Night Gallery

1 9 7 0 – 1 9 7 3 (USA)
98 x 50 minute episodes

Though it has never received as much acclaim or hype as his previous series, Night Gallery was in many ways superior to Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone.

The series featured spookier, more intriguing tales of Gothic mystery and supernatural phenomenon, and featured an even more prominent array of guest-stars, including Burgess Meredith, Stuart Whitman, Geraldine Page, Agnes Moorehead, Jane Wyman, Jeanette Nolan, John Astin, Phyllis Diller, Carol Lynley, Vincent Price, Joel Grey, Elizabeth Hartman, Diane Keaton, Anne Archer, Sandra Dee and Sally Field.

There were plenty of misses that were made during Night Gallery‘s three-season run, but the hits can still leave trails of cranberry-sized goosebumps down the back of your spine.

One of the most disturbing Night Gallery episodes, The Caterpillar, aired during the series’ second season and is considered one of its best. In it, a scheming colonel (Laurence Harvey) falls victim to his own murder plot and ends up suffering the agony of a burrowing, pregnant earwig.

The bug lays eggs in the man’s head, which must burrow out when hatched. Based on a short story, the episode helped fuel a fear of parasitic insects just waiting to sneak into people’s ears. “and the female lays eggs”.

Some of the other stand-out episodes included;

They’re Tearing Down Tim Riley’s Bar – William Windom (in an awesome performance) plays a has-been salesman who’s beckoned by the ghosts of his past.
The Doll – A gruesome doll, sent to a British officer as revenge.
The Tune in Dan’s Cafe – A haunted jukebox plays the same song always.
Green Fingers – with Elsa Lanchester as an elderly woman, harassed by a tycoon who wants her land, where she has an unusual knack for gardening.

Meanwhile, many that grew up in this era as children will have vague recollections of Leslie Nielsen as the Phantom of the Opera being unmasked by the girl and then unmasking her in return only to find she was as deformed as he was; A time traveller who survived the Titanic sinking by being picked up by the Lusitania, only to be ultimately rescued by the Andrea Doria; an ostracised young girl who befriends a seaweed monster; a diner jukebox that hauntingly plays only one song, and a young Clint Howard (Ron’s kid brother) playing a child prodigy who foresees mankind’s treacherous fate.