I had never seen these shows, I love Darren McGavin, and I got the set for Christmas.
For those that don't know, Kolchak is a reporter for a small independent news service in Chicago in the early 70s. He investigates strange phenomena. X-Files type stuff for those of you alive in the 90s.
The first ep, from the fall of 1974, is The Ripper. The theory is this homikidal maniac with superhuman strength terrorizing Chicago is the same Ripper from 1888 London.
One of the guest stars is a lady-reporter, real name Beatrice Colen. Everyone describes her as fat. What?! Maybe 1970s fat. Maybe Hollywood fat. Her face is kinda round. No she is not supermodel skinny. But is all the fat people in 2020 looked like her we wouldn't have a fat problem.
"So where's the gun content, T-Bolt?"
I was just getting to that. Dozens of Chicago cops are chasing the Ripper guy across 4th story rooftops. At night in poor 1970s incandescent light. And there is constant shooting. Cops on the left shooting toward the right, cops on the right shooting toward left, a handful of shotguns shooting up to the rooftops. Where are all those missed bullets going? Chicago isn't known for hills, those .38s could sail quite a distance. Or into fellow officers right there. It's a madhouse. Just dozens of bullets winging about, at a man armed with a sheathed sword cane.
I guess people thought that normal enough in 1974.
It was one of my favorite shows of the late 70's. I always made a point not to miss it.
ReplyDeleteI hope that your box includes the stand-alone TV movie that inspired the series, called simply The Night Stalker. In that one Kolchak goes up against a vampire (male) in Las Vegas. One of the TV episodes is a sequel of sorts about one of the vampire's victims that rises in her turn as a vampire also. With basically a new monster each week, the series quickly ran out of inspiration, which is why it didn't have a long run.
ReplyDelete