Night Gallery

[ClassyCo]

It's Rod Serling's follow-up to his classic TWILIGHT ZONE series. NIGHT GALLERY aired a pilot movie on November 8, 1969, and aired as a TV series from December 16, 1970, to May 27, 1973. It produced 43 episodes, but 93 segments, as the episodes contained multiple stories. Most of the episodes deal with supernatural tales of horror and the macabre.

We've heard a lot about the original pilot film for NIGHT GALLERY, which served as one of Steven Spielberg's first directing jobs and offers one of Joan Crawford's last and strongest acting performances. But we haven't really discussed this series as a whole yet.

What's your thoughts?

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[Snarky Oracle!]

Serling didn't have the creative control he did on TWILIGHT ZONE, even though he wrote numerous NIGHT GALLERY segments. Why he accepted the deal he had on NIGHT GALLERY, I don't know -- but he once complained that all the networks wanted from him was, "MANNIX in a graveyard."

I wish the Crawford episode, "Eyes." directed by 21-year old Steven Spielberg, had been a full-length story. It was perfect for Crawford (although written for Bette Davis, who I always want to see as the dying relic with the ghastly family in that 1964 "The Masks" episode of ZONE).

NIGHT GALLERY benefited from that shrouded, overcast melancholy vibe which defined the early-'70s, but many of the segments are by rote -- moody, given the era, but often uninspired.

Spielberg is soft-pedaling the story here -- Crawford screamed at Lew Wasserman over the phone that Steven be fired, and Lew talked her down:

A pilot promo:

 

[Crimson]

I've only seen sporadic episodes of NIGHT GALLERY and, overall, I wasn't impressed. Rod Serling's introductions seemed to be the creepiest aspect of most episodes.

The Spielberg-Crawford episode is top notch, and could have/should have been a feature film. Otherwise, the episodes I've seen are just okay-ish and sometimes downright bad. There's a Cesar Romero as Dracula segment that should have been a skit on a comedy-variety show.

 

[DallasFanForever]

I remember seeing the pilot film and really enjoying “The Cemetery” and “Eyes.” I thought they were extremely well written and I loved The Twilight Zone vibes they seemed to give off. After that I think the show just fell into a rut and it never really lived up to the hype of that pilot. And that’s a shame cause I thought it really had potential.

 

[ClassyCo]

I wonder why nobody thought the Crawford segment good enough to expand and turn into a feature? I haven't seen it yet, but owing to the hype, imagine the later-career respect Crawford could've possibly achieved had someone thought to do that.

 

[Crimson]

I doubt there was even a consideration of extending that segment to feature length. It was written specifically for TV; Crawford's box office appeal had long since disappeared; and Spielberg was an unproven talent.

In retrospect though, the segment seemed like good potential for a longer version.

 

[ClassyCo]

Yeah, Joan was in her 60s at this point, and hadn't had a big hit at the box office since BABY JANE some seven years earlier. She had sabotaged her own opportunity another a great film by bailing on CHARLOTTE in 1964, therefore rendering all of her film offers to be low-grade shlock attempts to cash-in on the hagsploitation subgenre.

It's a shame that Spielberg wasn't better known, or at least more on the verge of it, in 1969, then perhaps the financial backers might've saw the potential and at least toyed with the idea of expanding the story to feature-length, even only in a telefilm way.

But had that been done, the segment might've wore thin and not played as well.



..... I still haven't seen the episode.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

NIGHT GALLERY's anthology format was simply two or three stories per episode. That's just what it was. Unlike TWILIGHT ZONE which was one story per episode.

So the "Eyes" segment, one out of three stories, was the pattern originally intended for GALLERY. Although I, too, would have liked a a full length feature -- even if it was for television.

But then I would have loved that show with Brando, Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Jackson desperately driving out of NYC -- and the eastern United States -- to escape the apocalyptic promise of 9/11... which Corey Feldman swears actually happened (and that's good enough for me) to have been expanded to a full-length feature.

 

[Toni]

I doubt there was even a consideration of extending that segment to feature length. It was written specifically for TV; Crawford's box office appeal had long since disappeared; and Spielberg was an unproven talent.

In retrospect though, the segment seemed like good potential for a longer version.

I wonder why nobody thought the Crawford segment good enough to expand and turn into a feature? I haven't seen it yet, but owing to the hype, imagine the later-career respect Crawford could've possibly achieved had someone thought to do that.

View attachment 39630

Faye should star in the film version. Either she or Linda Gray.

 

[ClassyCo]

Linda Gray gets my vote!

 

[ClassyCo]

So I bought NIGHT GALLERY for my birthday -- which is tomorrow. I watched "Eyes" tonight, which is the middle chapter of the three-chapter pilot film for the show.

Let me start with saying this: Crawford turns in a strong performance as a blind millionairess, occupying a ritzy apartment. The performers surrounding her are equally as strong, with Tom Bosley being the most significant standout as the young man Crawford recruits to donate his eyes to her.

Steven Spielberg turns in a fine directing job, and it is amazing how he pulls such solid work out of Crawford, who had been relegated to occasional film and TV roles of mostly the camp and schlock variety after sabotaging her own opportunity at an A-film like CHARLOTTE in 1964. Had the story been stretched and given some more layers, it would've made a nice end-of-career standout performance for Crawford, even if it had been a made-for-TV movie.

"Eyes" was good and I'd say that I lived up to the hype it has received here. My only complaint was that I wish it was just a little longer, more like "The Cemetery", the first chapter of the pilot film.

 

[cws]

I do like that it is an anthology series and each episode is self contained. It did remind me The Twilight Zone too!! Personally, I did like Larry Hagman in one of the episodes. I never saw him in a beard before!!!!!

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

The Spielberg-Crawford episode is top notch, and could have/should have been a feature film

Yes, or at least a complete (75 minute) TV movie of the era, which could be shown or re-run separately -- even if the overall series didn't sell to NBC... The title, 'Night Gallery,' would fit both the subsequent series (with Serling's creepy openings where he walks through a gallery -- at night) and the pilot telemovie with Crawford (where her Manhattan penthouse is loaded with priceless artwork she can't even see due to blindness).

Here's a little review of that "Eyes" pilot episode of NIGHT GALLERY which aired, unironically, four years to the day after the great blackout of NYC (which strangely killed Crawford's buddy, Dorothy Kilgallen) portrayed in the story:

Here's another review of the entire pilot (all three segments)... but I, for one, really love that zoom-in/zoom-out, sudden focus changes within a single frame shot, combined with deep shadows, techniques so common during the very-late '60s & very early-'70s... Some might call it "dated" but I've always thought it created a great sense of -- well --- focus. And I never lost my cinematic taste for it.

Brief interview with Dick Cavett:

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

The paintings -- where did they go?

Why Serling disliked NIGHT GALLERY:

What ever happened to NIGHT GALLERY:

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

All the NG paintings: