Kolchak: The Night Stalker 

A newspaper reporter investigates strange supernatural occurrences in Chicago.

Creator:

Jeffrey Grant Rice

Stars:

Darren McGavin, Simon Oakland, Jack Grinnage

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Series cast summary:
Darren McGavin	...	Carl Kolchak 20 episodes, 1974-1975
Simon Oakland	...	Tony Vincenzo 20 episodes, 1974-1975
Jack Grinnage	...	Ron Updyke 18 episodes, 1974-1975
Ruth McDevitt	...	Emily Cowles / ... 12 episodes, 1974-1975

Storyline

Carl Kolchak was a reporter for Chicago's Independent News Service, and a trouble magnet for situations involving the supernatural. Kolchak turned his investigative skills to vampires, werewolves, zombies and all manner of legendary creatures, but in the end he always failed to convince his skeptical editor, Tony Vincenzo, that the stories weren't products of Kolchak's own overworked imagination.

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Plot Keywords:

1970s | reporter | gothic | mythology | monster | 

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Taglines:

Television's Greatest Chiller Movie Becomes a Weekly Series!

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Genres:

Horror | Mystery | Thriller

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Certificate:

TV-PG

Details

Official Sites:

Compete episode guide, photos, QT movies, cast info, and programming listings

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

13 September 1974 (USA)

Also Known As:

Kolchak: The Night Stalker

Filming Locations:

Colonial Street, Backlot, Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Francy Productions, Universal Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

51 min (20 episodes)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

4:3

Did You Know?

Trivia

Actress Ruth McDevitt not only plays columnist Miss Emily in the latter episodes (the character is on vacation early on), but she appears as an elderly Peeping Tom in the first episode... who writes a letter to the Miss Emily column.

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Goofs

Many of the stories take place in the winter months, but there is never any snow, and even if there was no snow, it is highly unlikely one would be driving a convertible with the top down during the winter months in Chicago.

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Quotes

Carl Kolchak: [voiceover] Buck Finemann, seventy two years old. Cantankerous old geezer. No-one liked him much, but they allowed him to play poker with them once a week because he was a terrible card player and had been known to lose as much as seventy five cents in a single evening.

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Connections

Follows The Night Strangler (1973)

User Reviews

The Continuing Adventures of Carl Kolchak

After the immense success of the made for t.v. movies "The Night Stalker" and "The Night Strangler", A.B.C. decided to finally make the adventures of everyones' favorite monster hunter Carl Kolchak into a weekly series. Unfortunately, it only lasted one season. Too bad though. This had to be one of the smartest series ever written for television. It was definitely a perfect mix of both horror and comedy as it placed the a regular guy like Kolchak in several unbelievable situations. Kolchak would begin by writing on stories on what he would think would be an ordinary murder and wind up finding the killer is either a werewolf or a vampire. Darrin McGavin was perfect in the role and Simon Oakland was great as his editor Vincenzo. Too bad that this show was up against the juggernaut that was the Friday night line up that was over on N.B.C.. In fact the night that it premiered, Friday September 13, 1974, was also the same night that another smartly written show premiered, "The Rockford Files".