Kolchak: The Night Stalker (Season 1)

Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974) is a supernatural detective series you can watch online on iFILM. Darren McGavin stars as Carl Kolchak, a rumpled Chicago reporter in a straw hat and a permanently crumpled suit.

Kolchak works for a down-market wire service, but the big stories keep finding him — and every one lands on something no respectable newsroom would print. A vampire draining blood-bank donors. A werewolf loose on a cruise ship. Zombies, a Native American spirit, an alien. The cops wave him off, his editor Tony Vincenzo (Simon Oakland) blows a gasket, and Kolchak's whole arsenal is a tape recorder, a camera and a yellow Mustang. One season, twenty episodes, a fresh monster and a killed scoop in each.

The show lasted a single year on ABC before it was cancelled, then turned into a cult favorite: Chris Carter has openly called Kolchak the grandfather of The X-Files. It all rides on McGavin — his grumbling, stubborn, wisecracking reporter is the reason to tune in, and the cheap 1970s effects only add to the charm. Stream every episode of Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974) online on iFILM.