It’s official: ABC has cancelled its revival of Kolchak: The Night Stalker after only six episodes. I want to go on the record as saying that I really enjoyed this show, but also that I can see why it struggled to pop a Nielsen number that would make ABC happy. Night Stalker was too X-Files – and not enough Kolchak. Not that I have anything against The X-Files (but it also wasn’t my favorite genre show ever to pop up), but Kolchak and Perri really seemed to be Mulder and Scully all over again, minus the FBI ID badges. Many of the stories seemed strangely familiar. And quite frankly, if they were planning on using the memory of the original show as part of the new series’ stock in trade, they should have at least watched the original for something other than a handy clip of Darren McGavin to slip in as a joke shot in the pilot – they should’ve watched his portrayal and written something of that humor into Kolchak v2.0. Stuart Townsend was capable of getting a laugh in The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and I felt a little bit betrayed that we didn’t get a younger-but-still-just-as-curmudgeonly-lovable-lout version of Kolchak here.
Alas, I fear they axed it just as the show was getting good. And if they leave us hanging on last week’s cliffhanger until the inevitable “complete series” DVD set, I shall walk among the ABC brass with a whip.
R.I.P., Night Stalker. We hardly knew ye.
P.S. This also means that that Night Stalker promotional goodies that theLogBook.com is giving away in the latest contest are now officially collectible. Go ye forth and enter.
You May Also Like
Still Trekkin’, still talkin’
January 16, 2024
Trekkin’ and Talkin’ Times Two
January 15, 2023
The Cliff Notes of the Book of Boba Fett
February 13, 2022
The heck of it is, Peter David’s site reports that Mira Furlan was supposed to guest star on an episode in December.
Still, can’t say I blame the network if the audience wasn’t there. I’m probably a little biased. I caught the tail end of the Night Stalker panel in San Diego, after the audience had seen the pilot, and the vibe I got was distinctly of “We’re not too sure about this” variety.
I think the biggest problem with Night Stalker was the attempt to tie it in to the original *at all* – the cutesy Darren McGavin clip, the name of the show, the names of the carryover characters…because it just patently wasn’t the original Kolchak: Night Stalker. The original had a very quirky humor all its own that was totally absent (I’m probably repeating myself here), and the new one…well…it completely missed that. (Granted, it’s hard to really judge that with only six episodes behind us.)
I liked this show, but I think trying to tie it in to K:TNS was a fatal error; it has its own cult following that was never going to put up with anything that wasn’t the original, or something slavishly similar to the original. It could’ve been a completely different show about a completely different reporter obsessed with the paranormal and unexplained events, and while I’m sure some viewers and critics would’ve drawn the comparison, the show wouldn’t have been begging for the comparison.