Kolchak: The Night Stalker
| Fandom | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Kolchak: The Night Stalker (aka The Night Stalker) The Night Stalker (1972) The Night Strangler (1973) Night Stalker (2005) |
| Abbreviation(s): | Kolchak |
| Creator: | Jeff Rice |
| Date(s): | January 11, 1972 January 16, 1973 Sep 13, 1974 – Mar 28, 1975 Sep 29, 2005 – Mar 17, 2006 |
| Medium: | Novel, Television Movies, Television Series, tie-in (novelization) |
| Country of Origin: | USA |
| External Links: | at IMDb (1972) at Wikipedia (1972) at IMDb (1973) at Wikipedia (1973) at IMDb (1974) at Wikipedia (1974) at IMDb (2005) at Wikipedia (2005) |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Kolchak: The Night Stalker, based in the novel The Kolchak Papers (a.k.a. The Kolchak Tapes) by Jeff Rice, is an 20-episode American television series about Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin), a wire service reporter who investigates mysterious crimes with unlikely causes, 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), the first of which is noted by Jim Knipfel as being for its time "the most-watched TV film in history"[1]
Despite comprising only one season, the series reached cult status in later years, coming to be cited as an influence for Chris Carter, who in his franchise The X-Files had McGavin play Arthur Dales, the "father of the X-files", as a tribute to the series and its titular character Kolchak.
The Series
Following the runaway success of the first two movies, a third movie ("The Night Killers") was quickly dropped in favour of the TV series.[2] Journalist Mark Dawidziak, who has written books on both characters, compares the personality, background and distinctive dress styles of McGavin's Kolchak with those of a fictional character from another TV series from approximately the same era, Colombo, played by actor Peter Falk.[3] But Kolchak's white seersucker suit and porkpie hat were chosen by McGavin for the practical purpose of enabling him to be visible during the filming of frequent night scenes.
The series was cancelled after Darren McGavin requested early release from his contract, citing dissatisfaction with the direction of some scripts, and the rigorous shooting schedule involved.[4] The series remained popular for many years, drawing praise such as this from writer George Szanto, who spoke about literature, suspense and politically narration:
At twelve, Robert Louis Stevenson became important to me; so did Dickens. At the same time I still used to love listening to "The Lone Ranger" and "The Green Hornet"; I still enjoy "Hawaii-Five-O," "Streets of San Francisco," and was sorry when they took "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" off the T.V. waves.[5]
A Real-Life Monster
Jim Knipfel observes that real-life serial killer Richard Ramirez was dubbed "the Night Stalker" by the media following his killing spree in the mid-1980s:
While in the original film “The Night Stalker” referred to the vampire, once it became a series it was applied to the reporter instead, so at first I was annoyed someone would dub Ramirez “The Night Stalker,” thinking it was somehow robbing something from a show that meant so much to me. But the more I thought about it the more it made sense, and the more I even came to appreciate the plug. Ramirez may not have been a real vampire, or a headless, sword-wielding biker, or an Aztec mummy, but in this day and age he was close enough.[1]
Reboot
The series was rebooted in a remake Night Stalker by the producer Frank Spotnitz in 2005, with a new cast and characters (including a cameo by Darren McGavin playing a reporter at the water fountain in the newsroom in episode 1) as well as subsequent novels and comic books, but it was cancelled, with only six of the ten episodes that had been produced being aired during that initial run. One reviewer of this reboot series expressed disappointment in its early cancellation:
But there's some real magic at work here, a kind of artistic hybrid that meets the demands of that twelve-year-old kid I used to be, fascinated with monsters, and the adult of today who craves smart, literary television.[6]
Fandom
Of the 31 works on AO3, 15 are crossovers with other fandoms. The pairing Carl Kolchak/Tony Vincenzo is marked at 8, while Carl Kolchak/Ron Updyke at 1.
Fanzines
- It couldn't happen here newsletter
- The Kolchak Chronicles #1-8, gen, 1997-1999
- The Kolchak Journals Newsletter newsletter
- The Manifest (multifandom)
- Wynter Tydes (multifandom)
Archives, Communities & Resources
- ^ a b Jim Knipfel, Kolchak: The Night Stalker – The Genealogy of a Classic Horror TV Series, Den of Geek, 12 October 2017.
- ^ Travis Johnson, Like ‘The X-Files’? You’ll love ‘Kolchak: The Night Stalker’, SBS Television, 14 August 2020.
- ^ Ed Gross, Here’s What Happened to ‘Kolchak: The Night Stalker’ Star Darren McGavin Before and After the Show, Closer Weekly, 14 August 2020.
- ^ "Kolchak: The Night Stalker Trivia", Internet Movie Database.
- ^ George Szanto, {https://www.jstor.org/stable/25088706 On the Political Rhetoric in Our Narrative Tastes], The Massachusetts Review, Vol. 18, No. 1 (Spring, 1977), pp. 35-50, p. 37. (JSTOR)
- ^ Grant Tracey, Crosscuts: Brief DVD Reviews, Night Stalker:the Complete Series, The North American Review, Vol. 292, No. 1 (January–February 2007), p. 45. (JSTOR)