Sorry, this record gets a bad rap. I thought pop music was supposed to be fun, first and foremost, and I cannot think of a more unabashedly FUN album than this one. The raps are intentionally simple, pretty much a catchy backdrop for the sample-heavy/dance floor-a-minute grooves which is the rap equivalent of a classic KISS record. Love it or hate it - Hammer made sure you were going to remember it, one way or another.
Overall, I think Night Gallery was a great show with a few major flaws. Part of what hurts the show's reputation is a matter of perception. It was significantly altered for syndication, including radically edited episodes of another completely unrelated show from 1972, called The Sixth Sense, which also had a supernatural/thriller bent. But this is far from being the ugly step sister to the master work that was the Twilight Zone - besides, with Serling flanked by all of those stylishly grotesque paintings he had to talk over every week, how could three seasons of Night Gallery be anything but an exotic, spine-tingling thrill?
