Monster of the Day #3019

Updated on April 28, 2020 By Ken Begg 20 Comments

Presumably to have a show/character that he completely owned the rights to (Kolchak was adapted from an unpublished book, and much improved in the process), TV director/producer Dan Curtis following the jaw-dropping success of The Night Stalker with a clone pilot called The Norliss Tapes. It’s also pretty great, although star Roy Thinnes was no Darren McGavin. Although that’s a high bar to set. It co-stars Claude Akins in basically the same cop role he played in The Night Stalker, and a nice turn by Angie Dickinson. Sadly, the print on YouTube is a bit soft, but at least it’s available for viewing.

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  • Gamera977

    Hmm, I stumbled across a list of various movies people on this site had recommended last weekend. And ‘The Norliss Tapes’ was right in the middle. Guess I’ll have to give this a whirl tonight. Thanks for the reminder Ken.

  • Beckoning Chasm

    Kind of looks like an evil Patrick Troughton.

  • Gamera977

    ‘I regenerated into WHAT!?!’

  • Ericb

    or maybe he just came down with a case of the purples

  • zombiewhacker

    Blue meanies!

  • Gamera977

    Like the girl who ate the blueberries and swelled up on the ‘Willy Wonka’ movie. Gosh, that thing gave me nightmares for a week.

  • Eric Hinkle

    Has anyone else heard about Richard Dreyfuss’ idea? He wants to re-edit and re-release JAWS with a CGI shark because the original movie shark didn’t scare anyone. His opinion AFAIK, not mine.

  • Gamera977

    Watched it last night and I was thinking he looked more like zombie Moe Howard.

  • Gamera977

    Another good reason actors shouldn’t make movies…

  • Gamera977

    I watched it last night and the story was pretty good. I guess my biggest issue was Thinnes played Norliss pretty level-headed and reasonable. The Night Stalker and the series to follow was fun mainly because McGavin played Kochark as such an annoying jerk. He was just fun to watch.

  • Ericb

    Isn’t Dreyfuss in the “what ever happened to” stage of his career?Anyway, as long as Spielberg is still alive I don’t see this happening.

  • Ken_Begg

    Good Lord.

  • Ken_Begg

    Yep, that exactly.

  • Eric Hinkle

    Wait, you mean I’m not the only person who thought that Kolchak actually deserved some of the grief he got put through?

  • Eric Hinkle

    I understand that Spielberg wasn’t pleased with the idea.

  • Eric Hinkle

    Maybe he’s gone stir crazy from the quarantine?

  • Ken_Begg

    I think even his friends and lovers got exasperated with Kolchak, and quite regularly. He was a great hero, though.

  • Gamera977

    It did kinda annoy me that Kolchak always talked so badly about his boss. Vincenzo bailed him out of jail how many times? He showed a lot more patience with Kolchak than I would have.

    And him having a girlfriend in the pilot movies just seemed weird to me. The idea that any woman could put up with him for over a few days just strained my belief.

  • Others stayed in their bunks for a week, ifyouknowwhatimean…..

  • Eric Hinkle

    I admit that something I liked about him was that usually, when he defeated some monster it was to save his bacon, not because Kolchak saw himself as some defender of the hapless. It fit far better with his character.