Night Gallery
Rod Serling appeared in a dark art gallery setting and introduced a trilogy of supernatural tales by unveiling paintings that depicted each segment. The three canvases produced for the pilot were painted by Jaroslav "Jerry" Gebr (who was head of the Scenic Arts Department at Universal Studios). The original pilot theme was composed by William Goldenberg (who also did the pilot's background music).
=== "The Cemetery" ===
The first segment was directed by Boris Sagal and the following is the introduction by Serling:
Good evening, and welcome to a private showing of three paintings, displayed here for the first time. Each is a collector’s item in its own way—not because of any special artistic quality, but because each captures on a canvas, suspends in time and space, a frozen moment of a nightmare. Our initial offering: a small gothic item in blacks and grays, a piece of the past known as the family crypt. This one we call, simply, “The Cemetery.” Offered to you now, six feet of earth and all that it contains. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the Night Gallery...
Jeremy Evans is a despicable selfish young man who murders his rich uncle to inherit his estate, both much to the detriment of his uncle's butler, Osmond Portifoy. Later, Evans notices that a painting of the family graveyard has changed – a fresh, empty grave appears in it and soon after a coffin standing upright appears in the grave. Little by little, the painting depicts the return of his uncle from his burial site, moving closer and closer, or so it seems, to Evans.
Cast
Roddy McDowall as Jeremy Evans
Ossie Davis as Osmond Portifoy
George Macready as William Hendricks
Barry Atwater as Mr. Carson
Richard Hale as the Doctor
=== "Eyes" ===
The second segment was directed by Steven Spielberg and the following is the introduction by Serling:
Objet d'art number two: a portrait. Its subject, Miss Claudia Menlo, a blind queen who reigns in a carpeted penthouse on Fifth Avenue—an imperious, predatory dowager who will soon find a darkness blacker than blindness. This is her story...
Claudia Menlo is a heartless, wealthy blind woman who desperately wants to be able to see. Sidney Resnick, a hapless gambler who owes money to loan sharks, agrees to donate his eyes to her for the grand sum of $9,000. Her doctor, whom she blackmails into performing the illegal surgery, warns her that her vision will only last for about eleven hours. After the surgery, she removes the bandages from her eyes, and by a quirk of fate, there is a blackout seconds later. She awakens the next day to see the sunrise, but she panics when her sight quickly begins to fade.
Cast
Joan Crawford as Claudia Menlo
Barry Sullivan as Dr. Frank Heatherton
Tom Bosley as Sidney Resnick
Byron Morrow as George Packer
Garry Goodrow as Lou
Bruce Kirby as the Portrait Artist
=== "The Escape Route" ===
The third and final segment was directed by Barry Shear and the following is the introduction by Serling:
And now, the final painting. The last of our exhibit has to do with one Joseph Strobe, a Nazi war criminal hiding in South America—a monster who wanted to be a fisherman. This is his story...
A Nazi fugitive named Joseph Strobe is constantly on the run from the authorities and his nightmares about the past. One day, while fleeing from imaginary pursuers, he finds himself in a museum where he meets Bleum, a survivor of the same concentration camp where Strobe made the decisions about who would live or die. Bleum does not initially recognize him, but points out a painting that depicts a man being crucified in a concentration camp. Strobe turns away; he is drawn to a painting of a fisherman, and imagines himself in the painting.
When Strobe returns to the art gallery the next day, Bleum recognizes him as a Nazi, and later, outside a bar, Strobe kills him to ensure his own anonymity. Once again, Strobe must hide from authorities. In a state of desperation he returns to the museum and prays to become the fisherman in the painting, but dire consequences loom.
Cast
Richard Kiley as Joseph Strobe
Sam Jaffe as Bleum
Norma Crane as Gretchen
George Murdock as the first Israeli agent
paranormal, comedy