Free Republic

Any NetFlix folks -- check out Episode 7 of Kolchak: The Night Stalker. It's about how a crooked Chicago politician, "who could have been a zero," aims for the top. Worth a watch!

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Darren McGavin at approximately 7:10 A.M. Pacific time today, Saturday 25, 2006. Darren was just three months short of his 84th birthday. While we suspect none of us can imagine a world without the beloved, feisty little red-head, it is time to reflect, give thanks for his life and hold in reverence his memory. Darren is gone, but in many respects he will always be with us: as Carl Kolchak, fighting authority and battling monsters; the grumpy Old Man sending curses over Lake Michigan; as David Ross, the outsider,...

ABC is turning out the lights on its freshman series "Night Stalker," pulling the plug after six episodes that struggled to find audiences up against TV's top-rated series, "CSI."

NIGHT STALKER. Tonight at 9, ABC. In two immensely popular telemovies and one season of a less popular spinoff series in the 1970s, Darren McGavin played Carl Kolchak, a persistent middle-aged reporter whose nose for news kept sniffing out evidence of the paranormal. "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" was the spiritual father of "The X-Files," so it's only fitting that one of the writer-producers of "The X-Files" has been handed the task of updating Kolchak for a new generation. Viewers coming to the premiere of ABC's "Night Stalker" tonight at 9 would be wise to picture themselves as armchair Kolchaks: Each...

Stuart Townsend, previously seen as Anne Rice's vampire protagonist in Queen of the Damned and as Dorian Gray in the film adaptation of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, has been tapped to play Jeff Rice's intrepid reporter that faces the supernatural, Carl Kolchak. The new pilot for The Night Stalker is being produced by former X-Files Executive producer, Frank Spotnitz, and was commissioned by ABC, who is eager to find the next big supernatural franchise. The evidence of tinkering with the concept is evident just by the casting notices: Kolchak has been given a "partner" to be played in the...