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Kolchak: The Night Stalker is a television series that aired on ABC in 1974, about a newspaper reporter -- Carl Kolchak, played by Darren McGavin -- who investigates crimes with mysterious and unlikely causes that the proper authorities won't accept or pursue.
The series was preceded by two television movies, The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler, in which McGavin as Kolchak tracked down serial killers who turned out to be respectively a vampire and a 19th century alchemist.
The series has been described as a predecessor of The X-Files, and X-Files creator Chris Carter has acknowledged that the show influenced him greatly in his own work. One character on The X-Files was named Richard Matheson after author Richard Matheson because of his involvement in the TV movies, and Darren McGavin, although unwilling to reprise his Kolchak character, played an FBI agent who was described as the "father of the X-Files".
The original incarnation
The original novel
The Kolchak character originated in a novel, The Kolchak Papers, written by Jeffrey Grant Rice. In the novel a Las Vegas newspaper reporter, Karel Kolchak, tracks down and defeats a serial killer who is really a vampire named Janos Skorzeny. In the novel, Kolchak explains that his first name is pronounced like "Carl" despite the ethnic spelling; the spelling was changed to the English version for the adaptations.The TV movies
Rice was approached by ABC who optioned the property, which was then adapted by Richard Matheson into a TV movie produced by Dan Curtis and directed by John Llewellyn Moxey.Darren McGavin played the role of Carl Kolchak. Also included in the cast were Carol Lynley, Simon Oakland, Ralph Meeker, Claude Akins, Charles McGraw, Kent Smith, Stanley Adams, Elisha Cook Jr., Larry Linville, Jordan Rhodes, and Barry Atwater as the vampire Janos Skorzeny. The Night Stalker aired on the ABC network on 1972-01-11 and garnered the highest ratings of any TV movie at that time (33.2 rating - 54 share).
Impressed by its success, ABC commissioned Richard Matheson to write a second movie, The Night Strangler (1973), which featured another serial killer in Seattle who strangled his victims and used their blood to keep himself alive for over a century through the use of alchemy. The Seattle Underground City was used as a setting for much of the action, and provided the killer with his hiding place. Dan Curtis both produced and directed the second movie, which also did well in the ratings. Simon Oakland reprised his role as the newspaper editor, and the cast also included Jo Ann Pflug, Richard Anderson, Scott Brady, Wally Cox, Margaret Hamilton, John Carradine, Nina Wayne and Al Lewis. Several scenes were filmed with George Tobias playing a reporter who recalled a series of murders that he had investigated during the 1930s. These scenes were cut from the version first played to air because of time constraints, however Tobias' character and his scenes were restored prior to the film's DVD release.
The first television series
In late 1973 a script for an intended third television movie entitled The Night Killers was written. Kolchak, along with Simon Oakland's Vincenzo, would be in Hawaii, where they would investigate a series of murders in which prominent citizens were replaced with androids. McGavin, who had frequently clashed with Dan Curtis, said that he did not like the script and refused to proceed.After some negotiation, McGavin agreed to return, both as Kolchak and as the series de-facto producer (for which he was never officially given on-screen credit), in an ABC-commissioned weekly series; however ABC failed to obtain the permission of Jeff Rice and a lawsuit resulted. It was resolved shortly before the series aired in the Fall 1974 season and Rice received an on-screen credit as series creator. The series was now named The Night Stalker (originally called Kolchak: The Night Stalker, but its title shortened to avoid confusion with a similarly sounding-in-name series, Kojak, and ironically both shows produced by Universal Studios).
The series version was set in Chicago and featured Kolchak as a reporter for the Independent News Service (INS).The series also featured Simon Oakland, again appearing as Kolchak's editor, Jack Grinnage as a supercilious rival at INS, and Ruth McDevitt as an elderly advice columnist. Each week he investigated murders involving supernatural and science fiction creatures. The series took a light-hearted tone using black comedy and placed Kolchak in an office setting with quirky co-workers.
The series was cancelled after one year due to mediocre ratings and at the behest of McGavin himself, as he had been unhappy with the "monster of the week" direction the program took as well as with the exhausting filming schedule. McGavin has been quoted numerous times stating that he did, however, like and encourage the series' emphasis on comedy and its quirky family of office characters. Ultimately, however, McGavin asked for a release from his contract with two episodes left to be filmed, a request that the network granted in light of the show's dwindling ratings.
Two television movies, The Demon and the Mummy and Crackle of Death, were cobbled together in 1976 with each new movie being comprised of two previously screened episodes from the series. A voice over provided by McGavin allowed for some continuity in the narrative.
The series is now being rerun on cable's Sci-Fi Channel with its original expanded title, Kolchak: The Night Stalker.
The life of Carl Kolchak
In The Night Stalker Carl Kolchak is described by his editor, Tony Vincenzo (Simon Oakland), as "a has-been big-city reporter". In the same film, his girlfriend Gail Foster (Carol Lynley) recounts the number of times Carl has been fired:- Foster: "Let's see, how many times has it been... uh, twice in Washington, three times in New York, twice in Chicago, and once -- or was it twice -- in Boston?"
- Kolchak: (holds up three fingers)
- Foster: "Oh."
At the beginning of The Night Strangler, Kolchak encounters his former editor Vincenzo at a bar in Seattle, where Kolchak is trying in vain to use his old news clippings to convince someone that vampires exist. Although Vincenzo does not appear happy to see Carl, he hires Kolchak as a reporter for The Daily Chonicle, where Vincenzo now works as an editor. History repeats itself:
- Vincenzo: "I came to Seattle for some peace and quiet, and what do I get? You again, and another crazy story!"
- Kolchak: "I telephoned my belly-dancing undergraduate friend, and asked her to attend an afternoon tour of the underground with me. Confession of news man, chapter one: her being with me had nothing to do with the story."
Comic books
A comic book based on the property was published in 2003 by Moonstone Books, and has resulted in some commercial success. Moonstone continues to publish both a bi-monthly serial magazine and a series of original graphic novels featuring the characters to this day.
As part of their "Flashback" series in 1997, Marvel Comics published a one-shot comic book called Venom: Seed of Darkness Minus 1. In this story about the Spider-Man comics characters, reporter Eddie Brock investigates a series of strange cases with possible supernatural ties. In one scene he goes to a bar and meets with a very Kolchak-like reporter who bemoans that his career was ruined by investigating stories that were out of the ordinary. He warns Brock that he is heading down the same path.
DVD
The two TV movies are available on a double-sided DVD released by MGM (an earlier DVD release of the two films by Anchor Bay Entertainment is out of print). The subsequent TV series is available on a DVD set from Universal Studios.
The 2005 television series
ABC began airing a new Night Stalker series on September 29, 2005, with the character Carl Kolchak portrayed by Stuart Townsend. This 2005 version was more serious in tone than the 1974 series. On November 14, 2005, the network and creator Frank Spotnitz announced the cancellation of the new series, due to low viewership.
In the pilot episode, there is a brief (about 3 seconds) shot of Darren McGavin in the newsroom as the new Kolchak (Townsend) is walking through it. Inserted digitally, McGavin is dressed in the same frumpy clothes he wore as Kolchak in the original series and smiling a knowing smile while fondling his hat. It was a nice tip-of-the-hat to the original series. Also, in one shot when fellow reporter Perri Reed (Gabrielle Union) is searching through Kolchak's room, there is the hat that Darren McGavin wore in the original series, hanging on a coat rack.
External links
- Darren McGavin (authorized website)
- Jack Grinnage (played "Ron Updyke")
- The Kolchak DVD Official Universal Studios Site
- The Kolchak Files - News Portal
- Big Light Productions, production company for the 2005 Night Stalker series
ABC network shows | Horror television series | Vampires in film and television | NBC Universal Television shows
"Kolchak: The Night Stalker"