Adios, Night Stalker.
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.… Read more
