Kolchak: The Night Stalker

Sanrith Descartes · Jul 9, 2023

0.00 star(s) Rating: 0.00/5 0 Votes

Title: Kolchak: The Night Stalker

Genre: Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi & Fantasy

First aired: 1974-09-13

Creator: Jeff Rice

Cast: Darren McGavin, Simon Oakland, Jack Grinnage

Overview: Kolchak: The Night Stalker is an American television series that aired on ABC during the 1974–1975 season. It featured a fictional Chicago newspaper reporter who investigated mysterious crimes with unlikely causes, particularly those that law enforcement authorities would not follow up. These often involved the supernatural or even science fiction, including fantastic creatures.

Sanrith Descartes · Jul 9, 2023

This came up on the Peacock feed and I guess they are showing it. Most of you might be too young to have watched it (1974) but I remember it as a kid and loved it. Started rewatching it. Only did one season of it but it's 20 episodes or so.

It's 1970's TV special effects so just accept that they are cheesy and low budget. But that's part of the charm. It's also 70's non-woke shit, so hearing him describe a female reporter as fat and making fun of how much she orders for lunch was refreshing.

Darren McGavin was great in the lead. It's basically the story of a reporter who always ends up finding supernatural stories that he survives, but always loses/destroys the evidence so no one believes him. Vampires, voodoo zombies, werewolves, aliens, Jack the Ripper, you name it.

If I recall there were a couple of made for TV movies that were done first and that was what turned into the series.

If you want something different from the shit they are making today, give it a try.

Edit: not Hulu, Peacock.

Phazael · Jul 9, 2023

ITs basically Cthulhu investigator the show. Lot of great memories of it as a kid and its holds up reasonably well for how old it was, mostly thanks to McGavin. Solid low budget character/story driven horror monster of the week type stuff. I am tankful no fucking idiot has tried to remake this.

Ossoi · Jul 9, 2023

just because I said nowhere sells box TVs anymore didn't mean you have to make a thread from the box TV era

Sanrith Descartes · Jul 9, 2023

Ossoi said:
just because I said nowhere sells box TVs anymore didn't mean you have to make a thread from the box TV era

Oh but I do, friendo.

pharmakos · Jul 9, 2023

Phazael said:
ITs basically Cthulhu investigator the show. Lot of great memories of it as a kid and its holds up reasonably well for how old it was, mostly thanks to McGavin. Solid low budget character/story driven horror monster of the week type stuff. I am tankful no fucking idiot has tried to remake this.

A remake in the right hands could be gnarly. Halfway between X Files and Evil.

Chukzombi · Jul 9, 2023

Sanrith Descartes said:
This came up on the Peacock feed and I guess they are showing it. Most of you might be too young to have watched it (1974) but I remember it as a kid and loved it. Started rewatching it. Only did one season of it but it's 20 episodes or so.

It's 1970's TV special effects so just accept that they are cheesy and low budget. But that's part of the charm. It's also 70's non-woke shit, so hearing him describe a female reporter as fat and making fun of how much she orders for lunch was refreshing.

Darren McGavin was great in the lead. It's basically the story of a reporter who always ends up finding supernatural stories that he survives, but always loses/destroys the evidence so no one believes him. Vampires, voodoo zombies, werewolves, aliens, Jack the Ripper, you name it.

If I recall there were a couple of made for TV movies that were done first and that was what turned into the series.

If you want something different from the shit they are making today, give it a try.

Edit: not Hulu, Peacock.

you already know i'm old so i can jump in. this was one of my favorite shows as a kid. it was done in a very gritty and realistic manner. the effects are super cheesy, but none of that mattered because it was such a lowkey part of the show. the best part is Darren Mcgavin doing his investigative thing and his boss who seems to follow him everywhere when he loses a job. i liked that Tony was his boss, but the Big Boss was John fucking Carradine. since we are two old fucks reminiscing. you know this show was produced by the same guy who made the Dark Shadows TV show? i have seen every episode of that too. Dan Curtis knew his vampires and the vampire TV movie (The Night Stalker) was so fucking awesome. it was legit scary. not just for a 5 yr old chuk. its still creepy and scarier than what they make today.

The Night Strangler was the other TV movie of this series and the really fucking cool thing about that was it was set in Seattle and their underground. i always thought that shit was fake, but no. there is a part of Seattle that is under the ground and still preserved to this day the way it was over a hundred years ago. the monster in that one was a rotting corpse and he left bits of himself behind at every murder scene. even Grandpa Al makes an appearance. and of course some old cast members from Dark Shadows pop up in the TV show too. i had a crush on that crazy bitch who played Angelique. i love me some crazy bitches. dont watch the episode with Erik Estrada. that one is really bad.

BTW both TV movies are up on youtube.
.

if you like the movies, you will like the show.

Phazael said:
ITs basically Cthulhu investigator the show. Lot of great memories of it as a kid and its holds up reasonably well for how old it was, mostly thanks to McGavin. Solid low budget character/story driven horror monster of the week type stuff. I am tankful no fucking idiot has tried to remake this.

it was remade in 2005. i never watched it, but Dan Curtis helped with it, so maybe its good?

Sanrith Descartes · Jul 10, 2023

Chukzombi said:
you already know i'm old so i can jump in. this was one of my favorite shows as a kid. it was done in a very gritty and realistic manner. the effects are super cheesy, but none of that mattered because it was such a lowkey part of the show. the best part is Darren Mcgavin doing his investigative thing and his boss who seems to follow him everywhere when he loses a job. i liked that Tony was his boss, but the Big Boss was John fucking Carradine. since we are two old fucks reminiscing. you know this show was produced by the same guy who made the Dark Shadows TV show? i have seen every episode of that too. Dan Curtis knew his vampires and the vampire TV movie (The Night Stalker) was so fucking awesome. it was legit scary. not just for a 5 yr old chuk. its still creepy and scarier than what they make today.

The Night Strangler was the other TV movie of this series and the really fucking cool thing about that was it was set in Seattle and their underground. i always thought that shit was fake, but no. there is a part of Seattle that is under the ground and still preserved to this day the way it was over a hundred years ago. the monster in that one was a rotting corpse and he left bits of himself behind at every murder scene. even Grandpa Al makes an appearance. and of course some old cast members from Dark Shadows pop up in the TV show too. i had a crush on that crazy bitch who played Angelique. i love me some crazy bitches. dont watch the episode with Erik Estrada. that one is really bad.

BTW both TV movies are up on youtube.
.

if you like the movies, you will like the show.

it was remade in 2005. i never watched it, but Dan Curtis helped with it, so maybe its good?

There are a couple of things that really make the show work on a rewatch. 1st they spend zero minutes on Kolchak's "personal life". Zero. No mention of him being single, no episodes of him trying to have a date night, or any of that shit. Second, he isnt like Mulder in that he "believes". His first instinct isn't "He's a vampire". His first instinct is "This nut thinks he's a vampire". Its only through his investigation that he realizes its the only possible correct answer. Finally, narrative exposition works here. Most other shows/movies it doesn't. Here it does.

Chukzombi · Jul 10, 2023

Sanrith Descartes said:
There are a couple of things that really make the show work on a rewatch. 1st they spend zero minutes on Kolchak's "personal life". Zero. No mention of him being single, no episodes of him trying to have a date night, or any of that shit. Second, he isnt like Mulder in that he "believes". His first instinct isn't "He's a vampire". His first instinct is "This nut thinks he's a vampire". Its only through his investigation that he realizes its the only possible correct answer. Finally, narrative exposition works here. Most other shows/movies it doesn't. Here it does.

They gave him a love interest in the movie, but the Vegas mob threatened her career or maybe her life and that's really why he left town. To protect her. He also had one in Night Strangler. It could also be why he doesn't have a love interest interest in the show. He doesn't want his girl to get tangled up in the crazy shit he sees. Supposedly the show ended because Mcgavin was unhappy because the show wasn't being produced up to his standards and so he also worked on production /writing it too. The studio wouldn't pay him extra for all the effort he was putting in, so he said, fuck it. He walked away from the show after 1 season.

lgarthy · Jul 10, 2023

It's a landmark TV show. It really was TOO intense for its time. It used to scare the living shit out of me. Yes, it is cheesy. But, like Star Trek and a few other 70's shows (maybe even "Land of the Lost") what it lacked in budget, it made up for more than enough in writing and concept. They covered some pretty profoundly terrifying storylines. The exact OPPOSITE of most television shows of this century! Somehow the lack of budget and high caliber horror worked for those who experienced it in real-time. If anyone was in the theater when The Exorcist was screened or Jaws or Poltergiest, etc., you would understand. It had its place in the intellectual history of television and horror. Chris Carter must have seen it because X-files is clearly indebted to the show.

Darren McGaven was perfect as the ne-er do well reporter who always ripped up his nonpunishable stories. His narration just WORKED.

And yeah, it was remade, and I recall the remake being above average, but it is hard to recreate a classic and you cannot recreate it's time/space/place in over-the-air television history (its "lightning in a bottle")

There are a few seminal works of media that have value beyond recognition and re-watching them a half-century later does not demonstrate their poignance appropriately. "Kolchak" is one of them.

Chukzombi · Jul 10, 2023

lgarthy said:
It's a landmark TV show. It really was TOO intense for its time. It used to scare the living shit out of me. Yes, it is cheesy. But, like Star Trek and a few other 70's shows (maybe even "Land of the Lost") what it lacked in budget, it made up for more than enough in writing and concept. They covered some pretty profoundly terrifying storylines. The exact OPPOSITE of most television shows of this century! Somehow the lack of budget and high caliber horror worked for those who experienced it in real-time. If anyone was in the theater when The Exorcist was screened or Jaws or Poltergiest, etc., you would understand. It had its place in the intellectual history of television and horror. Chris Carter must have seen it because X-files is clearly indebted to the show.

Darren McGaven was perfect as the ne-er do well reporter who always ripped up his nonpunishable stories. His narration just WORKED.

And yeah, it was remade, and I recall the remake being above average, but it is hard to recreate a classic and you cannot recreate it's time/space/place in over-the-air television history (its "lightning in a bottle")

There are a few seminal works of media that have value beyond recognition and re-watching them a half-century later does not demonstrate their poignance appropriately. "Kolchak" is one of them.

i watched the first movie tonight. ive seen this a dozen times, but holy shit, you still get goosebumps when Kolchak is searching that dark as fuck house at the end. there is very little music while he's going through the vampire house and just the absence of the score is unnerving. you start to think that mofo is going to pop up right behind him. you also cringe when the cops are doing everything possible to kill the vamp and its like nothing. also the end scene in Vegas with the DA will piss you the fuck off. its simply a fantastic made for TV movie. only thing that rivals it is that TV movie made later on called "Dark Night Of The Scarecrow". all these TV movies are very much reminiscent of the pulp horror comics of the 1950s. EC's Vault Of Horror and such.

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Kolchak: The Night Stalker

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