It is true - for some, it will be sad news - the new ABC series, Night Stalker, has seen it's last at stalking the night. ABC has pulled the plug on the new Touchstone production after a 6 week run (7, if you count the hiatus it had one week). The series was off to a pretty fair start, but it only seemed to get worse for the show as the ratings kept sliding down ranking from week to week, till ABC decided enough was enough for this sagging show, after it's very disappointing November 10th airing. At a time when the network looks to get high ratings, sweeps weeks, Night Stalker pulled in the lowest rating ever (2.8). No word has been given if ABC will air the 2nd part of that night's episode or not. Below is an account of how it went down.

Thursday - November 10th : ABC aired it"s Night Stalker episode, "The Source" - a 2 part episode to coincide with November sweeps weeks. After the episode aired, the segment brought in the lowest ratings for the series ever!

Friday - November 11th : Production was haulted on the Night Stalker set. A call was placed to the crew late Friday night. Co-star Gabrielle Union rents a local bar so that the crew can at least have a very unexpected "wrap party" for the series.

Saturday - November 12th : Fan and Network Internet Message Boards are all a buzz - it seems a person working on the crew of Night Stalker also has a friend posting on the message boards, before long, everyone is informed of the latest news. The series has ended - Night Stalker is no more. All that is left is the "Official" word.

Sunday - November 13th : It arrives. The official word is given by the man responsable  for the entire "event" of the series. Frank Spotnitz - the man behind the new revampted "Night Stalker" - has his final say on the series being cancelled (for now) on his message board over at BigLight Productions. It reads as follows:

Sunday, November 13, 2005

Night Stalker ABC  Pilot Episode

Originally aired: Thursday September 29, 2005 on ABC

Carl Kolchak takes a job at the L.A. Beacon as a crime reporter and begins investigating a strange case in which a pregnant woman has gone missing. When her body is found fingers point to the woman's husband, but Kolchak believes in the man's innocence, believing that there is a supernatural angle to the story. His investigations are frustrated when Perri Reed, the newspaper's senior crime reporter, digs into Kolchak's mysterious past.

The Five People You Meet In Hell

Originally aired: Thursday October 6, 2005 on ABC

Writer: Thomas Schnauz
Director: Rob Bowman
All Guest Stars: David Dunard (Doug's Dad), Tara Ciabattoni (Mary Granof), John Wesley (Warden Blume), Darin Rossi (Umpire), Stephen W. Alvarez (Reporter), Colby Paul (Jeffrey Linman), Jessica Whitney Gould (Jane Linman), Art LaFleur (Detective Mitchell), Wylie Small (Amanda Daniels), Tony Curran (Damon Caylor), Alex Carter (Detective Patrick Granof), Robert Curtis Brown (Doug Linman), Heather Kafka (Katrina Ortega), Susan Misner (Irene), Ricardo J. Chacon (Gang Member), Lily Jackson (Daniels' Girl)
Production Code: 1.03

When a peaceful lawyer takes a baseball bat to his wife then kills himself, Carl suspects that a cult leader the man prosecuted is responsible, and has the ability to influence others into unwittingly killing their loved ones. But it soon becomes clear that Perri, whose story helped put the man in prison, is his next target.

                    Three Originally aired: Thursday October 13, 2005 on ABC

After a co-ed dies in a bizarre accident relating to her deepest fear, Kolchak investigates a strange college society that performs rituals in a mysterious old house.

Burning Man

Originally aired: Thursday October 20, 2005 on ABC

The FBI and a pompous reporter believe a copycat killer is responsible for a series of murders identical to those of a dead bio-terrorist who claimed that he could kill people with hellfire, but Kolchak suspects that the murders have a supernatural explanation.

Malum   Originally aired: Thursday October 27, 2005 on ABC

Visit :  http://www.livejournal.com/community/tns05/ For more on the series

Like it or not - the new Night Stalker is being made. We can all sit and sulk that it is not our one and only - or even close, or we can just deal with it.

Me, personally, I'm just gonna wait and see. I know it will not be what we came to love all those years ago - not even close. But so do the producers handling the new show. They are trying really hard to make it their own. And as Kolchak/Jeff Rice supporters, we should at least give them that - our support.

One thing positive I will say from the start, at least the producers have the guts to finally bring back the Kolchak property. Other big budget movie companies and producers have talked about how they were going to do it for so many years, and these guys have finally done it, brought the property back to life - now that is more than any one else has in film over all these years. Sure, it may not be note perfect to what we want it to be, but without Darren McGavin's involvement, it could never be what we would like it to be.

So let's just sit back and expect something different. If you don't want to view this page while on our site - just don't click on the heading, and remember the Night Stalker as it originally was.

As for me, let's just see...