Night Stalker (TV series)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Night Stalker
Genre	Science Fiction Drama
Running time	approx. 42 minutes
Creator(s)	Frank Spotnitz, based on the original series concept by Jeffrey Grant Rice
Starring	Stuart Townsend Gabrielle Union Eric Jungmann Cotter Smith
Country of origin	United States
Original channel	ABC
Original run	September 29, 2005–November 10, 2005
No. of episodes	10
IMDb profile

Night Stalker is a 2005 television series that aired on ABC. The series starred Stuart Townsend as Carl Kolchak, an investigative reporter whose wife was murdered. Kolchak spends his time investigating other strange murders, believing they are linked in some way to his wife's murder. He is helped along the way by fellow crime reporter Perri Reed (Gabrielle Union), photographer Jain McManus (Eric Jungman) and editor Anthony Vincenzo (Cotter Smith).

Night Stalker was a re-vision of the 1974 series Kolchak: The Night Stalker. ABC owned the rights to the original TV movies, but not the Universal TV series, and were limited only to using characters that had appeared in those movies.

Its premiere episode aired on September 29 on Thursday nights at 9 P.M. against CSI: Crime Scene Investigation on CBS, The Apprentice on NBC and the 2005 MLB Playoffs on FOX. Night Stalker was cancelled after six episodes due to low ratings. However, the Sci-Fi Channel saw interest in the series and aired all ten filmed episodes during the summer of 2006.

The last episode that was aired was the first of a multi-part episode, so viewers never saw the end of the sixth story. However, some time after the cancellation, the seventh episode appeared on Apple's iTunes Music Store for download. On February 7, 2006, the final three episodes were released on iTunes.

1 Characters
- 1.1 Main characters
- 1.2 Recurring characters
2 DVD release
3 Other airings and cancellation
4 Episodes
5 What would have happened
6 Trivia
7 External links

[edit] Characters

[edit] Main characters

Carl Kolchak (Stuart Townsend): The "believer". Reporter for the L.A. Beacon newspaper; continuously search for his wife's murderer and supernatural happenings in LA.

Perri Reed (Gabrielle Union): The "skeptic". Head crime reporter for the L.A. Beacon. She helps Kolchak in his cases of the paranormal, although she looks at the cases "normally".

Jain McManus (Eric Jungman): Kolchak's "open-minded" friend. He is a photographer for the L.A. Beacon.

Anthony Vincenzo (Cotter Smith): Editor of the L.A. Beacon. A friend of Kolchak's who hired him as a favor after they worked together in Las Vegas.

Agent Fain (John Pyper-Ferguson): Kolchak's nemesis, a FBI agent who believed Kolchak murdered his wife and made up a bizarre story to cover up his involvement.

[edit] Recurring characters

"Edhead" (Loreni Delgado): Technology specialist for the L.A. Beacon. Friend of Jain's.
Alex Nyby (Eugene Byrd): Coroner's assistant at the L.A. Morgue. A contact of Kolchak's who was romantically interested in Peri.

[edit] DVD release

Night Stalker: The Complete Series was released on May 30, 2006. The set includes all ten episodes; commentary on the episodes "Pilot" and "The Sea, Part Two"; deleted scenes; a featurette entitled "A Conversation with Frank Spotnitz"; and unproduced scripts for the DVD-ROM.

[edit] Other airings and cancellation

On November 13, 2005, Frank Spotnitz announced on his blog that Night Stalker was cancelled. ABC announced the official cancellation of the series that following Monday. On July 28, 2006, the series premiered on the Sci Fi Channel.

[edit] Episodes

No.	Episode title and synopsis (Taken from tv.com)	Original airdate
1	Pilot: Carl Kolchak takes a job at the L.A. Beacon as a crime reporter and begins investigating a strange case in which a pregnant woman has gone missing. When her body is found fingers point to the woman's husband, but Kolchak believes in the man's innocence, believing that there is a supernatural angle to the story. His investigations are frustrated when Perri Reed, the newspaper's senior crime reporter, digs into Kolchak's mysterious past.	September 29, 2005
2	The Five People You Meet in Hell: When a peaceful lawyer takes a baseball bat to his wife then kills himself, Carl suspects that a cult leader the man prosecuted is responsible, and has the ability to influence others into unwittingly killing their loved ones. But it soon becomes clear that Perri, whose story helped put the man in prison, is his next target.	October 6, 2005
3	Three: After a co-ed dies in a bizarre accident relating to her deepest fear, Kolchak investigates a strange college society that performs rituals in a mysterious old house.	October 13, 2005
4	Burning Man: The FBI and a pompous reporter believe a copycat killer is responsible for a series of murders identical to those of a dead bio-terrorist who claimed that he could kill people with hellfire, but Kolchak suspects that the murders have a supernatural explanation.	October 20, 2005
5	Malum: Kolchak investigates a troubled boy and his abusive father who leave a trail of mysterious deaths behind them.	October 27, 2005
6	The Source, Part One: Kolchak refuses to disclose a source in a story about a drug lord's death at the hands of a biker gang and the disappearance of a DEA agent who could shed light on the identity of Irene's killer, causing Agent Fain to return and investigate.	November 10, 2005
7	The Sea, Part Two: Perri and Kolchak must go on the run from the phantom bikers to protect their source on Agent Caleca and the mysteries behind Irene Kolchak's death. Meanwhile, Agent Fain puts pressure on Vincenzo and Jain to reveal what they know.	Unaired
8	Into Night: Kolchak tries to figure out the cause of death of two office workers who are found mummified. (originally intended to be the second episode)	Unaired
9	Timeless: Carl and Peri investigate similar deaths that have occurred every 35 years since the Beacon was founded.	Unaired
10	What's the Frequency, Kolchak: Carl is kidnapped by a man who insists that Carl has been sending him secret messages through his stories.	Unaired

[edit] What would have happened

After Night Stalker went off the air, many plotlines were left unfinished. Frank Spotnitz revealed what might have developed and hinted at possible explanations:

In the episode "The Sea, Part Two", we find out that Carl was talking to himself in part one.
The bikers that were chasing Victor Caleca are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the pale rider being the biker with the long blond hair.
The mark on Kolchak's wrist is the mark of evil. If the series were to continue we would have found out more living people have the mark on their wrist, Kolchak would have been told the opposite by a mysterious man later in the season, but the truth would be told to him by the end of the season..
Linda Caleca and Julie Medlock would have reappeared sometime in the future.
During the episode "The Sea", Kolchak passes a sign with a pyramid on it. On the commentary Frank Spotnitz noted that the pyramid is the insignia of a group, all the members of that group have the mark on their wrist. The pyramid means the opposition of Good Vs. Evil.

[edit] Trivia

The episode Burning Man appears at least partly inspired by the classic Kolchak episode Firefall in which people are mysteriously burned to death. While the reasons for the burnings were different, the method used in Burning Man was one possibility mentioned in Firefall.

The episode Timeless was partly inspired by the Kolchak TV movie The Night Strangler (1973), with a killer who must take lives every 35 years to maintain his/her youth. Both featured a character named Titus Berry, a newspaper researcher.