Darren McGavin portrayed Carl Kolchak for the first time in the TV movie The Night Stalker that premiered on January 11, 1972. The screenplay was written by Sci-Fi legend Richard Matheson based on a story by Jeffrey Grant Rice and Max Hodge. In this movie, he was a reporter in Las Vegas working for Tony Vincenzo (Simon Oakland) and the Daily News (in the Next movie, The Night Strangler, he worked in Seattle for Tony at the Seattle Daily Chronicle, and in the TV show they lived in Chicago and he worked for Tony at the Independent News Service). In this movie, Kolchak found himself investigating a series of murders committed by a vampire. ("The Night Stalker" TV Event)













