One of my all time favorites.

A different way of telling a story

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Although it only ran for 1 season and 20 episodes, Kolchak the Night Stalker has retained a cult following ever since. I've never understood why shows like Kolchak that have such devoted followers were never able to translate that into ratings power.Carl Kolchak with light linen suit, panama hat, and ever present camera works for a wire service and keeps getting these assignments that somehow involve the supernatural. Darren McGavin plays Kolchak with a great amount of irreverence and cynicism that all newspaper people on the big and small screen are supposed to have since The Front Page made its debut.All kinds of creatures that go bump in the night find there way to Kolchak and he defeats them. Sad though the evidence of their existence always seems to disappear. One thing that remains constant is his ever feuding battles with his editor Simon Oakland who was working on one big ulcer. Sob sister columnist Ruth McDevitt always had an inane word or two to calm the proceedings.A show I wish had a longer run.

Saw this in the 90s when it was repeated on late night BBC2 and recently bought the boxset out of sheer curiosity. Didn't disappoint, a thoroughly entertaining and in many ways groundbreaking.Really is Darren McGavin's show, he breathes such life and likability into the in many ways morally reprehensible Kolchak, the sleazy, loner, workaholic reporter who works his way through life bribing and tricking the gullible to get the story. He is heroic but at the same time you get the idea if he was around these days he'd be tapping Hugh Grant's phone. His closest friend seems to be his editor but even they're constantly rowing, their relationship one of the highlights of the show. It's interesting to see the bygone era of print journalism with rolls of quarters for payphones, stories being put out on 'the wire' and journalists researching with books and banging away on typewriters, not to mention the brutal, trigger-happy and corrupt Chicago police of the 70s. Love his car too, a classic Mustang convertible complete with police scanner whilst his outfit is a weird mixture of the formal and down at heel.Some good guest stars, Erik Estrada, Phil Silvers in what must be one of his last roles, Tom Skerrit. You can see the inspiration for Altered States here and the robotic company named the Tyrell corporation. Where the series falls down is its' lack of decent villains, once you get to Helen of Troy they're really scraping the barrel whilst The Sentry is blatantly a guy with a cardboard crocodile head mask. The series treatment of women, inevitably belittled and/or killed is also a little hard to take.

In the mid-1970s, "The X Files" was called "The Night Stalker" (TNS). Now a show that far ahead of its time couldn't exist for long in the mediocre milieu of network television, but for one brief year, we were treated to one of the greatest characters ever to inhabit TV Land.All week, I would wait for the night the show came on, and if my homework was finished and my chores completed, I could try to talk my way past my mom's objections that "It'll give you nightmares!" (Which it did, but they were a small price to pay.) Now if we're being honest, I'll have to admit that the quality of the scripts (not to mention the special affects) was wildly uneven. But when it was good, it was magical! And even when the episode's plot left something to be desired, the relationship between Kolchak and his boss, Anthony Vincenzo (played to perfection by Simon Oakland), made every minute worthwhile.If ever a series revolved around an anti-leading man, TNS was that series. Carl Kolchak wasn't young, handsome, or suave, and he worked for a two-bit, perpetually broke news service. A real old-school reporter, he was cynical and hard-bitten, and his prose tended toward the florid. His suit was always rumpled, and his shoes were worn. He always seemed to be in a hurry, yet he always arrived late and out of breath. In any fight, he was sure to get the worst of it.In other words, he was far from the glamorous, polished hero image usually found in TV's mystery shows. Which made him real! Every week I would root for him to find one--just one--person that would believe his incredible stories ... but just try to get someone to take you seriously when you're talking about vampires or werewolves! Even the cops, staring the evidence in the face, were loathe to admit to anything, even away from the public eye.Mr. Vincenzo, Kolchak's boss, was always harried and hounded to the verge of a nervous breakdown by the stress of trying to keep his tiny bureau out of bankruptcy while simultaneously pleasing his bosses in New York. All Tony ever wanted was a little peace and quiet, a good night's sleep, and a smooth-running operation. With Kolchak on his staff, however, those were all as rare as high-quality photographs of an alien or the devil.Long before Moonlighting's conflict-energized dialogues between Sybill and Bruce, Tony and Carl could go at it with the best of them--and always at the top of their lungs. Kolchak usually managed to get the best of his boss, who was always threatening to fire the troublesome reporter "if that story isn't on my desk first thing in the morning!" Instead, he was much more likely to get a 3 a.m. call from the local police precinct, pleading for him to come down and post bail. Because Kolchak's main characteristics were persistence, an open mind, and incredible curiosity--none of which endeared him to local law enforcement. The police brass was always trying to cover up the uncomfortable details that Kolchak was determined to unearth ... and he wanted them to admit things that would get them thrown in a loony bin.Kolchak is a dying breed. On one hand, TV News was already outbidding print services for talent, and on the other Woodward and Bernstein were about to revolutionize reporting. Soon, reporters would no longer dream of a big scoop on the latest sensational murder; instead, it was to become all about politically themed exposes ... who can take down the biggest politician.But Carl Kolchak was a great character, foibles and all, and Darren McGavin played him spot on, note for note. So it may have lasted a mere 20 episodes ... but what a show!

I'd love to give Kolchak a higher rating but the show quickly went from scary/suspenseful to silly. ABC's fault. They moved the show to Friday nights at 8:00 p.m., then known as the "family hour". Never should have been on Fridays in the first place. I was a sophomore in high school and loved the early episodes! It was first up against Police Woman on NBC. ABC had huge problems with Friday nights. Bad season for them overall until Barney Miller, Baretta, and SWAT debuted in January of '75. Kolchak should have been a hit. Darren McGavin begged to get out of his contract to end the show. Too bad the writing wasn't up to Richard Matheson's in the original TV movies. Still, McGavin made Kolchak his own, as actors can do. Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden and Caroll O'Connor as Archie Bunker come to mind. That INS set with the manual typewriters and clacking teletypes seems quaint and ancient today, yet that was part of the appeal. They were very lucky to have Simon Oakland reprise "Vincenzo" from the TV films.