Recent from talks
Kolchak: The Night Stalker
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Kolchak: The Night Stalker
Kolchak: The Night Stalker is an American television series that aired on ABC during the 1974–1975 season. The series followed wire service reporter Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin) who investigates mysterious crimes with unlikely causes, particularly those involving the supernatural or science fiction, including fantastic creatures. The series was preceded by the two television movies, The Night Stalker (1972) and The Night Strangler (1973). Although the series lasted only a single season, it developed cult status in syndication.
Chris Carter cited Kolchak as a "tremendous influence" in creating his franchise The X-Files. In 2005, inspired by that success, The X-Files producer Frank Spotnitz resurrected the series as Night Stalker, but the new series was unable to compete with CBS' C.S.I. and was cancelled after only six of the ten episodes that had been produced were aired on ABC. The full ten-episode series was eventually aired on the Sci-Fi Channel in the summer of 2006. Several comics and novels based upon the original series have been published.
The character originated in The Kolchak Papers, a novel written by Jeff Rice. In the novel and film, a Las Vegas newspaper reporter named Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin) tracks down and defeats a serial killer who turns out to be the vampire Janos Skorzeny (Barry Atwater). The novel gives Kolchak's birth name as "Karel", although he uses the anglicized version "Carl". ABC approached Rice with an offer to option The Kolchak Papers, which was adapted by Richard Matheson into a television movie. At the time it was optioned for the screen, the novel was unpublished. The Night Stalker first aired January 11, 1972, and garnered the highest ratings of any television movie at that time (33.2 rating—54 share). Matheson received a 1973 Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best TV Feature or Miniseries Teleplay.[citation needed]
Impressed by the success of the first television movie, ABC commissioned Richard Matheson to write a second movie, The Night Strangler (1973). A fictional version of Seattle Underground was used as a setting for much of the movie's action.[citation needed] Richard Anderson played the titular villain Dr. Richard Malcolm, and Darren McGavin and Simon Oakland reprised their roles as Carl Kolchak and Kolchak's editor, Tony Vincenzo, respectively.
Following the success of the TV movie, the novel was published in 1973 by Pocket Books as a mass-market paperback original, titled The Night Stalker, with a photo of Darren McGavin on the cover in order to tie it to the film. Rice authored a novelization of The Night Strangler based on Matheson's screenplay. The novel was published in 1974 by Pocket Books as a mass-market paperback original. The books were republished in 2007 by Moonstone in an omnibus edition entitled The Kolchak Papers. Moonstone Books had been producing and publishing Kolchak comic books since 2002.
In late 1973, Matheson and William F. Nolan completed the script for an intended third television movie, to be titled The Night Killers, a story about android replicas. ABC decided that it wanted a weekly series instead.
After some negotiation, McGavin agreed to return as Kolchak and also served as the series' executive producer, though he was not credited as such. However, neither ABC nor Universal had obtained Jeff Rice's permission and he sued the studio. The suit was resolved shortly before the series aired in the fall 1974 season, replacing Toma on the network's Friday night schedule. Rice received an on-screen credit as series creator. The first four episodes aired under the title of The Night Stalker. After a month-long hiatus, the series was renamed and returned as Kolchak: The Night Stalker. The later home video releases of the television series also used that title.
The series theme had originally been part of the music score that Gil Mellé had composed for The Questor Tapes, which was also produced by MCA/Universal Television. While the show was set in Chicago and some generic location/background filming was done there in summer and early fall, the show was filmed primarily in Los Angeles and at Universal Studios.[citation needed]
Hub AI
Kolchak: The Night Stalker AI simulator
(@Kolchak: The Night Stalker_simulator)
Kolchak: The Night Stalker
Kolchak: The Night Stalker is an American television series that aired on ABC during the 1974–1975 season. The series followed wire service reporter Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin) who investigates mysterious crimes with unlikely causes, particularly those involving the supernatural or science fiction, including fantastic creatures. The series was preceded by the two television movies, The Night Stalker (1972) and The Night Strangler (1973). Although the series lasted only a single season, it developed cult status in syndication.
Chris Carter cited Kolchak as a "tremendous influence" in creating his franchise The X-Files. In 2005, inspired by that success, The X-Files producer Frank Spotnitz resurrected the series as Night Stalker, but the new series was unable to compete with CBS' C.S.I. and was cancelled after only six of the ten episodes that had been produced were aired on ABC. The full ten-episode series was eventually aired on the Sci-Fi Channel in the summer of 2006. Several comics and novels based upon the original series have been published.
The character originated in The Kolchak Papers, a novel written by Jeff Rice. In the novel and film, a Las Vegas newspaper reporter named Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin) tracks down and defeats a serial killer who turns out to be the vampire Janos Skorzeny (Barry Atwater). The novel gives Kolchak's birth name as "Karel", although he uses the anglicized version "Carl". ABC approached Rice with an offer to option The Kolchak Papers, which was adapted by Richard Matheson into a television movie. At the time it was optioned for the screen, the novel was unpublished. The Night Stalker first aired January 11, 1972, and garnered the highest ratings of any television movie at that time (33.2 rating—54 share). Matheson received a 1973 Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best TV Feature or Miniseries Teleplay.[citation needed]
Impressed by the success of the first television movie, ABC commissioned Richard Matheson to write a second movie, The Night Strangler (1973). A fictional version of Seattle Underground was used as a setting for much of the movie's action.[citation needed] Richard Anderson played the titular villain Dr. Richard Malcolm, and Darren McGavin and Simon Oakland reprised their roles as Carl Kolchak and Kolchak's editor, Tony Vincenzo, respectively.
Following the success of the TV movie, the novel was published in 1973 by Pocket Books as a mass-market paperback original, titled The Night Stalker, with a photo of Darren McGavin on the cover in order to tie it to the film. Rice authored a novelization of The Night Strangler based on Matheson's screenplay. The novel was published in 1974 by Pocket Books as a mass-market paperback original. The books were republished in 2007 by Moonstone in an omnibus edition entitled The Kolchak Papers. Moonstone Books had been producing and publishing Kolchak comic books since 2002.
In late 1973, Matheson and William F. Nolan completed the script for an intended third television movie, to be titled The Night Killers, a story about android replicas. ABC decided that it wanted a weekly series instead.
After some negotiation, McGavin agreed to return as Kolchak and also served as the series' executive producer, though he was not credited as such. However, neither ABC nor Universal had obtained Jeff Rice's permission and he sued the studio. The suit was resolved shortly before the series aired in the fall 1974 season, replacing Toma on the network's Friday night schedule. Rice received an on-screen credit as series creator. The first four episodes aired under the title of The Night Stalker. After a month-long hiatus, the series was renamed and returned as Kolchak: The Night Stalker. The later home video releases of the television series also used that title.
The series theme had originally been part of the music score that Gil Mellé had composed for The Questor Tapes, which was also produced by MCA/Universal Television. While the show was set in Chicago and some generic location/background filming was done there in summer and early fall, the show was filmed primarily in Los Angeles and at Universal Studios.[citation needed]