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Posted: |
Feb 26, 2021 - 3:52 PM
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By: |
dragon53
(Member)
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I think KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER should have been a tv movie, as originally intended, because the "Monster of the Week" was difficult to come up with and write a different monster every week. Also, it should have been based at a national newspaper (i.e. THE NATIONAL ENQUIRER, USA TODAY, etc.), which would have given it a national or international setting instead of Chicago---a monster attacking Chicago every week undermined the show's credibility. A national newspaper would have allowed Kolchak to be a reporter who was assigned to investigate bizarre murders, etc. and would have had more appealing settings such as New York, Washington, DC, Area 51, Roswell, New Mexico, London, etc. For example, Kolchak travels to Romania to investigate the origin of vampire Janos Skorzeny from the original tv movie
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Posted: |
Feb 27, 2021 - 9:29 AM
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By: |
Warlok
(Member)
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I think KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER should have been a tv movie, as originally intended, because the "Monster of the Week" was difficult to come up with and write a different monster every week. Also, it should have been based at a national newspaper (i.e. THE NATIONAL ENQUIRER, USA TODAY, etc.), which would have given it a national or international setting instead of Chicago---a monster attacking Chicago every week undermined the show's credibility. A national newspaper would have allowed Kolchak to be a reporter who was assigned to investigate bizarre murders, etc. and would have had more appealing settings such as New York, Washington, DC, Area 51, Roswell, New Mexico, London, etc. For example, Kolchak travels to Romania to investigate the origin of vampire Janos Skorzeny from the original tv movie I agree, although I am still floored that network people greenlit a series but gave a starvation-wage budget to it. Were that not the case, a locale-spanning yarn might have been part of the mix. I *still* would have loved to have seen a series of ghastly murders over multiple episodes, where Kolchak slowly uncovers the truth of a totally human 'monster' - a gangster - utilizing supernatural backgrounds to disguise his own base crimes. One person was the real target, others were just dressing to suggest a distractional mythology. The hard-nosed Kolchak, with his experience dealing with the political and real hard life, could have had a great reveal/confrontational moment with the gangster. "You know... I've seen a lot of strange things in my years. Stuff so remarkably fantastic that you'd never believe the nightmare was anything more than a feverish dream of a man terminally starved of sleep. But you prove the rule. You make all those dark fairytales possible. As real as glistening steel." "You're an old testament man if I ever saw one. And I hope you think hard about that. And if you don't quite get it now... well, it'll come to ya." And as a fitting denouement, when the gangster is sitting alone in jail, his victim's spirit comes back to exact a gruesome revenge. The End.
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Posted: |
Feb 27, 2021 - 9:36 AM
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By: |
Solium
(Member)
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I think KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER should have been a tv movie, as originally intended, because the "Monster of the Week" was difficult to come up with and write a different monster every week. Also, it should have been based at a national newspaper (i.e. THE NATIONAL ENQUIRER, USA TODAY, etc.), which would have given it a national or international setting instead of Chicago---a monster attacking Chicago every week undermined the show's credibility. A national newspaper would have allowed Kolchak to be a reporter who was assigned to investigate bizarre murders, etc. and would have had more appealing settings such as New York, Washington, DC, Area 51, Roswell, New Mexico, London, etc. For example, Kolchak travels to Romania to investigate the origin of vampire Janos Skorzeny from the original tv movie I agree, although I am still floored that network people greenlit a series but gave a starvation-wage budget to it. Were that not the case, a locale-spanning yarn might have been part of the mix. I *still* would have loved to have seen a series of ghastly murders over multiple episodes, where Kolchak slowly uncovers the truth of a totally human 'monster' - a gangster - utilizing supernatural backgrounds to disguise his own base crimes. One person was the real target, others were just dressing to suggest a distractional mythology. The hard-nosed Kolchak, with his experience dealing with the political and real hard life, could have had a great reveal/confrontational moment with the gangster. "You know... I've seen a lot of strange things in my years. Stuff so remarkably fantastic that you'd never believe the nightmare was anything more than a feverish dream of a man terminally starved of sleep. But you prove the rule. You make all those dark fairytales possible. As real as glistening steel." "You're an old testament man if I ever saw one. And I hope you think hard about that. And if you don't quite get it now... well, it'll come to ya." And as a fitting denouement, when the gangster is sitting alone in jail, his victim's spirit comes back to exact a gruesome revenge. The End. Well that wasn't the premise of the series. Sounds like you wanted Scooby Doo. That would've been a huge disappointment. I love the supernatural feel of the series and each episode ends as a mystery. No self respecting publication would put their name on a series about voodoo, zombies, vampires and aliens. That wouldn't be good for business.
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Posted: |
Feb 27, 2021 - 2:13 PM
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By: |
Warlok
(Member)
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I think KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER should have been a tv movie, as originally intended, because the "Monster of the Week" was difficult to come up with and write a different monster every week. Also, it should have been based at a national newspaper (i.e. THE NATIONAL ENQUIRER, USA TODAY, etc.), which would have given it a national or international setting instead of Chicago---a monster attacking Chicago every week undermined the show's credibility. A national newspaper would have allowed Kolchak to be a reporter who was assigned to investigate bizarre murders, etc. and would have had more appealing settings such as New York, Washington, DC, Area 51, Roswell, New Mexico, London, etc. For example, Kolchak travels to Romania to investigate the origin of vampire Janos Skorzeny from the original tv movie I agree, although I am still floored that network people greenlit a series but gave a starvation-wage budget to it. Were that not the case, a locale-spanning yarn might have been part of the mix. I *still* would have loved to have seen a series of ghastly murders over multiple episodes, where Kolchak slowly uncovers the truth of a totally human 'monster' - a gangster - utilizing supernatural backgrounds to disguise his own base crimes. One person was the real target, others were just dressing to suggest a distractional mythology. The hard-nosed Kolchak, with his experience dealing with the political and real hard life, could have had a great reveal/confrontational moment with the gangster. "You know... I've seen a lot of strange things in my years. Stuff so remarkably fantastic that you'd never believe the nightmare was anything more than a feverish dream of a man terminally starved of sleep. But you prove the rule. You make all those dark fairytales possible. As real as glistening steel." "You're an old testament man if I ever saw one. And I hope you think hard about that. And if you don't quite get it now... well, it'll come to ya." And as a fitting denouement, when the gangster is sitting alone in jail, his victim's spirit comes back to exact a gruesome revenge. The End. Well that wasn't the premise of the series. Sounds like you wanted Scooby Doo. That would've been a huge disappointment. I love the supernatural feel of the series and each episode ends as a mystery. No self respecting publication would put their name on a series about voodoo, zombies, vampires and aliens. That wouldn't be good for business. What are you talking about? Such a tale as I proposed was a finite episode story, maybe 2 or 3 shows. Darren McGavin's gripe with the series was it was indeed a monster-of-the-week feature. This breaks that up. And it also builds upon Kolchak's investigative instincts. It would have been different, and a good contrast to the night-stalking.
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I agree, although I am still floored that network people greenlit a series but gave a starvation-wage budget to it. Were that not the case, a locale-spanning yarn might have been part of the mix. The backlot cities that Universal used were always easy to spot. All of the major studios had the same problem. So even if they went from city to city, they would have looked the same. Trying to watch the early episodes of It Takes a Thief requires a lot of suspension of disbelief as each city looks the damned same.
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