The Diary/A Matter of Semantics/Big Surprise/Professor Peabody's Last Lecture

This was taken from Wikipedia, however, please keep in mind that, as Harlan Ellison has stated: "Wikipedia is to the Encyclopedia Britanica, what Dachau (WWII Nazi Death Camp) was to Health Spas."

(From Wikipedia) ... He (Spielberg) did another segment on Night Gallery "MAKE 'EM LAUGH" (some people claim that he also directed a short five-minute segment called "A Matter of Semantics" when the credited director (Jack Laird) had to back out for unknown reasons, but this has never been confirmed) ...

This may or may not be true. But if so, it's a compelling piece of Spielbergian trivia, and worth viewing by any true aficionado of his work.

But again, keep in mind, this is rumor and has NOT been confirmed !

The Diary is another weak episode suffering from being a Twilight Zone rehash.

A Matter of Semantics is another comic piece that's short but has a weak punchline. I do like the random casting of Cesar Romero as Dracula.

Big Surprise is the only good segment of this particular hour. Great ending!!

Professor Peabody's Last Lecture is another weak attempt at comedy. It goes on and on without being funny. Carl Reiner gives an energetic performance that belonged in a better episode.

As a high school kid, I fell in love with Patty Duke. She had that show where she played an American school girl and her identical cousin. She sort of sparkled. In "The Diary" she is an unadulterated virago who set out to hurt people with her scathing, gossipy diatribes. She seems to have no remorse. When an aging actress has alcohol problems, she goes after her with a vengeance. The woman is defenseless, appearing at a party and handing Duke a Diary she has purchased at a great price. Soon thereafter, she commits suicide. Duke shows no remorse, harboring back to a difficult childhood as justification, challenging her shrink when he attempts to help her. It is the Diary that is at the center of all this, or is it?

"A Matter of Semantics" is another one of those Dracula throwaway things that were frequently inserted. Basically a lame joke.

"Big Surprise" features "John Carradine" who played Dracula more than any other performer. He lives in an old house and the kids are petrified of him. He gets one of them to approach and tells him the location of some sort of surprise. He and his buddies dig four feet down until two of them have had enough. We are led on by what the big surprise will be. I have to say, for me, it was a disappointment.

"Mr. Peabody" Last Lecture" (no, not that Mr Peabody) has Carl Reiner playing a very boring professor who is teaching his charges about the ridiculousness of some things that are thought to be religions. He tells lame jokes and allows nothing to deter him. He invokes the Cthulhu mythos and all its characters and speaks disdainfully of it as a storm rages outside the building. His students have interesting names: Lovecraft, Derleth, and Bloch among others. He also reads from the "Necronomicon" of Abdul Alhazred. These are, for the uninitiated, all part of the H. P. Lovecraft world. The conclusion is predictable but fun. By the way, if you've not read any Lovecraft, this is an invitation.

I adored the Night Gallery and was very pleased to have recently gotten the complete series.

Many of the segments are, frankly, mediocre, but some are classically terrifying. The episode with Roddy McDowell as the nephew who kills his rich uncle and Ossie Davis as the butler, the episode with Carl Betz as the doctor, "Camera Obscura" with Rene Auberjonois and Ross Martin (taken directly from the short story of the same name), and many, many others: all of these were good for a night of keeping the lights on. It's both good and rather sad to see all these great actors we grew up with who've since passed on. ~sigh~ I just finished watching "Big Surprise" again. And it's still as frightening and funny as ever.

Season 2-Episode 8 of Rod Serling's anthology series "Night Gallery" opens quite wonderfully with Patty Duke back in "Valley of the Dolls"/Neely O'Hara mode as a television gossip reporter who continually dumps on tippling faded star Virginia Mayo, who ends up committing suicide--but not before delivering a diary to Duke's TV tattletale that appears to be writing her future. Written by Serling and directed by William Hale, "The Diary" delivers the spooky goods; David Wayne is solid as a psychiatrist, Lindsay Wagner has two or three lines as a nurse, and Duke is terrifically hateful. Elsewhere in the hour, Cesar Romero plays Count Dracula visiting a blood bank (he's there to withdraw, not make a deposit); John Carradine is an old coot who entices three schoolboys to dig for "a big surprise" on his property; and Carl Reiner is a pompous college professor debunking ancient gods--while the skies outside grow increasingly ominous. Directed by Jerrold Freedman, this silly tale relies on a single visual joke at its finish line, although Reiner gives his reading a jolt of acting relish.