I too thoroughly enjoyed both the movies AND the series. I used to stay up late at night when they eventually started to play it on the CBS Late-Night show.
I LOVED Darren McGavin in the role of Karl Kolchak, definitely not one of the atypical heroes you would see for a character in that particular type of show.
I also loved how he did the "reporteresque" narrative style.
"Meet Wanda, a wife and mother who was on her way home, wishing she didn't have to cook dinner this late....(****picture a monster coming up behind her and a closeup of her screaming****)....She never made it."