Although the series enjoyed the built-in following of viewers who'd loved The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler, Kolchak: The Night Stalker languished in the ratings opposite such competition as Police Woman and The Rockford Files. As for the series' various ghosts, monsters, vampires, mummies and lycanthropes, they were seldom seen full-face but instead lurked in the shadows, in the tradition of the classic Val Lewton "psychological horror" epics of the 1940s (Trivia note: among the series' writers was a young Robert Zemeckis). Other regulars included Jack Grinnage as Ron Updike, Independent News' fledgling society reporter who yearned to break into the "big time" and was willing to stab Kolchak in the back to get what he wanted and Ruth McDevitt as the service's advice columnist Miss Emily Cowles, the only person whom Kolchak could rely upon when things got rough. Making matters worse, Kolchak couldn't even post a "normal" news story, since bizarre and unexplainable things kept happening around him wherever he went. As for Kolchak, he was determined to regain his credibility by filing a story about the Supernatural that could be proven beyond doubt-and of course, he was always foiled when the evidence "mysteriously" vanished at the end of each episode. Having likewise been exiled from the higher journalistic circles thanks to Kolchak's "unbelievable" news scoops, Vincenzo harbored a grudge against our hero, but kept him on the payroll all the same.
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By the time the Kolchak series proper began, the title character (still played by McGavin) had been effectively blacklisted by every major publisher in the US, and was forced to work for the Chicago-based Independent News Service, a seat-of-the-pants operation edited by Tony Vincenzo (another carryover from the movie versions). Starring in both these made-for-TV offerings was Darren McGavin as Carl Kolchak, a fly-by-night newspaper reporter who'd stumbled onto proof of actual paranormal and supernatural activity (a vampire terrorizing Las Vegas in Night Stalker, a werewolf decimating Seattle in Night Strangler), only to have his stories suppressed and himself bullied into silence by nervous police officials and politicians who didn't want to scare away tourists and merchants. The series proper lasted 112 episodes, closing out its successful ABC run on July 31, 1984.ĭebuting Friday, Septemon ABC, the weekly, hour-long sci-fi/fantasy series Kolchak: The Night Stalker was spun off from two well-received feature length entries from the same network's Movie of the Week: The Night Stalker (1971) and The Night Strangler (1973).
Not only did the movie set the deft, tongue-in-cheek mood of the series to come, but it also featured a well-publicized "surprise" cameo appearance by Robert Wagner's then wife Natalie Wood, billed under her real name Natasha Gurdin.
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The series debuted August 25, 1979, in the form of a two-hour TV movie, in which Jonathan and Jennifer investigated the suspicious death of an old friend at a health spa. Also on hand was the Harts' "Asta" counterpart, a dog named Freeway. Acting as the Harts' chauffeur, aide, and self-appointed protector was gravel-voiced Max, a plum role for veteran character actor Lionel Stander.
This, of course, required Jonathan and Jennifer to go the "Thin Man" route with some amateur sleuthing, which often as not nearly got them killed, or at the very least in the direst of dire peril. Good hearted souls that they were, the Harts were forever helping out friends and acquaintances who'd been victimized by criminals or accused of crimes they didn't commit. A self-made millionaire, Jonathan ran a variety of thriving business enterprises with a firm but fair hand Jennifer was likewise gainfully employed as a journalist. Created by producer-novelist Sidney Sheldon and executive produced by Aaron Spelling, the weekly, hour-long adventure series Hart to Hart starred Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers as the fabulously wealthy and drop-dead gorgeous married couple Jonathan and Jennifer Hart.
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