NIGHT GALLERY SEASONS 2 AND 3 FROM KINO-LORBER

As stated in last year's review of Season One, 2022 was primed to be The Year of Night Gallery, with K-L scheduled to release Seasons 2 and 3 (Season 2 released in July 2022 and Season 3 just got released this week - Thanksgiving week). 'The Year of Night Gallery' proved to be even more dead on than I thought at the time - the aforementioned 'companion' book, AN AFTER HOURS TOUR is available at the end of the year in a revised/expanded version, this on the heels of the 2021 release of THE ART OF DARKNESS, a coffee-table book featuring the artwork that the show utilized. And in October 2022, Netflix dropped the anthology show GUILLERMO DEL TORO'S CABINET OF CURIOUSITIES, which is perhaps the ultimate homage to NIGHT GALLERY to date. 

Season 2 is the NIGHT GALLERY that most will remember aside from the pilot TV film; it's the first full season, divorced from the "Four-In-One" concept and when the show starts to develop its own distinct identity. The first year has a sort-of warmed over TWILIGHT ZONE vibe to most of Serling's scripts and producer Jack Laird's influence is muted. Year 2 has Laird's sensibilities brought to the foreground and Serling's influence, while still present, is backgrounded compared to Year 1. That clash results in the now classic H.P. Lovecraft adaptations of 'Cool Air' and 'Pickman's Model' as well as memorable shows 'Camera Obscura', 'Silent Snow, Secret Snow', 'The Messiah of Mott Street', 'Green Fingers', 'The Sins of the Fathers' among others. It's a good mixture of stories set in the Past and Present Day and an emphasis on settings in the UK.

It also brings forth the most reviled and ironically, probably the most influential part of the show arguably - the comedy blackouts. The show did have humorous episodes and when they worked ('The Housekeeper' in Year 1, 'Phantom of What Opera?", 'Hell's Bells') they worked really well. When they didn't ('The Funeral', 'Junior') they just sat there, leaden - much like most of the overt comedic TWILIGHT ZONE episodes, though at least the NGs weren't nearly as long to suffer through. Mainly, the blackout episodes just resulted in a lot of eyerolls (and luckily, no rimshots were added to the soundtrack). But as much as people say that they hated them, they opened the door for the comedic horror that started to boom in the 80s up to present day.

Season 3 brings more changes - new theme, and the show cut down to 30 minutes from an hour, so one story per episode (excepting burning off a couple of the comedy blackouts held over from Year 2). And the mixture of Past/Present day and Gothic themed settings that were prevalent  in Year 2 is gone, as well as most of the comedy, and a good portion of Serling's influence. Despite all that, there are some gems that shine through ('Whisper', 'The Return of the Sorcerer', 'The Other Way Out', 'You Can Come Up Now, Mrs. Millikan') and even the less than stellar shows are at least entertaining - including the last episode 'Hatred Unto Death' which comes up as the most hated show of the run, but there's a fun vibe in this story of a love triangle, de-evolution and movie gorillas - and ironically, the most highly rated episode aside from the pilot TV movie.

Kino-Lorber again does the show justice - 2K scans from the interpositives makes the show look even better than it did on broadcast, and uncut - if you've only seen the show in syndicated form, you haven't really SEEN the show. Season 2 is 5 discs and has a whopping 32 audio commentaries - porting over the 6 commentaries from the DVD release (3 from AFTER HOURS/ART OF DARKNESS authors Skelton & Benson and 3 from Guillermo Del Toro [!], it quintuples the amount of new commentaries by most of the usual suspects from the previous set (Gary Gerani, Tim Lucas, David J. Schow, Stephen Jones & Kim Newman, among others) and adds a new wrinkle to the newer tracks by Benson & Skelton - incorporating interview snippets from cast & crew when researching  for the first edition of AFTER HOURS TOUR.

Also ported from the DVD are featurettes REVISITING THE GALLERY: A LOOK BACK and ART GALLERY: THE PAINTINGS and some TV spots. New for the blu-ray is THE SYNDICATION CONUNDRUM, PART 2, an in-depth look into the convoluted life of the show in syndication, which helps putting into context another bonus feature LOST TALES, a 'new' episode of the show comprised of 3 segments only seen during the syndication run and a longer version of LITTLE GIRL LOST.

Season 3 is only two discs, but no less packed - commentaries as noted from Year 2 (no Del Toro commentaries this time around, unfortunately; he was a bit busy - he does turn up in interview segments however, in the new Benson & Skelton tracks), and the last part of THE SYNDICATION CONUNDRUM unraveling the deconstruction & fusing of THE SIXTH SENSE to bulk up the sale of both shows to syndication and a special bonus - including all 25 of the intros that Serling did for those additional shows to incorporate them into NIGHT GALLERY.

In one of the commentaries, author Stephen Jones & Kim Newman make two observations about NIGHT GALLERY - that the show is the culmination of Universal Studios' history in Horror; they are the home of 'classic horror' Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy and The Wolfman, after all, up through suspense creepers of the 40s, and sci-fi horrors of the 50s before Horror starts to mutate & modernize - and that it ushers in the next generation of filmmakers who will become very familiar for the next 30-40 years. And there's a solid case for both - THE NIGHT STALKER debuts midway through NGs Year 2 run and the KOLCHAK series debuts a year after the end of GALLERY; and soon to follow is the ascent of Stephen King, the debut of David Cronenberg and 'body horror'. It's also the sunset of the anthology show - GHOST STORY/CIRCLE OF FEAR never really reaches the level of NIGHT GALLERY, and who remembers QUINN MARTIN'S TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED nowadays? DARKROOM is probably the Last Gasp of studio genre anthologies - after that, the torch is carried by TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE/MONSTERS but there's nowhere near the level of production resources available on the studio shows.

NIGHT GALLERY gets a lot of flak for being perceived as "the lesser TWILIGHT ZONE" and a 'sort of' failure for Serling, which is wrong on both counts - there were rocky times before NG, of course (look up THE LONER, THE DOOMSDAY FLIGHT, THE NEW PEOPLE), but that perception comes from the official title of the show, 'ROD SERLING'S NIGHT GALLERY' which implied that, like TWILIGHT ZONE, he was The Main Guy when in fact, he was A Main Guy. Jack Laird is nowhere near as well known as Serling, but he was an important TV writer as well, who settled into Universal/MCA in the early 60s - he was a producer of KOJAK after NG and had a love & knowledge of genre - prior to NG, he did a pilot with Leslie Nielson, DARK INTRUDER (also available on K-L) and after NG, he produced the mini-series THE DARK SECRET OF HARVEST HOME, based on the Thomas Tryon 'folk-horror' follow-up to THE OTHER, HARVEST HOME.  But NG will be what he'll be long remembered for.

What becomes obvious is, despite the possessory title, NIGHT GALLERY is the sum of both men's sensibilities which makes it memorable. Unfortunately due to the production situation and what I suspect to have been a lot of ego and possibly jealousy, not everyone was on the same page, creatively which did eventually undermine the show. Serling threw in the towel, with a lot of his work being rejected but was contractually bound to the show, which was all too happy to pimp his name and image if not to actually use his scripts. Obviously, this would not make him happy and was quite vocal about it in interviews and school lectures, so most of that NG flak was fed by Serling initially and got intensified after his death in 1975.

It's an interesting speculation as to what he would have thought about the show given time and distance; he was notoriously hard on his own work for TZ and he died well before TZ turned into a cultural institution & franchise asset and the influence & reappraisal of NG. Now that the entire run of GALLERY is available in HD quality, let that reappraisal bloom - for those completely new to the show and just want to get to "The Good Stuff", picking up Season 2 first might be the best introduction and then going for Seasons 1 & 3. Otherwise, pick up the seasons in order to see how the show evolved over time.

Some highly biased love for Kino-Lorber discs KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER and NIGHT GALLERY SEASON ONE

 

Kino-Lorber has been THE go-to label for filling in the blu-ray gaps of genre television for the past few years for Boomers and early Gen-Xers who grew up watching the shows first run and/or in syndication. Starting with both seasons of the 60s THE OUTER LIMITS, progressing on with the 60s/70s wave of tv movies (FEAR NO EVIL/RITUAL OF EVIL, KILLDOZER and others), even the run of BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25TH CENTURY, K-L satisfied both hard-core fans and aficionados with quality presentations (remasterings/new scans for HD) and tasty extras - basically giving these shows the proper release they should've had the first time around on DVD. (THE OUTER LIMITS especially - while the initial DVD releases are/were appreciated at the time of release just for making the shows available, the lack of supplemental material was just a slap in the face. Imagine doing THE TWILIGHT ZONE with no material on Rod Serling or anything about the episodes and/or the influence of the show in popular culture.)

If you're of a particular age and a genre television fan, you're familar with FANTASTIC TELEVISION,  Gary Gerani's book in the mid-70s that was an introduction to most of these shows and like The Bible to fans. It was among the first critical works to take this stuff seriously (and introducing the existence of a lot of British shows that took roughly some 20-25 years to be seen 'across the pond'). So it's very fitting that Mr. Gerani shows up on the commentary tracks in a lot of these releases since they'll serve as introductions to the next generation(s) of fans whose exposure was more than likely to inferior versions of these shows - as well as being definite releases (at least for the immediate future) for the hard-core fans.

Two of those gaps have been recently filled, with the release of KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER and the first season of NIGHT GALLERY in stellar editions, comparable to their previous OUTER LIMITS release, and both fan favorites.

K-L previously released HD upgrades of the tv movies THE NIGHT STALKER and THE NIGHT STRANGLER, so it was hoped that the tv series would get similar treatment (having had barebones DVD releases in the past). It did and then some - the blu-ray release of KOLCHAK firmly puts the show in context and gives it some long overdue appreciation for what it is, rather than bitching about what it isn't.

KOLCHAK The Series has been a controversial fan favorite since its inception for many reasons: some saying it's not as good as the tv movies, some questioning the logic of a 'monster-of-the-week' concept, not enough continuity, too much comedy, blah-blah-blah. Many a reason to deride it, although one thing was pretty much in agreement - people loved the character of Carl Kolchak, as portrayed by Darrin McGavin. The show got some respect via THE X-FILES, with Chris Carter explicitly citing KOLCHAK as a direct influence and has recently gotten more scrutiny due to David Chase's popularity as the creator of THE SOPRANOS.

So it makes perfect sense that if you're gonna do a release of KOLCHAK, you get some perspective from Chase himself, who was the story editor on the show, prior to his tenure on THE ROCKFORD FILES. That is one of the coups scored on the set; another featurette is with comedian Dana Gould, creator of the horror comedy STAN AGAINST EVIL. The main extras are commentaries provided on every episode of the show by people who know their film & genre stuff - Mark Dawidziak (who literally wrote the book on THE NIGHT STALKER and touched off its resurgence), Gary Gerani, David J. Schow, Kim Newman, Tim Lucas are some of the more familar names, as well as up and comers like Amanda Reyes and Mike White & Chris Stachiw (of the podcast The KolchakTapes). All of the commentaries are very good - the commentators are well matched to the episodes and everybody does pull out interesting trivia/conjecture even on the less-than-stellar episodes.

The show itself - I admit to a degree of nostalgia, since I was old enough to see it on its first broadcast run; it's 70s television, so there are allowances that you have to make in terms of production/budgetary factors, as well as cultural morès of the time - I've come to appreciate it as a hybrid that shouldn't work as well as it does, considering the convoluted production history of the show. Combining THE FRONT PAGEesque newspaper/workplace comedy with horror tropes presented in dead serious fashion all overlaid with a smidgen of hip cynical snark would not be considered a recipe for success back in 1974. Approaching 50 years later, it almost seems genius - which makes it a damn shame that it didn't survive past 17 episodes. (Had Universal execs been a bit more savvy, there could've been crossovers with two other popular shows of the time, COLUMBO and KOJAK... *sigh*).

But perhaps some things are best suited for short lifespans. While most of Kolchak's encounters in his everyday life are presented with a dose of black comedy, the situations with The Uncanny are always treated dead serious and with a determination to scare the shit out of whomever's watching. Whether you watch it as a weekly presentation of the literal adventures of a reporter battling literal monsters, or as a metaphor of a Flawed Everyman pitted against Authority and the horrors of life, who is (to quote a recent popular franchise) probably "not the hero we need, but the unsung hero we deserve".

The other release is NIGHT GALLERY (aka ROD SERLING'S NIGHT GALLERY). Usually referred to as the lesser cousin to THE TWILIGHT ZONE, but has had a considerable fan following of its own, despite issues that should've crushed it right out of the gate. But the show has always been better than people have considered it to be; fond memories of episodes aside, it wasn't helped by a bastardized version of the show being in syndication for years, until released to home video on VHS, then DVD. Also contributing to the reappraisal was the release of the book (and notice: these things always seem to kick off with companion books) ROD SERLING'S NIGHT GALLERY: AN AFTER HOURS TOUR by Jim Benson & Scott Skelton.

The blu-ray 'Season One' release consists of the pilot tv-movie, broadcast in 1969 and notable for the debut of Steven Spielberg directing Joan Crawford in the segment "Eyes"; and 6 1 hour episodes when the series debuted in 1971 as a mid-season 'wheel series' experiment, "Four-In-One" where several shows were broadcast on a revolving basis, which accounts for the short season. (NIGHT GALLERY and MCCLOUD were the two shows that were successful enough to get full seasons; the other two shows still languish in obscurity.)

[THE PSYCHIATRIST and SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT in case you're curious.]

The original DVD release was meager, the only extras being 'bonus episodes' from Seasons Two and Three - which in retrospect, seems to have been a hedge in case sales didn't support going forward with the other seasons (which happens more often than you think).  That has been corrected admirably with commentaries for all 6 episodes - Gary Gerani handles the pilot movie, and Benson & Skelton step up to represent, along with familar names including Tim Lucas, Kim Newman & Stephen Jones, Amanda Reyes and a new featurette, "The Syndication Conundrum".

Seasons Two and Three are due in 2022, so an in depth overview look at the show on blu will have to parcel out slowly. Season One tends to get overlooked in discussions of the series, and at least this blu release will rectify that situation to a degree. In hindsight, Season One probably provides the clearest look at what Serling might have intended for the show, if he had the same measure of control that he had on TWILIGHT ZONE - which he didn't have on NIGHT GALLERY.

The other notable - notorious? - aspect of NG that's remembered, those "comic" short skits that were the influence of producer Jack Laird aren't in Season One, although there is "The Housekeeper" a segment with Larry Hagman in the first episode that actually is humorous (due to being written by TZ veteran Douglas Heyes under a pseudonym). About the closest Season One comes to that level is "The Nature of the Enemy", written by Serling and notorious for its ridiculous ending - although I'd be willing to build a case for it being a blatant example of Serling 'trolling' the network and his producer. (Look up the story, "Does The Name 'Grimsby' Mean Anything To You?" in Serling's first NG novelization, which was not accepted for the show.)

Most of the season is written by Serling, with a couple of exceptions, and one can sense echoes of TZ aspects both good ("The Little Black Bag, "They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar" which was nominated for an Emmy Award) and not so good ("Pamela's Voice", "Make Me Laugh"). One gets the sense that Serling did want to take advantage to push things - "Clean Kills And Other Trophies" is a solid segment, yet compare it to the novelization in that first compilation, which has the ending that Serling intended, and one can start to sense the beginnings of the frustration that one would've thought the success of TZ would have at least minimized.

For all those perceived flaws, the other aspect on display is the artistry of everyone involved - there's solid craft in both the acting and technical departments, providing some welcome pleasure in seeing established professionals in their prime (Godfrey Cambridge, John Astin, Burgess Meredith, William Windom, Rachel Roberts to name a few), familar character actors (Jason Wingreen, Albert Popwell, Tom Bosley, John Colicos, etc.) and some at the beginning of their careers (Diane Keaton, Roger Moseley) who would eventually become better known.

Kino-Lorber's deal with Universal has borne some must-have releases - not bad, especially in the era of streaming and the 'death of physical media'  (PLEASE...)  - I can only hope that things can pan out for other blu-ray 'gaps' to be filled... at this point, the major ones remaining being THRILLER (hosted by Boris Karloff and which did get a respectful DVD release) and ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS/THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR. Other shows that got DVD releases overseas, but not domestically that would also be welcome are THE SIXTH SENSE (which will get plenty of mention in NIGHT GALLERY'S syndication history) and the James Coburn hosted DARKROOM, one of the last network anthology shows.