What were the episodes of NIGHT GALLERY you remember best?

The Diary with Patty Duke and Virginia Mayo......Patty revives her Neely O'Hara persona as a gossip columnist who ends up in a nuthouse.....oh wait....it was NOT a nuthouse.....

R1 Patty Duke was good in that episode! Also Lindsay Wagner has a brief early cameo as a nurse.

I saw "Big Surprise" as a child and it has haunted me to this day. Watching it as an adult, the set up is not as good as I remembered it, but the main thing I remember is the image of John Carradine emerging from that box -- the stuff of nightmares. And I love how it just ends, leaving you with no idea of what comes after.

I don't remember the name of the episode, but Joan Crawford played a rich blind woman who paid some man for his eyes so that she could see for 24 hours; unfortunately, she got her sight during a total solar eclipse, and just as the sun came back out, she lost her sight again!

Night Gallery is on Amazon Prime.

Jonathan's nagging wife Pamela, whom he killed after years of being pushed around by her, haunts him. Phyllis Diller and John Astin star.

Loved Night Gallery. Far more macabre than The Twilight Zone. The two episodes I remember were where knocking was used to revive the dead (I think it starred Ozzie and Harriet Nelson) and another where a man is lying in bed complaining about this feet hurting him and wondering what was wrong with his feet.

There was one where a guy loved a painting in a museum of a man in a boat on a lake and he always wished he could be in the painting forever. He got trapped in the museum and was in danger and prayed to be put in the picture, and he was but he was in front of the wrong picture, and the final scene was his face in a painting of a man being tortured.

I was probably six years old and I still remember it.

I remember one where Zsa Zsa Gabor played a nagging wife whose husband ends up trapping her in a magic painting with dinosaurs and prehistoric animals all around her. It really freaked me out as a kid.

Roddy McDowell plays a scheming evil nephew of a rich elderly uncle with a butler played by Ossie Davis. The nephew kills the uncle to inherit is fortune.

A painting on a wall of the old mansion is of the cemetery in the back yard...it changes to show an open grave and a zombie of the uncle..

My abiding concern and singular preoccupation... is... MYSELF!

The Caterpillar with Laurence Harvey and Joanna Pettet. Rod Serling adapted this old story and literally flipped the script. There is a role reversal here that works fantastically.The interplay between real life friends Harvey and Pettet was dynamic for a mere teleplay. Great production design, very good acting (especially from Don Knight who plays a devil whispering in your ear role quite well) and arguably Serling"s best script for Night Gallery.

I liked "A Question of Fear" with Leslie Nielson as an ex-military hard-ass who takes a bet that he can spend the night in a haunted house. But he's being tricked by someone seeking revenge, who booby-traps and rigs the house with hallucinatory effects and weird traps, including a deadly trick at the end. I love this episode because of the set, effects and sounds. The look and feel of the show was very campy but often effective.

Not an eclipse R4, but the NYC blackout of 1965. Blind Joan is told her vision will last only 10 hours or so. She chooses to be alone in her swanky apartment for the big moment, but ironically, as she removes the bandages, the blackout hits. After spending the night flailing around in the total dark, she sees the sun rising outside her windows, but time's up and she goes blind again. "Nooooo!!!"

There was one with Sandra Dee in 1972 - who I think had been a recluse for years (alcoholic? eventually kidney failure? I don't think she even went to her only child Dodd's wedding) and she came back to do one of these shows.

The Other Way Out with grandfather Burl Ives getting revenge for his murdered go go dancer grand daughter in a game of cat and mouse.

Funny how this show slowly got replaced by the immensely inferior Gary Collins vehicle "The Sixth Sense".

R9, I agree. That’s episode upset me too. Really disconcerting.

Hey R10, you got here before me -- that is the only episode I remember. I can still picture Roddy going up the stairway and each time he does, the painting has changed and Roddy gets more freaked out.

OP it was an anthology show like The Twilight Zone, not a serial show. An anthology show has a new cast and story, in every episode. A serial show has a common cast of characters and storylines that extend across multiple episodes, from classic soaps to newer ones like Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad. Also, an episodic show is one with a set cast, but new storylines in every episode, like classic sitcoms or procedurals.

There was either a Twilight Zone or Night Gallery episode about a demon being summoned on a college campus that scared the shit our of me for some reason. I had nightmares about it for years. Something about the demon's glowing red eyes and giant hands coming through the window did not sit well with my subconscious. I used to have a screen grab of that moment but haven't seen it in years.

The House. Elaine Latimer has been dreaming of a certain house for years and finally sees it in real life. Starring Joanna Pettet. I believe she starred in three NG episodes.

I always liked the episode guest-starring Pamelyn Ferdin in which a bratty young girl befriends a monstrous creature. The monster freaks everyone out except for the girl (who is not played by Pamelyn but by an older actress playing a much younger character, which makes the episode even weirder).

The Joan Crawford segment was Steven Spielberg's directorial debut.

r20, are you thinking of this episode of Night Gallery? A young Joel Grey was in it.

The one about the scary doll from India.

It's not such a scary episode anymore because we've sen scarier dolls (such as the Zuni fetish in "Trilogy of Terror'), but this thing terrified me as a child.

I remember elements from different episodes of the show that scared me as a kid - the severed hand crawling down the hallway, the voodoo doll being thrown into the fire while the man in the next room screams in pain, the old woman coming up from the dirt in the ground..

"The Sins of the Fathers" starring Geraldine Page, Richard Thomas, and Barbara Steele. One of Night Gallery's most disturbing episodes, it was set in the Middle Ages and involved the ritual of sin-eating.

The Return Of The Sorcerer with Vincent Price and Bill Bixby. The episode looks almost cinematic in its production design and vivid colors. There is a very dark sense of humor in this episode as well as a sense of horror. A very solid episode with two actors(VP and BB) who had done Night Gallery before.

R21 Pettet was in 4 episodes: The House,The Girl With The Hungry Eyes, The Catepillar and Keep in Touch-We'll Think Of Something.

[quote] I remember one where Zsa Zsa Gabor played a nagging wife whose husband ends up trapping her in a magic painting with dinosaurs and prehistoric animals all around her. It really freaked me out as a kid.

It's not her husband in the episode; it's the guy who co-owns the antique shop with her. It's the only instance I have ever seen where Zsa Zsa shows she could actually act (although she does retain her thick Hungarian accent)--usually she played either sexpots (in the 50s) or socialites (in the 60s), and here she shows she could actually play a mean character.

Like many of the episodes, it doesn't make a lot of sense when you think about it: if you can walk through the mirror into the prehistoric world, how does the other antique store owner then paint over the mirror to trap Zsa Zsa in that world? But it's still very scary.

R19 Ahh... good to know. Thanks!

R20 Yes! Very creepy, and effective use of sound. The episode is called "There Aren't Any More MacBanes" and is from season two.

The episode with Joan Crawford was the pilot of the series and consisted 3 separate stories (though all involved a painting of some sort). The segment with Joan was titled "Eyes."

Joan took an interest in Steven Spielberg's career after their "Night Gallery" work (she just adored him) and they stayed friends for the rest of her life.

pretty sure it was "night gallery" but there was a episode where a young boy is presumed dead and on a stormy night, he appears outside the house, all wet from the storm outside, the mother in shock wonders how and why he is alive and where he has been and so on.. turns out the boy is a demon? and the ending scene is the mother i think on her back falling down and the lights are out or the house is dark and you see the boy with super white kabuki like makeup and pitch black circles around his eyes and demonic eyes coming towards her! scared the hell out of me when i was young!...

wasn't the famous episode with ron howard's brother where he can forecast the future and he forecasts the sun exploding a night gallery episode? that scared the hell out of me too and made me cry for days when i was a kid!...

R35 The son back from the dead episode wasn't from NIGHT GALLERY (but very like that show!)

It was from an American 1977 made-for-TV anthology film called DEAD OF NIGHT. The episode in the film is called "Bobby." A woman home alone in a large house on a stormy night discovers her son, thought to be drowned, crying on the front porch. All too late she discovers its not her son, but a demonic imposter. There's also a great scene where the son tricks the mother into thinking she's talking to her husband as she calls him for help, but it's the son pretending to be the father, and he does this horribly creepy laugh.

Martin Scorsese recently listed this film as one of his favorite horror films of all time, specifically for "Bobby."

R36! wow, thanks alot! i would have never knew this information! thanks again!

It's interesting to see Night Gallery in the context of its predecessors and successors. While it is often treated as the darker version of The Twilight Zone -- because of the association with Rod Serling -- it's actually more in line with other predecessors like Alfred Hitchcock Presents, or Boris Karloff's Thriller, both of which had more suspense and horror.

But the thing that sets Night Gallery apart is the onscreen talent -- every episode has recognizable faces from film and television. For being a schlocky horror anthology, it attracted plenty of talented, award-winning stars, and moreso than its predecessors. I wonder how Serling was able to accomplish that -- maybe NBC had a larger budget? Or maybe some of the talent became more famous after they were on Night Gallery?

The way it attracted talent is comparable to one of its successors, Tales from the Crypt, which aired on HBO and had more graphic horror effects.

I guess the closest thing we have to this type of television today would be Murphy's American Horror Story.

R24, that was it, thank you. I did a bunch of searches on Demon, Window, and Night Gallery without finding it.

[quote] Elie hears growls and scratches outside his door, similar to what he heard after Andrew’s uncle was killed. He goes into the hallway, hears roars and runs down a stairwell and into a basement storage area where the roars increase. Suddenly, through a grated window, red eyes appear, paws break through the glass and Elie, screaming, loses consciousness.

I remember one of the episodes starring Michael Blodgett, who I remembered from the mid-60's teen soap Never Too Young, so it must be this one. Seem to recall his character ageing drastically at the end.

DL fave George Maharis was in an episode

Does anyone remember Ghost Story/Circle of Fear? I only remember being terrified of the Circle of Fear opening.

The only Night Gallery I remember was the one where Agnes Moorehead is killed by scheming relatives, but her shadow remains in the house.

The only Night Gallery I remember was the one where Agnes Moorehead is killed by scheming relatives, but her shadow remains in the house.

Wasn't there one about a Grecian goddess who needed perfect sacrifices? One of the sacrifices turned out to have bad eyesight was wore contact lenses and that killed her.

Was there one with Michael Nouri as a vampire who was a college professor?

R36 - that was directed by Dan Curtis, who previously directed Trilogy of Terror (famous for the segment where Karen Black is chased around her apartment by a knife-weilding Zuni doll) and who would later direct Burnt Offerings.

The episode in which Ray Milland, the evil, macho big game hunter, winds up with his head on the wall!

Also, the comedic(!) salute to H.P. Lovecraft, in which a professor transforms into one of the Elder Gods without realizing it.

They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar" January 20, 1971 A has-been salesman (William Windom) tries desperately to return to the past.

Not scary, but poignant and sad.

Ooo, good one, r48!

I was too much of a sissy to watch it but of the few episodes I did see I can only remember something about a brooch that a woman was wearing that turned into a living bug.I think that was a Night Gallery episode,I remember being creeped out by it for some time as a kid.

The one with a young, pre-Star Wars Mark Hamill playing a delivery boy. That one was called "there aren't any more macbaines" and it starred Joel Grey.

R45.. i believe you are thinking of a episode of the night stalker show starring the great darren mcgavin.. that episode was entitled "the youth killer" and has cathy lee crosby as helen of troy who had to use healthy fit attractive people as her sacrifice to the goddess hectate (spelling?) to keep her forever immortal and youthful.. the young people would age within seconds and die and she would automatically gain their youth... little note, 70's/80's uber hunky stud REB BROWN played a small part (no lines) as one of the handsome studs signing up for the agency that cathy lee crosby's character ran ( a agency for singles hot singles)..... when she is confronted by darren mcgavin in her secret worship altar atrium with the fact that one of her sacrifices was NOT perfect (glass eye) the goddess destroys the room and turns her into a statue....

Can't remember if it was The Twilight Zone or Night Gallery but . . .

The guy who talked and talked and talked, never shut the fuck up. Someone bet him an incredible amount of money that he couldn't keep silent for a specific amount of time. In the end, Mr. Talker wins the bet. And then the utterly amazed guy who offered him the bet asks him how he did it.

"Camera obscura" was a really creepy episode.

The ending would be the perfect karma for Trump for all of the dirt he did in life as well as his presidency. He'd never have a moment of peice ever again.

R42 I kind of remember that one, and it was creepy. I still think the Night Gallery opening credits were creepier. They used to freak me out as a kid:

Yeah, those opening credits. Like a bad trip.

There is one called "A Fear of Spiders" that I saw once as a child and it has stuck with me ever since. Guy kills a spider and it keeps coming back but it's larger each time.

R53 that was the Twilight Zone. And the bet was the talker couldn’t keep quiet for a year. At the end of the bet it was revealed the talker cut his own vocal cords so he couldn’t make a sound. The guy who made the bet was sure he would win but had to reveal that he was broke. The talker cut his vocal cords for nothing.

Loved the unsettling “The Sins of the Fathers”, R27 - what a cast!

I also liked “A Fear of Spiders” but that was because it featured the electrifying Kim Stanley!

I was really creeped out by “A Feast of Blood” as a kid, where beautiful bitch Sondra Locke receives a strange brooch from admirer Norman Lloyd with gruesome consequences.

And I also have a soft spot for “Room with a View” with an endearing Diane Keaton. I think it may have been one of her very first film/TV appearances after Broadway’s “Play It Again, Sam”.

The Dark Boy. A teacher (Elizabeth Hartman) tries to reach a strange fourth-grader. But the kid is really a ghost. The teacher hooks up with the ghost kids dad and the ghost kid follows them.

The actress Elizabeth Hartman later on committed suicide.

OP--That "Big Surprise" episode is the ONLY episode of Night Gallery I recall because it scared the shit out of me. I was around 8 when I saw it by myself in the tv room while we were visiting relatives. After it ended I went and sat with everyone else in the dining room where they were having coffee & pie.

R60---She played Selina in "A Patch of Blue," right? I just watched most of that the other night.

R62 yes.

R54 beat me to it -- "Camera Obscura" was creepy as fuck.

R52 you are right! I was only seven at the time but I CLEARLY remember the guy you mentioned, Reb Brown, lol. Funny, I had no idea that was Cathy Lee Crosby who played Helen of Troy.

Thanks so much!

I just watched the mermaid episode....omg I screamed with laughter at the surprise ending. I also rewatched the brooch episode that stayed with me from when I was a kid...ridiculous. I did love the paintings and the titles at the beginning though,looked like old text books from the 70s.

The one I remember was called "The Merciful" with Imogene Coca and King Donovan. We think a wife is building a brick wall in her basement to trap her sick husband behind it. It turns out that she is bricking herself in.

R65... your very welcome... REB BROWN! MAJOR SIGH!... i'm sure you know of his first movie 1973 "Sssssss" yes? playing the muscled college football star jerk steve randall and appearing in the MOST HOMOEROTIC SHOWER SCENE EVER FILMED!...

Thanks R67. I was trying to remember the name of the episode. That one always stuck with me.

There was another episode that I think was from Night Gallery about a man who is trying to convince his enemy that he is going to turn into a slug and his only way out is to shoot himself.

r69, that was the one with Leslie Nielsen, A Question of Fear

Dailymotion has some of the old Night Gallery episodes available for streaming.

"Cool Air" -- Barbara Rush plays a woman who enters into a romantic relationship with a recluse doctor, whose apartment is kept at a bone-chilling temperature. It turns out its kept this way for a reason: he already died once and his apartment needs to be kept cold or else his body will waste away. Great acting, tons of mood and atmosphere and a great story about accepting the finality of death.

"Miracle at Camafeo" -- Pretty much a direct rip-off of "Strange Miracle" (An Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode), but it does work. A man fakes a leg injury to get an insurance settlement. That leaves him with one problem: He doesn't want to have to act crippled for the rest of his life. So he heads to a Mexican town where people flock to because miracles are said to occur there (kinda like Medjugorje). People are there to get cured, including a little blind Mexican boy. The man's wife tries to talk him out of the scam, but he threatens her with violence. So he enters this little tent or whatever, is "miraculously cured" and heads out ready to enjoy his money without the limitations of acting crippled. Except his vision quickly worsens and he is blind. Meanwhile, a real miracle occurs as the boy gains the gift of sight.

The NG music scared me.

I don't think it was Night Gallery but I remember an episode of a show where a guy meets a young woman who looks exactly like a dead actress from years ago the woman lives with her elderly mother and the big reveal is that she is the actress kept young with an ancient Egyptian scarab and the old woman is actually her daughter.

I remembered an episode like that.

R74, that was the Twilight Zone episode Queen of the Nile

R73.. the music scared me too!....as did "the outer limits" intro.

"The Big Surprise" has to be one of the most disturbing things I have ever watched. Although it doesn't come right out and say it, it's implied that Carradine molests young Vincent Van Patten. It's been a long time since I pulled out my Night Gallery dvd's, but if I remember things correctly, Van Patten was digging that hole for a long time and got all sweaty and I think unbuttoned his shirt -- all things that could have turned on a pedophile.

I loved this show and I love this thread.

The one where they're in a jungle with constant rain, and some insect has crawled into a guy's head through his ear, and is making its way through his brain, driving him insane. That freaked me out as a kid. Ugh, bugs!

R38 Many people wanted to do Night Gallery because of the Serling connection. Sondra Locke for one wanted to do the show because of Serling and Twilight Zone.

R73 The "Night Gallery" music theme was done by 20th century electronic composer Gil Melle.

He also did much of the creepy incidental music in many episodes.

He created the film scores for "The Andromeda strain," "Embryo," and "The Sentinal." He also did a lot of television incidental music at the time, like "Colombo" and "Kolchak: The Night Stalker." Mostly electronic.

He used me construct his own instruments out of electronic parts and give each instrument its own name.

kolchak, the night stalker was also simply CLASSIC.... terrifying and scary without resorting to gore.. and yes, the music and sound effects were awesome too... unfortunately in my opinion, only a few of the shows were great when they turned this into a tv series... however, the tv movies that spawned the series are FOREVER fantastic and can be found on youtube in their entirety...

That's for the information R76 I appreciate it.

R9 and R30, I believe that episode was called THE PAINTED MIRROR. I saw it late one night on reruns when I was about eight years old. It scared me and I ran to bed and had nightmares. In the morning, I couldn't look at the mirrors in my house. I saw it as an adult, but the memory of Zsa Zsa running away from the prehistoric animals towards the mirror still wigs me out.

MeTV was showing Night Galleries late on Sunday nights. I don’t know if they still are showing them.