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Night Gallery Season 1

The Dead Man / The Housekeeper

Night GalleryThe Dead Man: Dr. Talmadge is summoned to the home of an old friend and colleague, Dr. Redford, who introduces him to a man named John Fearing. Fearing, just by thinking of a disease, can manifest the symptoms of that illness. Redford says that Fearing’s ability is hereditary, and he hopes to learn more about it and harness it to cure all disease. Over dinner, Talmadge notices that Redford’s wife can barely hide her attraction to Fearing, who appears as a perfect physical specimen when he concentrates on being well. In his next experiment with Fearing, Redford hypnotically conditions his human guinea pig to imagine himself dead. Is he taking his experiment to a new level…or eliminating a rival?

Download this episode via Amazonteleplay by Douglas Heyes
from a short story by Fritz Lieber
directed by Douglas Heyes
music by Robert Prince / series theme by Gil Melle

Cast: Carl Betz (Dr. Max Redford), Jeff Corey (Dr. Miles Talmadge), Louise Sorel (Velia Redford), Michael Blodgett (John Fearing), Glenn Dixon (Minister)

The Housekeeper: Miss Wattle applies for a housekeeping job with the wealthy but eccentric scientist Cedric Acton. His plans for here go beyond tidying up the house, though – Cedric feels his wife has become too entitled to be tolerable. He wants to transplant another woman’s personality into his wife’s admittedly attractive body, and tells Miss Wattle of the riches she’ll be “inheriting” as the new inhabitant of that body. She reluctantly goes along with it, but finds she has no interest in remaining part of this experiment. When she tries to leave her “husband”, she comes face to face with the new housekeeper…her own replacement.

Night Gallerywritten by Matthew Howard
directed by John Meredyth Lucas
music by Robert Prince

Cast: Larry Hagman (Cedric Acton), Suzy Parker (Carlotta Acton), Jeanette Nolan (Miss Wattle), Cathleen Cordell (Miss Beamish), Howard Morton (Headwaiter)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Night Gallery Season 1

Room With A View / Little Black Bag / Nature Of The Enemy

Night GalleryRoom With A View: Ailing eccentric Jacob Bauman is confined to his bed, waited on by a butler and a nurse. “Mr. B” pries into his nurse’s private life to a degree that makes her a little uncomfortable, but he tries to put her at ease by reminding her that he’s the perfect confidant since he rarely speaks to anyone. She admits to some jealousy when her boyfriend looks at other women, and Bauman starts planting the idea in her head the she should act on that jealousy.

Download this episode via Amazonteleplay by Hal Dresner
directed by Jerrold Freedman
music by Robert Prince / series theme by Gil Melle

Night GalleryCast: Joseph Wiseman (Jacob Bauman), Diane Keaton (Nurse Frances Nevins), Angel Tompkins (Lila Bauman), Morgan Farley (Charles), Larry Watson (Vic)

Little Black Bag: Disgraced and discredited, William Fall was once a medical doctor, but is now an alcoholic shambling from alleyway to alleyway. After an argument with a fellow homeless alcoholic, he discovers a medical bag in a trash can. A chance encounter with a Puerto Rican woman and her dying child gives Fall a chance to try out his lucky find. But he discovers it’s no ordinary medical bag: it’s from the year 2098, and its instruments seem to guide even Fall’s shaky hands to cure the child. The rush of resuming his calling as a healer thrills Dr. Fall…but his drinking buddy, who has followed him around as he heals people of everything from arthritis to cancer, sees only dollar signs, even over Fall’s dead body.

Night Galleryteleplay by Rod Serling
based on a story by C.M. Kornbluth
directed by Jeannot Szwarc
music by Robert Prince

Cast: Burgess Meredith (Dr. William Fall), Chill Wills (Heppelwhite), George Furth (Gillings), E.J. Andre (Charlie Peterson), strongArthur Malet (Ennis), Eunice Suarez (Puerto Rican Mother), Marion Val (Puerto Rican Girl), Johnny Silver (Pawnbroker), C. Lindsay Workman (1st Doctor), Matt Pelto (2nd Doctor), Robert Terry (Dr. Nodella), Ralph Moody (1st Old Man), William Challee (2nd Old Man)

The Nature Of The Enemy: A tandem lunar landing mission involving two American spacecraft goes horribly wrong, as one of the vehicles crashes during descent. The press focuses on the crashed ship’s final transmission, during which its doomed pilot said his lander was under attack. In Houston, an impatient flight director named Simms tries to defuse the near-panic over that transmission while maintaining communication with the crew of the surviving lander. They report that the wreckage of their sister ship has been fashioned into something resembling a mouse trap…which only makes sense if the moon is made of cheese after all.

Night Gallerywritten by Rod Serling
directed by Allen Reisner
music by Gil Melle

Cast: Joseph Campanella (Simms), Richard Van Vleet (Space Man), James B. Sikking (1st Reporter), Jason Wingreen (2nd Reporter), Albert Popwell (3rd Reporter), Jerry Strickler (Man)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Night Gallery Season 1

The House / Certain Shadows On The Wall

Night GalleryThe House: A woman confesses to her psychologist that she has had the same dream for years – of driving toward a country house with an odd sense of anticipation – shortly before discovering that the house in question is not only real, but it up for sale. The realtor trying to close the deal gives her a somewhat skeptical warning that the previous owner thought the house was haunted. Not only will she buy the house, but she’ll find she knows its “ghost” very well.

Download this episode via Amazonteleplay by Rod Serling
from the story by Andre Maurois
directed by John Astin
music by Robert Prince / series theme by Gil Melle

Cast: Joanna Pettet (Elaine Latimer), Paul Richards (Peugeot), Steve Franken (Dr. Mitchell), Jan Burrell (Nurse), Almira Sessions (Old Woman)

Certain Shadows On The Wall: Emma Brigham dies after a lengthy illness, giving her three siblings – two sisters and a brother, Stephen, who left his medical practice behind to care for her full time – a sense of relief. But while Emma’s sisters are relieved that she is no longer in constant pain, Stephen is relieved that her death could result in a substantial inheritance. Emma’s shadow appears on a wall in her house, and nothing can block or outshine it. Stephen begins obsessing over getting rid of the shadow. But is it Emma’s spirit or his conscience?

Night Galleryteleplay by Rod Serling
from the story by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
directed by Jeff Corey
music by Robert Prince

Cast: Louis Hayward (Dr. Stephen Brigham), Agnes Moorehead (Emma Brigham), Grayson Hall (Ann Brigham), Rachel Roberts (Rebecca Brigham)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Night Gallery Season 1

Make Me Laugh / Clean Kills and Other Trophies

Night GalleryMake Me Laugh: Jackie Slater, a struggling comedian, is dying to make his audiences laugh…but he consistently bombs on stage. A mysterious man claiming to be a miracle-performing guru offers to work wonders for Jackie: anything Jackie says will bring his audiences to nearly uncontrollable laughter. While this boosts Jackie’s career to incredible heights, he finds it to be a hollow victory. He decides to leave comedy and take up dramatic acting, but his attempts at pathos only bring about more laughter. Can he ever again bring someone to tears?

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Rod Serling
directed by Steven Spielberg
music by Robert Prince / series theme by Gil Melle

Cast: Godfrey Cambridge (Jackie Slater), Tom Bosley (Jules Kettleman), Jackie Vernon (Chatterje), Al Lewis (Mishkin), Sidney Clute (David Garrick), John J. Fox (Heckler), Gene R. Kearney (2nd Bartender), Tony Russel (Director), Sonny Klein (1st Bartender), Michael Hart (Miss Wilson), Georgia Schmidt (Flower Lady), Sid Rushakoff (1st Laugher), Don Melvoin (2nd Laugher)

Night GalleryNotes: Steven Spielberg returns, racking up his third professional television directing credit (his second was a segment of the Night Gallery pilot movie in late 1969). By the end of 1971, he would go on to direct episodes of such series as The Name Of The Game, The Psychiatrist, Columbo, and Owen Marshall, Counselor At Law, ending the year with his first TV movie directing credit, Duel. Within three years, Spielberg was a movie director and no longer a TV director. Tom Bosley, of Happy Days fame, makes his second Night Gallery appearance here, having also appeared in Night Gallery’s pilot movie.

Clean Kills and Other Trophies: Obsessive big-game hunter Colonel Archie Dittman is unable to keep himself from expressing his disappointment that his son, now 21, does not share his preoccupation with hunting. He threatens to leave his son out of the will unless he can kill a deer. Dittman’s lawyer is aghast, immediately recommending that the junior Dittman take legal action against his father. The day of the hunt comes and goes without a kill…or at least without a death in the animal kingdom.

Night Gallerywritten by Rod Serling
directed by Walter Doniger
music by Robert Prince

Cast: Raymond Massey (Colonel Archie Dittman), Tom Troupe (Jeffrey Pierce), Barry Brown (Archie Dittman Jr.), Herbert Jefferson Jr. (Tom Mboya)

Notes: Herbert Jefferson Jr. would go on to numerous guest starring roles in the 1970s before landing a regular role in Battlestar Galactica.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Night Gallery Season 1

Pamela’s Voice / Lone Survivor / The Doll

Night GalleryPamela’s Voice: After five tumultuous years of marriage, Jonathan ends his marriage, not with a divorce, but by pushing his wife, Pamela, down a flight of stairs, killing her. Her ghost still taunts him, however. He can see her, and then he can hear her. And he can’t get away from her. As she rants at him seemingly endlessly, it’s as if she was still alive, and to Jonathan, death is looking like it might be a pretty good deal…or maybe that’s his problem.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Rod Serling
directed by Richard Benedict
music by Robert Prince / series theme by Gil Melle

Cast: Phyllis Diller (Pamela), John Astin (Jonathan)

Lone Survivor: An oceangoing ship pulls alongside a lifeboat that seems to bear the name Titanic. One survivor is recovered from the boat, wearing women’s clothing and wondering if it’s 1912…only to be told that it’s 1915, and he’s aboard the Lusitania. He predicts the ship’s doom – it will be sunk by a German torpedo – but no one listens, especially when he claims to be a Flying Dutchman doomed to repeat an eternity of shipwrecks. The Lusitania’s crew steers the ship into the crosshairs of history. An oceangoing ship pulls alongside a lifeboat that seems to be the name Lusitania. One survivor is recovered from the boat, and learns that he’s aboard the Andrea Dorea

Night Gallerywritten by Rod Serling
directed by Gene Levitt
music by Robert Prince

Cast: John Colicos (Survivor), Torin Thatcher (Captain, Lusitania), Hedley Mattingly (Doctor, Lusitania), Charles Davis (Officer of the Watch, Lusitania), Brendan Dillon (Quartermaster, Lusitania), William Beckley (Richards, Lusitania), Terence Pushman (Helmsman, Lusitania), Edward Colmans (Captain, Andrea Dorea), Pierre Jalbert (Officer of the Watch, Andrea Dorea), Carl Milletaire (Quartermaster, Andrea Dorea)

Notes: Canadian actor John Colicos (1928-2000) is a genre favorite, probably best known for his appearances as Count Baltar in the original 1970s version of Battlestar Galactica and in episodes of both classic Star Trek and Deep Space Nine as Klingon warrior Kor. He also appeared in Mission: Impossible, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Starlost, Wonder Woman, and was the voice of Apocalypse in the early ’90s animated X-Men Series.

The Doll: A retired British colonel looks after his niece with the help of Miss Danton, and both are disturbed when the girl begins telling them that a doll found among the colonel’s personal effects by Miss Danton is not only talking, but is making threats toward other dolls. The colonel never intended for the doll to be given to her, and must now contend with an escalating series of disquieting events, including the dismemberment of another of his niece’s dolls. This doll is linked to a dark chapter in the colonel’s colonial past, and its awakening may leave them all with no future.

Night Galleryteleplay by Rod Serling
based upon the short story by Algernon Blackwood
directed by Rudi Dorn
music by Robert Prince

Cast: Shani Wallis (Miss Danton), John Williams (Colonel Hymber Masters), Henry Silva (Pandit Chola), Than Wyenn (Indian), Jewel Blanch (Monica), John Barclay (Butler)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Night Gallery Season 1

They’re Tearing Down Tim Riley’s Bar / The Last Laurel

Night GalleryThey’re Tearing Down Tim Riley’s Bar: Randy Lane, a former hotshot salesman, crowds his day planner with “outside” sales pitches…which are usually spent in one local bar or another, but his favorite has always been Tim Riley’s, which is now scheduled, along with other older buildings in its block, for demolition to make way for a new bank. When he passes the boarded-up bar, it seems like he steps into the past – old friends are there, and the old times are back…and then it fades. The police respond when Randy breaks into Tim Riley’s now-empty bar, adding a rap sheet to his already shaky record at work. Can he shake off the ghosts of his past and return to his present before it’s too late?

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Rod Serling
directed by Don Taylor
music by Benny Carter / series theme by Gil Melle

Night GalleryCast: William Windom (Randy Lane), Diane Baker (Lynn Alcott), Bert Convy (Harvey Doane), John Randolph (H.E. Pritkin), Henry Beckman (The Policeman), David Astor (Blodgett), Robert Herrman (Tim Riley), Gene O’Donnell (Bartender), Frederic Downs (Father), John Ragin (1st Policeman), David M. Frank (Intern), Susannah Darrow (Kathy Lane), Mary Gail Hobbs (Miss Trevor), Margie Hall (Switchboard Operator), Don Melvoin (1st Workman), Matt Pelto (2nd Workman)

The Last Laurel: Marius Davis, coping with a recent crippling accident, obsesses over his paranoid belief that his wife has embarked on an affair with Davis’ doctor. By sheer force of will, Davis is able to conjure up an astral form that has touch and mobility, and he plans to eliminate his worst enemy in cold blood. But who is truly his worst enemy?

Night Galleryteleplay by Rod Serling
based upon the short story “The Horsehair Trunk” by Davis Grubb
directed by Daryl Duke
music by Benny Carter

Cast: Jack Cassidy (Marius Davis), Martine Beswick (Susan Davis), Martin E. Brooks (Doctor Armstrong)

LogBook entry by Earl Green