These days, Zombies and vampires are cool--very popular in movies and in books. However, back in 1974, neither was all that 'in' and "The Zombie" is quite unusual for its time. This episode of "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" begins with a few murders--mobsters whose backs had been snapped like chicken bones! And, the only possible like is a guy named Francois Edmonds...a guy who just happens to be dead! And, the more Kolchak digs, the more likely Francois has been zombiefied and is carrying out a series of revenge murders on local gangsters. Of course, no one believes Kolchak's stories of zombie murders...so what else is new?
The best thing about this episode are the guest stars. For a 1970s TV show it's pretty impressive with John Fiedler (Piglet's voice), Scatman Crothers ("Chico and the Man"), J. Patrick O'Malley and Antonio Fargas (Huggy Bear from "Starsky and Hutch") among others. As far as the story goes, it's exactly what you'd expect from the show with few major surprises other than an annoyingly stupid cub reporter who he's forced to take with him on assignment (is anyone THAT stupid?!).