Night Gallery - Season 2 (1 Viewer)

[chas speed]

I never really "got" his Mannix quote, unless he was talking about the brief 3rd season after the network and studio took over the show and made everything much more conventional.

 

[irishsooner]

actually "mannix in a cemetery"! second season was up against mannix that year and was being bested. serling's scripts were being rejected for more conventional fright stories. the third season was reduced to a half hour from an hour. all information i know i read from "the twilight zone companion" written by marc scott zicree. all in all just too bad universal execs at that time didn't listen more to the man who's name was on the product.

 

[chas speed]

Most Twilight Zone books and even Serling bios did very little research before blowing off Night Gallery. I thought the 2nd season was the best and there are plenty of classic Serling teleplays. I don't think "Caterpillar", "Green Fingers", "Silent Snow, Secret Snow", "Camera Obscura" etc.. seem much like "Mannix" to me. By all accounts the show did well in the ratings it's 2nd year. Serling was offered the chance to produce Night Gallery and turned it down, then spent a lot of his time complaining he didn't have complete control of the show. The old "have your cake and eat it too"' syndrome.

 

[irishsooner]

pretty sure there were some sour grapes going on back then. i'm sure he would enjoy the loyal following of his works today. hope we don't wait long for season 3.

 

[michael_ks]

Yes, I recall how interminably long the syndicated episode was, padded out with those distorted faces. I also recall how sluggish "The Hand of Borgus Weems" was in its syndie version, though can't recall specifics. This episode played MUCH better for me on the new set. Same holds true for "Since Aunt Ada Came to Stay".

Other syndicated episodes that come to mind are "The Different Ones", featuring stock footage from 1971's "Silent Running", "The Big Surprise" with the inclusion of footage from "The Birds" and the silly inclusion of tinted, old Universal monster film clips in "The Housekeeper".

In "Midnight Never Ends", the stock shot of an approaching police car was removed--I always thought it was in the original. But now that I think of it, it ruins the ambiance of the episode to the degree that the entire universe is supposed to be the immediate surroundings of the four characters.

 

[DeWilson]

Is there someplace on the net that liasts all the changes for the syndicated versions?

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

Music experts alert -

Where have we heard the little haunting ditty by Oliver Nelson in the episode "Midnight Never Ends" before? It reminds me of the opening to the ABC series Journey into the Unknown, but that's not it. I know it was used somewhere else prominently, and can't place it. I don't have the chops to identify it (but I do know that a lot of the electronic music used for this season irritates me).

I'm inching my way through this Season 2 because, frankly, it's just not very compelling and it leaves me more disappointed than happy to see it again (but I am glad to have the set). Ironically, the color and styles date it instead of giving it the more timeless quality (and tighter scripts) of the B&W The Twilight Zone.

There are a few rare gems so far. "Silent Snow, Secret Snow" was beautifully handled with the Orson Welles narration. But it's slim pickings. And a lot of those early 70's awkward zooms jolt you right back out of any suspension of reality.

I'd also like to know where the painting to "Midnight Never Ends" ended up, because it's a great (and appropriately dark) portrait of the man, Rod, himself.

So many of these stories work better in my imagination from the classic short stories they were derived from. But perhaps that's always the case. But I miss Charles Beaumont, Richard Matheson, Fredric Brown, etc. And Alfred Hitchcock Presents always brought its stories better to life - but that was more crime fiction than horror.

Just some random thoughts (and inquiries) on this release.

 

[chas speed]

I don't really know how you can call a season with 'The boy who predicted earthquakes", "A Fear of Spiders", "The Phantom Farmhouse" "Silent Snow, Secret Snow" (I know you liked that one), "A Question of Fear", "A Big Surprise", "Pickman's Model", Cool Air", "Camera Obscura", "The Messiah on Mott Street", "Green Fingers", "Lindeman's Catch", "Deliveries in the Rear", "The Sins of the Father" and "The Caterpillar" slim pickings, but you know what they say about opinions (everybody's got one). I think many of the best shows are toward the end of the season. I feel all of the Twilight Zone seasons have plenty of rotten episodes, but have never felt compelled to go on to one of their threads to mention it. About the shows look, the series had plenty of great camera men including Lionel Lindon (he shot the original Manchurian Candidate), Leonard South (Hitchcock's main camera operator) and Gerald Perry Finnerman (Star Trek and Moonlighting).

 

[JoshuaB.]

I'm quite sure Hollywoodaholic wasn't trying to annoy or provoke other Night Gallery fans with his comments--they were merely honest opinions of the S2 episodes. I've enjoyed the variety of opinions here at the HTF for many years and the vast majority of members are very respectable in what they write, especially Hollywoodaholic--he's no troll!

I'm a Night Gallery fan and a fan of genre anthology shows (The Twilight Zone helped inspire me at a young age to become a writer, so I'm very grateful), but I'm not immune to the series' flaws. Most 70s TV shows look flat and extremely dated compared to a lot of the BW shows from the early 60s, so I know where Hollywoodaholic is coming from! NG is fun to watch, but it's still very clunky (not unlike Kolchak: The Night Stalker and most of the 70s TV horror artifacts--but I still have affection for them)--it really does miss the touch of a Richard Matheson (who really is one of the literary horror giants)!

NG's writing may be uneven, but my favourite aspect is the parade of wonderful guest stars--seeing people like Laurence Harvey, William Windom, Bill Bixby, etc. in a supernatural story is a real treat!

 

[michael_ks]

Personally I love the look and feel of early 70s television shows, particularly "Night Gallery", "Columbo", Alias Smith and Jones", "Search" and "Kung Fu". There's just a great aura about these shows that was lost around the time that "Charlies Angels" and "CHiPs" came on the scene.

As a huge fan of "Night Gallery" I've enjoyed the S2 release like never before. I'd never seen the original, longer "A Question of Fear" and felt it was just sublime in its atmospheric qualities. "Midnight Never Ends" is also a firm favorite and I recall seeing the painting at Universal Studios back in the early to mid 70s. Its the only NG painting I've seen up close.


Back in college days, Fredric Brown was my favorite writer and I always felt his work was left largely untapped. He was a master of the short-short, having written many 1 page "Twilight Zone/"Night Gallery" type stories that, along with his longer stories would have been perfect for capturing on the television medium. I recall one story that was barely a paragraph long. He's well known for his excellent 1944 story "Arena" (used in both "Star Trek" and "Outer Limits"). Several stories of his were adapted for "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" as he was a superb mystery writer as well, and he had one of them adapted for the 1981 "Darkroom" anthology series.

S3 of NG episodes are now available for viewing, BTW:

http://www.fancast.com/tv/Night-Gall.../full-episodes

I just watched "The Other Way Out" with Ross Martin. What a great performance he gave in that one. Hope the season makes to DVD soon.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

Full disclosure - I'm only on the second disc of the Second Season, so take my purely subjective opinions in that context. If the episodes get better toward the end, that will be great; I was just referring to what I've seen so far. I'm never trying to rain on anyone's parade, but part of the whole concept of a forum is that it's an exchange of honest opinions, and no one's required to agree on anything.

I worship Rod Serling as a writer; he was the reason I tackled my career in the first place, and I still seek his work out wherever it is (Studio One DVD, for one), but like Orson Welles with Citizen Kane, it's got to be tough to always be measured against the lightning strike that was The Twilight Zone.

I really enjoyed "Question of Fear," but it is one story that would have benefited from better effects today. And I so much wish more episodes had the mood lighting that works so effectively in the car for "Midnight Never Ends." But for most of the time, it's floodlit to take advantage of the color presentation.

Fredric Brown was another hero, and I have a signed copy of his anthology, "And the Gods Laughed." My favorite story? Probably, "Come and Go Mad." I wonder why that was never filmed? I would have loved to have done an adaptation. I also love his mysteries and have many of the Dark Lizard (?) releases. I also collected Beamont and Matheson. A favorite Matheson tale that never got filmed; "Children of Noah."

God bless television for occasionally trying anthology shows again (Nightmares and Dreamscapes recently), but everything keeps getting filtered down and diluted from the original source material, so it's no wonder that the best adaptations of short stories, for the most part, all occured in the 50s and 60s (when people still read them).

 

[michael_ks]

Interestingly enough, it was done for live theater a few years ago at a university I attended back in the 80s:

The UAF Student Drama Association (SDA)

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

That is totally wild, thanks for sharing that, I wish I had seen that production. It makes sense to stage it as a play.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

The quality of the prints in this set is pretty damn good ...

The detail was fine enough to see Patty Duke's moustache in "The Diary." The same episode featured ingenue actress Lindsay Wagner in a cameo as a mental ward nurse (cute outfit).

Richard Matheson finally makes a teleplay appearance in "Big Surprise." That short story always disturbed me, which is, of course, the point. John Carradine is perfect for the part, and we get to see one of the Van Patten boys pre-teen.

Not sure I like reducing H.P. Lovecraft to a babbling dork in a classroom in "Mr. Abernathy's Last Lecture" (or whatever the name was). But what do you expect from Jack Laird? The Old Ones probably got him, too.

 

[michael_ks]

I take it, Wayne that you never got NG S1 as the episodes you describe were added as a bonus to that set.

"Big Surprise" is something of a sentimental favorite as I looked almost exactly like "Chris" at that time, while two of my childhood friends looked very much like those other two boys. The part of CA we lived in looked much the same as what is shown in the segment, also. When I first bought S1, my then 4 year old son COULD NOT get enough of "Big Surprise" and must have viewed it 25 times or more. I think I could recite the entire dialogue verbatim even now. I love the music score in this one, by the way.

Yes, Laird had a very obtuse sense of humor which must have made Serling scratch his head numerous times. A good writer and very learned individual but quite the weird eccentric as well from what I read in the Skelton/Benson book on NG.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

I have NG S1, but it's been a while since I watched it and ... well, let's just say remembering what I watched last WEEK is a challenge.

Yeah, I definitely want to show "Big Surprise" to my 12-year old who's almost the same age as the kids in the episode. I already know his reaction... WTF?! (He doesn't curse, but he does text).

It's nice that David Carradine and his dad both appeared in the same season, and they probably shot it near the hippie digs of David in Topanga or wherever.

 

[younger1968]

I just picked up S1 and S2 for Night Gallery. I remember watching the show in syndication in the late 1970s and early 1980s. If memory could recall it was on like CKVR or Channel 29 WUTV in Buffalo at or around midnight.


It looks like it has been almost two years since the 2nd season came out. There is still the third season and i hope it does not meet the same fate as Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.

 

[younger1968]

I have S1 and S2 of Night Gallery. I notice S2 was released on November 2008. I am hoping this means S3 will be released in November 2008. This is another classic show and i would love to own.

 

[Joe Tor1]

Originally Posted by younger1968 I just picked up S1 and S2 for Night Gallery. I remember watching the show in syndication in the late 1970s and early 1980s. If memory could recall it was on like CKVR or Channel 29 WUTV in Buffalo at or around midnight. It looks like it has been almost two years since the 2nd season came out. There is still the third season and i hope it does not meet the same fate as Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.

Happily, it’s now very likely that Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea will be completed! Hopefully, the same will apply to Night Gallery. I just bought the first two seasons in recent months (proving that “Catalogue” or “Back Issue” classic titles still sell long after their initial on-sale period. Listening, studios?), and want to see it complete as well!

 

[younger1968]

i love to see S3 released on 2011. I have S1-S2 on dvd and have watched several episodes. This is classic series that i remember watching the show in the 1980s like around midnight.