Night Gallery: The Little Black Bag

Air Date

Wednesday December 23, 1970

Production Code

32366

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  8 Great

  A disgraced doctor comes into possession of a medical bag from the future. hide show

  This was one of a rather large number of "Night Gallery" episodes which seemed not to belong in a horror anthology show at all, but, quite simply, in Rod Serling's other series, "The Twilight Zone" - one suspects that it was, indeed, a "Twilight Zone" script that the makers of that interference-fraught series never quite got around to making. It is well known that Serling was an extremely prolific writer and he very likely kept all unused ideas on file. This even has Burgess Meredith, perhaps the most frequently-employed TZ actors, in the lead. There's really nothing macabre in it, and it's surely to be classed as science fiction, not horror. It even has a hint of Frank Capra sentimentality about it.

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  orswel Added Oct 15, 2009 All my reviews
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  10 Perfect

  A gift from the future... hide show

  The Little Black Bag tells the story of a once-prominent surgeon (Burgess Meredith) who is now a homless guy on the streets because of a tragic medical accident that got him discredited as a doctor years ago stumbles upon a medical bag from the year 2098 in an alley & proceeds to use the tools & drugs inside to perform astounding medical miracles, but a fellow transient (Chill Wills) has a more base need for the medical bag, fame & fortune.
  
  This was 1 of the better episodes of Night Gallery that has an gruesome twist ending that teaches us a lesson on how people can take a gift & twist it to their own nefarious ends.

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  DojinFan_2K Added May 22, 2008 All my reviews

• Stars

  • Rod Serling Host

• Guest Cast

  • Burgess Meredith Dr. William Fall
  • Chill Wills Hepplewhite
  • George Furth Gillings
  • E.J. André Charlie Peterson
  • Arthur Malet Ennis
  • Eunice Suarez Mother
  • Marion Val Girl
  • C. Lindsay Workman First Doctor
  • Matt Pelto Second Doctor
  • Ralph Moody First Old Man
  • William Challee Second Old Man
  • Robert Terry Dr. Nodella
  • Johnny Silver Pawnbroker

• Writers

  • Rod Serling Teleplay
  • C.M. Kornbluth Story

• Directors

  • Jeannot Szwarc Director
Episode Cast and Crew Details

• Failing a calendar change in the next 90 years, September 17th, 2098 - the date shown at the beginning of the episode - does not fall on a Thursday (as the prop calendar indicates), but a Wednesday. [edit]

• An earlier adaptation of the short story "Little Black Bag" appeared on the classic sci-fi anthology show Tales of Tomorrow. [edit]
• This episode is based on the short story "The Little Black Bag" by C. M. Kornbluth. The story was first published in Astounding Science Fiction (July 1950). [edit]

• Host: For your approval a painting that has to do with time. Not the brief moments left to our culprits in the previous story. Their years of imprisonment were minute little fragments compared to the time we talk of in this picture. We talk centuries now and what happens when men of one century send back items quite unbidden to men of another. We call this painting, The Little Black Bag. [edit]
• Dr. William Fall: Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, before I begin this demonstration I'd like to pose to you an academic question. If I were to take this scalpel, this knife, imbed it in my throat, and then cut to a depth of, perhaps, three centimeters, now what, in your professional estimation, would be my chances of surviving? [edit]

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