Series Description

The Night Gallery TV show was a horror series on NBC that ran for 60 minutes in its first two seasons and for 30 minutes in the third and final season. Each week Rod Serling would highlight a painting in his gallery of horror. That painting would lead the show into the episode of the week.

Night Gallery Host: Rod Serling

Night Gallery Opening Narrative

"Good evening. Please come in. These little "objet d'art" that you see surrounding me, you won't find in your average art museum, because these are unusual paintings and statuary that come to life or death, whatever the case may be. Because this is The Night Gallery."

Night Gallery Trivia

Night Gallery was originally supposed to be titled, "Wax Museum" but the name was changed before the first episode was broadcast.

The Night Gallery TV show was not a quicky, thrown together series. Rod Serling actually began working on it just a short time after his earlier series, "The Twilight Zone", went off the air. That was a full five and a half years before the TV pilot episodes of Night Gallery aired! His original idea was to update the Twilight Zone to a more modern series but Night Gallery ended out much less sci-fi and much more horror than the Twilight Zone.

Those often disturbing paintings that you saw on Night Gallery were painted by artist, "Tom Wright". The equally horrific sculptures in the museum were done by "Logan Elston" and "Phil Vanderlei".

In its first season, Night Gallery shared its time slot with three other series titled, "McCloud", "The Psychiatrist", and "San Francisco International Airport (aka: "SFX"). Together, the four series were titled, "Four-In-One". Night Gallery was so popular that it got its own time slot the following season. "Four-In-One" went on for several additional seasons dropping some shows each season and adding others. It actually spawned several decent series. Besides Night Gallery and McCloud, you might also have seen or heard of "Columbo", "McMillan and Wife", and "Quincy, M.E.". When Four-In-One ended, Quincy, M.E. even continued on for another three years in its own time slot and Columbo produced nine future TV movies!

There were two episodes of the Night Gallery TV show that were produced but were not broadcast. Their titles were: "Die Now, Pay Later" and "Room for One Less".

Rod Serling did hold other jobs before becoming the master of sci-fi and horror. Right after the end of World War II he tested experimental parachutes for the U.S. Army. No doubt a dangerous job but it did pay a whopping (in that day) $500 per jump!

In 1971, Night Gallery was nominated for an Emmy in the category, "Outstanding Single Program - Drama or Comedy" for the second segment of episode #6 titled, "They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar". In 1972 it got another Emmy nomination in the category, "Outstanding Achievement in Makeup" for the first segment of episode #17, "Pickman's Model".

TV Pilot Episodes

The Cemetery / Eyes / The Monster Who Wanted To Be A Fisherman (11/8/1969)