This video is part of an ongoing project to build a retrospective TV archive made for the LL community on my Retro TV channel at

http://www.liveleak.com/c/Retro_TV_

Embed CodePlays: 91 (Embed: 0)


Kolchak aired between 1974 and 1975. A one season wonder with 20 episodes and two pilot episodes which were basically made for TV movies, the first was "The Night Stalker"(1972) and the second was "The Night Strangler"(1973). A third movie was planned but the network decided to make it a series.

For the first four episodes the show was called "The Night Stalker", after that it was changed to "Kolchak: The Night Stalker". Even though the show had a short run it had a heavy influence on pop culture. For example, X-Files producer Chris Carter talks about how Kolchak heavily influenced his series. In fact as an homage to Kolchak Darren McGavin appeared several times as a retired FBI agent named Arthur Dales who was said to be the "father of the X-Files". If you liked the X-Files you'll probably like this show too.

The show was cool. McGavin, the star of the show, did a lot of rewriting on the scripts and he's very talented. It was basically the 10pm Friday night slot that killed the show, not a popular time slot. The show features a "who's who" of guest stars too. Too many to list here.
In an interesting twist the series takes place on an alternate Earth in a different universe.

View comments (7)