terrible... so disappointed.

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

I gave this film a 9 out of 10, because it was exactly what I expected it to be.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Not every episode of Rod Sterling's Night Gallery is great, but a lot of them produce surprises. While Sterling himself serves as a haunting host taking us on an episodic tour through an extensive art museum, we are often stopping to gasp at photos whose texture varied with the artist. Sterling's catch phrase "Picture if you will..." fits this format but I believe he first uttered that phrase on Twilight Zone.Though Rod is the host here, a lot of the work on this series is from others. Sterling is used as the magnet to draw viewers. Most of the work is horror but there are a few comedy blackouts here too. Some of these were mixed into NBC's Mystery Movie format, and the lengths vary from the 90 minutes of those, to one hour shows to even some 30 minute galleries in the final season.NBC had a habit in this era of attracting top talent to these types of series and getting them to show off that talent. While there are a few episodes I would not recommend, most of this series presents good viewing. On Halloween night, the image of Rod Sterling in front of a painting introducing us to it will always seem fitting to the Halloween spirit in my mind.

Just because the creator of the Twilight Zone (TZ), Rod Serling, was "involved" in this mess doesn't make it better than it was. For those of us who were around for both, it was an extreme disappointment. Those little blackout sketches were more often than not extremely cringe-worthy and no doubt embarrassing to Serling. And, let's keep in mind, that Serling didn't have the creative control that he was allowed in the TZ and it shows. What we often have here are stories that go nowhere, have no point or whose conclusion is illogical. Not necessary a bad show, but definitely forgettable and not worth some of the accolades heaped upon it here.

The Night Gallery (1970-1973): Starring Rod Serling, John Astin, Michael Laird, Larry Watson, Joanna Pettet, Matt Pelto, Alan Napier, Jack Laird, Geraldine Page, John J. Fox, Burgess Meredith, Jeff Corey, Jeanette Nolan, James Sikking, Cathleen Cordell, Arthur Malet, Josehph Campanella, Jason Wingreen, Albert Popwell, Louise Sorel, Roger E. Mosley, Raymond Massey, Susan Strasberg, Leif Ericson, John Williams, William Windom, Terence Pushman, James Farentino, Ivor Francis, Bill Quinn, Ross Martin, Lindsay Wagner, Charles Davis, Leslie Nielsen, Patricia Donahue, Victor Bruno, Susanna Darrow, James Metropole, Cameron Mitchell, Stuart Whitman.....Directors Leonard Nimoy, Edward M. Abroms, Allen Baron, Jeannot Szwarc, Boris Sagal, Barry Shear, Screenplay/Writing Credits Rod Sterling and Jack Laird."A nightmare frozen in time"............TV writer Rod Serling was the creative force behind the popular supernatural/horror series "The Twilight Zone" in the 1960's, a series of half hour episodes in which the bizarre, frightening and unnatural filled TV screens across America to critical acclaim. After "Twilight Zone" was canceled, Rod Serling's "The Night Gallery" came to television from 1970 to 1973. It was hosted by Rod Serling himself, a bit older than he looked when he hosted "Twilight Zone" as he walked us through an art gallery replete with strange, demonic often very intimidating artwork. Each work of art told a story which was the focus of each half-hour episode. The series did very well and it was, if anything, a more intense follow-up to "Twilight Zone". Because it was the early 70's, the episodes of Night Gallery were a tad more uncensored and graphic. It was on late night on television so that younger viewers would not be exposed to it. Various directors worked on the series, among them Leonard Nimoy, Spock from Star Trek and European-bornJeannot Szwarc who would later direct the 1980 romantic time-travel film "Somewhere In Time" starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour. Several TV and film actors guest starred during the run of the series. They included Vincent Price (himself a horror film figure), Al Lewis (Grandpa Dracula from "The Munsters"), John Astin (Gomez from "The Addams Family") Phyllis Diller, Elsa Lanchester, Carl Reiner, Burgess Meredith, a young Diane Keaton, Cesar Romero (The Joker from "Batman") Tom Bosley (from Happy Days) and Zsa Zsa Gabor. Clearly, this series enticed a number of celebrities at the time who probably enjoyed watching this scary series themselves.While Night Gallery's frightening aspects are considerably tame and even cheap by today's digital age, it can be haunting and scary in its own light. Rather than focusing on graphic violence, blood and gore, Night Gallery's stories were very well-written, chilling both psychologically and emotionally and often coming off like the sort of thing that Stephen King was possibly inspired by. But it is clearly a series modeled after Alfred Hitchock Presents. Rod Sterling himself called himself a lesser, thinner Hitchcock. All of the episodes contain great things one can spend hours talking about. Here are some of my favorites: "The Painted Mirror": Zsa Zsa Gabor plays a bitchy heiress who wishes to put an elderly antique shop owner out of business. A strange mirror, painted over in black, fades to reveal a pre-historic dinosaur world dimension. It is Zsa Zsa Gabor's character who is punished by being trapped in that world. A similar story has a greedy corporate businessman/fraud who is punished by being trapped in a dimension of soulless zombies. In the episode entitled "Green Fingers" Elsa Lanchester stars as an elderly gardener who owns a home in the path of freeway construction. The man behind the project hires a hit man to kill her but she gets her revenge by literally "planting" her own fingers and then coming back from the dead. Other episodes included demons, ghosts, the living dead, vampires and aliens from outer space. Some episodes were too bizarre and ambiguous to fully be understood. The episode directed by Jeannot Szwarc (Somewhere In Time) dealt with a medical bag from the future that contained the cure to all known diseases (including cancer) is in the hands of a time traveler but they, that is people from the past, don't believe his story and they throw away the bag. Often, short stories by noted horror genre authors such as H.P. Lovecraft were included such as the well-done "Pickman's Model" about a 19th century artist whose "monster" subject for one particularly gruesome painting turns out to be based on a real monster who inhabits his home. This was an excellent series, full of mystery, intrigue, suspense, danger and surrealism. For me, it surpassed "The Twilight Zone" which, despite being a classic, was sometimes too dull and talky. For those of you who are interested in this series, it is now available on DVD in its entirety (four seasons).

At least a dozen users have brought up Spielberg's participation, as if it were a revelation each time. Enough, already. Also, it would be nice if people would place a *spoiler* warning, when they describe plots, ad naseum.This series DOES beg a comparison to Serling's earlier "Twilight Zone," of course. And, it does NOT fair well. While a few classic episodes do pop up, "Night Gallery" is a major misfire from the first season.Ridiculous "twist" endings, with no logical basis, are mistaken as being "scary." Some episodes don't even make sense, even after repeated viewings.The hour-long show should have been reduced to thirty minutes, as it was in syndication. Apparently, many users don't realize that a separate show, "The Sixth Sense," was incorporated into "Night Gallery" in syndication, with Serling creating new wrap-around intros. The two were never intended to be "one," and it is evident. Any episode with Gary Collins was not originally a true "Gallery."