Did you know, you could watch all 20 episodes AND both TV movies in 24 hours? That still gives you time to binge-watch “Kolchak: The Night Stalker” (1974-75).

Roy Bjellquist and I will be talking about the short-lived, but fondly remembered cult TV series, in which intrepid reporter Carl Kolchak (in-on-the-joke Darren McGavin) ferrets out the mysterious and supernatural in after-dark Chicago. McGavin is a hoot and unquestionably the main reason to watch the show, though Simon Oakland, as his editor, long-suffering Tony Vincenzo, plays exasperation well.

The series ably walks the line between chills and camp. It is very 1970s – everyone looks horrible, the women are all stereotypes, and the monster make-up is cheesy to the extreme. Still, it has always appealed to the eight-year-old in me. And there’s something in it that still resonates in a world obsessed with conspiracies and cover-ups.

Chris Carter claims that “Kolchak” was a principal influence when he came to create “The X-Files.” He even attempted to resurrect “The Night Stalker” itself, but it’s just not possible without an actor as quirky and knowing as McGavin, probably best recognized these days, thanks to annual TBS marathons, as Ralphie’s “Old Man” in Jean Shepherd’s “A Christmas Story.”

Every episode of “The Night Stalker” sports multiple guest stars, some veterans, some on their way up. So along the way to the final showdown with the vampire, werewolf, or extraterrestrial of the week, we encounter Cathy Lee Crosby, Erik Estrada, Tom Skerritt, Dick Van Patten, Larry Storch, Scatman Crothers, Carolyn Jones, Jamie Farr, Mary Wickes, Keenan Wynn, James Gregory, Jim Backus, Phil Silvers, Jackie Mason, and Richard Kiel, to name a few.

The series is also notable for breaking in Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, who put their own memorable spin on the Headless Horseman, making him a motorcyclist! Zemeckis and Gale later hit it big with “Back to the Future,” and Zemeckis would win the Academy Award for Best Director for “Forrest Gump.”

The shows usually conclude with a lonely epilogue, with Kolchak typing away in a deserted newspaper office, or dictating into his recorder, after hours. Do the stories ever make it to print? Not if Tony Vincenzo has anything to say about it. But the truth is out there!

Pour yourself some day-old coffee, and start your “Kolchak” marathon now. Roy and I speak truth to power on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner, live-streamed on Facebook, this Friday at 7 pm EDT!

https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner/

There will be plenty of time to sleep when you’re dead: