Kolchak: The Night Stalker hit American TVs on 13 September 1974. I was there from beginning to end. When I went to Universal Studios with my family in the summer of 1975, I asked a worker there if the show would return. And he told me ABC canceled it. It crushed me.

My love of horror goes way back. I used to watch Creature Features with my older brother and sister every Saturday. You could say I’ve modeled my life on Bob Wilkins. I had nightmares for years based on The Last Man on Earth. And I remember vomiting because of Bride of Frankenstein. (Of course, it could have been the ice cream too!)

Kolchak: The Night Stalker was not something new to me. When it premiere, I had watched the original TV movie, The Night Stalker. In fact, I thought the show was called “The Night Stalker” until I bought the box set as an adult.

At the time, I liked the TV series better than the movies. I liked that it removed the romantic subplots, which didn’t resonate at all with my 10-year-old brain. When I watch it now, I find the show less compelling because of Kolchak’s disinterest in everything but the latest story. But it’s still awesome!

Unfortunately, there was one problem with the show that doomed it. You can’t have a different monster every week. And the Night Stalker reboot didn’t address the problem at all. It just made the whole idea stupid. The show should feature a single monster every season. It’s obvious how to do it. Imagine breaking the two films up into a dozen episodes. No problem! It would have been brilliant. But I suspect it still would have failed. People just aren’t that into horror. Unless they are like me, and they are way too into horror.

Only 20 episodes of the show were made. Every episode is available online. You must first watch The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler. And here are links to all the shows:

1. The Ripper
2. The Zombie
3. They Have Been, They Are, They Will Be…
4. The Vampire
5. The Werewolf
6. Firefall
7. The Devil’s Platform
8. Bad Medicine
9. The Spanish Moss Murders
10. The Energy Eater
11. Horror in the Heights
12. Mr RING
13. Primal Scream
14. The Trevi Collection
15. Chopper
16. Demon in Lace
17. Legacy of Terror
18. The Knightly Murders
19. The Youth Killer
20. The Sentry

Here is the whole series embedded:

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Kolchak: The Night Stalker image via IMDB under Fair Use.