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50 Years of Kolchak: A Legacy

cooleddie74 said:
Tonight marks 50 years to the day since a Dan Curtis-produced TV-movie named The Night Stalker aired on ABC in the United States. January 11, 1972 saw the birth of an influential character in pop culture, the zealous and excited investigative reporter for a wire service named Carl Kolchak(played with delicious verve by Darren McGavin) who with his omnipresent tape recorder, straw hat and penchant for getting in the faces of those in authority tackled vampires, other paranormal creatures preying on the innocent of 1970s America and even Jack the Ripper.

The Night Stalker got such huge ratings that night that ABC commissioned a sequel film which would be called The Night Strangler and air the following year in 1973. The positive public reactions to both movies led to ABC greenlighting a weekly series based on them, entitled Kolchak: The Night Stalker which premiered in September 1974 and ran for one season before being canceled. Despite a limited lifespan in prime time Kolchak went on to become a cult hit in reruns and almost 20 years later inspired Chris Carter during his creation of The X-Files.

What are your favorite memories of the Kolchak movies and series and your favorite stories? The original movie had at least three Star Trek veterans who had appeared in TOS just three to five years earlier - Barry Atwater(Surak), Elisha Cook, Jr.(Samuel T. Cogley) and Stanley Adams(Cyrano Jones).

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I watched the original when it premiered, and its semi-documentary approach, with very realistic reactions (including denial of the supernatural) made it absolutely riveting...and horrifying. Up to that time, no vampire film or TV series had ever placed the vampire in so realistic a setting (aside from some plots from Dan Curtis' own Dark Shadows soap opera), with the creature triggering the very kind of panic the film's district attorney character Paine (Kent Smith) breathlessly argued against causing by the media reporting that law enforcement was looking for a real vampire.

Only ABC seemed to be shocked by the breakout, then-historic success of the film. For everyone else who watched it, they could not stop finding enough descriptions about how frightening and effective The Night Stalker was. Its one of the best horror (in general) and vampire films ever produced.

The sequel--The Night Strangler was only similar to its predecessor in that a strong, shadowy man killed several women, but the comparisons ended there, with the antagonist--despite being a serial killer--was played as someone deserving of a bit of sympathy, as expressed by Kolchak with his "that's all you'll ever have" remark about Dr. Richard Malcolm's life extensions. Of course, Kolchak, never allowing sympathy to be confused with what he won't give--a sense of absolution to Malcolm--destroys the Erlenmeyer flask containing the serum--sealing his own fate be damned.

Unlike so many fantasy productions, where there's next to no believable characterization when the leads are on downtime, or not directly involved with the main plot, TNS built the relationships between Kolchak and Tony, Louise Harper and even added dimension to his head-butting with Captain Schubert. TNS had that rare distinction of being a sequel almost as great as the original entry.

The TV series...well, enough ink and keystrokes have been dedicated to its shortcomings ("monster of the week" plots, Dan Curtis not being involved with the series, etc.), but KTNS--for so short a run--had a few episodes that were worthy of its legacy peppered across that season, such as "Mr. R.I.N.G.", "The Vampire", "The Ripper", "The Devil's Platform", "The Zombie", and "Horror in the Heights", to name a few, so the series could not fall into the "bad spinoff" category (see the TV end of the Star Trek franchise for details).
 
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For a failed series that ran just 20 episodes before cancellation it certainly feels like it accomplished so much more than other one-season shows that get the axe from the network and are never revived. Two hit TV-movies preceded it and the show was a major influence on the creation of one of the most popular sci-fi series in history, The X-Files. That's a pretty nice legacy for a relatively low-budget network monster and ghoul drama aired at around the same time as Richard Nixon's resignation from office.

Plus: Darren McGavin. That man was sublime in the role.
 
Due to this thread I actually watched Night Stalker movie the other day. Both movies are up on Youtube so they're easy to throw in the background. I'm not sure if I've seen the movie before or just the series. The vampire was so animalistic, we see a lot of sophisticated or sympathetic ones now that I forgot how straightforward the ones in that Hammer Christopher Lee vein could be. The dark final confrontation is pretty scary especially by the standards of the day, I can see why the movie had an impact.

Not so sure about Kolchak's young blonde bunny girlfriend...
 
My siblings and I loved this show as kids/teens. Thought it was the greatest thing ever. Not sure if 6-14 was the target audience though. :lol:
 
It showed the budgetary restraints of its day but it definitely pulled few punches with the Gothic grimness factor. No pretty descriptions of the way victims died or were assaulted and even though network TV in 1974 and 1975 couldn't show much gore and blood they effectively conveyed how vicious the entities and monsters were.
 
They should have had Kolchak on an X-Files episode, if only in the background.

The only actor that could recapture Carl’s fast talking would be Bob Odenkirk. A limited series re-doing the scripts with modern effects and some tweaks.

I can see Bob in that hat.

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Vincenzo's screams at Kolchak became so famous in pop culture they made it into episodes of MST3K. :)
 
I've been watching the first season of the X-Files again and the Tooms episodes are so reminiscent of the Night Strangler, though apparently that wasn't the basis for Tooms. I don't know, given Carter loved Kolchak so much it seems a heck of a coincidence.
 
It was MST3K. It can be any movie where someone is calling out to another character. ;)
 
I wanna say "Pod People" because there are at least two stretches of misty, foggy woods and people looking for things and Joel and the 'Bots yell out the aforementioned pop culture names.
 
Hard to believe it has been 50 years.

Kolchak was quite the character. He was the guy who believed in monsters, but virtually everybody else, especially the authority figures, were non-believers. They didn't want to believe him. Kolchak's loud ruckus to persuade them otherwise, only agitated them.

I remember Kolchak's ominous parting words: "So think about it, and try to tell yourself wherever you may be ... 'It couldn't happen here'."

When I first saw Kolchak: The Night Stalker as a dumb little kid, who believed in monsters, that line resonated with me. I was a believer.

Imo, Darren McGavin's charming portrayal of the intrepid reporter, is what elevated this movie from being just another cheesy horror flick.
 
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