The Sentry

Kolchak: The Night Stalker's final episode had Darren McGavin being pursued and telling the whole tale in flashback. McGavin is 10,000 miles beneath the earth's surface in a tunnel complex under Chicago.

The tunnel complex is the brain child of Tom Bosley who in case of nuclear war companies can have all their records stored in safety and also if you can afford the very rich can use it for personal items. There have been some recent deaths, workers being torn alive literally and partially eaten.

That's the story Kolchak is pursuing and he's got issues of national security as well as the usual business with the Chicago PD. For this last episode his police antagonist is Kathie Browne also known as Mrs. Darren McGavin.

Sad to say that the US Government and Bosley's company have run into some large carnivorous lizards who don't like their habitat disturbed. What I was trying to figure out is what did these creatures eat down there other than each other?

A tepid farewell to a funky series.

PLOT: Workers in an underground data-storage facility are mysteriously killed after excavating a tunnel for a new wing. Kolchak apprehends evidence of a reptilian creature and its motivation for the slayings. Tom Bosley of Happy Days has s small role as a host at the facility.

COMMENTARY: The story is a rip-off of Star Trek's excellent "Devil in the Dark" from eight years prior, but the writing isn't anywhere near as absorbing, although it's moderately entertaining. The monster costume isn't too bad for the mid-70s, but they should've kept the viewer from seeing the almost comical face/teeth. Less would've definitely been more in this case.

This episode is notable for being the final segment of the franchise. McGavin was becoming disillusioned with the show due to an exhausting schedule and the fact that he was rewriting scripts plus doing much of the production work without compensation. The ratings were mediocre so he asked to be released from his contract with two episodes yet to be shot. The network granted his request in light of the declining ratings. I wish Darren would've persevered and finished out the season because then we'd have two more episodes to enjoy. He was too fatigued at the time to see that this unique and seminal show would be his most well-known role, along with "A Christmas Story" (1983).

Another highlight is the beaming & lovely Kathie Browne as Lt. Irene Lamont. Kathie was McGavin's wife for 34 years until her death in 2003. You might recall her as hottie Deela in Star Trek's "Wink of an Eye" from seven years earlier. Unsurprisingly, her & Darren have great chemistry.

"The Sentry" marked the 20th and final episode of this regrettably brief series, but an opportunity to watch Mr. And Mrs. Darren McGavin working together on screen. Actress Kathie Browne lamented being typecast in 'goody two shoes' parts, mostly in Westerns, and broke that mold in the memorable STAR TREK episode "Wink of an Eye," playing the fertile queen of a dying alien race who seduces Captain Kirk aboard the Enterprise. Perhaps McGavin was among those viewing that night in 1968, for within a year the two were wed and remained together until her passing in 2003 (her husband following in 2006). This could have been a turning point for the show had it gone on, a regular antagonist for Kolchak who happens to be a sharp, attractive police lieutenant succeeding in a man's world, but alas it was not to be due to low ratings and the star's burnout. This week's monster is a reptilian creature stalking victims in an underground facility in which the workers have confiscated its eggs for study, an actual TREK plotline from "The Devil in the Dark," padded with endless footage of Kolchak riding around empty corridors. Jack Grinnage is absent for only the second time on the show (previously missing from "The Zombie"), Tom Bosley plays a helpful guide, John Hoyt a suspicious autopsy surgeon ("he was bitten to death by a crocodile?"). The star would fondly remember the two movies that introduced his best known role, but rarely commented over the years on the series that resulted.

Finale of the greatest series that only ran for a single season. Makes me sad thinking this was the end of the line. It did finish on a high note by using a plot similar to my favorite Star Trek TOS episode. Also fun to see Darren McGavin working with his hot real life wife. There was so much talent and untapped potential involved with this show: Darren had yet to be immortalized on "A Christmas Story"; Simon Oakland was excellent as Genl Moore on "Baa Baa Black Sheep" and I'd be remiss at not giving a shout out to the amazing David Chase who would change HBO and all of television 25 years after Kolchak with the "Sopranos"!

Last episode of this sadly brief series sees Carl Kolchak(Darren McGavin) going underground at a state-of-the-art data storage facility where several employees were killed by what turns out to be a humanoid reptilian creature that was disturbed when construction of a new wing threatened its nesting place, and indeed eggs were stolen. Despite zero cooperation, Carl goes to outrageous lengths to repeatedly bluff and then smuggle his way in, fleeing from both angry officials and the creature itself... Good guest turns by Kathie Brown(McGavin's wife) and Tom Bosley help this unpopular episode, though I enjoyed it all the same, as the creature(while overexposed) is still menacing, and the last scene of an escaping Carl is a fitting coda for this character, sadly the last time he would ever be seen.