Before there was Buffy... Before there was The X Files...

There was Kolchak: The Night Stalker. Just did a search on amazon.com looking for some '70s television shows I wouldn't mind having on DVD. These include the Six Million Dollar Man, the Bionic Woman, and Kolchak, the Night Stalker. No one has thought it worthwhile to commit any of these to DVD. Surely Lee Majors, Lindsay Wagner, and Darren McGavin must need the money...

The Night Stalker was on television roundabout 1973 or '74. I don't think it ran for more than two seasons. The original movie, The Night Stalker featured a hardbitten reporter in a rumpled white suit named Karl Kolchak who comes to suspect that a Las Vegas serial killer is in fact one of the Undead. It spawned a series. Every week, Kolchak was presented with some new supernatural phenomenon, a disbelieving world, and hostile authority figures. There was the headless, sword wielding motorcycle rider. There was the fashion model who practiced witchcraft. There was the Cajun swamp monster. There was the shape shifting Hindu demon. There was the animated knight in armor. There was the zombie. There was the werewolf on a cruise ship. There was the malevolent Indian spirit. There was the prehistoric reptile.

It was all so cool. Chris Carter, the creator of the X Files, acknowledges The Night Stalker to be a major influence. And I see a lot of similarity.

I would love to have those shows on DVD, to watch again and again and again.

Hello, Television Land? Anyone listening?

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