The Night Stalker
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The Night Stalker

Released 1972
Distributor ABC
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Produced by Dan Curtis and directed by John Llewellyn Moxey, The Night Stalker was one of the most popular TV movies in history, a bracing mix of retro horror and 70s exploitation with an inspired setting: Las Vegas, where everyone keeps vampire hours. Darren McGavin is none other than Carl Kolchak who is perhaps the most retro thing about this beloved show; a harried reporter who could have stepped out of a newsroom comedy from the 30s. The Night Strangler was the inevitable sequel, followed by a weekly series, Kolchak: The Night Stalker.
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Decades

About Dr. Z

Dr. Z There are entertainers who only need one name: Sammy, Frank, Cher. To that list you can add Dr. Solomon Francis Zed. Dr. Z has been entertaining audiences for decades with a patented combination of showmanship and pizzaz that Lew Wasserman once described as, “a tall glass of yes with a wow chaser.” After gaining fame with his wildly successful nightclub act, Dr. Z established his acting bona fides on Broadway with a one-man show based on Twelve Angry Men and followed it up with a Tony winning version of The Shining called Overlookin’. On film, he played Abe Lincoln in an extended flashback sequence in The Towering Inferno that ended up on the cutting room floor, but picked up an Oscar the following year playing an arachnophobic priest who faces his fears in the disaster blockbuster Tarantulanche! Never tiring, Dr. Z still bounds out of bed every afternoon to fill any empty spotlight he can find.

5 comments

  1. Edward Sullivan

    I always had hopes that Karl would reunite with Gail in the final series episode, but was glad when TPTB, and likely Darrin McGavin, stuck with the moral of the stories: that there was no limit to the good Karl could due, as long as he didn’t really expect to get credit for any of it, and kept his suitcase packed at all times…

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