Kolchak: The Night Stalker

LOVED LOVED LOVED this. Sorry it only got one season, but it covered a lot. A reporter covering the night shift comes in contact with the supernatural, occult and monsters. Two decades before X-Files, there was Kolchak! Great job Darren McGavin!

Kolchak has a rich pop culture context as the predecessor to The X-Files, Millennium and all supernatural procedurals that followed, but viewed today it exists more as a charming anthology of dollar store Halloween costumed monsters. The only episode I found to be atmospheric was the Hindu demon-based one, the rest were a mix of either forgettable or cheesy fun (cruise ship werewolf, headless biker swordsman, underground T-Rex). If you're interested in the premise start with the TV movies.

It was never going to last, and it seems dated now, but for 1974 this was some super cool dark shit.

I remember loving this when it was first on TV... of course, I was 15 and haven't seen it since. Still, there are scenes from this I still remember vividly to this day.

Gotta love McGavin and his off-beat and ever-indignant newspaper man's investigations but the first episode is pretty bland. But the first tv movie ("The Night Stalker" from 1972) is rather delightful. (101: 55)