology of tales in the fantasy, horror, and science fiction vein.

"The Doll"

Bolstering Serling's thoughtful original dramas were adaptations of classic genre material—short stories by such dark-fantasy luminaries as H. P. Lovecraft, Fritz Leiber, A. E. van Vogt, Algernon Blackwood, Conrad Aiken, Richard Matheson, August Derleth, and Christianna Brand. Variety of material brought with it a variety of tone, from the deadly serious to the tongue-in-cheek, stretching the television anthology concept to its very limits. But conflicts over the series' direction arose between Serling and producer Jack Laird. The disgruntled host found himself excluded from the producer's circle. Despite the tensions, Serling continued his dramatic contributions and ultimately scripted over a third of the segments.

"Pickman's Model"

Rod Serling's Night Gallery (the series' full title) was broadcast on NBC-TV on Wednesday evenings at 10:00 p.m. Gallery had only six hour-long episodes in its first season (1970–71), rotating with three other series (The Psychiatrist, McCloud, and San Francisco International Airport) as part of Four in One, NBC's experimental programming wheel. In its second year (1971–72), Gallery was promoted to a full-season offering with 22 hour-long episodes, which included many of its best and most memorable stories.

Sadly, the show seems to have been cursed: For the third season (1972–73), short-sighted executives at the network cut Gallery's third-season time slot to a half-hour and moved the show to Sunday evenings—despite good ratings and a growing cult following on college campuses. It lasted only 15 episodes before it was canceled. In an ironic twist, Night Gallery won the best ratings of its broadcast run as its final season played out, regularly beating its competition.

"A Question of Fear"

The Gallery curse continued: To make a viable syndication package, Universal Studios (the company that produced the series for NBC) cut the first 28 hour-long episodes down to 30 minutes. Since the show had numerous stories of various lengths per hour, many of the shorter segments had to be expanded in the re-editing with superfluous, meaningless footage, serving only to confound the narrative. Conversely, many segments longer than the half-hour time slot were severely trimmed of key scenes, making them even more perplexing than their shorter counterparts. Some segments were missing half their original length in syndication.

To confuse the issue further, 25 episodes of an entirely different series, the ESP snooze-fest The Sixth Sense, were grafted onto the syndication package with the addition of new Gallery-type introductions by a well-paid Serling (and no, you won't find any of the Sixth Sense episodes listed on this website. You can't miss 'em, though: If an episode stars Gary Collins as psychic researcher Dr. Michael Rhodes, then it's not a true Night Gallery segment.)

In 1999, Columbia House began releasing the uncut episodes of the series through their video club; ultimately, all but eight of the episodes made it to VHS. For a couple of years, The Mystery Channel broadcast these original uncut episodes as well, although the series is no longer on their schedule.

The companion book to the series, Rod Serling's Night Gallery: An After Hours Tour by Scott Skelton and Jim Benson, has been published by Syracuse University Press. To order the book, click here.

Send all comments regarding Night Gallery or this website to:

serlingng@comcast.net
 

 
Click here to hear Hellboy II director Guillermo del Toro and Night Gallery director Jeannot Szwarc discuss the upcoming Season Two DVD release of Rod Serling's Night Gallery on the Internet radio show TV Time Machine.

TV Time Machine

September 22, 2008 - Directors Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth) and Jeannot Szwarc (Heroes) discuss Rod Serling's Night Gallery and Universal Home Entertainment's upcoming Season Two DVD release of the classic TV series on TV Time Machine, hosted by TV historian Jim Benson.

Del Toro gives his most comprehensive interview ever about his lifelong passion for Rod Serling's Night Gallery and his admiration for the show's most prolific director, Jeannot Szwarc.

The series had a profound impact on del Toro while growing up in Mexico in the early 1970s. The Academy Award–nominated director also talks about his audio commentary for the Night Gallery Season Two DVD, revealing the fact that the series has served as an inspiration for his remarkable film career.

"As I said on the DVD, Night Gallery is a seminal work in my life," says del Toro. "If you look at the movies I do, there's always a little something of Night Gallery. I first started noticing filmic style watching the show. It has informed Pan's Labyrinth, The Devil's Backbone, and basically everything else. For my generation, it was more Night Gallery than The Twilight Zone."

Del Toro also explores director Jeannot Szwarc's remarkable contribution to Night Gallery. Szwarc directed many of the finest episodes of the series, including the classic segment "The Caterpillar" - hailed by Stephen King as one of the most frightening episodes in the history of television.

A veteran of forty years in the industry, Szwarc's credits include such films as Jaws 2, Supergirl, and Somewhere in Time. He has also directed more than 100 TV episodes for such shows as Columbo, Kojak, The Practice, JAG, Boston Legal, Smallville, Without a Trace, Cold Case, Bones, and Heroes.

One of the entertainment industry's top talents, Guillermo del Toro has directed, written, and produced more than a dozen films, including Cronos, Mimic, The Devil's Backbone, Hellboy, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Blade II, The Orphanage, and the Academy Award–winning Pan's Labyrinth. Del Toro is also slated to write and direct The Hobbit and its sequel with writer-producer Peter Jackson, to be released in 2011 and 2012, respectively.

TV Time Machine is a unique Internet radio show that explores classic TV and its influence over the past five decades. Beyond nostalgia, TV Time Machine spotlights TV's impact on our culture and society, and explores how present-day television and its movers and shakers have been - and are still - influenced by the stories, programs, and characters of television's past.

TV Time Machine host Jim Benson has interviewed a multitude of legendary TV celebrities, authors, and experts of all stripes on his radio program. A TV historian for more than 25 years, Benson has contributed to dozens of TV productions, is a historical consultant on Universal Studios' second-season DVD release of Rod Serling's Night Gallery, and is the coauthor, with Scott Skelton, of the book Rod Serling's Night Gallery: An After-Hours Tour, published by Syracuse University Press.

www.tvtimemachine.com