Death in the Family/The Merciful/Class of '99/Witches' Feast

The second episode from season two once again contains four segments.

The first "A Death In the Family" has a rather odd mortician doing his duty, when he gets paid a visit by a wounded thief. As the episode progresses we later learn that the lonely man takes his job pretty dang seriously and decides to make plans for the thief and several other stiffs he has on display. There really isn't nothing to exciting to this tale as another reviewer stated its more rather sad then terrifying, but, it does have some creepy moments and two good performances from E,G, Marshall and Desi Arnaz, jr.

The second "The Merciful" is another comedy short where a woman seems to be building a wall over her sick husband. As normal there's a twist to the affair and its rather obvious.

The third "Class of '99" is the star piece of the episode. It features Vincent Price as a college professor, teaching a class of men and women all of different types the meaning of life and different feelings, as things go along they go to the extreme and we later learn this isn't no ordinary class of students, I'm not going to say anything more about his, but, its a moving tale that fits perfectly in today's society defiantly holds up the episode on its own merit.

The fourth "Witches' Feast" is another comedy short about bickering witches, long thought to be lost it was later discovered, its a good thing its short because it begins to ware out its welcome.

Overall a decent episode worth watching primarily for "Class of '99".

A Death in the Family sees Mr. Soames (E. G. Marshall), owner of a funeral parlour, resolving his loneliness by creating a 'family' of corpses to keep him company. The latest addition to his family is to be fatally wounded criminal Doran (Desi Arnaz Jr.) who breaks into the funeral home. It's a macabre but touching tale -- kinda like if Ed Gein was well-meaning and misunderstood -- and the sight of cadavers assembled around a table wearing party hats is wonderfully ghoulish (and would be repeated for the 1981 slasher film Happy Birthday To Me).

The Merciful is one of those pointless, supposedly amusing horror shorts that are used to pad out an episode. A woman bricks up her husband in the basement, or does she? It's predictable stuff.

Class of '99 stars Vincent Price as an examiner, grading students on their knowledge and ability to react to situations in the approved manner. It's not exactly thrilling stuff, that not even Price can save, but it's always fun to see an inaccurate 'futuristic' prediction of a year that has since passed.

Satisfaction Guaranteed doesn't satisfy. Victor Buono plays a wealthy man looking for a secretary, but she must meet his very exacting criteria. Another black comedy short, this one is plain daft.

Let me say right from the jump that E.G. Marshall is terrific as Mr. Soames, a funeral director who takes his job rather seriously, even to the extent of helping an escaped prisoner, played decently enough by a young Desi Arnaz Jr, who's on the run from the authorities. The funeral parlor and house are very creepy looking on both inside and out and makes for a fine setting; this show is known for the old mansions which appear in many episodes. Marshall is very convincing as the lonely director, whose work appears to be his life, although he could use some singing lessons. After being stopped by the police near his home and questioned about seeing the loose convict, they let him go back home; soon after, the escaped, injured, and very wet convict(Arnaz Jr.)breaks through a window carrying a gun and requests to be able to lay down on the sofa to rest. Soames is more than happy to have the young man stay, and you sense that he is fattening him up for the kill. It turns out that the director has a newly dead family propped up on a dinner table, and I wish they would've used dummies or something other than real people just staring into the camera. Soames and the convict neither had a family of their own, so the director wants to add to his make believe family, although against the young man's wishes. Other than this downer, this is still a solid episode of the best season of Night Gallery and has a fine atmosphere.

Just watched this classic episode segment from "Night Gallery" and it featured the old and now late legendary character actor E.G. Marshall(most remembered for "Creepshow" and "Christmas Vacation"). Anyway in it E.G. plays an owner of an ancient and Gothic style funeral home who he as the old wise owner takes pride in every body he gets. Only oddly the episode takes a twist when an on the run criminal takes hideout at the funeral home. And this criminal soon discovers a secret at this old funeral home as downstairs it's an upright gathering of the dead and soon he will be a member! This episode teaches to love and cherish the dead as they are less annoying than the living as they don't care about competition, greed, material things and they cause less stress than the living! Overall good clever and offbeat episode and remembered for E.G. Marshall's work.

"A Death in the Family" Starring EG Marshall as a funeral home proprietor and Desi Arnez Jr. as an escaped convict really brings home why I love 'Night Gallery' so much. It really encapsulates the best of the series, along with several other stories, the great mood that good horror writing has. To paraphrase an author whose name escapes me, "Horror is the realization" In other words, its not th blood and guts that makes horror so good, its the full realization of what is really happening. This episode fills that bill perfectly as we see what is REALLY going on in the Soames home for funerals. Not easily forgotten, this episode.