MUSEUM OF TELEVISION & RADIO SCREENING SERIES, THE:
ROD SERLING: THE TWILIGHT ZONE AND BEYOND: PACKAGE
7: NIGHT GALLERY: THE CEMETERY, EYES, & ESCAPE
ROUTE
Summary
Rod Serling's "The Twilight Zone," which debuted in
1959, took viewers through a delirious dimension of
imagination and brought them back to earth again with a
humbling sense of themselves in a strange, alienating
universe. In creating the provocative parables that
elevated this fantastical series above mere escapist
fiction, Serling drew upon a decade of experience
writing for such live anthology programs as "Kraft
Television Theatre," "Playhouse 90," and "Climax!"
Beginning in 1955 he was awarded three consecutive
Emmy Awards for best teleplay writing ("Patterns," "The
Comedian," and "Requiem for a Heavyweight") and was the
first playwright recognized with a Peabody Award.
After "The Twilight Zone" ended in 1964, Serling
returned to the airwaves with "The Loner," "Night
Gallery," and the controversial television movie "The
Doomsday Flight." Astonishingly prolific and
indisputably influential, he was always on guard against
the threats of censorship and mediocrity. He is
remembered as both a vital force and a familiar face in
the affirmation of television as a showcase for artful,
relevant drama.
"Night Gallery": "The Cemetery," "Eyes," "Escape Route"
(1969; 100 minutes)
Conceived as a midnight stroll through an exhibition of
the outrŽ -- curated by one Rod Serling -- "Night
Gallery" offers a spine-tingling triptych of terror.
"The Cemetery" casts Roddy McDowall as an unscrupulous
longhair pining after the family fortune; "Eyes,"
directed by twenty-two-year-old Steven Spielberg in his
professional debut, stars Joan Crawford as a spiteful,
sightless spinster who coerces a simpleton (Tom Bosley)
into giving up his vision; and Richard Kiley plays a
troubled fugitive whose Nazi past comes back to haunt
him in "The Escape Route." Informed by "Amazing
Stories" and other pulp fictions, the vignettes in this
hugely successful movie-of-the-week initially appeared,
in various guises, in Serling's discarded outline for a
"Twilight Zone" feature film, the unproduced pilot "Rod
Serling's Wax Museum," and his short-story collection
"The Season to Be Wary."
Details
- NETWORK: N/A
- DATE: November 30, 2001
- RUNNING TIME: 1:38:58
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:69300
- GENRE: Drama, fantasy/science fiction
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, fantasy/science fiction
- SERIES RUN: NBC - TV series, 1970-1973
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- William Sackheim … Producer
- Boris Sagal … Director
- Steven Spielberg … Director
- Barry Shear … Director
- Rod Serling … Writer, Host
- Goldenberg, William (See also: Goldenberg, Billy) … Music by
- Joan Crawford … Cast, Miss Menlo
- Ossie Davis … Cast, Portifoy
- Richard Kiley … Cast, Strobe
- Roddy McDowall … Cast, Jeremy
- Barry Sullivan … Cast, Dr. Heatherton
- George Macready … Cast, Hendricks
- Sam Jaffe … Cast, Bleum
- Norma Crane … Cast, Gretchen
- Barry Atwater … Cast, Carson
- George Murdock … Cast, the First Agent
- Tom Bosley … Cast, Resnick
- Tom Basham … Cast, Gibbons
- Byron Morrow … Cast, Packer
- Garry Goodrow … Cast, Louis
- Shannon Farnon … Cast, the First Nurse
- Richard Hale … Cast, the Doctor