FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Hellboy II Director Guillermo Del Toro talks about
Rod Serling's Night Gallery
And the Season Two DVD
In Part Two of an Interview
Heard on TV Time Machine
www.tvtimemachine.com
November 10, 2008 - Directors Guillermo Del Toro (
Pan's Labyrinth) and Jeannot Szwarc (
Heroes) talk about Rod Serling's
Night Gallery and Universal Home Entertainment's upcoming Season Two DVD release of the classic horror TV series, on the Internet radio show
TV Time Machine (http://www.tvtimemachine.com), hosted by TV historian Jim Benson.
In the second hour of a two-part interview on
TV Time Machine, Guillermo Del Toro talks about his lifelong passion for Rod Serling's
Night Gallery. As a young boy growing up in Mexico in the early 1970's, Del Toro watched the show avidly. Now the Academy Award-nominated director is contributing audio commentary for six segments of the series for the Rod Serling's
Night Gallery Season Two DVD set.
On
TV Time Machine, Guillermo Del Toro discusses his esteem for the series, creator Rod Serling and
Night Gallery director Jeannot Szwarc, who helmed twenty-two episodes of the series, more than any other director.
"Jeannot Szwarc directed several of my favorite episodes, including The Caterpillar and The Phantom Farmhouse," says Del Toro. "I did the audio commentary for Phantom Farmhouse on the DVD. It left an imprint on me as a kid; it's one of the shows that I remember most vividly. There's a lot of content in the atmosphere and texture that you don't notice until you re-watch it."
For both Guillermo Del Toro and Jeannot Szwarc, Rod Serling's
Night Gallery is a series that deserves to be seen and appreciated by a new generation of viewers. "You have to give a lot of credit to
Night Gallery," says Szwarc. "The dialogue, the language of the show is so elegant and rich, it's like poetry or literature." Del Toro concurs: "There are dozens of
Night Gallery episodes that can compete with anything Rod Serling did before."
A veteran of forty years in the industry, Jeannot Szwarc's credits include such films as
Jaws 2, Supergirl, and
Somewhere in Time. Szwarc has also directed over one-hundred TV episodes for such shows as
Columbo, Kojak, The Practice, Jag, Boston Legal, Smallville, Without a Trace, Cold Case, Bones and
Heroes.
One of the entertainment industry's top talents, Guillermo Del Toro has directed, written and produced over a dozen films including
Cronos, The Devil's Backbone, Hellboy, Hellboy II The Golden Army, Blade II, and the Academy Award-winning
Pan's Labyrinth. Del Toro is also slated to write and direct
The Hobbit and
The Hobbit 2 with writer/producer Peter Jackson, to be released in 2011 and 2012, respectively.
TV Time Machine is a unique Internet radio show that explores classic TV and its influence over the past five decades. Beyond nostalgia,
TV Time Machine spotlights TV's impact on our culture and society, and explores how present-day television and its movers and shakers have been - and are still - influenced by the stories, programs, and characters of television's past.
TV Time Machine host Jim Benson has interviewed a multitude of legendary TV celebrities, authors and experts of all stripes on his radio program, covering shows ranging from
Mr. Ed to
Meet the Press and topics such as Technology on TV and TV's Turning Points. A TV historian for over twenty-five years, Mr. Benson has contributed to dozens of TV productions - including a recent appearance on
Penn & Teller's Bullshit!, and is a Historical Consultant on Universal Studios' DVD release of Rod Serling's
Night Gallery: Season Two. He is the co-author, with Scott Skelton, of the book
Rod Serling's Night Gallery: An After-Hours Tour, published by Syracuse University Press. http://www.tvtimemachine.com
