KOLCHAK: The Night Stalker Complete Series COMING SOON to Blu Ray (1 Viewer)

[dstrong]

KLStudioClassics announced today that the complete series of "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" is coming to Blu Ray this October,

 

[Robert Crawford]

https://www.hometheaterforum.com/community/threads/kino-lorber-insider-read-guidelines-post-3.355034/post-4968327

 

[Jeff Flugel]

Fantastic news! This show has never looked great on DVD. I look forward to putting this very fun series, remastered in HD, on my shelf, next to Kino's excellent Blu-Rays of The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler TV movies. Hopefully, there will be some neat bonus features included. Paging Mark Dawidziak...

 

[JohnHopper]

Fantastic news! This show has never looked great on DVD. I look forward to putting this very fun series, remastered in HD, on my shelf, next to Kino's excellent Blu-Rays of The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler TV movies. Hopefully, there will be some neat bonus features included. Paging Mark Dawidziak...

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––​

I second your enthusiasm. Kolchak is coming back in style!​

 

[JohnHopper]

Fantastic news! This show has never looked great on DVD. I look forward to putting this very fun series, remastered in HD, on my shelf, next to Kino's excellent Blu-Rays of The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler TV movies. Hopefully, there will be some neat bonus features included. Paging Mark Dawidziak...

The DVD edition of Kolchak (the series) suffers from many setbacks and errors:​

1. Unrestored prints​

2. Syndicated prints with cuts: see “The Vampyr” as one of the many sacrificed episodes.​

3. The wrong opening titles for the early episodes​

 

[Darby67]

The DVD edition of Kolchak (the series) suffers from many setbacks and errors:​

1. Unrestored prints​

2. Syndicated prints with cuts: see “The Vampyr” as one of the many sacrificed episodes.​

3. The wrong opening titles for the early episodes​

John:

I own both of Universal's DVD releases of the complete series (the 3- disc 2005 release on double-sided discs and the 5-disc 2016 release on single-sided discs) and I am aware that both releases have unrestored prints and some of the early episodes have the wrong opening titles, but I have never heard that either release had syndicated prints with cuts; do you happen to have a source for that information? Thanks.

Sean

 

[ChristopherG]

I mostly stopped with physical media awhile ago, but I think I can make an exception here. One of my all time favorite show - can't wait.

 

[JohnHopper]

John:

I own both of Universal's DVD releases of the complete series (the 3- disc 2005 release on double-sided discs and the 5-disc 2016 release on single-sided discs) and I am aware that both releases have unrestored prints and some of the early episodes have the wrong opening titles, but I have never heard that either release had syndicated prints with cuts; do you happen to have a source for that information? Thanks.

Sean

Sean,

I own the 2005 DVD edition and I reported all the rough cuts from the episodes:
some are very obvious like in “The Vampyr”.
Besides the opening titles issue surely indicate it is standardised syndicate prints.

 

[NorgeRunner]

Fun fun show.

Complete season is free on NBC app and looks great.

 

[Mr. Handley]

I'll be triple-dipping this one for sure!

 

[Darby67]

Sean,

I own the 2005 DVD edition and I reported all the rough cuts from the episodes:
some are very obvious like in “The Vampyr”.
Besides the opening titles issue surely indicate it is standardised syndicate prints.

John:

Did you post a list of the rough cuts from the episodes here in an HTF forum or elsewhere? I'm just trying to get to the bottom of the issue because the runtime on The Vampire is 51 minutes which suggests it is complete and uncut. Thanks in advance for the help.

Sean

 

[Darby67]

Sean,

I own the 2005 DVD edition and I reported all the rough cuts from the episodes:
some are very obvious like in “The Vampyr”.
Besides the opening titles issue surely indicate it is standardised syndicate prints.

AndyMcKinney has provided an explanation for the incorrect opening titles for the early episodes: https://www.hometheaterforum.com/co...er-read-guidelines-post-3.355034/post-4968374

 

[dana martin]

see a lot of the usual suspects in this thread

a lot of research in the past day or so,

just a few thoughts to ponder, so the first 4 episodes were just the night stalker, then they got sued, Dan Curtis and all, that's how the name change to Kolchak: The Night Stalker.

KL Insider stated that they had ask for this title on multiple occasions, and that the third time was a charm, with that kind of persistence, IMO; I don't see them using syndication cuts. With possibly one caveat, originally it was planned to do a third Telefilm, Richard Matheson had written a script "The Night Killers", and it was passed on, for going to series instead.

what we got instead, after the series ended, 4 of the episodes were re-worked into to Telefilms, back when Universal would do that kind of thing, Original Galactica, had a few of these as well.

Crackle of Death and The Demon and the Mummy were the two cobbled together. But it has new narration by McGavin to tie the two episodes together along with some new scenes, ... never released on any home video as far as I know. And if my memories are correct, I haven't seen those in 15-20 years, and those 4 episodes were added back to the syndication package If Kino, can get these and add them as bonus features that will put some other complete series releases to shame.

Another thing, if it could be included, is the 3 scripts for the un-filmed episodes if possible.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

AndyMcKinney has provided an explanation for the incorrect opening titles for the early episodes: https://www.hometheaterforum.com/co...er-read-guidelines-post-3.355034/post-4968374

Darby:
Like you, I'm unaware of any other editing, besides the opening titles. I assumed that when the show was remastered in the '90s (either for digital TV or DVD), that Universal just cleaned up one set of opening titles to save a little bit of time/money, and slapped them on all the episodes. It's been done countless times before, to such shows as Hawaii Five-O, I Dream of Jeannie, etc.

Unless JohnHopper can provide a list of cuts, though, I have no reason to suspect that the use of standardised opening titles would necessarily indicate any other editing, just convenience/laziness. I'm sure Universal had two versions of the episodes when they remastered them: full runtime and edited for syndication (which is what Sci-Fi would have gotten).

 

[Detour (1945)]

see a lot of the usual suspects in this thread

Yeah, some guy just directed me over this way, from the Kino Insider thread.

 

[Jack P]

what we got instead, after the series ended, 4 of the episodes were re-worked into to Telefilms, back when Universal would do that kind of thing, Original Galactica, had a few of these as well.

Crackle of Death and The Demon and the Mummy were the two cobbled together. But it has new narration by McGavin to tie the two episodes together along with some new scenes, ... never released on any home video as far as I know. And if my memories are correct, I haven't seen those in 15-20 years, and those 4 episodes were added back to the syndication package If Kino, can get these and add them as bonus features that will put some other complete series releases to shame.

Another thing, if it could be included, is the 3 scripts for the un-filmed episodes if possible.

I have to wonder if the "telefilm" edits of old Universal TV series were in fact casualties of the 2008 fire because they would have only existed as video masters that were not circulating any longer. Keep in mind that even the longer TV cuts of Universal movies like "Earthquake" and "Two Minute Warning" were basically lost as well and for the latter an off-air recording had to be used for the Blu-Ray release while "Earthquake" required going back to the original TV edit for the first NBC airing (and not the master that played frequently on AMC in the 90s).

 

[dagover]

My wife and I watched it when it was first on and loved it. I also remember them having to tone down the violence after episode 4 or so. I especially remember the werewolf episode. I was disappointed when the reruns were shown, as the reruns for the first few episodes would freeze the picture just before the attack. I bought the first dvd set, but I remember them being edited too.

 

[Jeff Flugel]

what we got instead, after the series ended, 4 of the episodes were re-worked into to Telefilms, back when Universal would do that kind of thing, Original Galactica, had a few of these as well.

Crackle of Death and The Demon and the Mummy were the two cobbled together. But it has new narration by McGavin to tie the two episodes together along with some new scenes, ... never released on any home video as far as I know. And if my memories are correct, I haven't seen those in 15-20 years, and those 4 episodes were added back to the syndication package If Kino, can get these and add them as bonus features that will put some other complete series releases to shame.

Another thing, if it could be included, is the 3 scripts for the un-filmed episodes if possible.

Dana, are you sure that these two mash-up telefilms were not released on VHS? I seem to remember them being available to rent at my local Blockbuster back in the pre-DVD era, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

*Edited to add* My memory must be faulty, as - according to Wikipedia at least - these mash-ups have never been released. Ah, the memory...she cheats. It must have been one of those early Columbia House two-episode per tape suckers I saw on that Blockbuster shelf.

At any rate, I agree, they would make for nice extra features on Kino's upcoming Blu-Ray set, at least to hear the irreplaceable Darrin McGavin's added linking narration.

 

[dana martin]

oh back in the days when I had all those tapes, it may have had a release, I was too busy trying to get Loony Tunes and Disney films then, for the kids (all in their 30's now). my how the time flies by

did another quick search, the four original episodes were included in the Columbia house VHS release, but the telefilms have never had a release, according to wiki, if you can trust it.

 

[Darby67]

While I have been unable to locate any evidence that Crackle of Death and The Demon and the Mummy telefilms were released on VHS tape, The Ripper and The Vampire were released on VHS tape under the title "The Night Stalker: Two Tales of Terror": See on Amazon

All of the the episodes on both DVD releases (2005 and 2016) run in the 50-51 minute range which suggests they are complete and uncut.