No other title sequence filled eight-to-twelve-year-old me with more fright anxiety than tv’s The Night Gallery. It was like a point-of-view shot down a tunnel at a ghostly amusement park, image upon image, one obscuring the next. All of it accompanied by a haunting score.
The show aired after my bedtime, but even as a child I was a night owl. My parents would leave the tv on in the living room and talk in the kitchen. I’d sneak into the living room, turn the volume down and change the channels. Then I’d turn it up and watch the show. Maybe they wouldn’t notice that abrupt channel change, but I wasn’t taking chances.
I loved Twilight Zone, but my heart wanted horror, and this show delivered it to kid me. The show inspired a lifelong curiosity about the artwork exhibited in the show, and that curiosity was luckily shared by many others, including Creaturefeatures.com, whose creator and owner Taylor White ran a successful Kickstarter campaign to create Rod Serling’s Night Gallery: The Art of Darkness, about the art in the show, albeit calling a $102,000 finish on a $14,000 goal “successful” is quite an understatement.
Scott Skelton and Jim Benson, authors of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery: An After Hours Tour, wrote this new book which features a forward by Serling’s daughter Ann, author of As I Knew Him: My Dad, Rod Serling; an introduction by Guillermo del Toro; and the coup de grace, “every painting ever shown in the Night Gallery,” including work from Phil Vanderlei, Jaroslav “Jerry” Gebr and especially Thomas J. Wright.
Vanderlei created the sculptures. Gebr painted three works for the pilot, including The Cemetery, Eyes, and Escape Route, sometimes called Crucifixion, and he painted the ones in the Sixth Sense episodes as well. It was the work of Thomas J. Wright that we see most of the time on the show. He created over one hundred paintings for the series. (The Sixth Sense was another show re-edited and added to Night Gallery so it would have enough episodes to ensure syndication.)
The book also includes commentary from the artists along with concept art and memorabilia. Fans can see some of the art at Hollywoodgothique or on video here or here. The book is currently available from Creaturefeatures.