Night Stalker: Pilot

"Pilot" is the premiere episode of the supernatural mystery series Night Stalker. It was directed by Daniel Sackheim with a script written by series creator Frank Spotnitz. It first aired on ABC on Thursday, September 29th, 2005 at 9:00 pm.

Notes & Trivia

 * This series is based on characters created by Jeff Rice featured in the original Kolchak: The Night Stalker, which aired on ABC from 1974 to 1975.


 * This episode is rated TV-PG.


 * The pilot episode of the series was filmed on-location in Los Angeles, California. The offices of The Beacon were filmed at 1000 Wilshire Boulevard.


 * This episode is included on disc one of the Night Stalker: The Complete Series DVD collection, which was released by Buena Vista Home Entertainment on May 30th, 2006.


 * This is one of two episodes of the series directed by Daniel Sackheim. He also directs episode 1x03, which is appropriately titled, "Three".


 * This is one of four episodes of Night Stalker written by series creator Frank Spotnitz. His next episode is "The Source".


 * Darren McGavin, who played Carl Kolchak in the original Kolchak: The Night Stalker television series makes a cameo appearance in this episode. The scene is archival footage taken from the original The Night Stalker television movie and digitally inserted in this episode.


 * Dan Curtis serves as a consulting producer on this series. Night Stalker will be Curtis' final work in television. Dan Curtis would pass away in Brentwood, California on March 27th, 2006 at the age of 78.


 * A straw hat can be seen on a hat rack in Carl Kolchak's office. This is the same type of hat classically worn by Darren McGavin in his portrayal of Kolchak from the original television series.

Allusions

 * Perri Reed compares Carl Kolchak to Elmer Fudd in this episode. Elmer Fudd is a character from the Loony Toons cartoon series who has a speech impediment and is always hunting rabbits - specifically, Bugs Bunny.


 * Tony Vincenzo makes a reference to Arnold Horshack in this episode. Arnold Horshack is one of the "Sweathogs" featured in the 1975 sitcom series Welcome Back, Cotter. He was played by actor Ron Palillo.

Quotes

 * Carl Kolchak: I drive at night, a police radio as my compass, looking for answers to questions I'm only learning how to ask. About things adults dismiss...but children are right to fear. Shapes that lurk in the darkness, nightmares that intrude from another realm, forces that spring not from the imagination but live amongst us, unseen. These forces have taken something from me, something I can never recover. So I stalk the night, looking...and knowing our fear of the dark never really goes away. We just learn to pretend it's not there.

....
 * Carl Kolchak: All these strange deaths, like... pieces in a puzzle, a puzzle I'm trying to put together. Something terrible is happening... but no one sees it, 'cause no one wants to.

....
 * Tony Vincenzo: You know, most people come in the office, meet their colleagues, get a desk, before they start snagging stories.

....
 * Jain McManus: The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who in times of moral crisis remain neutral.

....
 * Carl Kolchak: Have you ever used a gun before?
 * Jain McManus: No.
 * Carl Kolchak: That's what I thought.
 * Jain McManus: I've never used a cattle prod before, either.

....
 * Carl Kolchak: As a reporter I seek answers to the questions that haunt me. But the stories, the real stories, you won't find printed in any newspaper. Stories of strange deaths, endless suffering, horrors we can only pretend to explain, and the hidden threats that connect them all. These are the stories I live to write, driven by the faith that one day people will read them and understand, haunted by the fear that the answers I seek lie not in the darkness without but the darkness within.