More than 55 years after Rod Serling's follow-up to The Twilight Zone first aired, a retrospective argues that NBC's Night Gallery deserves far more recognition and is the natural next watch for fans of Serling's earlier, more celebrated anthology series. Where The Twilight Zone used science fiction and otherworldly premises to smuggle in social commentary, Night Gallery pushed further into horror, fantasy and macabre suspense, giving Serling room to experiment with darker storytelling as television itself grew more socially and politically charged in the early 1970s.

Night Gallery ran for three seasons and 43 episodes, debuting with a pilot on 8 November 1969 before officially launching as a series on 16 December 1970 and continuing until 27 May 1973. Like its predecessor, it was an anthology told through a new story each episode, framed by Serling introducing eerie paintings in a darkened gallery rather than appearing directly within the tales themselves. Beyond horror, the series also touched on fantasy, drama, crime, mystery and comedy, and departed from The Twilight Zone's format by running hour-long episodes rather than half-hour instalments.