(1972)
Dir - Jeannot Szwarc
Overall: MEH
"The Sins of the Fathers" is another Night Gallery segment set in a rural time period where people live in squalor and are overrun by superstition. This provides ample footing for a tale where sin-eating is a service that is taken seriously, usually something done by the lowliest of folks who can only score an extravagant meal if they take on the transgressions of the recently departed in an unpleasant ritual. Based on Christianna Brand's 1964 short story of the same name, Richard Thomas is the unfortunate sap who gets such a task bestowed upon him, and he turns in a ridiculous performance pathetically moaning and thrashing about in a combination of infantile and orgasmic behavior. Premo scream queen Barbara Steel is also on board, as is Geraldine Page once again as Thomas' crone-like mother who delights in her son taking over the mantle of the family sin-eater.
(1972)
Dir - Jeff Corey
Overall: GOOD
Genre fiction frequently explores the idea of artificial intelligence developing human emotions and survival instincts, and Rod Serling's "You Can't Get Help Like That Anymore" is a textbook example of such themes. Contemporary-set yet given a sci-fi angle where androids are sold as labor machines to wealthy socialites who abuse them, it hits at home in a modern society where people frequently spin conspiracy theories as to an inevitable A.I. takeover, and Serling's take on such a predicament is clear enough. That is to say, humans bad, robots good yet dangerous, at least if we are reckless in such technological advancement while letting our more savage impulses rise to the surface. In any event, seeing a pompous Cloris Leachman getting one-upped by Lana Wood's robot maid that she abuses in a drunken act of boastful abuse is fun stuff.
(1972)
Dir - Jeannot Szwarc
Overall: GOOD
Scoring Laurence Harvey in the lead as a sexually frustrated employee who lusts after his boss' much younger and much prettier wife Joanna Pettet, "The Caterpillar" is one of the most skin-crawling of all Night Gallery installments. In fact it is one of the best bug-related horror vignettes ever made, an adaptation of Oscar Cook's 1931 short story "Boomerang" done by host Rod Serling that takes its time unveiling each grisly detail in its squirm-inducing premise. Harvey's poetic justice is a fate worse than death when he seeks the services of Don Knight's sleazy deportee to rid the world of his boss via an earwig, an act of desperation that could not go more horribly awry. The segment could have ended a commercial break early and been effective enough, but the final act kicks up the ickiness tenfold, with one last disastrous revelation dropped that will make every viewer wear earplugs to bed while thinking twice about coveting another's spouse.
(1972)
Dir - Timothy Galfas
Overall: GOOD
The second season of Night Gallery closed out with something akin to Rod Serling's contemplative works, though this one was actually authored by Stanford Whitmore, adapting from Edwin Charles Tubb's 1955 short story of the same name. "Little Girl Lost" would work well enough as an examination into the cracked psyche of a brilliant scientist who is unable to accept the loss of his young daughter and wife via a car accident. Yet because said scientist, (played by William Windom in his second and last appearance on the program), is working on top secret nuclear bomb applications, his services are needed regardless of how much psychological trauma he is suffering from. Unfortunately for all of us, Windom has brought such trauma to the work place in a devastating fashion, leading to a grim finale that borrows footage from Joseph Sargent's 1970 disaster movie Colossus: The Forbin Project.
(1972)
Dir - Jeannot Szwarc
Overall: MEH
A replacement segment for "Witches' Feast" that was swapped into an early episode from the program on repeat broadcasts, "Satisfaction Guaranteed" is another goofy comedic vignette that was authored by producer Jack Laird. These sketches provided a consistent tonal imbalance to the program and particularly to the stories that Rod Serling was trying to push through, yet they are harmlessly macabre if one is in the right mood. Victor Buono shows up at a prestigious agency to pick out a new secretary, only to be disappointed at each of the high-end ladies that are proposed to him, that is until a heavy-set corporate peon enters the room that lights up his eyes. We are then quickly shown what Buono is actually up to and it is groan-worthy, but harmlessly groan-worthy at least.
(1973)
Dir - Timothy Galfas
Overall: WOOF
Filmed after the series had wrapped up and later inserted into season two's syndication, "Die Now, Pay Later" is a pointless edition to the program. Nothing ghoulish or amusing happens and all of it takes place at a funeral home as many a Night Gallery vignette had been, merely featuring Will Geer and Slim Pickens having a cordial argument with each other. It is one which implies that Geer is a warlock who is causing several of the townsfolk's deaths in order to take advantage of his clearance sale on coffins and whatnot. It is a lousy concept done with zero flare, most likely shot in a single afternoon on a ready-to-go set where both Geer and Pickens were already on the studio lot and/or easy to obtain.
(1974)
Dir - Jack Laird
Overall: WOOF
The final Night Gallery vignette ever filmed and later broadcast in syndicated season two episodes, "Room for One Less" is nothing more than a remake of the same season's stinker blackout sketch "An Act of Chivalry". Both that and this one were written, directed, and quickly thrown together by producer Jack Laird, but this one loses even more points for its redundancy. Several people crowd into an elevator that has a sign up proclaiming that no more than ten passengers are allowed at a time. When this is brought to the attention of a monster who stumbles in by one of the lift's guests, said monster zaps him into oblivion, thus solving the problem. The one thing that the show did not need was more of these goofy time-wasters, but for whatever reason they managed to cram one more in after it was all wrapped up.
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