The X-Files Formula Traces Back to Kolchak: The Night Stalker

Carl Kolchak starts out covering ordinary crime beats—police reports, courthouse chatter and a city that shifts after dark—but the cases he pursues quickly slip into the realm of horror. A witness notices something odd, a detail will not add up, and a plausible explanation gives way to superstition as Kolchak follows leads that others would rather drop.

The character first appeared in two television movies: The Night Stalker (1972), in which Kolchak investigates killings tied to a vampire, and The Night Strangler (1973), which sends him after an ancient undead killer. The series Kolchak: The Night Stalker debuted in 1974; it lasted one season but left a clear mark on later paranormal television, a lineage even acknowledged by Chris Carter of The X-Files.

Darren McGavin’s Kolchak is defined by persistence and a rumpled everyman look. He keeps scribbling notes and asking questions while his editor, Tony Vincenzo, frets over stories that sound like pulp.

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