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Darren McGavin first offered to star in the ''Kolchak'' series while they were still shooting ''The Night Stalker''
McGavin knew that he wasn't done playing Kolchak after the first television film.
Some have greatness thrust upon them, and some people are willing to fight and claw their way to greatness. While the latter method seems like a great deal more effort, the victory of success will be all the sweeter, just trust Darren McGavin.
McGavin is best known as Kolchak in the television series Kolchak: The Night Stalker. It was a show that was preceded by two television movies, but a concept that McGavin wholeheartedly believed in from the jump, despite its very unconventional premise. Today, a supernatural show like Kolchak: The Night Stalker is in good company with other series like Twin Peaks and The X-Files, but at the time of its original run in 1974, it was a tough sell for some viewers.
McGavin himself was aware of the difficulty that such a series might have in finding an audience, though it didn't dampen his hope.
In the book T.V Close Ups, written by Peggy Herz, McGavin confessed that he actually advocated for a series adaptation during the filming of the first television film, The Night Stalker. McGavin said, "I feel very responsible for it. From the beginning, I said that if it was bad, it would be my fault — because the second night we were shooting The Night Stalker movie, I said to a network executive, 'I'm free now, I have no plans for the next year, and this would make a terrific series.'
The network executive's response was less than ideal. McGavin added, "The executive said I was out of my head."
Luckily, McGavin knew better than most, and when the network finally came around to the idea of Kolchak as a television series, McGavin was waiting patiently to return to the character of Carl Kolchak.
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