Original Tom Wright screen-used painting from the Night Gallery episode "Quoth the Raven." (Universal TV, 1971) To follow up the earlier success of his dark fantasy series The Twilight Zone, Rod Serling created an anthology of macabre and suspenseful tales, each one introduced by Serling with a dark and often horrific painting illustrating the episode's theme. All but the initial pilot episode are painted by Tom Wright, who achieved even greater recognition later in life as a director of such hit TV series as CSI, X-Files, and NCIS. Wright's masterful paintings are not only the definitive distillation of the nightmarish essence of each story, they have achieved an enduring and growing cult following far beyond any other aspect of the shows themselves. Acrylic on 20.5" x 28.5" Masonite of a demented Edgar Allen Poe character with shrieking raven perched upon his shoulder. This episode, entitled "Quoth the Raven" directed by the great character actor Jeff Corey, is one of the short dark comedies used to link longer, generally more serious stories during the first two seasons of an hour-long time slot. Legend has it that this is one of artist Wright's personal favorite works, as he based the subject on the show's producer and co-writer, Jack Laird, who was a source of frequent creative conflicts with Rod Serling. Painting shows very minor scratches to surface which are not overtly distracting, and shows an area of professional restoration to lower background (the paintings were not deliberately protected or conserved following the show's close, as witnessed by Universal tour attendees).