I believe the first episode I can remember that scared the hell out of me was "The Doll". I was only 5 or 6 years old when I saw it,and traumitized me for years(in a good way). I loved to get the crap scared out of me. I feared walking upstairs to bed every night because I thought that damn doll would be standing atop the stairs waiting with thoses big black eyes and sinister smile(and the teeth just did me in!)I knew this was an accomplished scare because I never saw the episode again to this day and 30 years later I went to the ultimate Night Gallery web and there before my eyes was her eyes stairing back at me! I immediately got chills up my spine and tears in my eyes! She still scares the hell out of me! Thanks Rod for being the best storyteller of our time and scaring the pants off of me!

--Scaredypants

While Rod Serling's "Twilight Zone" emphasized science-fiction, "Night Gallery" put the focus on horror with generally memorable results. Each segment opened with Serling guiding the viewer through a dark art gallery filled with works devoted to the macabre. The show's weak link were the "blackout" segments written by producer Jack Laird that strived but generally failed to be humorous. Highlights of the series included the Emmy winning "They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar" with William Windom and Diane Baker, an episode that may have reminded Zone fans of "Walking Distance" and "A Stop at Willoughby, " and the unusual "Silent Snow, Secret Snow" narrated by Orson Welles. Also worth noting is "A Question of Fear" with Leslie Nielson as a cruel soldier of fortune who accepts a dare to spend a night in a haunted house, and the period piece, "Deliveries in the Rear" with Cornel Wilde as a doctor whose cadavers didn't always die a natural death.

--Brian W. Fairbanks

A sick old man is dying in debt and the county is coming to take away his grandson. It might be a sad story in the lesser hands, but "The Messiah on Mott Street" was one of those moments that I realized suddenly I was watching something unique and compelling. Edward G. Robinson, proving that in his last years he could chew scenery with the best of 'em, rants at the Angel of Death--until A of D flees the tenement flat!

Serling reportedly based it on passages from the Book of Leviticus, with which I am not familiar, but I have never read a biblical passage this hopeful. This episode gives us early performances by young Tony Roberts and Yaphet Kotto.

I'm not a dialogue fan, but consider just two lines from this story:

Grandson to Kotto on why he thinks Kotto in the Messiah: "Because you're big and black and you loom. "

Kotto to Roberts: "Sometimes, Dr. Levine, God remembers the tenements. "

Serling's rep grew from the scifi, fantasy and, with "Night Gallery", the horror genres, but the rep sells his short. There is wild-eyed passion in his characters and deep-felt compassion for his characters in his scripts for which he has never gotten enough credit. These are qualities that are absent from television and movie scripts today, and I think modern writers could benefit from viewings of this and "They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar, " Serling's answer to "Death of a Salesman. " Weird? Yes, but wonderful, too, in the way these characters' frustrations, fears and hopes fly off the screen.

--scriptmasterick

Some 34 years have passed since I saw the first episode of Night Gallery and I always remembered a lot of this great show. Scary and sensational for its day, it is still one of the best horror/suspense series ever produced. If you like the Twilight Zone and Rod Serling's work, then I suggest you buy the recently available DVD set of the first season (I think the second season was by far the best) of this classic and often overlooked show.

If you want to watch a horror show only for the blood and guts aspect, then you won't like Night Gallery. But if you like an ironic/suspense story that really keeps you on the edge of your seat wondering how it will end, then you will love Night Gallery. All the episodes are great (included are funny "shorties", in between the real stories), but my all-time favorite is "Cool Air". Could any of you fans out there ever guessed how it could have ended, or what would have been written on the tombstone once the leaves were blown away? The ending of "The Dead Man" still scares me. As soon as I can afford a DVD player, I'm buying the whole series!!

--Blondie