Night Gallery was a decent follow up to Serling's vastly superior Twilight Zone series of a decade earlier. Leaning more toward the macabre, Night Gallery's adaptation of short stories produced some memorable episodes during its short run, including "The Caterpillar", "Green Fingers" and "The Doll". Serling's own feelings toward the show were lukewarm at best. Erring in judgment at the outset, Serling thought the producers would routinely defer to him on outside scripts and creative control of the show. He quickly realized they would do no such thing, and his disenchantment with stories that "didn't say something" eventually reached a crescendo. Nonetheless, Serling was contractually bound to host "NG" until its cancellation.
Night Gallery fell victim to those who compared it (both unfavorably and unfairly) to episodes of "The Twilight Zone". Also hurting the series were episodes that were not of uniform length and the horrific "comedic" vignettes that producer Jack Laird found fit to round out each segment, many times ruining what was an otherwise effective, dramatic (half)hour of television.
The show boasted some fine performances and some Emmy nominated segments, yet strangely, the show was neither embraced nor promoted by studio execs who clashed with Serling's concept of what the show should be. Fed up with the industry, Serling would die only a couple of years after "NG" left the air- a sad finale to a tremendous writer and major contributor to television.
Night Gallery fell victim to those who compared it (both unfavorably and unfairly) to episodes of "The Twilight Zone". Also hurting the series were episodes that were not of uniform length and the horrific "comedic" vignettes that producer Jack Laird found fit to round out each segment, many times ruining what was an otherwise effective, dramatic (half)hour of television.
The show boasted some fine performances and some Emmy nominated segments, yet strangely, the show was neither embraced nor promoted by studio execs who clashed with Serling's concept of what the show should be. Fed up with the industry, Serling would die only a couple of years after "NG" left the air- a sad finale to a tremendous writer and major contributor to television.