Kolchak - the Night Stalker: Complete Series [DVD]

Finally the UK is to get this fantastic series on DVD.
I'm not talking about the recent rehash but the original 1970's classic starring Darren Mcgavin.
For those who don't know this is the show spawned from two of the most successful tv movies ever made- 'The Night Stalker' and 'The Night Strangler' and is noted as the inspiration behind 'The X-Files'.
Only one season was made of this creepy series due to US networks reluctance (at the time) of providing a geniunely scary weekly tv show, favouring the bog standard cop shows of the time.
Each week Carl Kolchak, a reporter of a newspaper investigated supernatural cases involving vampires, werewolves, monsters and the like much to the bewilderment and frustration of his editor and the relationship between these two characters provided some comic relief in a show that once seen is never forgotten.
British tv at the time didn't know how to take it and only a few regions actually screened it. It wasn't until years later that the majority of the UK got to see it and even then it was treated unfairly. Shown by the BBC on 'Mystery Train' - a late night combination of this and horror films in general, presented by Richard O'Brian, the show hacked off half of the opening credits and dropped the closing ones completely for the first 6 or 7 episodes before it finally got the respect it deserved and even now not many people have seen the entire series and probably half the population still don't even know of its existance.
Having recorded 16 of the 20 episodes made and having seen each one countless of times I'm so glad that at last I'll be able to see the missing 4 from my collection and to have them all on DVD.
For those of you in the know I'm sure you are all looking forward to finally getting one of the most influential TV programmes ever made.
Reserve my copy now!!

Whenever I think of Kolchak I always remember being allowed to stop up late to watch it. I couldn't believe after years of waiting that they finally realeased it in America. I ordered it before it's release and even waited the agonising weeks to get it over to the UK! I watched about four episodes in one day. Even now I think it is one of the best shows ever. Darren McGavin is excellent as the hard working reporter always out to get his story whatever he faces in the night! The stories are entertaining & even now still quite spooky. It's well worth watching even to those who've never seen it before. If you like weird stories about vampires, life prolonging elixers, American Indian spirits werewolves and all! this is for you.

It's full of comedy, drama, horror well just everything for everyone!

I watched these shows in the 80s or 90s & thought they were brilliant, I couldn't wait for the boxed set to go on sale here.

I was expecting it to be a bit like revisiting somewhere you thought was huge when you were younger but find it's not nearly so big when you're an adult. However, I wasn't disappointed, it's just as good second time around.

Ok, so a few of the stories are a bit daft & pre CGI, the special effects are a sometimes very suspect but the acting is superb. Darren McGavin is brilliant as the scruffy but tenacious reporter Kolchak & the banter between him & Simon Oakland (who plays his editor) is hilarious. The fact that he lies, tricks people into doing things for him & rides roughshod through any rules & regulations just seems to make him more likeable - you know he's in the right & it somehow doesn't matter that he hasn't played totally fair to get to the bottom of each mystery (he is, after all, also protecting the general public)

Haven't seen them all yet - those we have, we watched on wintry Saturday afternoons. Very atmospheric. The clocks haven't even gone forward yet & I'm already waiting for October & the dark so we can watch the rest.