Kolchak: The Night Stalker

The predecessor to The X-Files

Kolchak: The Night Stalker first aired on ABC in 1974, featuring Carl Kolchak a reporter played by Darren McGavin - who investigates crimes with mysterious causes that the authorities won't recognise. The series was preceded by two television movies The Night Stalker (1972) and The Night Strangler (1973).

The series has been described as the predecessor to The X-Files (1993-2002) and X-Files creator, Chris Carter, has acknowledged the shows influence.

In fact Carter paid homage to Kolchak in a number of ways. A character named "Richard Matheson", named for the screenwriter of the pilot films, appeared in several episodes. Carter also wanted McGavin to appear as Kolchak in one or more episodes of The X-Files, but McGavin was unwilling to allow this. McGavin did eventually appear in several episodes as a retired FBI agent described as the "father of the X-Files".

The series version was set in Chicago and Kolchak was a reporter for the Independent News Service (INS). The series also featured Simon Oakland, as Kolchak's editor; Ron Updyke (Jack Grinnage) as a supercilious rival at INS; and Emily Cowles (Ruth McDevitt) as an elderly advice columnist. Each week Kolchak investigated murders involving SciFi and supernatural creatures.  Other recurring characters included Monique Marmelstein (Carol Ann Susi) as an intern whose father owned the INS, Gordy "The Ghoul" Spangler (John Fiedler) as a helpful morgue attendant who ran lotteries based on corpse statistics, and Captain "Mad Dog" Siska (Keenan Wynn), a Chicago officer who found his efforts to reign in his temper through group therapy constantly thwarted by Kolchak's abrasive nature.

The series was canceled after one year due to mediocre ratings and at the behest of McGavin himself, as he had been unhappy the exhausting filming schedule and the horror genre direction the program took. McGavin has been quoted numerous times stating that he did, however, like and encourage the series' emphasis on comedy and its quirky family of office characters.

Two television movies, The Demon and the Mummy and Crackle of Death, were cobbled together in 1976, with each new movie being composed of two previously screened episodes from the series. A voice-over provided by McGavin allowed for some continuity in the narrative. Due to this reediting, the four actual episodes were removed from the syndication package and were unavailable in their original format until Columbia House released them on VHS.

The series is now occasionally rerun on the Sci-Fi Channel with its original expanded title, Kolchak: The Night Stalker.

David Chase, creator of The Sopranos, worked on the series as a story editor, his first regular job in the industry. He is credited for eight episodes but as story editor helped in the rewriting of the remaining 12, and McGavin and others attribute much of the show's quirky humor to his creative input.

In 2005 the series was recreated with Stuart Townsend in the title role.