Night Gallery - The Complete First Season
by Allen Baron, Allen Reisner, Barry Shear, Boris Sagal, Daryl Duke
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DVD details
Actor: Agnes Moorehead, Grayson Hall, Louis Hayward, Rachel Roberts, Rod SerlingDirector: Allen Baron, Allen Reisner, Barry Shear, Boris Sagal, Daryl Duke
Brand: Universal
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Unknown
Format: Box set, Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 523 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-08-24
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Universal Studios
DVD Reviews of Night Gallery - The Complete First Season
DVD Review: Great series
Summary: 5 Stars
"Night Gallery" is not as well known or appreciated as Serling's former series "The Twilight Zone" but it is certainly worth watching. I'm very pleased to finally see it out on DVD as well as the second season. Now we simply need season 3 to finish it out.
The design of the show has never been one that usually works. Two or sometimes 3 stories in an hour program is often not what people want to see. I do feel that one hour story is sufficient, just make it a good story. On this series are some very good stories. What's nice is that you get the pilot movie as well as some bonus episodes from future seasons 1 & 2. The paintings in the series are interesting to see as well.
I would simply say that if you are Serling fan then you obviously would want this in your video library. Many of the stories are written by Mr Serling himself and he still hasn't lost his touch in being a great host. I am looking forward to purchasing the second and (hopefully) third seasons.
DVD Review: Brings back such great memories
Summary: 4 Stars
I enjoy the somewhat loose format with with some stories having very short runtimes, getting right to the point. Mostly really well written with a parade of the usual suspect stars from the time. The ONLY knock on this collection is that the "bonus episodes" are very clearly episodes that didn't make the cut during the shows original run. And WOW, are those episodes BAD! Serious stinkers that could have been left out.DVD Review: Ladies and gentlemen, this is the Night Gallery.
Summary: 5 Stars
Finally, after nearly four decades, you can enjoy Night Gallery in its original form, instead of that bastardized version Universal has been peddling to TV ever since. There's no stock-footage padding or editorial butchery here, no Sixth Sense episodes masquerading as Night Gallery stories...just the episodes the way you remember seeing them on NBC.
I'm going to take a bit of exception to the majority who appear to be panning this DVD set and acknowledge that yes, there are only six episodes in the first season; yes, there are no extras; no, the shows haven't been restored. But the inclusion of the pilot movie and a few second- and third-season episodes makes up for a lot of that, as does the aforementioned opportunity to see the episodes in the form in which they originally aired.
You never see the pilot movie on TV anymore, so it's a joy to behold here. The format is only slightly different from what TV fans remember, with a different theme and score by Billy Goldenberg, who did not go on to do the series. It's unfortunate, because his music works well here. Also, the opening credits are quite literally sketchy, which is different from how they appeared on the TV series.
Also slightly changed: the paintings are on easels, covered with red drop-cloths until Rod Serling lifts them to introduce each story. And -- this is important -- the paintings literally figure into the stories. Presumably this motif was not continued throughout the series (with a few exceptions) for obvious reasons: every episode can't somehow involve a work of art.
As for the stories themselves, they are very good. The first one, "The Cemetery", is a sort of a modern ghost story, with murderous Roddy McDowell being spooked by a painting which keeps changing. The denouement is slightly cheesy in a Tales from the Crypt sort of way, and if anyone can't identify the person walking through the house at the end of the story, he's got to be blind.
Much praise has already been heaped on "Eyes", the second story, so I won't even go there, although I will say that the story's "twist" is a little hard to swallow. No situation such as the one depicted could realistically pass for blindness. More than that I will not say, since I'd spoil the ending for you.
The final story returns to one of Rod Serling's favorite themes: Jews and the Holocaust. "Escape Route" features an ex-Nazi looking for a place to hide from the Israeli secret police, and, unfortunately for him, he finds it.
Then we move on to the series proper, and the introductory painting, "The Dead Man", gets the series off to a whiz-bang start. Based on a story by Fritz Lieber, it's a tale in which an audacious scientific experiment falls prey to base human emotion. Some may guess what the twist ending will be, but that doesn't make it any less entertaining or scary.
Season 1, of course, also features the more familiar theme by Gil Melle, as well as some of the entire series' best episodes, including "The Doll" (a precursor to Chucky, and arguably scarier); "Certain Shadows on the Wall", a ghost story with a different kind of ghost; "The Lone Survivor", a new take on an old legend; "Pamela's Voice", a macabre/wry short story about murder and just desserts; and of course "They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar", which was yet another one of Serling's whimsical fantasies about a man yearning to return to his past. Robert Prince's music underscores the episodes perfectly, though this music seemed to vanish with the advent of season 2.
Overall, season 1 was the high point for the series. Season 2 had many of its own charms, but it was also more uneven, with a greater quantity of mediocre stories and, need we mention it, the much-derided comedy blackouts.
Rounding out the DVD is a season 2 episode which has a decent assortment of spooky tales. Leaving out the silly "A Matter of Semantics", two others, "The Diary" and "Big Surprise", generate some nice surprises and shivers. The last story, "Prof. Peabody's Last Lecture", unfortunately falls on its face, wasting a great performance by Carl Reiner in what is essentially an extended comedy blackout. It's a shame to see such a nice buildup leading to an ending which would look more at home on a bad episode of Lost in Space.
Finally, there are two episodes from season 3, "The Return of the Sorcerer" and "Whisper". The latter is entirely forgettable, with Dean Stockwell breaking the fourth wall to give the audience a languid narrative performance that just doesn't work. Nor is the tale particularly original.
"Sorcerer", on the other hand, is a corker. Based on a short story by Clark Ashton Smith, it tells the tale of a young man hired to translate Arabic for a practitioner of the black arts, only to be terrified when he finds out exactly what it is he's translating. Scripter Halsted Welles added a new character, Fern, a woman who is a lot more "complicated" than she at first appears to be, and for once, such a brazen departure from the original story actually pays off handsomely, enriching the tale by adding new layers and texture without changing its intent. The final scene, a black Mass, is a series high point in its staging, acting and music (by Eddie Sauter). Even Vincent Price's slightly hammy acting works here, and with the exception of a couple of unnecessary dubs ("For power!"; "The woman is insatiable!"), everything clicks on every level to make this story wonderfully creepy, as well as one of the best realizations of Lovecraftian horror done on either the big or small screens.
Unhappily, this was also a high point for season 3, which quickly became moribund and directionless. Interestingly, the composer of the raucous, discordant third season theme song is mentioned nowhere...possibly at the composer's request. (It may have been Sauter, but it doesn't specifically say so.) At any rate, it's a shrill piece that is a disappointing departure from the more subtle theme of seasons 1 & 2.
Overall, what you have here is a nice, albeit short, introduction to the series, featuring some of the best stories it ever told. The only thing I would really complain about is that even with the pilot and a few bonus episodes, the DVD set is not worth the roughly $50-60 asking price. The set is more reasonably priced in the $35-40 range, so if you find it new or used at that price point, grab it, and enjoy once again the image and voice of Rod Serling leading you through his dark museum.
DVD Review: Doesn't Get Any Better
Summary: 5 Stars
Quality of the episode transfers is superb. Doesn't get any better. Extras are nil. Studio overpriced. The second season is about the same price and instead of six hour-long episodes you get 22. Yeah, that's how over-priced this is.
I also recommend ROD SERLING'S NIGHT GALLERY: AN AFTER-HOURS TOUR by Scott Skelton and Jim Benson offers 390 plus pages of behind-the-scenes critical analysis and facts with exclusive interviews with cast and crew.
If you are a fan of Twilight Zone, another book of equal caliber if not better is THE TWILIGHT ZONE: UNLOCKING THE DOOR TO A TELEVISION CLASSIC by Martin Grams is 800 plus pages and includes "everything" about the classic series. The details about Serling's writing career on radio, early television and Twilight Zone is well researched and highly detailed. Exclusive interviews with cast and crew and behind-the-scenes trivia will floor you.
Both books available on Amazon.com so do yourself a favor and buy the books as well as the DVDs.
DVD Review: BEFORE YOU IS A PAINTING. A PAINTING OF A WOMAN WHO PLANTS ALL SHE TOUCHES. EVEN HERSELF. WE CALL THIS PORTRAIT GREENFINGERS
Summary: 5 Stars
NIGHT GALLERY was on at 10:30pm 74-76 KBHK 44 in San Francisco and since I never had a curfew as a kid (YES!!!) I could stay up and watch these Tales to Scare. Some of my favorites are The Cemetery: starring Roddy McDowell who is haunted by a painting that alters itself day to day and hour to hour of a revengeful relative. The Professor: starring Carl Reiner who teaches his class about the book on the Necronomocon (if I spelled wrong my apologies do not have spell check on that word) and while he scoffs at the book he slowly changes into some sort of THING!?!?! GREENFINGERS stars the fantastic Elsa(BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN)Lanchester as a woman who just loves to plant but a man who wants her land makes it so she is planted in real life. She rises from the ground green vined and all(this episode FREAKED me out) also their is the (fatal) portrait of THE CATERPILLER a story of a earwig that burrow's
its self in the ear canal and finally comes out the other side but not before it has LAID ITS EGGS!!! The first two seasons of Night Gallery is easily the best and has a very HAUNTING intro. For lovers of TALES FROM THE CRYPT-NIGHTMARES AND DREAMSCAPES-MASTERS OF HORROR-TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE-DARKROOM with James Coburn(81-82 remember that one?) and of course one of my all time favs. IN SEARCH OF...with Leonard Nimoy
GOOD STUFF!
Description of Night Gallery - The Complete First Season
Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 08/24/2004Educational DVDs
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