Whatever Happened to Rod Serling's Night Gallery?
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- Опубликовано: 4 окт 2024
- Whatever happened to Rod Serling's Night Gallery? Why was it canceled at the height of its popularity? Why has it virtually disappeared over the years? Night Gallery co-author Jim Benson reveals the sad fate of this nearly forgotten TV classic.
Rod Serling's Night Gallery aired on NBC from 1970 to 1973, yet despite its popularity, especially with young people, the decision was made to kill the show after only three years on the air.
Why? And what happened to permanently stain its legacy?
Jim Benson, co-author of Rod Serling's Night Gallery: An After-Hours Tour, reveals the answers and the dramatic behind-the-scenes power struggle behind this controversial series, which was Rod Serling's follow-up to his classic 1960s CBS TV anthology series, The Twilight Zone.
Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone and Night Gallery predicted what is happening today.
Serling was one of the greatest writers in Hollywood History.
Agreed. Both of Serling's series were quite prescient.
I used to watch this when I was a kid late at night and even the opening theme is spooky.🖼️
Composed by the innovative, maverick musician, Gil Melle'.
A very good commentary on Rod Serling's Night Gallery. I was disappointed when the series was canceled. I have the Dvd's, @ Blu-Ray's , and the VHS @ Laserdisc Pilot in my Night Gallery collection. Im looking forward to adding the Night Gallery Books to my collection. Thanks Jim for a great commentary on Rod Serling's Night Gallery.
Thank you so much John, and thank you for your support of Night Gallery!
Hello I am a Night Gallery fan I have the DVDs also.
Thanks for the great video. I remember watching the original series, then the half hour reruns that were cut to pieces. Thanks for covering this classic.
You're very welcome!
I was six-ish when Night Gallery aired. Everyone else in the family, older than I was, watched it.
I hid under my bed, terrified.
Still hate paintings.
I wasn't born yet, but i loved the re runs late night on the weekends. That music is still scary 😂
I was 6 years old in 1973. We had just moved to Denver from Chicago, and I vividly remember seeing the first reruns of Night Gallery on channel 2 just after the game show Truth or Consequences aired early at night. There’s a scary episode that sticks out in my mind about a woman who is in contact with an evil ghost upstairs in the attic of her home. I remember seeing this episode again when I rented the DVDs from Netflix, but I completely forget the title. In the summer of 1975, I remember hearing on the radio Rod Serling had died during heart surgery. It would be about another 5 years before I saw The Twilight Zone. Up until then, I only knew Rod Serling as that guy who hosted Night Gallery.
The episode to which you refer is "Something in the Woodwork," starring Geraldine Page and Leif Erickson. Aired during the final season of the show, it was the last Rod Serling script of Night Gallery to air.
Thank you. Someone else on RUclips posted a description of this episode with pictures, and this is the episode I remember seeing as a child and again as an adult.
Wonderful segment, Jim…I really enjoyed this one! It was interesting pausing to read the newspaper clippings in detail. My favorite quote by Serling was his customarily droll response to the notion of a series name change-to which he responded “I don’t care if they call it ‘King For A Day’”. Classic Rod, ha!
It’s interesting how Rod, when given his marching orders to NOT feature incisive and probing social commentary into the third season segments, still managed to do so-primarily through his longer and highly thoughtful, at times polemic monologues in the intros featuring the paintings (!). Very clever on the part of the impish creative genius that Mr. Serling was.
You're very welcome! That's a very good observation about Rod's third season intros, one that we had not considered. I've also felt that Rod's longer intros was his way of compensating for the network taking away his screen time with the half-hour format--something that he did not sign up for.
Green Fingers was very well remembered
I bought the book Rod Serling's Night Gallery: An After-Hours Tour in 1998, I've heard there is a second edition with extras.....I have several favorite Night Gallery episodes//segments, the pilot was brilliant, and The Dark Boy, Since Aunt Ada Came to Stay, The Phantom Farmhouse, A Death in the Family, Cool Air, Sins of the Father and several others......the only Night Gallery episodes I don't care for is Dead Weight and They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar
Thank you for purchasing our first book! Yes, the Night Gallery Second Edition is a hardcover book, over 800 pages and includes over 600 color photos, including images of all the paintings. Most of the material in the book is brand-new, including over 50 new interviews with Night Gallery cast and crew. The book is available at Night Gallery Dot Net.
@@thetvtimemachine Thanks for the info and Thanks for all your hard work that went into it
@@thetvtimemachine The book is listed used on Amazon for $5,000. A bit too rich for me.
Jim, I have the latest version of your After-Hours Tour book and it is one of the greatest (if not *the greatest*) TV reference/ guide books I’ve ever had the pleasure of owning.
I really enjoyed your commentaries on the episodes as well. I had the DVDs, but the upgrade to the Kino Lorber Blurays was worth the purchase for all the new features and commentaries.
Thank you, Mike, I appreciate it!
Thank you for this video
You're very welcome!
Excellent documentary! I was six when the show premiered and actually recall that third season Sunday night time slot. We always watched the NBC mystery movie as a family with that awesome Mancini score! NG came on and I was promptly sent to bed, but I do recall seeing some of those episodes when I was little. Particularly: I’ll Never Leave You…Ever (great title still makes me chuckle), The Waiting Room, The Other Way Out and Midnight Never Ends just to name a few. Indelible images on a young mind.
It’s maddening, but not surprising, to hear how NBC messed with Serling and ultimately destroyed his show. Especially confounding is the fact that the ratings were still viable and the show could have continued. To think of the possibilities…what could have been. But of course when you consider that final episode, with the laughable gorilla suit, maybe we dodged a bullet!
Night Gallery producer Jack Laird said that he had enough stories for the show to run 5-7 seasons. Additionally, Rod Serling wrote close to twenty scripts for Night Gallery that were never produced, that contained some of his best work.
Your story is not unusual, as Night Gallery's biggest demographic was young people, under the age of 18. Parents would sometimes allow their kids to stay up past 10 PM when Night Gallery was on Wednesday nights, but not on Sunday nights, the day prior to the start of a new school week. That was another reason why the ratings plummeted in the show's third and final season.
Outside of a great feature on Night Gallery, you have a perfect narration voice. That's probably why people say you sound like AI, because AI COPIED you. Now I need to find these episodes - I adore The Twilight Zone, so would be interesting to watch Night Gallery.
Thank you so much! Night Gallery is not available online, but the entire series is available on Blu Ray.
I recall these programs. Watched them out in the sticks on a wood frame tv (tubes) which got so hot that 6 months out of the year the window over it had to be open. Have a good evening.
To everyone who claims the narration is AI... I know this youtube creator personally, and can confirm he is 100% human! :D
I can confirm that, too!
Plus MCA decided to include episodes from the short-lived Gary Collins starrer "Sixth Sense" as part of the syndication package as if they were simply Night Gallery episodes.
I bought the book, worth its weight in gold. ❤ Wanted to find out where the transmitting station in "flip side of satan", was filmed, also where the pit was filmed in "brenda", but that info is not there or anywhere.
Thank you! "Brenda" was filmed in and around the Malibu, California area, and the transmitting station was located on the backlot of Universal Studios. The "Flip-Side" station can also be seen in the 1978 Universal film, "FM."
@thetvtimemachine thanks for responding. Yes, the book mentions Malibu, but several shots were on colonial street(?) At the studio, So I wondered if the pit was in the wooded area below. I tried to find the station building, ( of course, buildings come and go) and I noticed a railway, a box car, and the interior and exterior were of the same place. (Most of the railwork at universal is gone, i think), There's also a hill/ridge behind, which I thought might be the LA River. Thanks again for the video and book and info.
The book second edition is in it's weight in gold on Amazon.
To bad the tower of terror was not at universal studios using the paintings from the night gallery used in the ride.
Unfortunately it was on only 3 seasons - the SCARIEST show on TV in the 70s
Agreed!
i remember 1 episode as a kid called the sin eater. scared the $HIT out of me
That's "Sins of the Fathers," starring Richard Thomas.
@@thetvtimemachine yes
He brought the title up
Still scared the shit out of me at 10
It's never brought up why "The Sixth Sence" was added into the series.
❤
Anywhere I can get all "Night Gallery" DVDs? Maybe in a box set. Just wondering
Night Gallery is available on both DVD and Blu Ray, in the usual online outlets.
I loved that show, the music is still terrifying 😂
Agree. Gil Melle' composed the Night Gallery theme, the first electronic theme ever composed for a television series.
It's a wonder that any good TV was made during this time period....come to think of it there WAS a lot of bad shows.
Agree. Many TV shows of that time were cookie-cutter, homogenized entertainment for the masses. Night Gallery broke the mold, was subversive in a sense, and network television didn't know how to deal with a TV series such as that. As director Jeannot Szwarc said, they couldn't control a show like Night Gallery. So they forcefully changed it, and then canceled it.
(note: opinions about certain "Night Gallery" episodes in this video)
One of the big problems I had with this show (other (than the watering down of/elimination of "relevant/subtext-oriented material) was the bland production design and falt-ish lighting. Shows like OUTER LIMITS demonstrated how powerful dynamic compositions, imaginative lighting and set design could tremendously boost esch story's power. NIGHT GALLERY was kind of "wimpy" visually. Im just speaking in generalities, as there WERE some episodes that were well-done in that regard (in my opinion/if that even matters! ha) but, over all the show was a bit too meh for me. It might have been better if it had been an early 60's show where things were a bit more experimental, visually.
😂😂figures Guillermo Del Toro didn’t like Rod Serling’s storytelling! Del Toro has the biggest ego in Hollywood, a much bigger ego than he has any right to have, he acts like he’s better than everyone else and rarely gives credit where credit is due. 😂
It sucked. That’s what happened to it
Thank you for watching!
There were some excellent episodes, but there were more mediocre and bad episodes. Serling himself was aware of this.
Was always scared by the worm/caterpillars in the ear/brain, even to this day. I guess some don't get to upset about this, like the Maga crowd
Sorry, I can't stand the AI-GENERATED voice narration. Big thumbs down.
That voice you hear is my actual speaking voice. But thank you for the compliment!
Nope, he's real.
Oh man, I hate AI generated voices too and think they're ruining YT, but this one is human. He annunciates too well to be AI.
😂😂