Misteretc
11-16-2012, 03:04 AM
Kolchak: The Night Stalker is an American television series that aired on ABC during the 1974-1975 season. It featured a fictional Chicago newspaper reporter—Carl Kolchak, played by Darren McGavin—who investigates mysterious crimes with unlikely causes, particularly ones law enforcement authorities won't pursue. Often these crimes involve some element of the supernatural or science fiction, such as fantastical creatures.
The series was preceded by two television movies, The Night Stalker (1971) and The Night Strangler (1973). While the series only lasted for one season, it remained popular in syndication, and is often credited as the inspiration for the popular television series The X-Files. Following The X-Files' success, the franchise was resurrected in 2005 in the form of a second television series with a new cast and characters, as well as subsequent novels and comic books.
The entire series is available in syndication and is occasionally rerun on the Sci-Fi Channel under its original expanded title, Kolchak: The Night Stalker. In 2008, it began running on Chiller. It is also available on DVD and streaming from Netflix.
Origins
The Kolchak character originated in an unpublished novel, The Kolchak Papers, written by Jeff Rice. In the novel, Las Vegas newspaper reporter Carl Kolchak tracks down and defeats a serial killer who turns out to be a vampire named Janos Skorzeny. Although the main protagonist in the novel uses the name "Carl", the book reveals that his birth name is "Karel". Once the TV movie and its sequel TV movie aired, the original novel was published in 1973 by Pocket Books as a mass-market paperback original under the title The Night Stalker with a Darren McGavin photo cover to tie in with the movie.
The novelization of the second television movie The Night Strangler (also written by Jeff Rice but based this time on Richard Matheson's original script) was published in 1974 by Pocket Books.
Both books were republished by Moonstone in 2007 as an omnibus edition called The Kolchak Papers. Moonstone Books has continued to produce Kolchak comic stories.
The Night Stalker
ABC approached Rice with an offer to option The Kolchak Papers, which eventually was adapted by Richard Matheson into a television movie called The Night Stalker. It was produced by Dan Curtis and directed by John Llewellyn Moxey. Darren McGavin played the role of Carl. The cast also included Carol Lynley, Simon Oakland, Ralph Meeker, Claude Akins, Charles McGraw, Kent Smith, Stanley Adams, Elisha Cook Jr., Larry Linville, Jordan Rhodes, and Barry Atwater as the vampire Janos Skorzeny.
The Night Stalker first aired January 11, 1972, and garnered the highest ratings of any television movie at that time (33.2 rating – 54 share). Matheson received a 1973 Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best TV Feature or Miniseries Teleplay.
The Night Strangler
Impressed by the success of the first television movie, ABC commissioned Richard Matheson to write a second movie, The Night Strangler (1973), which featured another serial killer in Seattle who strangled his victims and used their blood to keep himself alive for over a century. Kolchak recruits exotic dancer and psychology student Louise Harper (Jo Ann Pflug) to assist him in tracking down the eponymous strangler.
A fictitious version of the Seattle Underground City was used as a setting for much of the movie's action, and provided the killer with his hiding place. Dan Curtis both produced and directed the second movie, which also did well in the ratings. Rice then wrote a novelization based on Matheson's screenplay, a reverse of the situation for the first movie. The novel was published in 1974 by Pocket Books as a mass-market paperback original under the title The Night Strangler with a close-up of the monster's eye to tie in with the movie.
Simon Oakland reprised his earlier role as Kolchak's editor, Tony Vincenzo. The cast also included Richard Anderson, Scott Brady, Wally Cox, Margaret Hamilton, John Carradine, Nina Wayne and Al Lewis.
Several scenes were filmed with George Tobias playing a reporter who recalled a series of murders he had investigated during the 1930s. These scenes were cut from the version aired because of time constraints.
Music
Robert Cobert scored the music for the original television movies. Gil Mell� wrote the music for the TV series, beginning with the theme that begins with Kolchak whistling in the opening credits. Mell� was hired and the theme was written in 20 minutes, just before the opening credits were shot.[7]
Mell� left the series after the fourth episode, saying it was becoming too light-hearted.[8] Composer Jerry Fielding took over scoring music for the remaining series, augmented by one score each from Greg McRitchie (best known for his collaborations with Fielding, James Horner) and Luchi De Jesus). Music Supervisor Hal Mooney re-used much of Mell�'s score in various later episodes (most notably The Spanish Moss Murders which has no credited score composer) along with material from the other composers.
Two soundtrack albums have been produced. One released in 2000 by Var�se Sarabande features two suites of Cobert's music from the TV movies. The other, a Universal Television soundtrack released in 2002, features Mell�'s theme and scores written for the first three episodes (The Ripper, U.F.O. and Vampire).
The Mell� theme also appears on the TVT Records' Television's Greatest Hits Volume 5. However, all licensed soundtrack recordings of the theme use an otherwise rare original recording alternate take of the theme. Initially identifiable by the altered opening whistle, an off-key electronic note is seemingly randomly introduced towards the end, but when synchronized with picture it corresponds to a specific visual. Mell� was known for his innovative use of electronic orchestration (which was used throughout the series), however the producers chose not to include this stylistic element in his main title for broadcast, instead opting for a more conventional all-orchestral sound.
According to the Wikipedia article some scores were released in 2000 and in 2002. Does anyone have them? And if so can you please post them?