The Top Five Episodes of "Night Gallery"

Anyone who is anyone knows about The Twilight Zone, the game-changing, sometimes mind-bending series created by Rod Serling that gave us enough twist endings to make M. Night Shyamalan cream in his pants.  And not even the annoying kind - the GOOD kind.  But the way I have it figured, every other internet nerd has already done some kind of TZ retrospective.  No, sir, what we're looking at today is Rod Serling's OTHER TV series - Night Gallery, which began with the 1969 pilot movie of the same name before being spun off into its own series a year later.

Now, I've already reviewed that movie (which gave one Mr. Steven Spielberg his big break in the entertainment business), and it's awesome.  The series, as a whole, is almost equally awesome.  They went for broke with the trippy, the bizarre, and the outright macabre, and more often than not hit that target.  Now, to be sure, the series had its fair share of clunkers, particularly the season 2 "blackout" comedic segments that padded the length of a few episodes, and the majority of the Season 3 30-minute episodes that occurred after Serling lost creative control and more or less disowned the series.  Still, the series definitely has some shows that qualify as must-see viewing.

Thus, I present the five episodes of Night Gallery that everyone should buy/rent/search out on Youtube.  Now that's a sterling recommendation.

1. "A Death in the Family"
I've seen some disturbing horror movies and stories before, but "A Death in the Family" has got damn near all of them beat.  The final two minutes or so of this yarn will stick with you long after those credits roll, and that's without a single drop of blood being spilled.  For the vast majority of its running time we only have two performers - E.G. Marshall as a gentle undertaker and Desi Arnaz Jr. as a runaway criminal who finds himself taking refuge at said undertaker's funeral home.  Only this...is no ordinary funeral home (/lightning crash).  The twist in this episode isn't one of those things that hits you over the head - it is gradually revealed, and audiences can take an educated guess as to where it's headed roughly halfway through.  But the final reveal still hits you in the guts like nothing else.  Check this one out, kids.  It's a winner.

2. "A Question of Fear"
Now HERE'S the classic case of a story that floors you with an unbelievable twist.  Leslie Nielsen stars as an Army Colonel who is afraid of nothing - even a haunted house that supposedly drives anyone who spends the night insane.  After accepting a $15,000 bet, the Colonel heads out to the house, where a night full of eerie chills ensues, only for the story to take a RADICAL shift halfway through and become about something else entirely, and one of the characters involved in making the bet turns out to be something that we would never suspect.  This story is a great example of having a message and not beating the audience over the head with it, something very much appreciated in Lick Ness Monster Land.

3. "Green Fingers"
This is the episode that I remember most vividly from actually watching it live on my local retro station.  Rod Serling wrote the script for this one, the story about a brutal tycoon (Cameron Mitchell) who is trying to force an old woman (Elsa Lanchester) off of her land to do some developing.  How bad does he want this to happen?  He hires someone to remove her from the premises forcefully.  The woman's near-obsessive talent for gardening is the focus of the episode, a talent that rears its head in the story's final trimester as Mitchell makes his way to back to the house to claim his property.  Why the guy's assistant drives away and leaves him hanging is never explained, but he's in for one big surprise...

4. "Keep in Touch, We'll Think of Something"
The insanely hot Joanna Pettet starred in four episodes of Night Gallery.  All of them were pretty good with the exception of Season 1's "The House," and this is my personal favorite.  Our main character is Erik Sutton (Alex Cord), a man who has been obsessed with the woman he has seen in his dreams ever since his college days.  When he sees the very same woman that he has imagined in real life so many times in the form of Pettet's character, it starts a chain reaction that results in...wait for it...another pretty damn cool ending reveal.  The real treat of this one is the dialogue sequence between Sutton and Pettet as everything gradually becomes clear, as the writing is absolutely electric stuff.

5. "Lindemann's Catch"
Atmosphere, atmosphere, atmosphere.  Perhaps more than any other story featured on the show, "Lindamann's Catch" has that in spades, with its constantly dimly lit boat compartments and soul-destroying early '70s synthy score.  The story is almost as good, as our titular (what a great word) Lindemann is a sea captain who brings aboard the best catch he's ever had - a beautiful mermaid.  Stuart Whitman is excellent as the borderline obsessive Lindemann who doesn't want to give up his new female companion, eventually finding a way to wish for his charge to gain a body.  Of course, the Monkey's Paw that is Rod Serling writing has different plans for both Lindemann and the mermaid.

Take my word for it, people, this series is well worth the $10 or so that you can grab the season sets for on Amazon.  Atmosphere, scares, twists, and a really badass opening theme equal total coolness, and a series that will stick with you long after that final ending credits sequence rolls.  Check these out.