Remembering a supernatural cult classic
In 1972 ABC broadcast
”
The Night Stalker,
”
a TV movie starring Darrin McGavin as reporter Carl Kolchak who
battles a vampire in modern day Las Vegas. With atmospheric
direction by Dan Curtis and a great script by Richard Matheson it
became the most widely watched TV movie in history.
Remembering a supernatural cult classic
In 1972 ABC broadcast “The Night Stalker,” a TV movie starring Darrin McGavin as reporter Carl Kolchak who battles a vampire in modern day Las Vegas. With atmospheric direction by Dan Curtis and a great script by Richard Matheson it became the most widely watched TV movie in history.
A year later the same team got together again and created a sequel called “The Night Strangler” In this movie Kolchak was in Seattle investigating the strangulation murders of women that occur every 21 years. This film was also a big rating success.
On Friday, Sept. 13, 1974 it became a regular series called “Kolchak: The Night Stalker.” In the series Kolchak became a reporter for INS, an international news service based in Chicago, and encountered a variety of different monsters from werewolves, zombies, vampires, a coven of witches and the original Jack the Ripper.
McGavin was perfect as Kolchak. He was the stereotypical investigative reporter. Her wore a cheap suit, white sneakers and a straw hat. He carried a portable tape recorder and camera. He lied to get access into buildings telling people he was the health inspector. When he was investigating a werewolf onboard a cruise ship he told the crew that he was the captain’s son.
The cops hated him and repeatedly tossed him in jail. He annoyed everyone that he came into contact with. All he cared about was getting the story. He didn’t have a girlfriend or family. They never showed his apartment. He never slept. He was always out hustling for stories.
He narrated every episode with a voice over that sounded like it came from an old 1940s private eye movie. “Debbie Fielder, 22, 5-feet-9, 120 pounds. Her hobbies were horseback riding and collecting bone china. Debbie wanted to be successful. She should have settled on being alive.”
He was a seasoned reporter and could be hardboiled. When he wanted to look at a dead body and a cop warns him that it isn’t pretty he replies, “I’ve seen more dead bodies than you’ve had TV dinners.”
His editor, Tony Vincenzo (Simon Oakland), was constantly mad at him. He never believed Kolchak’s wild stories. At the end of each episode something always happened to his pictures or tape recorder where he wasn’t able to show the proof that he needed.
The show had a camp humor and a cheesiness factor, but the scripts were well written and the production values high. David Chase, who created “The Sopranos,” and Oscar winning director Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump) wrote some of the scripts.
It had some of the best guest stars of the ’70s such as Keenan Wynn, Dick Van Patten, Phil Silvers, Scatman Crothers, Larry Storch, Nita Talbot and Tom Skerritt.
My favorite episode is “Horror In the Heights” about a Hindu demon that assumes the form of the victim’s most trusted friend and then kills him. Kolchak discovers that a demon is killing the people, but no one believes him. Kolchak thinks he’s safe because he says he doesn’t trust anyone and that he has no friends. I was 7 years old when I first watched this and it really scared me.
The scariest part was that the demon looked like the person from the front, but then the camera would swing around behind and there was a huge hairy monster. For a kid like me, who loved horror movies, this was the best TV show ever. Every week I got to see a new monster.
Despite the show’s popularity, it only lasted one season, but it instantly became a cult classic.
In 2005 ABC revived the series as “Night Stalker” starring Irish actor Stuart Townsend as Kolchak and Gabrielle Union. Frank Spotnitz, who was a fan of the original series, produced it. He was also an executive producer of “The X-Files” and had written episodes for both that show and “Millennium,” (1996-1999) starring Frank Henriksen.
In the new series Kolchak is obsessed with finding out who killed his wife in a bizarre car accident. The FBI thinks he’s guilty of the murder and is investigating him. He drives a yellow mustang with a Gumby action figure hanging from the rearview mirror and lives in a huge penthouse apartment with a swimming pool.
He’s no longer a wisecracking reporter in a cheap suit and straw hat, but a brooding male model type. Kolchak shouldn’t be the guy who can get Charlize Theron (Townsend is Theron’s real life boyfriend).
In the first episode an unseen monster kills people, but the show never makes it clear what the monster was. I remember another episode with a college professor who is making his students kill themselves. The humor from the original show and the funny voiceover is gone.
The first show did pay homage to Darren McGavin and the original series. In a newsroom scene the original Kolchak is superimposed in the background and in Kolcak’s office he has a straw hat hanging on a hat rack, but he never wears it.
This update also lasted one season; actually just six episodes. ABC cancelled the show in the middle of a two-part episode, but the Sci-Fi Channel showed the remaining seven episodes. Most people who loved the original series hated this update including me.
If they ever do a big screen version of this show I’d like to see Jack Black play Kolchak. I can picture him running around in the cheap suit and straw hat being chased by zombies or vampires.
Even though the original series only lasted one season I think that it was one of the most groundbreaking shows on TV. It inspired Chris Carter to create “The X-Files” and without it there would never have been a “Buffy The Vampire Slayer,” “Supernatural,” “Charmed” or “Angel.”
If you’ve haven’t seen the show you owe it to yourself to check it out. If you haven’t watched it in years then it’s worth watching again, especially now since there has been no new programming because of the writers strike.
Both versions are available to rent or own on DVD. The Chiller Station shows the McGavin series, and occasionally the Sci-fi Channel will show both versions in an all day marathon.
