I watched Rod Serling's Night Gallery when it was a new NBC program in the early 1970s, and have warm memories of a sporadic handful of its episodes; as the series wound-down by the mid-1970s, however, the show was really awful, so hacked-up for syndication that I couldn't watch it anymore. In order to extend the Night Gallery syndication package, NBC even re-purposed episodes of another defunct TV program called "The Sixth Sense" and inserted Night Gallery intros. Really awful, and a terrible demise for Rod Serling's last series.
However, one of the true gems that came out of Night Gallery (I think I can count them all on the fingers of one hand) is a second season screenplay called "The Caterpillar" starring Laurence Harvey. In fact, I'd venture to opine that this is the best remembered episode of Night Gallery, for its sheer horror...
To be brief, a nasty little carnivorous insect crawls into Laurence Harvey's ear as he sleeps; it proceeds to burrow through his middle and inner ears and into his brain. Harvey is tied down to his bed and writhes in screaming, tortured, insane agony for days, as the bug EATS its way through his head and emerges through his other ear. The attending physician is amazed --- he's never even heard of anyone surviving this ordeal, and yet Laurence Harvey somehow manages to pull through it. Until, that is, the earwig is identified as a female, and the doctor solemnly informs Harvey that the thing apparently LAID EGGS on its way through his brains. ARRRRGGHHHH!!!
I mean, if THIS episode of Night Gallery doesn't make you squirm, nothing will. It's creepy, it's sick, it's horrifying... After viewing it, you WILL inspect your bed for insects, you WILL wear earplugs for a few nights, and you WILL NEVER forget this episode (even if you see it only once).
If they could have only maintained this sort of quality material, Night Gallery wouldn't have spiraled out of control and crashed and burned, a sorry mess that ultimately did no honor to Serling's name.
However, one of the true gems that came out of Night Gallery (I think I can count them all on the fingers of one hand) is a second season screenplay called "The Caterpillar" starring Laurence Harvey. In fact, I'd venture to opine that this is the best remembered episode of Night Gallery, for its sheer horror...
To be brief, a nasty little carnivorous insect crawls into Laurence Harvey's ear as he sleeps; it proceeds to burrow through his middle and inner ears and into his brain. Harvey is tied down to his bed and writhes in screaming, tortured, insane agony for days, as the bug EATS its way through his head and emerges through his other ear. The attending physician is amazed --- he's never even heard of anyone surviving this ordeal, and yet Laurence Harvey somehow manages to pull through it. Until, that is, the earwig is identified as a female, and the doctor solemnly informs Harvey that the thing apparently LAID EGGS on its way through his brains. ARRRRGGHHHH!!!
I mean, if THIS episode of Night Gallery doesn't make you squirm, nothing will. It's creepy, it's sick, it's horrifying... After viewing it, you WILL inspect your bed for insects, you WILL wear earplugs for a few nights, and you WILL NEVER forget this episode (even if you see it only once).
If they could have only maintained this sort of quality material, Night Gallery wouldn't have spiraled out of control and crashed and burned, a sorry mess that ultimately did no honor to Serling's name.