56 years ago, the replacement series of the Twilight Zone Zone of Rod Serling was too dark for television – but it is a horror masterpiece now

In 1959, Stem serling has changed television forever with its series The twilight zone. It has become a basic food on CBS for five seasons, and it was so loved and inventive that it led to several restart series and a controversial theatrical film in 1983. Even if you have never seen The twilight zone Before, it is a phenomenon of pop culture that you know its emblematic theme song and these images of Rod Serling in black and white asking you to imagine a different world. Television often did not take risks in the 1960s, sitcoms and light westerns being the winners of the notes, but The twilight zone Has his viewers challenge to examine a broader society through the objective of science fiction, fantasy and horror.

In 1964, after canceling the Twilight area for the third time, Serling needed another place to go with his creativity. It took five years, but in 1969, Night gallery was born on NBC. He started with a pilot anthology film written by Serling before becoming a weekly series. He followed a format similar to The twilight zoneWith Serling back as a host, but this time, It became darker, while the series was more leaned over a terrifying horror. It lasted three seasons, and although it is not as famous as what previous, it deserves to be recognized for what it influenced.

A segment of the TV movie ‘Night Gallery’ was the beginning of director of Steven Spielberg

The night gallery Pilot Film was created in November 1969, in color, with Serling serving as host. He would present the stories to come by standing in a gallery filled with paintings, where he would indicate a painting and describe it, before the start of the short film. The pilot is made up of three short films and is filled with star power, including tastes Joan Crawford,, Roddy McDowallAnd Ossie Davis. Each part of the anthology also had a different director. Two of them were Boris Sagal And Barry ShearBut the third was a twenty-three-year-old unknown child starting a director named Steven Spielberg.

The Spielberg staging credit returns to the “eyes” segment, with Joan Crawford In one of his last roles. Imagine being a guy barely old enough to drink by giving a direction to a film icon of all time! “Eyes”, written by Serling (like all the other pilot’s shorts), talks about a blind woman named Claudia (Crawford) who undergoes an illegal operation to resume sight by holding the eyes of a desperate player for money. The Spielberg segment was impressive enough Night gallery was picked up like a series, he was asked twice as much for episodes directly, but the last one almost ended his career. During an interview on The Late Show with Stephen ColbertHe spoke of the realization of the episode “Make Me Laugh”. Wanting to show his artistic capacity, he decided to shoot his 11 -minute episode like a blow. But the studio saw it. Spielberg told Colbert:

“”[They said] “Where is the close cover, where are the plans on the shoulders, where are the prerequisites to make it look like a television program?” And I immediately received a call from a framework, I will not mention the name of this person, who said: “We are dismayed by what we see. This is one of the most irresponsible experiences that I have never had with a director who works for me, and we will remedy the show with another director. And it was the end. “”

Rod Serling fought against creative control on ‘Night Gallery’

Rod Serling was not only a creator and a television program. Most importantly, he was a writer. Many of these classics Twilight episodes you love, he wrote them. The same goes for Night gallery. The two shows are the product of his creative genius, where he used the fantastic and the macabre to point a finger on problems such as racism and war. However, over the seasons, Serling wrote fewer and fewer episodes, As the show has become what NBC wanted instead. Serling had no problem talking about his lost vision while appearing on an episode of The Dick Cavett Show. There, the host spoke of a Television guide Article where Serling appeared to be depressed by his career, despite the huge success he had had. It was because, in his opinion, Night gallery had lost his way.

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Serling told Cavett that he had been reduced to being a singer for the show, adding that “he does not belong to me at a distance”. He was disappointed that Night gallery had become “a quick race through the cemetery” which tried to be heavier in action and to compete with other shows. It was not like that Night gallery begin. Serling called the original intention a “brain exercise” which could be all genres. He spoke of losing control to the point that “I want them to use someone other than me”. It was because NBC took it so completely that they stopped calling Serling. If you are a writer, you love Rod Serling, who said that in all mediums, “be it a film or a television, writers should exercise a lot of control.” He was a man who never fell from what he believed.

“ Night Gallery ‘has become a series of influential anthology

The involvement of the network has bothered Night gallery reach the heights of The twilight zoneBut that doesn’t mean it was a failure. Far from it. If you are a fan of Serling and his most famous work, or if horror is your jam, Night gallery will be in your aisle. “Some shadows on the wall” of season 2, about a woman whose shadow remains on the wall after her death, has absolutely horrible images that hold today. If you are afraid of dolls, season 1 is a good title “The Doll”, about a sliced tooth doll that looks directly like hell, is talked about The twilight zone Look at the appearance in comparison. Another episode of the first season, “they demolish Tim Riley’s bar,” a nomination for the Emmy in 1971, and in an interview, called him one of his favorites of everything he had ever written.

Over the years, Night galleryPopularity has increased, which led to becoming a classic of television worship. Simpsons Even parodied it during an episode of season 4 for their Treehouse of Horror Halloween Special. Weekly entertainment Put it at number seven on their list of all time in the biggest series of horror anthology, and Guillermo del ToroOne of the best kinds of gender filmmakers, said that Night gallery “Form my roots as a storyteller.”

Night gallery spent too much time being dismissed by being overshadowed by The twilight zone. Everyone wanted to compare it to this classic, which was not fair, and because it was not as good as the show that made Rod Serling a familiar name, it was put aside. Not all episodes are a must, but it is extremely inventive and scary, and its influence lives today.

Night gallery

Release date

December 16, 1970

Directors

Jeannot Szwarc, Jeff Corey, John Badham, John Meredy Lucas, John Astin, Don Taylor, Gerald Perry Finnerman, Steven Spielberg, Timothy Galfas, Theodore J. Flicker, Allen Reisner, Boris Sagal, Daniel Haller, Daryl Duke, Douglas Heyes, Edward M. Nimoy Benedict, Rudi Dorn, Walter Doniger

Writers

Rod Serling, Halsted Welles, Gene R. Kearney, Robert M. Young, David Rayfiel, Richard Matheson, Hal Dresner, Jack Guss, Jerrold Freedman, Malcolm Marmorstein, Robert Bloch, Matthew Howard

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  Joanna Pettel

  Elaine Latimer / Rhona Warwick

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  Alan Napier

  Cousin Zachariah Ogilvy / Doctor

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  Jack Laird

  Igor / Laboratory assistant / second demon