A Walk Through The Night Gallery: the Often Forgotten Successor of Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone 

The Cemetery from the pilot, by far the scariest episode ever.

FYI, actually, his name was Rod SERLING, not "Sterling."

Green Fingers scared the living hell out of me as a kid

No one ever mentions it , but I always assumed that the true meaning behind the caterpillar episode was intended to be psychosomatic and not actually real. That there actually was no physical caterpillar, but that he was tricked into believing it's existence. Otherwise the storyline wouldn't really make any sense at all . First of all an earwig eating it's way through the brain wouldn't be possible, second the idea of someone entering the wrong room would have been feasible if the intended victim were a single man, but considering that the culprit would have noticed that there's no woman in the bed would have been obvious that he had entered the wrong room, and the fact that the doctor openly admitted in public that he chose to just let the man suffer instead of making any effort to destroy the eggs would land him in prison and his career would be over

Why do you call him Sterling? It's Serling....

Cream of the crop actors... I loved this show... I particularly recall the episode "The Big Surprise" starring John Carradine... it had a great ending scene.

The most memorable episode to me, as a young boy back then, was the one where a little boy can predict the future..It starred Clint Howard as the seer.. The ending leave me an ever lasting impression...Love it.

Such an underrated show, I also own the entire series. My favorite segment is probably a Feast of Blood. I just consider the tale so brutal and Macabre compares to others, and Sheila really doesn't deserve her fate. I can't help but love it.

"Cool Air" was an adaptation of the H. P. Lovecraft story of the same name.

Sorry for the lower picture quality I tried to get that fixed but if you're seeing this then I hope you enjoyed the video anyways

They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar is a close look at how nostalgia can warp human perspective and cut someone off from those around. It's not horror per se, but the midlife crisis Randy is experiencing is. By the way, his wife did not leave him; she died.

Couple of comments... Serling's original script for Clean Kills had no supernatural elements to it. The son ended up killing the father, cut off his head and mounted it. It was deemed too much for network TV at time. The Sixth Sense wasn't a Serling show, nor was it an anthology. It starred Gary Collins as a psychic investigator looking into different cases each week.

Just a correction, 'The Sixth Sense' had nothing to do with Rod Serling.

I just subbed. Deliveries in the rear is actually historically correct. Doctors used to pay grave robbers in the Victorian age England for cadavers to use in medical study use. So I really can't call it morally grey or bad writing.

The Night Gallery was far better known in Hong Kong than the Twilight Zone in the early 1970's.

3:46 He was on Star Trek and played the Vampire on the original Kolchak The Night Stalker movie in 1972 !

"Pickman's Model" gave me a few nightmares. I lived in a very old house. I was a bit leery of going into the basement. "They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar" was very well-acted by William Windom. That episode came to mind when my old bar; where I worked as a bartender; was razed and converted into parking lot.

This is one of the first TV shows I can remember watching.

Not a great series but it was the best thing on TV at the time; I remember waiting until 11pm on channel 40 for each episode. We actually watched this together.

Night Gallery wasn't Twilight Zone, but managed to be an excellent series despite network/studio interference. I understand Rod Serlings (note his names correct spelling) unhappiness, but he didn't give himself enough credit regardless. Rod had a good eye for other writer's tales which made good adaptions. Writers whose stories were adapted include Conrad Aiken, August Derleth, Fritz Leiber, Jr., H P Lovecraft of course, and A.E. Van Vogt, among others. I believe Night Gallery represents Rod Serling's darker imagination, though. Serling was haunted by a fear that his talent would someday run out. PS "Green Fingers" has haunted me for over 50 years now.👻

That’s Rod SERLING!

Not part of Night Gallery, but an example of how an original short story can be modified by later screen writers for the good, or bad, is "Who Goes There" by John Campbell, Jr. This was the inspiration for "The Thing from Another World." The idea, from the title, is that the creature could be a "shape shifter" able to fool humans into thinking it was also human. That is lost on the 1951 movie, but John Carpenter's THING definitely picks up on this.

Big Surprise w/John Carradine (top notch horror)

My all time favorite is "A Feast of Blood". I saw it when I was real young and it really stuck with me...

I love "Night Gallery" and watched it first run with my dad, who admired Rod Serling. I enjoyed your analysis of the series. I must disagree with you about "Brenda", which I have always found chilling and disturbing. I believe this is about a budding psychopathic child. She finds a strange entity or monster, but the question is, who is REALLY the monster here? I don't think they are urging sympathy for this child at all: the drama illustrates that she is a bad seed, just starting on an evil, cruel career. That's my 2 cents, anyway.

His name was Rod Serling not Rod Sterling.

Episodes with Werner Klemperer and Francis Lederer are favorites.

Sterling?! His name is Rod SERling! Not Sterling! He's a writer, not made of silver!

Peter Whitney's last role was as a gravedigger in 1972 .Whitney died shortly after the episode with Cornell Wilde.Whitney payed a ruthless captain in a 1953 episode of Superman where smugglers made their own treasure.He was also on Bonanza in 1960 and The Beverly Hillbillies in 1963. Whitney seemed ill in the Night Gallery episode in 1972 when he was only 54 .

my favorite episode is the tune in dans cafe i have the serries 🙂

I WAS FIVE IN 68, and the ageing painting scared the life out of me. the haunted arts an crafts shop was terrifying, matter of fact i put off so much fear energy it attracted a spirit who slamed doors and windows in our home.

Rod Serling did not have creative control over this show. They just used his face and had him narrate. That had to bother him a lot.

"The Sixth Sense" (integrated into the syndicated package of "Night Gallery") wasn't a product of Rod Serling; it was a faiiled one season series from Universal TV, used to extended the syndication package of NG.

Weiredest was the house the woman dreamed of herself ***strange &odd

I really disagree about "Brenda". It is faulted and ambiguous, but the ending is what saves it. The actress (Laurie Prange) seems to get into the zone, and I'm always moved by it. The thing to remember about Night Gallery is that the episodes vary quite a bit, and some are quite bad. "Logoda's Heads" is an example of a very bad episode. Many episodes have faults but are still quite good, and "Brenda" is an example of this. The 3rd season is a big decline in quality, overall.

It's Serling, not Sterling goddammit!

i have most of this series being an old Twilight Zone fan and your comments here are right on the money and greatly appreciated. I like how you defined the episodes into categories ... very interesting and well done.

I love the show too and appreciate your video and commentary - one thing to note is that Rod Serling is not pronounced as "Sterling". Thanks

The real problem with "The Little Black Bag" was the gender of the oppositional character. It was Angie, the doctor's nurse in Cyril Kornbluth's story. Turning off the bag, and Angie's non-intentional suicide in front of a prospective plastic surgery patient was the end of the story. I believe it ended, "she slit her throat". But I still appreciated that the story had been dramatized. Most of your critique is criticizing a translation for faults of the original.

Clarification: The series began life with the 1969 pilot TV movie, original NBC airdate: Saturday, November 8, 1969. Then the first season came in the Fall of 1970, the series was canceled in the Spring of 1973. So 1968 wasn't the year it started. The final season of 1972-1973 was when it was cut from an hour to a half-hour.

Post PS Phantom Farmhouse is strange cheesy and just plain AWESOME. David Carradine is and always will be the man

You know his name is Serling, NOT Sterling

I forgot how many well-known actors appeared. Although the long list became VERY tedious. 4:00 long, and it seems padded, suss.

Great show,70's style. Should have lasted longer .

"Silent Snow, Secret Snow" by Conrad Aiken Is it clear why "The Caterpillar" is called that, instead of "The Earwig," which is the insect that is placed in the ear? Also, take a closeup of an earwig. They have large pincers on their tail, which adds to the reason why the insect couldn't just back out of his brain easily. *I don't recall noticing earwigs at home until after I saw this episode of Night Gallery, and then I thought them hideous.

The maid in hell's bells makes me smile every time.

Love.this show watch it every sat.

Man … I saw a vid just like this a couple weeks ago and bought the whole series on DVD for 14 bucks on Amazon , TOTALLY worth it .. I mean it’s like 80% 70s BS BUT … that other 20% is pure GOLD.. and I mean they all don’t SUCK they’re just not the twilight zone by any means , I remember my grandad watching it but I didn’t remember ANYTHING about it besides Rod Serling … great show!!

Let's not forget, Night Gallary only featured Rod Serling did not have creative control over Night Gallary. As Scott Zicree notes in his book, The Twilight zone companion: "In agreeing to do Night Gallary, Serling made a sisable error in judgement. From the outset, he had no intention of having anything to do with the production end of the series (in 1969 he'd said, "There's not enough money in the world to take a guy over forty and make him go through that grind again-that is, at least not me") but he did assume that the producers would defere to him in matters of policy, seeing as how the show was billed as "Rod Serling's Night Gallery." Such was not the case, Time and time again, the producers sacrificed quality for shock value. Night Gallary quickly became exactly what Serling had so desperately tried to avoid when he had rejected Tom Moore's Witches, Warloocks and Warewolves proposa five years ago. "On Twilight zone I took the bows but I also took the brickbats, and peoperly, because when it was bad it was usuallly my fault." Serling said, "But when it was bad on Gallery, I had nothing to do with it -yet my face was on it all the time. . ." Page 434, (c) 1982,1989 The Twilight Zone Companion 2nd edition Marc Scott Zicree

This was my start into the Macabre as a kid

I think you ve missed much of the suBtlety of these episodes. You keep mentioning that the stories are simple. Well what do you expect from a sixteen minute episode. You ve gotta put the meat in the sandwich cause the customer s in a hurry. This show and of course twilight zone were MILES ABOVE anything else on TV at the time. Viz Family affair the Brady bunch gilligan s island. Why do you think such distinguished writers and actors vied to be in numerous episodes. One of the HUGE fights between rod serling and his directors and the producer jack laird who was admittedly an oddball was over creative control which serling lacked to a great extent in this series. Laird was infamous for rewrites blocking and even casting minutes before the show was recorded. I am positive jack laird killed rod serling with a heart attack resulting from the stress from those last few years of working with him. Serling was a perfectionist. Laird was a rewrite the whole piece in six hours introduce two new characters put a new coat of paint on it rely on pro versatile actors and get it in the can by six o clock. Whew. Next. The odd couple. . Rod born Dec 25th 1924. Died of a heart attack June 28th 1975 aged 50. Not recommended by four out of five doctors

Why do a whole video that just critiques the creativity of this show? You trash all of these episodes for their shortcomings when there was no other programming like it on tv back in the late 60s early 70s? Serling would be the first to admit to the weaknesses of the Night Gallery and he lost all creative input into the show by the end of its 3 year run anyway. Serling would also admit that his writing style did not age well in the sense that his love for dialogue sometimes trumped the plot of the story. Sometimes Serling just talked too much! It’s rare for Hollywood writers today to emphasize the dialogue over the action. Great example is Breaking Bad which had very few (if any) monologues and relied extensively on the action of the scene it was depicting. Serling is a time capsule and belongs to another time and place in this history of tv. Jack Laird screwed around with the production of NG and mostly worsened the quality of the episodes. There are some that are still good and hold up, like the kid who predicted earthquakes. In any event I would have preferred a video of you describing the best episodes of the series instead of the worst.

I love Night Gallery and have many favorite episodes/segments........although I would like to comment on a couple of stories that I don't care for, but seem to get high marks from many fans of this series 'They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar' is well acted but I don't think it's that great...it's more of a 'self-pitying piece' by Rod Serling- I think he was really experincing that in his personal life.......and 'Dead Weight' I think that is about the worst Night Gallery story....and yet some fans of the series go on about how 'brilliant' that segment is

There are no shows like this any more. Shame

Who's Rod Sterling???? Lol

Jeeeez! I loved this dang show!!!❤️🤧😁 Back in the day, it was ketchup and Geraldine Page on everything fer me, please.

Rod Sterling?

I had a crush on Joanna Pettit when I was a kid. Still do at 56. She was so beautiful!

I think your being kinda nit picky about this show I mean your correct on points but c'mon it is what it is it would be like pointing out all the things in reality that could not happen on Bewitched or I dream of Jeannie. I mean what do you expect a horror series from the early 70s to be flawless?

THIS WAS BEST I EVER SAW YET!

I thought I was hearing things, you did misspell his name which is odd since you have so much to say about the stories themselves

Yeah, many of those old episodes were obtuse and just plain weird. My absolute favorite Night Gallery episode was The House as it contained a kind of nested reality theme

I think u missed the concepts / points of some of the episodes.. especially in the beginning

Serling. Not Sterling.

And now, Mr Serling

I have this show on dvd and I am currently watching it. I just started watching season 2, and the show is a bit of a disappointment. So far, the opening has been the scariest thing. However, there were some big name actors/actresses who appeared on the show. Joan Crawford, Patty Duke, Sally Field, Dean Stockwell, Vincent Price, Bill Bixby just to name a few. As I watch each episode, I look the episode up on IMDB and check about the cast.

I remember it well.

Maybe the sun would have been too much for new 12 hour eyes? So they picked nighttime....

This RU-vid segment brought to you by the word, caveat.

Interesting analysis...but the guy repeatedly mispronounces Rod Serling's name as "Rod Sterling"!

None of these are morality plays , they show the horror of the story.

"Ranges from Rod Serling fabulous to Not Rod Serling Disastrous." If you want to find the great ones, please look for the ones written by Rod Serling. The series had one big problem: Jack Laird. His type of production, humor, and writing didn't survive the 70s, and he took more creative control of the series as time went on. Even the 3-4 stories an episode format ruined the show. You couldn't say "Remember the one about," you had to say "Remember the one about ____... and ____... and _______... and _______." I'm pretty sure Serling himself was disgusted with the series by the end of it. The comedy especially was just ridiculous. Also, Night Gallery went through a chop shop when it went into syndication. So you're sometimes missing context when you're watching a re-run of this show. There might be one very important conversation that clarifies everything, but it's completely stripped out of the re-run, so the conclusion doesn't make as much or even any sense. You can get a sense of how classic the show could have been with these episodes: The Cemetery The Waiting Room Midnight Never Ends The House Certain Shadows on the Wall The Doll They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar Class of '99 Cool Air The Caterpillar Rare Objects The rest is a mess of Jack Laird's outdated, even goofy humor, and subjects that don't stick with Serling's formula. I have no idea why the network went with Laird over Serling, but it was the 70s. 70s TV didn't age well in general (dated colors, hairstyles, fashion, and décor - and most lethal to the show, the music). Maybe for the era, Laird's vision was more appealing, but time reveals all things. And the thing is this: In Serling's hands, Night Gallery could have been flipping amazing. The best of Night Gallery episodes are even better than the Twilight Zone, but those episodes are few and far between. The Twilight Zone's being in black and white and going with more classical music allowed it to look less dated today than Night Gallery does.

Clean kills and trophies is not that bad of an episode. His head on the wall through black magic was creepy. It's a horror tale. What's wrong with you.

OPEN TOPIC: Did YOUR AREA get Night Gallery RERUNS in syndication in the late 1970s / early 1980s > ? ME: No we did not get NG reruns EVER . But my friend in Wash. DC got it ! I/m in NY.

The assessment of Brenda is so clueless it's appalling.

Excellent quality cheers

O loved night gallery

It's SERLING, not Sterling, dammit!

I will steal a moment to plug the video and warn people about the 5 best and worst segments video of this same show. Don't watch it if you are a fan. This daily dose however is strong. I recommend you watch the show yourself. It's not twilight zone though. Those are extremely big huge epic shoes to fill.

Excellent thanks

SO. NOT. ALL. OF. NIGHT. GALLERYS STORIES. WERE. SCARY BUT. THEY. MADE. THEIR. STATEMENT

Like secret snow a lot but I don't understand it at all

SHOW...APPRECIATE...DON'T CRITIQUE...

NEW - CLEE - ER 😊

📺 movie pilot episode great story

Where could I watch this show today

under rated? or just not able to live up to TZ?

It's "Serling", not "Sterling" - Gimme a break.

I would have enjoyed this video more if the narrator didn’t keep mispronouncing names and words.He repeatedly mispronounces”Serling” as “Sterling”.

The 70s had really bad hair...

If I had a dollar for every time he called him Sterling, I’d have about 20 bucks.

I always Brenda was one of the better Night Gallery episodes precisely because the main character was never portrayed as sympathetic , redeemable etc... the end always struck me as her cumuppance and quite ambiguous in how the audience is meant to feel about it.

SERLING - - - - - not Sterling, what a dummy

imo you nothing but criticized it...shame..great early 70 series.

Can we watch these night galleries or is it just talking about them find this very annoying less talking just let’s get on and watch them

What’s with the Dark Boy joke?

This guy is mistaken on so many things... To say that "Brenda" is one of the worst episodes is just plain dumb, and to not mention "Secret Snow, Silent Snow" as one of the best, is also very misguided; not to mention the many mistakes in basic information about the show in general, which by the way was just great, is a clear signal that this guy is not to be trusted at all with his commentary and criticism on the subject. On the other hand, is nice to see someone talking about this great and most underrated gem.

Another weak entry from RU-vid's vast array of Amateur Hour hosts and critics.

It's Serling, not Sterling!

Could the credits go on any longer? It was annoying as fuck. I don't click dislike often, but this time I did. It just drags on and on and on and on and on.