Above, Darren McGavin and Barry Atwater in The Night Stalker.
It is hard to believe, but yesterday marked 50 years that ABC-TV aired the made-for-television movie, The Night Stalker, starring Darren McGavin as Carl Kolchak. It was the top-rated made-for-television movie of its time.
To put the time period in perspective, it was aired the month before President Richard Nixon made his historic trip to China.
The Night Stalker was produced by Dan Curtis of Dark Shadows fame. It later became a short-lived television series.
The plot to The Night Stocker involved several mysterious deaths in Las Vegas by a suspected serial killer, which turned out to be a vampire. The vampire was played by Barry Atwater as Janos Skorzeny. Carol Lynley played Kolchak's girlfriend.
I remember watching it that night. I was in my senior year of high school at the time and the buzz on campus the next day was that most everyone also watched and loved it.
"Two weeks before "Dark Shadows" made its June 27, 1966 premiere, ABC ran a heavy promotional campaign for the new soap. These are recreations of the promos, except for the fourth promo, which is authentic. The first three had different narration, but I had to use what I have." - Robert Sharp.*
Anniversaries come and go, and some are noticed and some go along unnoticed. This one is getting noticed here and elsewhere.
Here's one that came to light 55 years ago today on June 27, 1966. It was the day that the daytime gothic soap opera Dark Shadows made its debut on ABC-TV.
Until that time, soap operas were targeted to stay-at-home housewives to give them a break from their daily druggery of housework.
The ABC television network was in last place in programming and ratings for daytime television and they needed a show to fill the last slot in their schedule, around 4:00 or 4:30 in the afternoon. So they decided to take a chance on Dan Curtis's gothic soap opera idea.
At first, the ratings were dismal. The show was about to get the ax after 13 weeks. But Curtis was a good salesman and convinced the network to give it 13 more weeks so he can pull out the stops and inject some supernatural elements.
The first was the introduction of ghosts. That helped the sagging ratings. Then, he introduced the character of Laura Collins (Diana Millay), who was a mythical "Phoenix" who goes into the fires every 100 years to be reborn.
The ratings climbed up even further.
Then, it was decided to add a vampire to the show. Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid). He was originally going to hover in the show for 13 weeks, but became its star until the show's end in 1971. Luckily, the Dark Shadows time slot had it on at the time kids were coming home from school. Kids, who would never otherwise watch a soap opera, were strongly attracted to this one.
The ratings skyrocketed.
I didn't start watching the show until two years after its debut (thanks to my mom).
So, 55 years ago this very day, television history was made.
*The actual promos have since been made available in the DVD/Blu-Ray Master of Dark Shadows that was released two years ago.
