When I was a kid during the 70s, the made-for-television film was in its infancy, having been developed by Barry Diller at ABC.  One of the earliest examples of a MOW (movie of the week) that was so popular, it spawned not only more MOWs but a series as well, was Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1972).  It was about a hack journalist Carl Kolchak who went about digging up the dirt on serial killers who often were of the paranormal variety, such as vampires, all while wearing a seersucker suit and straw hat — kind of like Harold Hill in a Wes Craven movie.  The series didn’t live up to the movies and Darren McGavin, who played Kolchak, himself closed the series down by asking out of his contract after 20 episodes because he saw the show was becoming a parody of itself.  Its legacy remains as the granddaddy of the genre that begat shows such as Twin Peaks and The X-Files decades after.

Now 30 years later, the powers at ABC looked to their vault for ideas since listening to any original stories must be too strenuous.  They resurrected The Night Stalker (Thursday, 9 p.m.), tapping producer Frank Spotnitz (The X-Files) to bring the series back from the dead.  From one who saw the original, the current The Night Stalker should not be borrowing the title because it resembles little from the original, a show that was adept at using humor to temper the more gruesome aspects, at least for 1970s audiences.  Through the genius of Darren McGavin’s melting skeptic performance, the show never took the paranormal and serial killer themes too seriously.  This new version axes the humor altogether and tries to sex it up with a hunk playing Kolchak (Stuart Townsend) and giving him a babe, Perri Reed (Gabrielle Union), as a new partner in covering crime.  After viewing the first few shows, it looks like Spotnitz is trying to rekindle that old Mulder-Scully, are-they-or-aren’t-they relationship that was strung out for years on The X-Files, but hopefully the Kolchak-Reed hook-up will be all business for quite some time.  It seems the network suits don’t think a Darren McGavin-type character would fly in today’s TV culture. His Kolchak was an almost comic throwback to the smarmy tabloid reporters of the 1950s; this Kolchak is a brooding, noted, maverick journalist with a crawl in his gut because the FBI thinks he killed his wife.  It is his quest to find out what or who really killed her.  Do I hear Mulder crying in the background?

I was all prepared not to like this incarnation of The Night Stalker, but after viewing the first three episodes, it has grown on me — and though I think they should have called it something else, I believe it deserves an audience.  It is more down-to-earth and real than The X-Files but still with shocks and twisty storylines to keep you watching.  I hope the relationship isn’t pushed between the two leads and they give more airtime to the supporting players, Jain (Eric Jungmann), the Jimmy Olsen-like photographer, and the newspaper editor Vincenzo (Cotter Smith).  Thursday is no “Must-See TV” anymore, but if you have nothing better to do, tune in to The Night Stalker for some small-screen thrills and chills.  If you were watching closely to the pilot, you may have seen Spotnitz’s homage to Darren McGavin as he digitally placed his Kolchak into a newsroom scene.  Nice touch.

The Night Stalker is worth a try.

Rich Burlingham