Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1 Viewer)

[MattHR]

Probably the lowest point of the show.

 

[george fr]

Don't be so harsh.Give it a chance.I agree that the show doesn't have any humour.Looking at Kolchaks house,I think I'm going to be a newspaper reporter.$$$ I'm sure it will go a full season.7 out of 10.

 

[Carlos Garcia]

New Kolchak=The Drecks Files.

 

[MichaelScott]

No offense George but I don't see how you saw anything positive..I saw nothing that wanted to make me watch those characters more then once. 1 out of 10..the 1 for the digital Carl, as he was the only thing in the show that remotely had anything to do with the original series. They could have called it anything.
I wouldn't mind so much if it was good but it wasn't. The writer basically tried to make this the X-files with a reporter, and missed the whole point of what made Kolchak good in the first place. The new Carl is such a wimp he wouldn't even fight to have his story printed..that was half the fun, him and tony fighting..new Tony blows too.

 

[TravisR]

Isn't there a separate thread for the new series?

 

[RickER]

At least 2 or 3 Travis, including the dvd release.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

The Original Kolchak was a lovable Schlub. He drove around in a beat up convertible and he dated Strippers. I looked up to the original

 

[GuruAskew]

There's a "Night Stalker" remake series discussion thread in the TV & HD programming forum, you can check it out here. This thread is for discussion of the McGavin series and it's upcoming DVD release.

 

[MarkBirds]

I was sorry to hear of the lackluster transfer. I recently watched Emergency! Season One, and I thought it looked great. Same studio, right?

I'll be anxious to read more reviews. I may hold off on buying it.

Man, this could be really disappointing.:frowning:

 

[Paul_Scott]

:frowning:
i'm bout ready to cry myself.
it seems like every single 'most wanted' title i've had this year (which hasn't been all that many anyways) has had a dissapointing transfer- far worse than i would have ever expected.
there is just no reason Kolchak should look bad, unless it has purposefully been meddled with (the 'darkening' comment really disturbs me, because i can easily envsion that being done by a bunch of airheads in an attempt to 'improve' the look of the show).
and unlike all the premature slings and arrows hurled at the Night Gallery set last year (a set i thought looked great actually, unremastered and all)- these are comments coming from people who have actually seen the thing.
the next month is going to be murder, but i should have expected to hear something like this...it was the last big release i've been looking forward to for a while...in a class all by itself actually- for me, this would have been one of the all time biggies of the format - period.

arrrgggghhhhhhh

 

[TravisR]

Call me blindly optimistic but I still think that this is going to be the best that Kolchak has ever looked.

I don't think Universal will take the time to do anything to try to 'enhance' it. Whether it be to fully restore the video or (as Paul said) meddle with it to achieve a look. I think they're just going to take their copy of it and put it on a DVD and not spend much more time or effort than that.

 

[MattHR]

I was looking forward to re-mastered episodes, especially since Universal's sell-sheet to dealers boldly indicated "each episode has been digitally re-mastered for maximum clarity". Looks like they changed their plans.

 

[Jeff#]

[rant]Guys...I've never seen a poor-quality episode of Kolchak: The Night Stalker! Every Universal series made in that era looked great to begin with (Columbo, Kojak, McCloud, etc.) so Kolchak should be no different. It's not necessary to digitally remaster any film prints here.[/rant]

 

[Kevin M]

Jeff#, why are you yelling at everyone?

Anyway, since the show was shot & edited on Film maybe remastering the original prints isn't such a bad idea, look at what was accomplished with the first two telefilms....the same quality could have been had with the series.

But that's all conjecture as I haven't even seen the DVD yet, I recall all of the yelling that was done over Night Gallery's PQ and after seeing it I thought it looked reasonably good to be honest.

 

[MichaelScott]

It was dark show to begin with ,the main thing is that it's not cut in any way. I'm sure the picture quality will be good enough. I hate when these "the sky is falling" threads get started..in these forums especially your always going to have people who over anylyze every release and take a magnifier to find everything wrong they can, though I will add that Amazon is worse,and I beleive this is where this started. That happened with the Night Gallery set as well, and it wasn't bad at all..of course we will probably never see a season 2 but that's for another thread.

Don't think Jeff was yelling just had bold on. Yelling is capitals.

Bill, sometimes discusssions just get going where they may..glad you felt the need to be thread police.

 

[Jeff#]

Thanks, Mike -- I wasn't yelling. I was trying a different font. You know the Rant button above? Well, I never used that before, so I wanted to see how it would look and I don't care for it.

All I'm saying is that every print of Kolchak that's been rerun on TV over the years going back to when CBS Late Night had it around 1990 to recent years with the Sci-Fi Channel has been in excellent condition. Digital remastering doesn't seem to be necessary.

 

[Paul_Scott]

i agree with the comment that almost every Uni show from the seventies has looked great on this format- for my money Universal has put out the most consistently high quality (looking , anyways...i know they have issues with playability) vintage TV material. every other studio has their highs and lows, but uni has been consisitent for me- and that's why i expected Kolchak to look at least as good as every other release i've seen from them.

i hope its much ado about nothing, and i agree that the 90s era (Columbia House)transfers should be adequete to put out a decent product...i guess we'll see in a few days.

i'm on the road right now so i'm leaving it up to you guys to put my expectations in line for when i finally get to see this for myself

 

[Bryan^H]

I have the complete series from Columbia House on vhs. Although I spent almost $300 for them (this was before dvd was on the market) they look fantastic. Think I will just transfer them to dvd, along with season 1 of St. Elsewhere, which I also got from Columbia house.

 

[TravisR]

What if the DVDs look better than the Columbia House tapes? Or are you transferring because you spent $300 for them? Just curious.

 

[Bryan^H]

Unless they are remastered, I doubt they will look that much better than the tapes, but yeah, because I spent all that money and time(they were released 1 tape every 3 weeks or so) on owning that set, I don't want to invest in the new set. Also, I have had the worst experience with Universal double sided discs. I don't want to spend $40, and get another bum set.