#darren mcgavin

[chernobog13]

Carl Kolchak: The Night Stalker.

All you young 'uns out there: forget that very lame early 2000's remake series, and hunt down the original (it's streaming on several services, including Amazon, Peacock, and Roku).

This series - along with the two television movies that spawned it (The Night Stalker, 1972, and The Night Strangler, 1973) - was the scariest thing on television at the time. It is also one of the primary influences on the creation of The X-Files.

The fact that Kolchak: The Night Stalker aired at 10pm on Friday nights made it even scarier, for me at least. I was usually home on Fridays, babysitting my younger siblings who had early bedtimes, so I was the only one awake in the house. And we lived in a very rural area with no streetlights, with a very large (2,500+ acres), scary forest across the street that all the kids in the neighborhood swore housed at least one Bigfoot. So yeah, I made sure there were a lot of lights on when I watched this show.

Heck, even today I get chills down my spine when I hear the theme music.

[pierppasolini]

A Christmas Story (1983) // dir. Bob Clark

[georgeromeros]

Dead Heat (1988) dir. Mark Goldblatt

"Hi, Doug. Welcome to zombie land."

[vintagetvstars]

Darren McGavin Vs. Peter Falk

Propaganda

Darren McGavin - (Kolchak: The Night Stalker) - No text propaganda

Peter Falk - (Columbo) - Honestly he's just my silly lil guy in his silly lil trenchcoat with his silly lil dog named Dog. He's scrungly, he's sexy, he's clever, he annoys and outwits and fucks with rich people who think they're The Shit and can get away with injustices and murder— I could go on and on and on. But no one but Peter Falk could have brought this man to life, in this house we love and adore him.

Master Poll List | How to submit propaganda | What is vintage? (FAQ)

Additional propaganda below the cut

Darren McGavin:

Peter Falk:

There's something about a short lil guy that's enchanting...I love a non-threatening man

Columbo in just a tank top

weird little guy of all time

[citizenscreen]

Darren McGavin (May 7, 1922 – February 25, 2006)

[oldshowbiz]

[haveyouseenthismovie-poll]

[generationexorcist]

50 Years Ago, the Most Important Horror Show You’ve Never Heard of Debuted

It’s rare for a show to be both influential and forgotten. Star Trek may have struggled in its time, but everyone is at least passingly familiar with its booming multimedia empire today. Much less well-known, despite its knock-on effect on genre television, is Kolchak: The Night Stalker. Most famously a major influence on X-Files creator Chris Carter, Kolchak has its fans, but struggled to elevate itself amid a scattered broadcast history.

Starring Darren McGavin as oddball investigative reporter Carl Kolchak, the franchise began life as an unpublished novel that spawned a 1972 TV movie about hunting down a Las Vegas vampire. When The Night Stalker became, according to Variety, the most viewed made-for-TV movie to date, it led to a sequel about another monster, which in turn gave us a TV show that aired its first episode 50 years ago and died an inglorious death just months later...

Inverse

[backinthebottle52]

[diabolikdiabolik]

Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974-1975)

[bruceshideout]

[brokehorrorfan]

Broke Horror Fan has an exclusive look inside Monstrous Books' new edition of Jeff Rice's Kolchak: The Night Stalker, the original 1973 novel on which the classic made-for-TV movie and subsequent series were based.

It features cover art and spot illustrations by Russ Braun, a foreword by actor David Dastmalchian, an afterword by screenwriter Rodney Barnes, and an an essay on Rice by Kolchak expert Mark Dawidziak.

Limited to 1973 copies, the hardcover book is available for $39 on Kickstarter. You can also get an e-book for $12, among other perks. They're expected to be delivered in November.

Read the first chapter of Kolchak: The Night Stalker below.

The corpses of young women – many of whom are working night jobs – are discovered, drained of blood, with unusual puncture marks on their necks.

[fitsofgloom]

It's very poetic that Darren McGavin -- who played the monster-hunting reporter on "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" -- and actress/horror hostess Maila "Vampira" Nurmi are interred within mere feet of each other in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

[mycroftholmesian]

Kolchak: The Night Stalker - September 13, 1974

On this day the ground breaking series premiered.

[dirtyriver]

Ad for Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer starring Darren McGavin, 1958

[citizenscreen]

Remembering Darren McGavin on his birthday #botd