Review of Kolchak: The Night Stalker

Kolchak was vastly under-appreciated in its day. In fact, I don't think I knew anyone else that watched the show in its first run - or at least would admit to watching it. Canceled after only twenty episodes in a Friday night time slot, it was pretty much forgotten until twenty years later when its basic format became the inspiration for the X-Files. Kolchak was a reporter on the trail of the supernatural. Like murders following Jessica Fletcher in "Murder She Wrote", the stories would sometimes find Kolchak rather than Kolchak always chasing the story. What made this series different from TV shows prior to it was that the government was shown to be suppressing attempts by Kolchak to get at the truth in just about every instance. This was a first in TV shows, and is possibly attributable to the fact that this show premiered about a month after Watergate blew wide open and the president was forced to resign. Although there are many similarities between this show and The X-Files, Carl Kolchak was no Fox Mulder in appearance or style. Like Peter Falk's Columbo, Kolchak wore crumpled attire and had an annoying way about him, but he did get results. Also, each episode of Kolchak was pretty much self-contained. There was no long-running story arc, such as Mulder's search for the truth in what he believed to be the alien abduction of his sister driving him to look for proof of alien existence. If you like shows about the supernatural and you can handle a little 1970's nostalgia and some cheesy special effects, I advise you give this series a try if you ever run across it.