ABC airs the seventh episode of Kolchak: The Night Stalker, based on Jeff Rice’s novel and the 1972 TV movie The Night Stalker, starring Darren McGavin. Tom Skerritt and Stanley Adams guest star. 
A series of mysterious deaths plague players from both parties during a Senatorial election. At the site of one death, an elevator crash, Kolchak witnesses a mysterious dog and manages to grab a strange pentagram amulet about its neck. The lead candidate, Robert Palmer, disappears until the dog later attacks Kolchak and recovers the amulet. The inexplicable nature of the deaths, and the presence of a similar amulet about Palmer’s neck, convince Kolchak that the politician has sold his soul to Satan in return for a guaranteed ascension from obscurity to the Presidency itself. Kolchak must confront Palmer and destroy the symbol of his demonic pact.
written by Donn Mullaly
from a story by Tim Maschler
directed by Allen Baron
music by Jerry FieldingCast: Darren McGavin (Carl Kolchak), Simon Oakland (Tony Vincenzo), Tom Skerritt (Robert Palmer), Julie Gregg (Susan Driscoll), Ellen Weston (Lorraine Palmer), Jack Grinnage (Ron Updyke), Ruth McDevitt (Edith Cowels), John Myhers (James Talbot), Jeanne Cooper (Dr. Kline), Bill Mims (Officer Hale), Robert DoQui (Park Policeman), Dick Paterson (Stephan Wald), Stanley Adams (Bartender), Bill Welsh (TV Announcer)
Notes: Miss Emily Cowles (Ruth McDevitt) returns from a trip to the Vatican in this episode, although she appears in an earlier episode (The Werewolf) as “Edith Cowels.” Internal consistency was not a strong point of the series. This episode, with its commentary on politics, journalism, and religion, probably has the sharpest dialogue of the series.
LogBook entry by Steve Crowe