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.
Origins
The Night Stalker
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 At the time it was optioned for the screen, the novel was unpublished.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.
The Night Strangler
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. Richard Anderson played the titular villain Dr. Richard Malcolm, 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. 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.
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.
Jimmy Sangster, known for having written some of the Hammer Horror films, wrote the episode "Horror in the Heights". With no time to compose a new theme, Mellé remembered a secondary theme that he had previously written for The Questor Tapes, an unsold pilot. As that had also been produced under Universal Television, the company already had the rights to the work and Mellé quickly adapted it for The Night Stalker. Composer Jerry Fielding took over scoring music for the remaining series, augmented by one score each from Greig McRitchie (best known for his collaborations with Fielding, and James Horner), and Luchi De Jesus. Music supervisor Hal Mooney reused much of Mellé's score in various later episodes (most notably "The Spanish Moss Murders", which has no credited score composer) along with material from the other composers.
Two soundtrack albums have been produced. One released in 2000 by Varèse Sarabande features two suites of Cobert's music from the TV movies. The other, a bootleg copy of Melle's private tapes, features his theme and scores written for the first three episodes ("The Ripper", "They Have Been, They Are, They Will Be..." and "The Vampire"), and two cues from the TV movie The Questor Tapes.
The Mellé theme also appears on the TVT Records' Television's Greatest Hits Volume 5. However, all licensed soundtrack recordings of the theme use an otherwise rare original recording alternate take of the theme. Initially identifiable by the altered opening whistle, an off-key electronic note is seemingly randomly introduced towards the end, but when synchronized with the picture it corresponds to a specific visual. Mellé was known for his innovative use of electronic orchestration (which was used throughout the series); however, the producers chose not to include this stylistic element in his main title for broadcast, instead opting for a more conventional all-orchestral sound.
Episodes
Unproduced scripts
The series was cancelled with only 20 episodes completed. The initial order of 26 episodes meant there were scripts that were completed but unproduced. Three additional scripts commissioned before the series was cancelled still survive.
"Eve of Terror", by Stephen Lord
After a researcher is exposed to sonic stimulation in her laboratory, she becomes deranged and gains superhuman strength in a Jekyll and Hyde-type story, murdering people who do not conform with her ideas of feminism. In particular the series has been described as a predecessor to The X-Files (1993–2002, 2016, 2018). The X-Filess creator, Chris Carter, has acknowledged that the show had influenced him greatly in his own work. In one interview when told that the majority of the viewing public considered the success of The X-Files series as being inspired by shows such as The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits, Carter said that while those shows were indeed an influence on The X-Files, it was only about 10 percent, with another 30 percent coming from the Kolchak series and the rest derived as being based upon original 'pure inspiration'. Carter paid tribute to Kolchak in a number of ways in the
show. Several episodes featured a character named for Richard Matheson (Raymond J. Barry), screenwriter of the two pilot films. Carter wanted McGavin to appear as Kolchak in The X-Files, but McGavin was unwilling to reprise the character for the show. He then pitched the idea of him portraying Fox Mulder (David Duchovny)'s father Bill which he also turned down. He did eventually appear in several episodes as Arthur Dales, a retired FBI agent described as the "father of the X-Files". In the third episode of the 2016 revival series, Guy Mann (Rhys Darby), a character prominently featured in the episode "Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster" is conspicuously attired in Kolchak's signature seersucker jacket, black knit tie, and straw hat.
The first work to openly be inspired by Kolchak: The Night Stalker appeared less than a year after its original broadcast. The comic book The Tomb of Dracula #43 (cover dated April 1976) stars a character named Paul Butterworth, an investigative reporter with an obvious resemblance to Kolchak in both appearance and personality. Like Kolchak, he clashes with his editor, Paul Lamenzo, and is ultimately unable to get his story about a supernatural menace published. The inspiration is acknowledged by the story's title, "Paul Butterworth: The Night-Stalker".
The 1995 comic book Primortals #10 depicts a reporter named Carl calling his boss Vincenzo as he investigates the landing site of an alien spaceship. The issue's writer, Christopher Mills, later went on to write Kolchak comic books.
2005 television series
Although Rice retains the rights to written Kolchak works, and Universal Studios owns the rights to the TV series, ABC maintained dramatic rights to the character and ownership of the two TV movies. The network began airing a new Night Stalker series on September 29, 2005, with the character Carl Kolchak portrayed by Stuart Townsend. On November 14, 2005, ABC and creator Frank Spotnitz announced that the new series was being cancelled due to low ratings. The complete 2005 series was released on DVD.
In a nod to the original series, the pilot episode has a brief shot of Darren McGavin lifted from the first TV movie, as the new Kolchak is walking through the Los Angeles Beacon newsroom. The book included stories by such writers as Rodney Barnes, Kim Newman, Nancy A. Collins, Jonathan Maberry, Steve Niles, Gabriel Hardman, and Peter David. Artists included J.K. Woodward, Marco Finnegan, Colton Worley, Paul McCaffrey and Julius Ohta.
Film adaptation
In May 2012, Disney announced a film adaptation was in the works with Johnny Depp starring and producing with Edgar Wright directing.
Home media
Magnetic Video released the first TV movie on VHS, The Night Stalker, and years after the label was taken over by 20th Century Fox, it was kept in print as part of its "Selections" series until their licensing deal with ABC expired. MGM Home Video released the two TV movies on DVD on August 24, 2004. Universal Studios released Kolchak: The Night Stalker – The Complete Series on DVD a year later. Madman Entertainment released the complete series on DVD in Australia and New Zealand on July 15, 2009.
Besides Amazon carrying the DVD set for sale on its website, Netflix offered it for rental. During the early 2010s, Netflix had it available to stream for a time, then took it off again. Kolchak: The Night Stalker returned in August 2016, just as Universal was about to release it again on DVD. Although the series was not added as part of NBC's new Peacock streaming site in 2020, it was available on the free ad-supported NBC.com. In September, it was added to the MeTV lineup at 11 p.m. central on Saturdays, along with lots of trivia on its website.
The two TV films, The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler, were each released on Blu-ray October 2, 2018, and DVD by Kino Lorber. Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974–75) Complete Series Blu-ray (also by Kino Lorber) was released on October 12, 2021. The Blu-ray features 21 commentary tracks by film/tv historians as well as a new interview with writer David Chase. In addition to recording a commentary for the premiere episode "The Ripper", Mark Dawidziak, author of The Night Stalker Companion and Kolchak novel, Grave Secrets, also provided a Booklet Essay.
{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan="2"|DVD name
! rowspan="2"|Ep #
! colspan="4”|Release dates
|-
! Region 1
! Region 2
! Region 4
! Region A
|-
| Kolchak: The Night Stalker – The Complete Series
| 20
| October 4, 2005
| August 21, 2006
| July 15, 2009
| October 12, 2021 (Blu-ray)
|}