Night Gallery

1 9 7 0 - 1 9 7 3 (USA)
98 x 50 minute episodes

Though it has never received as much acclaim or hype as his previous series, Night Gallery was in many ways superior to Rod Serling's Twilight Zone. The series featured spookier, more intriguing tales of Gothic mystery and supernatural phenomenon, and featured an even more prominent array of guest-stars, including Burgess Meredith, Stuart Whitman, Geraldine Page, Agnes Moorehead, Jane Wyman, Jeanette Nolan, John Astin, Phyllis Diller, Carol Lynley, Vincent Price, Joel Grey, Brandon deWilde, Elizabeth Hartman, Diane Keaton, Anne Archer, Sandra Dee, Sally Field, and many others. 

There were plenty of misses that were made during Night Gallery's three-season run, but the hits can still leave trails of cranberry-sized goose bumps down the back of your spine!

One of the most disturbing Night Gallery episodes, The Caterpillar, aired during the series' second season and is considered one of its best. In it a scheming colonel (Laurence Harvey) falls victim to his own murder plot and ends up suffering the agony of a burrowing, pregnant earwig. The bug lays eggs in the mans head, which must burrow out when hatched. Based on a short story, the episode helped fuel a fear of parasitic insects just waiting to sneak into people's ears. "and the female lays eggs".

Some of the other stand-out episodes included; They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar - William Windom (in an awesome performance) plays a has-been salesman who's beckoned by the ghosts of his past; The Doll - A gruesome doll, sent to a British officer as revenge; The Tune in Dan's Cafe - A haunted jukebox plays the same song always; Green Fingers - with Elsa Lanchester as an elderly woman, harassed by a tycoon who wants her land, where she has an unusual knack for gardening.

Meanwhile, many that grew up in this era as children will have vague recollections of Leslie Nielsen as the Phantom of the Opera being unmasked by the girl and then unmasking her in return only to find she was as deformed as he was; A time traveller who survived the Titanic sinking by being picked up by the Lusitania, only to be ultimately rescued by the Andrea Doria; an ostracized young girl who befriends a seaweed monster; a diner jukebox that hauntingly plays only one song, and a young Clint Howard (Ron's kid brother) playing a child prodigy who foresees mankind's treacherous fate. 

EPISODES

Silent Snow, Secret Snow   Marmalade Wine  Death in the Family   The Tune in Dan's Café  The Doll  Logoda's Heads  The Sins of the Fathers  The Caterpillar Green Fingers  Camera Obscura  House - with Ghost  The Dark Boy  Stop Killing Me  Room with a View  With Apologies to Mr. Hide  The Academy  Hell's Bells  A Question of Fear Certain Shadows on the Wall  Hatred unto Death  The Miracle at Campofeo  A Feast of Blood The Last Laurel  The Doll of Death  There Aren't Any More MacBanes  The Dead Man  The Ring with the Red Velvet Ropes  Brenda  The Housekeeper The Devil Is Not Mocked A Matter of Semantics The Painted Mirror Phantom of What Opera?  Junior  Keep in Touch  We'll Think of Something Spectre in Tap-Shoes  The Ghost of Sorworth Place  The Little Black Bag An Act of Chivalry  Dead Weight  How to Cure the Common Vampire  I'll Never Leave You - Ever  The Late Mr. Peddington  The Merciful  A Midnight Visit to the Neighbourhood Blood Bank Miss Lovecraft Sent Me  Professor Peabody's Last Lecture  Quoth the Raven  Satisfaction Guaranteed

The Hand of Borgus Weems The Dead Man  A Question of Fear Cool Air  Pickman's Model  The Flip Side of Satan  Big Surprise  The Funeral  Big Surprise  The House  She'll Be Company for You  The Phantom Farmhouse  Whisper  Tell David...  Since Aunt Ada Came to Stay  Last Rites for a Dead Druid  The Dear Departed  Dead Weight  The Academy The Boy who Predicted Earthquakes  Class of '99  Clean Kills and Other Trophies Cool Air  The Dear Departed  Death in the Family  Deliveries in the Rear  The Diary  Dr. Stringfellow's Rejuvenator  Escape Route  Eyes   Green Fingers  The House  The Last Laurel  Lindemann's Catch  The Little Black Bag  Lone Survivor Make Me Laugh  The Messiah on Mott Street  Midnight Never Ends  Pamela's Voice Rare Objects  They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar  The Waiting Room  You Can't Get Help Like That Anymore  The Late Mr. Peddington  The Return of the Sorcerer The Merciful  Little Girl Lost  A Fear of Spiders The Painted Mirror  Hatred Unto Death