Category: Night Gallery

Room 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.

teleplay by Hal Dresner
directed by Jerrold Freedman
music by Robert Prince / series theme by Gil Melle

Cast: 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.

teleplay 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.

written 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

The 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.

teleplay 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?

teleplay 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

Make 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?

written 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)

Notes: 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.

written 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

Pamela’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.

written 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…

written 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.

teleplay 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

The Different Ones: 17-year-old Victor Koch is kept hidden away in isolation by his father, Paul, due to a physical deformity, but does not take kindly to that isolation, whether his father means well or not. Paul contacts a government agency dealing with cases like Victor’s, and is offered three options: taking no action, euthanizing Victor, or sending Victor to another planet as part of an exchange program that would welcome him with open arms. Paul opts for the most merciful of these options, sending Victor to the planet Boreon. But who will Boreon send as an exchange student to Earth?

written by Rod Serling
directed by John Meredyth Lucas
music by Oliver Nelson / series theme by Gil Melle

Cast: Dana Andrews (Paul Koch), Monica Lewis (Official), Jon Korkes (Victor Koch), Dennis Rucker (Man), Peggy Webber (Woman), Mary Gregory (2nd Woman)

Tell David…: Ann, lost while driving home in a thunderstorm, decides to momentarily take shelter at a house she spots along the way. The couple who live there, David and Pat, have an array of futuristic gadgets and seem to live an idyllic life; when Ann finally gets home, she is reminded that her life is anything but ideal, but David and Pat have invited her to visit again soon. When Ann does visit again, and mentions that David is her own son’s name, coincidences and details of conversations begin convincing Ann that she’s glimpsing her son’s future – a future which David says his mother did not live to see.

teleplay by Gerald Sanford
from the short story by Penelope Wallace
directed by Jeff Corey
music by Oliver Nelson

Cast: Sandra Dee (Ann Bolt), Jared Martin (Tony Bolt / David Blessington), Jenny Sullivan (Pat Blessington), Jan Shutan (Jane Blessington), Francoise Ruggieri (Yvonne), Anne Randall (Julie), Chris Patrick (David Bolt)

Logoda’s Heads: Major Crosby leads an expedition into Africa, searching for the missing brother of Henley, a younger member of the expedition. The few leads they have bring them to a village whose witch doctor, Logoda, is said to have magic thanks to the decapitated heads of his enemies. In trying not to cross Logoda, Crosby and his team ignore more immediate threats.

teleplay by Robert Bloch
from the short story by August Derleth
directed by Jeannot Szwarc
music by Oliver Nelson

Cast: Patrick Macnee (Major Crosby), Brock Peters (Logoda), Denise Nicholas (Kyro), Tim Matheson (Henley), Albert Popwell (Sgt. Imo), Zara Cully (Emba), Roger E. Mosley (Second Askari)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Tom and Leona Ogilvy have lucked out – or so they think. A cousin of Tom’s has willed his country house to him, which might be just the thing that a struggling writer like Tom needs to finish his next book in peace and quiet. There’s just one catch: in the attic office Tom claims as his study, a large chest sits in the floor – one which Zachariah Ogilvy’s dying wish was to be left alone, with the added promise that, at some point, someone will come to collect it. Tom and Leona begin experiencing unusual events: crickets and birds suddenly stop making any noise, and Tom sees the chest seem to hover in mid-air. Leona makes arrangements to have it removed from the house…but it seems the chest doesn’t want to leave. What’s in it…and what tricks will it play on their minds to draw their attention away from it?

teleplay by Robert Malcolm Young
story by Kurt van Elting
directed by Jeff Corey
music by Eddie Sauter / series theme by Gil Melle

Cast:
Stuart Whitman (Tom Ogilvy), Barbara Anderson (Leona Ogilvy), Ellen Corby (Miss Patience), Alan Napier (Cousin Zachariah), Larry Watson (Longhair), Michael Laird (1st Goblin), Glenna Sergent (2nd Goblin)

LogBook entry by Earl Green