The above quote was stated by Clint Howard's character in the first episode, but it wouldn't surprise me if he was predicting the viewer's response to the second and fourth installments of this Night Gallery offering. They seem to have been written as filler to complete what would have been a one hour TV run time (probably more like an hour and a half with commercials).
The Howard segment, 'The Boy Who Predicted Earthquakes', is more than filled with irony, as young Herbie Bittman is restrained in making a final, fatal prediction for mankind, choosing his words carefully to insure that he wouldn't throw the country and the world into a panic over what his vision really portends. The story included a clip of the 1932 movie "Island of Lost Souls" featuring Charles Laughton and Lon Chaney, being viewed by TV exec Wellman (Michael Constantine) as a distraction following his first meeting with Herbie and his grandfather. It would have been clever if that film had a connection to the Night Gallery story, but you'd really have to stretch to make that work.
The 'Miss Lovecraft' story was a complete throw away with a dumb ending, but it did have me considering whether actor Joseph Campanella might have had a future as a vampire along side luminaries of the era like Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. He looked pretty good as a Dracula knockoff with a Bela Lugosi speech cadence.
'The Hand of Borgus Weems' winds up being something of a revenge story, with the hand in question 'coming back to life' after it's original 'owner' was murdered by a former lover and her accomplice. It's a decently written story with an acceptable resolution, in as much as the doctor (Ray Milland) who performed the hand removal on Peter Lacland (George Maharis) must face the consequences of performing that operation.
'Phantom of What Opera?' runs about as quickly as the Lovecraft segment, and even though it has a horror element, I didn't understand why The Phantom (Leslie Nielsen) expressed shock when he first saw the real face of The Beautiful Prisoner (Mary Ann Beck). If he looked normal under his makeup, that would have worked, but to accept and embrace the look-alike Phantom Lady as a kindred spirit would have required both to be of the same temperament. In a way, this segment reminded me of one of Rod Serling's most famous Twilight Zone episodes - 'Eye of the Beholder', though that one had a lot more substance and an underlying statement about mass conformity that Serling was warning against.
The Howard segment, 'The Boy Who Predicted Earthquakes', is more than filled with irony, as young Herbie Bittman is restrained in making a final, fatal prediction for mankind, choosing his words carefully to insure that he wouldn't throw the country and the world into a panic over what his vision really portends. The story included a clip of the 1932 movie "Island of Lost Souls" featuring Charles Laughton and Lon Chaney, being viewed by TV exec Wellman (Michael Constantine) as a distraction following his first meeting with Herbie and his grandfather. It would have been clever if that film had a connection to the Night Gallery story, but you'd really have to stretch to make that work.
The 'Miss Lovecraft' story was a complete throw away with a dumb ending, but it did have me considering whether actor Joseph Campanella might have had a future as a vampire along side luminaries of the era like Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. He looked pretty good as a Dracula knockoff with a Bela Lugosi speech cadence.
'The Hand of Borgus Weems' winds up being something of a revenge story, with the hand in question 'coming back to life' after it's original 'owner' was murdered by a former lover and her accomplice. It's a decently written story with an acceptable resolution, in as much as the doctor (Ray Milland) who performed the hand removal on Peter Lacland (George Maharis) must face the consequences of performing that operation.
'Phantom of What Opera?' runs about as quickly as the Lovecraft segment, and even though it has a horror element, I didn't understand why The Phantom (Leslie Nielsen) expressed shock when he first saw the real face of The Beautiful Prisoner (Mary Ann Beck). If he looked normal under his makeup, that would have worked, but to accept and embrace the look-alike Phantom Lady as a kindred spirit would have required both to be of the same temperament. In a way, this segment reminded me of one of Rod Serling's most famous Twilight Zone episodes - 'Eye of the Beholder', though that one had a lot more substance and an underlying statement about mass conformity that Serling was warning against.