Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1 Viewer)

[Robert Saccone]

I believe the ship at sea is the S.S. Norway, formerly the ILE DE France. I took a cruise to the Bahamas on it about 10 years ago. It's a nice old ship.

Here's a link:

http://www.maritimematters.com/norway.html

 

[MichaelScott]

Totally agree Dave, it's amazing how watchable a show can be even with a so-so story if the characters are alive and fun to watch. The new Kolchak forgot what made the original so good. In reading the article on the show in Entertainment Weekly I got the impression that the creator of the new one(forget his name)..didn't really put enough thought or importance into who played the character, just wanted someone known and young instead of who could be a really good Kolchak. I still say Bruce Campbell would have been perfect, watch him in that X-files episode he was in...perfect.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Absolutely cambell cold'v enailed it

 

[RoyM]

Good memories, guys. I love K:TNS - absolutely one of my all-time favorite shows. And you guys nailed it - it was the performances of McGavin, Oakland and the rest of the supporting (and guest) cast, as well the wonderfully droll humor of the scripts, that made this show work so brilliantly. Just for example, check out Keenan Wynn's performance in "The Spanish Moss Murders" episode. Just terrific. And there are several other on par with that throughout the show's run. Even Erik Estrada is pretty good in "Legacy of Terror." So many good character actors back then to fill out the guest casts of shows like "Kolchak."

As for the underlying wit of the show, you can see how Chris Carter (very wisely) imitated that aspect (especially in Mulder) when he conceived "The X-Files."

Anyway, I'm thrilled to pieces to have this show on DVD at last, and be able to re-live one of the fondest TV memories of my childhood.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

You'll also notice that alot of eps were written by David Chase of the Sopranos. He also served as Story Consultant on many Shows

 

[JohnMor]

I gotta say that I never watched this show when it first aired when I was a kid, although I had watched the 2 films. I'm absolutely loving it. Some of the lines are great, and the performances are really perfect. Of course, that's what you get when you hire great pros instead of just "faces." What a fun series. Sorry I missed out on it the first time around, but God bless DVD!

 

[Kevin M]

The Zombie really is one of the better episodes, good & spooky, but one of my favorites is Horror In the Heights, very bizarre and creepy.

 

[Jeff#]

"Horror in the Heights" was a good one, and it featured a rare dramatic performance by the late Phil Silvers. It's probably the only time in his career in which Phil got to play an ethnic role (an elderly Jew, which he was).

 

[Dave Scarpa]

And probably the Worst ep has to go to Sentry with that god awful Monster, you can tell they were grasping at straws with that one. Mcgavin became pretty frustrated and wanted the series to end by then since scripts would come down as they were shooting the scenes, so for the series to be as good as it was is amazing

 

[Jeff#]

"The Sentry" was the last episode, and low ratings led to cancellation after only 1 year. At least McGavin's ex-wife Kathie Browne was in it at the police detective that Kolchak deals with.

 

[JohnMor]

Uh oh. I just finished side A of disc 2 and I was hoping that nothing could be worse than "Mr. R.I.N.G." but I guess I have another thing coming! Oh well, gotta take the good with the bad, I suppose!.

 

[TravisR]

Yeah the monster in The Sentry is really bad. Quick editing, dark lighting, and even the (slightly) dark transfer on the DVDs don't hide it.

Not a terrible episode but the monster really didn't help it.

 

[derek]

The Sentry was one of my favorites as a dinosaur-lovin kid! But the monster is so slow my 2 year old could outrun him! lol

 

[Roy Wall]

Agreed..."Horror in the Heights" and "The Zombie" in my view were the best episodes.

 

[FrancisP]

I haven't finished all of the episodes but I do notice thatsome of the scenes are very grainy and it
really shows up during the night scenes. If I remember correctly, McGavin insisted that the night
scenes be filmed at night rather than using a filter. Not sure if that has anything to do with it.

I loved seeing Lara Parker and Kathy Lee Crosby as guest stars. The chemistry between Simon Oakland and McGavin iswonderful especially when McGavin is trying to explain what is going on. The battles between
McGavin and the cop of the week was absolutely hilarious. Keenan Wynn, James Gregory, Larry Linville, and Kathie Browne stand out. Then of course, there was Kolchak trying all sorts of stunts
to sneak into places he wasn't wanted. Even if the
monster was a little thin, it was always entertaining.


The unfortunate thing is that this was a very cheap show. It's no accident that the best show, Horror in
the Heights was written by Hammer horror veteran Jimmy Sangster. Apparently the show didn't have the money to get many horror veterans like this. Someone like Richard Matheson, who wrote the first two movies, was totally out of their budget. You get what
you pay for.

 

[Brett*H]

We've been slowly working our way through this set.I want to savor every episode and make this dvd set last as there are no further seasons(darn it!).

What a great show. I enjoyed it when it originally ran on tv and it's really awesome to experience it again.

The writing was excellent except for a few choice eps (Mr R.I.N.G has already been mentioned) and Darren McGavin and Simon Oakland really carried this series with their boss/employee chemistry. (What were they thinking when they tried to "remake" this show awhile back?)
I hadn't seen this show for a couple of decades and it has really held up well over time.

A few scenes are really dark but not too bad. I think it lends a bit of realism to the atmospheric night scenes as I can't stand shows that use "day-for-night" photography and even kids can spot it when they use that technique.There is also an "auto" black level on our dvd player so this may help a bit with the dark scenes when we watch the show.

There is some dirt on the transfers and some softening on some episodes but it looks like they used the best prints they had available. I have to say that as someone who watched the original broadcasts,this release looks better than when it originally aired on television.

It was fun to see the many,many character actors of the era pop up throughout this series.I had forgotten about so many of them.(we only had 3 major tv channels back then so these actors were seen alot!)

The mono audio is nice and crisp and I don't notice any problems with it except maybe the volume level varies from episode to episode.On a side note,there is a lot of background/incidental music from Universal's music library of the time. I recognized a ton of this music that would be reworked for several other Universal tv productions of the era such as The Six Million $ Man and The Bionic Woman.

I'd have to deduct points for the lack of extras regarding this dvd release as I feel that there could have been something they could have stuck in there for us but there is nothing at all.

I can't add much more than what's already been voiced by other posters in this thread except this:No matter what era of televison you fondly remember and if you haven't bought this series yet,do yourself a favor and pick it up today.Some of this show's writing/dialogue was the finest of the 1970s' television genre.It's worth every penny!

 

[Ron Lee Green]

I just watched the episode, "Chopper", last night the one about the headless motorcycler.
Boy, the special effects were really bad in this one.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

You did'nt suspend disbelief with the Motocycle ride..

Really it was'nt about Special Effects with Kolchak, it was all about the acting and chemistry between the leads. Mcgavin New the production values were lousey and the scripts started sucking (Wait till you see Sentry) and thats why he asked ABC to pull the plug on it.

 

[Linda Thompson]

Still good stories (and episodes), IMO... The effects were always secondary to the intent with this show, and I could (and did, and still do) forgive a lot...

 

[Linda Thompson]

And the fact that the creature knocked out the lights during its advance in that tunnel served both to enhance the story and also (very conveniently ) to help hide the rubber monster suit... Creative, yet very practical, film-making on a budget. But it worked, oh so well!

Lotsa good stuff in this series, especially since so many of us were at the ideal age when we first saw it... I must admit...when I first saw "Nightmare On Elm Street" so many years later, I couldn't help but be reminded of "The Spanish Moss Murders"...