Picture a man giving a tour of an art gallery. He turns and it’s that guy from the Twilight Zone and through his forced grin he tells you tales of the fantastic that are associated with some creepy paintings. Welcome to the Night Gallery. This time around we get some grand special features with possible thanks going to Guillermo Del Toro.
If you’re familiar with the concept of a white knight, a knight in shining armor who rides in and saves the day, I’d have to say that Night Gallery Season Two’s knight is director Guillermo Del Toro. I can’t imagine Universal turning him away if he expressed interest in appearing in the special features for the set and the potential interest might’ve been what spurred on the special features of this set.
I don’t know for sure, but I like to imagine Del Toro on his white horse yelling “into the breach, let us get some cool special features for Night Gallery!” Fans well know that the season one release only had some episodes from other seasons as bonus features. That was very disappointing considering there could’ve been more historical context, commentaries, etc.
Season two makes up for those shortcomings. Night Gallery is often seen as the red-headed stepchild of Serling’s classic Twilight Zone. Serling didn’t have the creative control of Gallery that he had with Zone and often had to bow to producer Jack Laird.
Gallery was also a different format and featured some short comedic episodes to use as in-between bits. In my opinion, these comedic shorts are the least effective of the lot. They often play out like bad jokes with goofball punch lines. That doesn’t mean that the show was awful and it did feature some interesting storylines and moments of horror.
One of the most talked about shows actually appears on this set – the Caterpillar. Thanks to a mention in Stephen King’s Danse Macabre the tale of a murder gone wrong still features some genuine chills and great acting.
As Del Toro says on the commentary that he does for the episode, when Night Gallery hits on all cylinders it’s a wonder to behold. The Caterpillar hits on all cylinders. The rest of the episodes can be hit or miss, the comic bits seem very superfluous, but there are some great genre shows mixed in there.
Another thing that Gallery lacks when compared to the Zone is that Gallery was shot “modern” meaning that current fashions from the truly horrifying 1970s made their way onto the show and severely date the episodes that were shot to appear in the current. There are still some diamonds to be found in the set though (The Boy who Predicted Earthquakes, The Doll, Pickman’s Model, Cool Air, Caterpillar, etc.) but those comedic bits wore thin to me.
The Night Gallery is presented in fullscreen. Special features include commentaries by Guillermo Del Toro and Night Gallery historians Scott Skelton and Jim Benson. The rest of the special features are located on disc five. The 30 minute “Revisiting the Gallery” has interviews with cast members, directors, and production team members.
This includes directors Jeannot Szwarc, John Badham, and William Hale, composer Gil Melle, artist Tom Wright, actors Pat Boone and Joseph Campanella, and many more. There’s also a separate 3 minute interview with artist Wright who painted the strange portraits that began each tale.
Next are 12 minutes of NBC TV promos. Finally you have a gallery where you choose the particular paintings and Wright gives you a short background on it.
Night Gallery doesn’t rise to the status of the Twilight Zone and one wonders if Serling had been given more control it if might’ve gotten close. Jack Laird was the one that added in the comedic parts that didn’t set well with me so I’d guess that the show might’ve had the potential if Serling had been given more control.
There are some good shows in there whatever the case. This set is still highly recommended as the good outweighs the bad (and horrible fashions). This set also adds some excellent special features that make it well worth the admission into the Night Gallery.
Night Gallery: Season Two is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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