TALES FROM THE TUBE: KOLCHAK THE NIGHT STALKER
For a while now I have been working at getting a decent collection of old TV series. When I say old I mean pretty old, from the mid to late 60’s to the mid 70’s. Pre-cable shows that I grew up on essentially I can sometimes find these in boxed sets here in China. For example I have both the complete original Star Trek and Hogan’s Heroes and one day am going to get the Addams Family at the DVD stores I drop into once in a while. Of course these are all pirated and cheap as hell but of excellent quality so far. Other shows are a bit harder to locate and I am using a Rapidshare based site now to piece together The Munsters series little by little. Those RS sites have lots of series but I am really lazy about copying and pasting the files one by one so I tend to put them together over a long period of time. The shows can also sometimes be found the shows on sites like Isohunt or Pirate Bay which is great. I got the complete run of Kung Fu with David Carradine from Isohunt as well as all of the Gilligan’s Islands episodes. I also have a membership at a ratio based TV show site connected to Cinemageddon but it can hard to maintain a good ratio at those type of sites –which can result in getting banned- and so I cannot get the things I want when I want them. So I have a membership but am afraid to download anything I like. Right now working on getting in season one of Hawaii Five-O from that CG ratio based TV show site and may see if I can get somewhere else since I cannot seem to seed of any of it back. Well at the wonderful The Horror Charnel –another ration based site- I just got in the complete one season run of one of the best TV series of all time, Kolchak: The Night Stalker. I burned the 20 episodes and began watching them last night.
You can argue that if it was such a good series why did it last only one season? Who knows. We live in a world where Beyonce’s music and videos are in your face all day and night but not a person I know owns a King Crimson or Andy Summers album. The show just did not fare well against its Friday night competition on NBC it seems. The series aired in 1974 on ABC and was based on the character Carl Kolchak –played to perfection by the Darren McGavin- created for the made for TV movies The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler. The shows follow the adventures of the shabbily dressed Carl Kolchak who works at the under-staffed and under-budgeted INS news bureau in Chicago where he employs his journalistic talents either covered mob hits or filling in for the “Dear Emily” writer when she is ill. We hardly ever see any of Chicago’s horrid winter weather as Carl drives around in near constant sunshine in his convertible Ford Mustang talking into his cassette recorder. Of course the shows hook is that he is constantly getting pulled into supernatural situation or another as his investigation of a recent murder unfolds. He encounters anything and everything from incarnations of Jack the Ripper to Werewolves and Vampires. Kolchak is the absolute quintessential non-hero. He packs no gun or knife and more often than not winds up screaming like a little girl and jumping out a window in the presence of the evil force he is facing. And to be honest Clint Eastwood or Charles Bronson would have probably done the same thing in real life if confronted with a werewolf or vampire in their closet.
On top of supernatural terrors Kolchak must deal with one cynical police chief after another who ignores his questions at press conferences. But the greatest adversary he must contend with each week is his old school news paper chief Tony Vincenzo –played by perennial tough guy Simon Oakland who backed up Steve McQeen in Bullitt- who spends each episode trying to pull Carl off each case and assigning him to some mundane story. Invariably Vincenzo winds up backing Kolchak and having his faith in his ‘star’ reporter restored… only to lose it again again next episode. The relationship between Vincenzo and Kolchak is classic and adds comic relief to the show’s themes of horror and mayhem. Also refreshing is that McGavin and I have only seen The Ripper episode and half of The Zombie so far but am about to hit the sofa –I am supposed to be studying Chinese- and watch a few more episodes this afternoon. This is classic TV. Before the idea of drama of comedy became a bunch of selfish over sexed yuppies insulting each other for an hour. It was a time when shows had a simple but effective formula they stuck to each week and milked it for all it was worth. Just look what was done with shows like Gilligan’s Island or Hogan’s Heroes. The same cast and same props every week but I never got tired of it. The same with Kolchak. The same clutterd office and grumpy boss each week but with a different monster and resourceful method of whacking the creature during the shows last five minutes. I guess I am just old school but this is a lot cooler than Lost or Prison Break in my book.
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July 20th, 2010 at 9:32 pm
Kolchak is hands down one of my favorite old school TV series!
It was like Chevy Chase’s Fletch with only with monsters and spooks thrown in the mix. How can you beat that? I haven’t seen it in quite some time, but now I’m psyched to see it again! Darren McGavin was perfect as Carl Kolchak, definitely not a “super” hero by any means, but just with just enough street smarts to keep him alive. A modern day Scooby-Doo… only without the dog and teenagers.
July 21st, 2010 at 12:24 am
If I recall correctly, the show ended because Darren McGavin chose not to continue in the role of Kolchak. Without a Kolchak in a show called Kolchak: The Night Stalker, there is no show.
Nobody knows exactly why McGavin left, but he was heavily involved in the actual production of the series and he may have been unhappy with the repetitive nature of the stories (something, no doubt, the network was pleased with as it meant that new viewers were never lost).
That said, I freakin’ love this show and I have it on DVD.
July 21st, 2010 at 2:14 am
Nate
That would make sense to me. I actually was wondering earlier if the series had continued what it would have been like. It may burned itself out real fast unless there were some changes somehow or another and who knows if those changes would have worked. For now I am a bit ‘re-addicted’ and couldn’t sleep so I got up in the middle of the night to catch a couple more episodes. Great stuff. Thanks for the insight.
Strange Kid
Thanks for the enthusuastic comment. Yea, this stuff just makes me feel good. Maybe the series ended at just the right time. I wish though it had gone on for one more season then stopped. Another 20 shows. A few more episodes would have worked but unless the formula changed I do not see how many more vampires and werewolves Kolchak could rid Chicago of before it got tiresome. He did travel though and he just fought a female vampire in LA and killed a werewolf on a cruise ship.
August 13th, 2010 at 1:12 pm
I recently attended a Dark Shadows convention in Burbank, California. There was a Dan Curtis tribute with some snippits from Night Stalker shown. Dan Curtis brought so many interesting gothic/horror dramas to television. I’m going to check this out. Thanks for the review.
August 13th, 2010 at 4:05 pm
I am almost finsihed with watching all the episodes and a little sad actually now. I will be looking into mopre of what Dan Curtis did as I remember his name from when I was a kid watching prime time shows.
August 20th, 2010 at 2:09 am
Caught some episodes of Nigh Stalker on Netflix: Watch it Now. Great series, and great acting. Will keep up with it. Also, do you have any invites for Cinemageddon or it’s sister TV site. Tried to sign up, but they stated they are full and need a member to invite me. Much appreciated if you do : )
bluejean74@yahoo.com