Night Gallery...where does one begin? For those like myself (or older) who grew up in the 70's, little explanation as to who Rod Serling was should be needed. Likewise, his creations such as Twilight Zone and Night Gallery require very little introduction. For those thrill seekers of younger generations however, a few words may indeed be in order...while Twilight Zone is still something of a household name, these days Night Gallery receives a bit less notoriety.
Perhaps the best way to think of Night Gallery is as a collection of "short stories". Each episode typically contains 2 or 3 stories or mini episodes, although some are longer (or shorter) than others, with each episode introduced as a painting by Rod Serling..."a nightmare captured on canvas". To say that Night Gallery was something of a "reboot" (to use modern vernacular) of Serling's more classic and more recognized Twilight Zone is quite an inadequate analogy. While Gallery shares many similar themes with TZ, particularly that of science fiction and the macabre, in this reviewer's opinion Gallery was rather darker with a considerably larger creep factor. While TZ had a tendency to cover many ideas and not all of the episodes where horror related, (ala "Mr. Bevis" and "Cavender is Coming"), Gallery tends to stick more with the macabre (even when they're poking fun at it). Unlike so much of modern horror that relies on shock value and hack & slash brutality, so much of which modern audiences have been rather desensitized to, while it does have moments here and there, Night Gallery tends to be a bit more cerebral. Instead of trying to terrify viewers with blood, guts, gore and chainsaws, Gallery is the type of viewing that tends to seep into one's subconscious to abuse the viewers imagination, similar to the way Hitchcock had a tendency to do. It's the kind of viewing that can still give a few folks nightmares, not so much because of what they saw on the screen, but because of the seed that was planted in the back of the brain.
As a person who still remembers when this show first aired, for me personally it still maintains much of it's potency. Is it a bit dated? To see actors like John Astin still in his prime, the answer to that would have to be something of a "yea...probably". For modern audiences who've had their imagination utterly beaten into submission by the likes of Steven King, John Carpenter and Wes Craven, Night Gallery may not have the edge that many people today seem to expect from a good creep fest. The feel of the series over-all is more akin to that of The Shining...except without a crazed Jack Nicholson bursting thru the door with an axe. There tends to be a somber, almost ethereal feeling to Night Gallery that's most fitting for the content. For those of us with a taste for such entertainment, Night Gallery is still one of those series that's best viewed at 1 in the morning, under the covers with the lights out and a bowl of popcorn, while you're half asleep (which isn't intended as an insult in ANY way!).
The cast of the various episodes, is a veritable "who's who" of 60's and 70's actors. Joan Crawford, Roddy McDowell, John Astin, Tom Bosley, Sam Jaffe, Burgess Merideth, Diane Keaton, Larry Hagman, Agnes Moorehead, John Colicos, Ray Milland, Charles Laughton, David Carradine, Patty Duke, Cesar Romero, Lindsey Wagner ...even Vincent Price and the great Bela Lugosi and even Orson Wells pokes his head in for a voice over...the list is rather impressive to say the least. Likewise the production values were also quite high, particularly considering that this was an era long before the extensive use of green screen and CG. Visually the episodes still stand up rather well when one factors in that these were shot in the early 70's. ..scenes with "computers" for example still had those big ol' spinning reel to reel tapes, as apposed to the average laptop one sees today. Don't expect to see an Ipod or Smart Phone here...people used rotary phones and still dialed up the operator back then! That said, while a bit subjective I think there is an element to Night Gallery that modern productions lack as well. Because CG hadn't really been invented yet (beyond the likes of Godzilla and Ray Harryhausen that is) the directors and producers used a degree of imagination...the use of slow motion and unusual camera angles for example...to build suspense and enhance the visual quality of the story telling. There was an art to television production back then that some could argue has been lost in recent decades.
The quality of this DVD set is, in my not so humble opinion, superb. I've seen a negative comment or two regarding the preservation/restoration of these episodes, however I must say that the quality FAR exceeds that of the day when my father had to fish the UHF antenna (metal coat hanger) around on top of the old Zenith 19". In this case, I would simply offer people a sense of perspective...sure stereo CD's don't sound as "awesome" as HD 7.1 surround sound, but then they still sound a far sight better than the scratchy old 78's that my grandparents would listen to on the Victrola! In this case, on my 27" crt at least, the colors are crisp, vivid and sharp and the sound is excellent. While this set does include the original pilot episode, don't expect a great deal as far as "dvd extras" go...it's not like Serling was doing Peter Jackson style blogs back in the early 70's and you won't find many (any) commentaries on this set. These are however the original versions of the episodes (as I remember them at least) as apposed to the utterly hacked versions that later appeared in syndication. For any fan of Rod Serling or Night Gallery, that alone makes this set a must have for the collection.
I'm not going to go too much into the individual episodes themselves as there's PLENTY written about that already...if you really need a spoiler or two, they're not hard to find on the internet. I will say that like virtually every tv show ever produced, some episodes do stand out more than others. Obviously even Twilight Zone had a few klunkers and certainly all the greats from The Honeymooners to Star Trek and onward have had at least a few episodes here and there where people will sit there, scratch their heads and ask, "What the hell were they thinking???". On the other hand, episodes like "The House" can still leave the viewer a bit creeped out (one I still remember from the early days) and here over 40 years later, such episodes still stand up well. That said, I don't think Night Gallery had any truly "bad" episodes...even "Pamela's Voice" had a certain comedic factor that has to be appreciated. Like Twilight Zone and every other tv show, there will always be a few favorites and a few that were just "ok".
Finally I will say that Night Gallery, like Twilight Zone, being a rather specific genre, along with being a tv show from the early 70's, is likely to appeal to a fairly specific audience. If Disneyesque is your thing, even today Night Gallery may be a bit disturbing. If you crave the mindless, redundant slash and gore of Craven, you could be a bit disappointed. If you don't really know what "macabre" actually means, you may not get it. If however you're like me and grew up on the legend of Rod Serling and still enjoy those good night frights, then this collection is certainly a must have and should bring back many pleasant...and somewhat disturbing memories :-)
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- Reviewed in the United States on June 12, 2014
- Reviewed in the United States on January 3, 2009
Top reviews from other countries
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George-Peter PaxinosReviewed in Germany on July 13, 2015
Wie Twilight Zone, nur etwas ausführlicher und abgerundeter
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- catdadReviewed in the United Kingdom on July 31, 2023
this includes the pilot episodes
