Sometime in 1965, CBS released their schedule for the shows they would be making new seasons of for 1966, and Twilight Zone was not on it. Many people loved the show (and still do), so it begs the question of why did it get cancelled? Even into its fifth season, TZ was still rated well, but even the most diehard fans could see the writing on the wall. After 100+ episodes, the series was running out of steam. Rod Serling, who had created Twilight Zone and was involved a great deal with its writing and stories, would not have the same amount of freedom when it came to this new show. The best way I can explain Night Gallery to someone who has never watched it is this: it's basically Twilight Zone but in color. This might lead some people to believe that the show is a straight improvement on its predecessor with none of its shortcomings, but they would be wrong. Night Gallery's episodes are definitely not as good as TZ's, and this is clear as day to someone like me who has seen every single installment of the aforementioned show. Sadly, the pilot episode of Night Gallery is vastly superior to most of the other stories on the show, so it might give the false impression that they're all excellent. I saw the pilot first, and while I noticed a pretty large drop in quality between it and subsequent episodes, I still thought they were passable. A lot of them just don't make a lot of sense to me, such as an early one which involves a sailor who has apparently been alive in a lifeboat for 3 whole years. It's revealed that he was on the Titanic, and now that it's ww1, he's fished out of the water by a passing ship (which just so happens to be the Lusitania). They hear his amazing story, but the ship is torpedoed right after. He's also able to predict when the torpedo will strike. It's not really an original story considering TZ also briefly mentioned the Lusitania in one episode. That's not to say Night Gallery is completely devoid of any original content. An episode I really like involves a former nazi hiding in a south american country to escape persecution. Every day, he walks down to the local art museum to stare into a painting featuring a guy drifting nonchalantly in a canoe on a mountain lake. He seems to envision himself in this painting, because it represents his desire to never be seen again and thus never pay for his crimes. While staring at the painting, he's approached by an elderly man who claims that he knows him from a concentration camp, but he rebuffs him and says he's not german, but hungarian. Later on, the old man's suspicions are confirmed because he catches the guy loudly singing the german anthem while drunk in a bar. To cover his tracks, the former SS officer murders the old man, and while being pursued by cops, he runs back to the art museum and begs to be let into the painting. His wish is granted, but it's not the nice mountain lake painting he's brought into. It's a painting of a crucifixion. This episode is very well done, but like I said before, the same can't be said for most of the episodes in this show. They're just ok, and not on the same level as Twilight Zone in terms of quality. This makes sense, because Serling had burnt himself out on writing by this point and he was never going to achieve that level of fame again. Although Rod did create many teleplays for Night Gallery, he mostly just serves as the show's host and wasn't involved with the majority of the stories. If he had been, I think this show would be considered on par with TZ in terms of being a classic, but even geniuses like him eventually get tired. What I can say is that NG is unique in that it uses stories by famous horror writers (such as HP Lovecraft) as the basis for many of its episodes. Overall, Night Gallery is not as polished or well made as the Twilight Zone, but that's the case for most shows in general. What it does have is still a lot of fun to watch, and because it's from the 70s, it has that old fashioned atmosphere.
Review of Night Gallery
