Kolchak: The Night Stalker

I was in junior high when this show premiered and I remember how funny and creepy it was. Darren McGavin, no matter what role he was in, was and still is, an excellent actor. He absolutely made the world weary Carl Kolchak believable. I loved the scenes with him and Simon Oakland as boss Tony Vincenzo. Kolchak always had a great comeback line when Vincenzo was outraged and appalled by Kolchak's supernatural interests. This show was cancelled way too soon, it was just hitting it's stride. Granted, some of the episodes were silly and the costumes (especially the Werewolf costume) were goofy, but some of the episodes were really scary and extremely well written. I wish they had made more of the episodes. My personal favorite is "Horror in the Heights", this one combined horror with social commentary about antisemitism and the plight of poor senior citizens. Ahead of it's time. If you are young and have never seen any of these wonderful shows, go to Ebay or Amazon and you can buy them. Well worth the money.

Absolutely at the top of the TV horror tree. Up there with THE TWILIGHT ZONE and THE OUTER LIMITS. Whats happenening these days? "Sabrina, The Teenage Witch", "Buffy?" "Charmed?"...Jeez, give me a break!

Darren McGavin absolutely made this his own - one of the most under-rated actors in history. His verbals with boss Vincenzo (Simon Oakland) were legendary. You KNEW Vincenzo loved him like a brother! Each week a new monster/creature of the night and each week, crucifix, silver bullet or just plain insult, Kolchak had the "beast of the week" under wraps before you could say "Bela Lugosi". You just KNEW it was safe to go outside again.

OK, so it tended towards the "campy" sometimes? sheesh, this was 1974 for God's sakes! This show ruled and if you are unfortunate enough to be less than 40, then bad luck!

I grew up being mesmerized by Kolchak and his witty, interesting, sometimes bumbling reporting style that dug up the goods on the city's night time other-world bad guys (and gals). I haven't seen but one or two episodes since I watched the originals in the 70s and would love to see them again. I might have to break down and actually buy the videos of the shows. Also, I hear ABC is going to remake the series and show it in the fall (2005). Not sure how it's going to go over and if they're going to capture that 70s atmosphere. If they don't have Darren McGavin in there or someone as superb and funny as he was/is, I'm not sure if the show will go over like it did when I was a youngster. That, and they'll be competing with all the latest gizmo-loaded, hi-tech, sci-fi shows and movies that have sprung up over the past few years. I won't go into detail about any of the episodes since other commenters have done so very eloquently. Just suffice it to say that you'll either love this series or not, but I'm betting that you'll love it.

I was just looking over the new series made for ABC TV. Good god. I was just contemplating what a new series would be like, and then I find it...and I guessed right; watered down, fancy boy crud.

The old series of Night Stalker was a zeitgeist, about being a regular guy, trying to find the truth, which was always hidden by authorities. Much like the times, it had a soul that went to the heart of public feelings, while working in the frame genre of horror/suspense. But, instead of writing to connect the public to their inner feelings about society wrapped in entertainment, the new series is about black and white working together, hot and fancy, to find less then archetypal mysteries. Kolchak brought a pulpy sense of reality to light, and portrayed the seedy side of life without being moralistic. It was Columbo of the supernatural. It didn't create fanciful immorality, like the goth culture today, and it didn't put searing political statements all over. It tried to entertain. And it did. Hence the popularity through the years. Anyone, like myself, who saw this in their childhood remembers it today.

The new series is destined to be another watered down bastardization of brilliant TV.

After the immense success of the made for t.v. movies "The Night Stalker" and "The Night Strangler", A.B.C. decided to finally make the adventures of everyones' favorite monster hunter Carl Kolchak into a weekly series. Unfortunately, it only lasted one season. Too bad though. This had to be one of the smartest series ever written for television. It was definitely a perfect mix of both horror and comedy as it placed the a regular guy like Kolchak in several unbelievable situations. Kolchak would begin by writing on stories on what he would think would be an ordinary murder and wind up finding the killer is either a werewolf or a vampire. Darrin McGavin was perfect in the role and Simon Oakland was great as his editor Vincenzo. Too bad that this show was up against the juggernaut that was the Friday night line up that was over on N.B.C.. In fact the night that it premiered, Friday September 13, 1974, was also the same night that another smartly written show premiered, "The Rockford Files".