#retro geekdom

[mythic-quanta]

Unmasking the Supernatural World of Kolchak: The Night Stalker

Decades before shows like The X-Files, Supernatural, and Grimm brought monsters-of-the-week to the small screen, there was Kolchak: The Night Stalker. This short-lived 1970s series followed monster-hunting newspaper reporter Carl Kolchak as he investigated supernatural threats hiding in the shadows of modern-day Chicago.

Though it only aired for one season on ABC, Kolchak left an undeniable impact on network television and the horror/sci-fi genres. With its dark tone, witty lead character, and episodic paranormal stories, the show introduced key tropes that inspired future programs to embrace tales of vampires, robots, and UFOs. On the 45th anniversary of its debut, it’s time to revisit why Kolchak remains a cult favorite and seminal influence.

The Made-for-TV Films That Started It All

Kolchak’s origins begin with The Night Stalker, an ABC made-for-TV movie that aired in 1972. The film was penned by acclaimed sci-fi/horror writer Richard Matheson, who adapted an unpublished novel titled The Kolchak Papers. It featured Darren McGavin as Carl Kolchak, a reporter for the Independent News Service who investigates a string of Las Vegas murders committed by a modern-day vampire.

The Night Stalker was the highest-rated TV movie at the time with an unprecedented 33.2 rating. This smash success led ABC to quickly commission a sequel film, 1973’s The Night Strangler. Set in Seattle, this second movie saw Kolchak uncover a 146-year old alchemist extracting glandular fluids to stay alive. Both 90-minute films were ratings hits for ABC due to their supernatural hooks and McGavin’s performance as the persistent, quick-witted reporter willing to battle monsters.

Shifting to a Weekly Series in Primetime

Buoyed by the success of the Kolchak TV movies, ABC made the pivotal decision to order a third iteration as a weekly series. Simply titled Kolchak: The Night Stalker, the show premiered on September 13, 1974. It transplanted the Kolchak character from Seattle to Chicago and expanded the threats beyond vampires and alchemists.

While maintaining the core DNA of McGavin’s dogged reporting and dark monster themes, the series took an episodic, X-Files-esque approach with weekly supernatural adversaries. Over 20 episodes, Kolchak faced off against a diverse array of creatures like zombies, Jack the Ripper, a rakshasa, and even a robot assassin. He reported for the independent INS wire service, narrating his investigations in trademark hardboiled fashion.

The weekly format also introduced a regular supporting cast like Kolchak’s editor Tony Vincenzo (played by Simon Oakland). Despite its loyal following, Kolchak: The Night Stalker struggled in the ratings against programs like Sanford and Son and Chico and the Man. ABC declined to order a second season, while tying up the major storyline threads in the final episode.

Why the Show Became a Cult Favorite

Though short-lived as a series, Kolchak: The Night Stalker had an outsized impact that led to its eventual status as a cult classic. Carl Kolchak stepped directly from the pages of 1930s pulp fiction with his straw hat, seersucker suit, and refusal to let authority figures deter him from getting his scoop.

Darren McGavin fully embodied the role and gave it a layer of humor with his deadpan narration and quippy reactions to being fired on a regular basis. Kolchak feverishly typed away at his articles on a worn-out typewriter, determined to reveal the truth no matter the personal cost. His quest spoke directly to viewers who felt marginalized or dismissed in society.

The monsters themselves tapped into horror and sci-fi themes that the 1970s public was eager to see, from occult legends like the djinn to Creature from the Black Lagoon-style swamp beasts. ABC took a major risk bringing a genre program like Kolchak to their primetime lineup, paving the way for future series.

Legacy of a Genre Trailblazer

Though ratings struggled in its initial run, Kolchak: The Night Stalker turned out to be shockingly ahead of its time. It helped break major ground in bringing horror and supernatural themes to network television. Following Kolchak’s cue, ABC debuted sci-fi shows like The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman in quick succession.

The “monster-of-the-week” episodic approach pioneered by the show became a staple of future programs like The X-Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Fringe. Kolchak also popularized now-standard tropes like government UFO cover-ups, investigations of creatures hiding in plain sight, and paranormal journalism. Without Carl Kolchak’s odyssey, we may never have gotten to ride along with paranormal sleuths like Fox Mulder, the Winchester brothers, or Grimm’s Nick Burkhardt.

From the underground tunnels to dark alleys of Chicago, the show developed an aesthetic that became foundational for urban-set genre series. Traits like narration, morgue visits, and twisting stairs influenced everything from The X-Files to Evil.

The series memorably played on viewer “fear of the unknown” in the shadows of the everyday world. As Kolchak relentlessly chased down ghosts, witches, and serial killers, he showed it was possible to face the darkness with courage and wit.

Kolchak's Enduring Pop Culture Legacy

Though it went off the air in 1975 after just one 20-episode season, Kolchak: The Night Stalker continued finding new audiences through syndication and strong word-of-mouth. Darren McGavin reprised the role in two short-lived sequels – a 2005 TV movie on ABC and a short-lived 2008 series called Night Stalker. Neither quite captured the magic of the original.

Kolchak remains a highly influential part of pop culture, getting referenced in shows from The Simpsons to The X-Files. The character even appears in the novel Ready Player One, described as an “obscure 1970s TV character that only the most diehard geeks seem to remember.”

But those who do remember Kolchak hold the show close as a nostalgic gem full of monsters, mystery, and Carl’s determined reporting spirit. On the 45th anniversary of its debut, Kolchak: The Night Stalker deserves appreciation as a cult favorite that brought ghouls and dark supernatural themes to primetime. Through writers like Chris Carter and Joss Whedon, Carl Kolchak’s legacy shines on in today’s era of small-screen monster hunting.

Check out the original: https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B000X2FVA4/ref=atv_dp_share_cu_r

[scottpvaughn]

#stayinginthetardis Challenge accepted- my own Type 40 #tardis #console for @bbcdoctorwho * * #patreonartist scottpvaughn #etsyshop docvaughnart vaughn-media.com * #doctorwho #tardisconsole #fan #geekdom #shelfie #steampunk #retro #library #sonicscrewdriver #cosplay (at Glendale, Arizona) https://www.instagram.com/p/CAtF0JMhf7h/?igshid=1a8e7nprkmmtf

[agblend13]

Code Monkey! acrylic painting on hammered aluminum

Featuring an IBM AT and the IBM model M keyboard, those are important details!  🍩

[imdeancarter]

#Inky getting some sun at the falls. Link in bio, if you're a Pacman #fan - prints in the #store. . . . #Computer #Print #PrintDesign #NoFilter #NiagaraFalls #Niagara #PacMan #Design #ShoppingOnline #Arcade #ArcadeGames #Retro #Games #Game #Geekdom #Geek #Nerd #NerdLife #VideoGames #Classic #Gamer #GamerBoy #GamerGirl #Geekish @concepx https://www.instagram.com/p/Bp9alalB4y8/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=16qz9jqd2fi7f

[whoissabal]

cool things are possibly coming soon : : : : : . : : : #thenobodysgambit #overapp #prequelapp #graphicdesign #visualart #nerdy #nerd #nerdom #geek #geekdom #fandom #superheroes #anime #scifi #fantasy #horror #retro #arcade #mcu #dccomics #marvelcomics #kingdomhearts https://www.instagram.com/p/CLj3XjqBGVA/?igshid=986jakc9a2yx

[sojournerstales]

The Obliteration Pit

A personal essay about shame and dysphoria.

I'm going to talk about what I've been calling delineated shame.

I share a lot of media taste with my uncle. When a new series of a certain favourite show comes out, my partner and I will visit his house once a week to watch new episodes over take-out pizza. Really, aside from my dead mom he is the one family member I find it easiest to have casual conversation with. I can talk to my dad under certain circumstances: Walking the dogs, or trapped in a car, but it's a bit more difficult without the common ground of pop-culture geekdom. I so often find myself at a loss of what to say - they are adults, the talk about jobs and finances and being busy with things.

I talk about video games or TV shows and when it comes to being busy I feel inadequate because my version of busy-ness is when I've had to vacuum the living room and wash the dishes all in one day. These things in the context of my older brother talking about working from home with a child in the house, or my dad converting the spare room into a workshop, feel so small. So I don't talk about video games or TV shows or vacuuming. I smile and say 'yeah' a lot and wait for my uncle to show up.

So my uncle's house. Pizza. Shared interest show. It's easier. We talk about the show, or video games, or sometimes even my writing. He actually seems to respect my opinions on these things and between him and my partner I don't feel so inadequate. On this day I happen to be wearing dungarees and a baggy t-shirt with a rainbow across the front. I think it's appropriate cosy-lesbian-core and I've never been shy about queer-coding myself around family members. In this case I do remark that I think it fits the same retro vibe that the show we're watching is going for.

Here I am myself, dressed in a way that I like to dress myself.

At a certain point I'll excuse myself for the bathroom and leave my partner and my uncle talking. They get along well and I'm glad for that. I think in general my partner has really helped me get along with my family. If we are perceived as a unit then I can attach to their hip and take some of that social standing they earn by knowing how to be a successful adult. Sometimes I think this is an unfair thing to put on a person, so I try to make it up to them.

When I first came out to my family there was this feeling that I had just made myself worse in some other new way. Dropped out of school, couldn't find a job, and now I'm disadvantaging myself further by being transgender? In this economy? When I open my mouth to talk about inadequate things I'm reminded of that. Being able to talk about my partner feels like me saying, 'see? I can succeed!'

Anyway, I'm in my dungarees in my uncle's bathroom. It's upstairs and tucked out of the way and a little messy in the way that bachelor's bathrooms are messy. Not nearly as messy as mine. The awkward thing about dungarees is you end up feeling mostly undressed when doing bathroom stuff. It feels weird to be in my uncle's house with so much denim around my ankles and my shoes. Maybe I shouldn't have drank so much cola, because then I wouldn't be upstairs in the bathroom when there is a good chance that downstairs I am being talked about. I don't want to be too quick or too long or anything particularly noteworthy in this scenario, and it's a lot to think about along with the feeling of - again - denim dungarees around my ankles.

This sort of thing is how the feeling starts - that combination of discomfort and unreasonable paranoia and memories of inadequacy. Physically it is above my stomach and below my chest and burrowing deep. I call it delineated shame.

I remember being about ten and wetting myself. I don't remember the circumstances around it, but I do remember the unfinished wood floor of my dad's bathroom and him and my stepmom in the doorway looking at each other and then me, neither quite sure what to do with my distressed self. I remember a couple of things from school, one of them is having a meltdown in class and being called out and disciplined by the head of year and I told her to shut the fuck up. I also remember being asked by a classmate if I could wink, but I wasn't co-ordinated enough to prove that I could and just ended up awkwardly twitching my face.

I remember my body from before transitioning. Flat chest and awkward dick and pacing from the bathroom door to my bedroom because that's the sort of ritual I had to conduct to even be able to consider stepping into the shower. I remember intense first-crushes so bad that I'm guilty of imagined hand-holding. I remember a kind therapist on the other side of a free-standing whiteboard talking to me about my feelings.

None of these are in a particular order. They just come to me from that pit above the stomach and below the chest.

I'm afraid of heights. I'm also afraid of large objects in deep bodies of water, or expanding chasms. I think these fears are connected to the feeling of vertigo I get from looking at tall buildings or into deep pits. Either at the bottom or the top I feel a sort of weightlessness that starts at the top of my head and wavers down to my feet, taking out my breath along the way.

Shame is a feeling of vertigo.

Shame is standing at the edge of a pit and leaning to look down into it. If I slip I will be falling through my dad's bathroom, the school office, the shower at seventeen years old, an old crush's bedroom, behind a whiteboard, all while gripping my uncle's bathroom sink for an anchor.

A lot of the things in this pit are not strictly about my body, but I am at the center of all of them and so my body is too. I had always hated anyone having a perception of me, physically seeing me. The feeling of eye-contact perforated my skin and scratched at my bones. It was like they could look through the body into my own personal pit right where all the shame sits.

This was something I felt before I learned what 'transgender' was, so I haven't always called it dysphoria. I've always known it as someone else perceiving the wrongness of my own body and mind. It is not a coincidence that all my shameful memories put me right back into the old body along with the old brain.

I often like to say that I don't actively experience dysphoria anymore. I did HRT. I did surgery. I have a D-cup chest and a pussy and I know how to do my make-up and most of my clothes are from the women's section and the clothes that aren't are stolen from my partner. The list of current facts about me are undeniable and suggest I should be over dysphoria. The body is changed and the mind is improved. So I come back to delineated shame. I come back to the memory of dysphoria. I come back to remembering what it was like doing the pre-op appointments and having a doctor and his chaperone take a look at my dick (unpleasant, at best).

So I'm in my uncles bathroom with my dungarees around my ankles and shoes and I am sat on the toilet. That is where I am. I'm remembering also being naked in my bedroom in front of the blue light of my webcam. At the time it was validation, at the time it was something I felt good about - mostly. In the present moment it is the knowledge that I ever needed the validation in the first place. Now there is someone out there that possesses the mental image of the version of my body that I hated.

There are people out there who know what I looked like. The doctor at the gender clinic who wanted to do a full physical before prescribing hormones. A different doctor from the same clinic who leaned forward and said, 'Your eyebrows could do with some work.' Professionals measured me to determine if I could become a girl, and then one Christmas I wore my favourite red dress and spent the evening being called by the wrong name and pronouns.

I feel awful. I pull my dungarees back up and clip on the straps and tuck my t-shirt neatly. I wash my hands and catch myself in the mirror. Awkward nose and long mouth and the tiniest bit of stubble that only I can perceive (or so everyone tells me). I left the house confident enough to not put make-up on and then there was one moment where I had to feel naked in private and the memory of dysphoria started climbing up through the very middle of my body.

I don't know how to make the pit go away or whether I can mentally board it up or fill it in. I think that's the point of all this shame being a pit, you don't get to move a big hole in the ground. I guess if I followed my own metaphor, I would just slowly skirt around the edges and hope I don't fall in. Falling in would be death.

Or I take a deep breath in and a big step back from the obliteration pit. It's there, but I needn't stare into it. My partner and my uncle are downstairs and my pizza is getting cold.

[8bitmagnetsco]

Here are my most recent additions to my shop ! Tell me what you think of them in the comments! I’ve been on a Fire Emblem kick (I love that game)!What’s the first FE game that got you hooked!?

[cosmic-blaster71]

COMING SOON!

Coming Soon - Cosmic Blaster Toys, LLC

Toy Reviews - Retro Toys - Toy news - Toy Unboxings - Collectables -  Artwork - Book Reviews - Movie Reviews - Comic Books - Geek Stuff & More! ( Possible podcast also )

It’s a gathering of inner geekdom and all are welcome!

Stay tuned....

[emotionalmultimediaride]

GOG release: "Mainframe Defenders"

GOG release: “Mainframe Defenders”

Synthetic Domain‘s highly customizable retro strategy game Mainframe Defenders makes a turn or two on GOG. Mainframe Defenders seems to indicate complicated marketing, as it’s called a tactical retrofuturistic strategy game, and the title alone is pure tech talk. However, this is quite intentional, because the 80ies were the rise of geekdom when it wasn’t a phase like nowadays. Inspired by the…

[threadiverseart]

“You remembered..”⠀ -⠀ -⠀ “How can I not? When you’ve beaten it into my head?”⠀ ⠀ Grab yours here >>> https://buff.ly/2FyiYqq⠀ ⠀⠀ Use the code SPRING20 for 20% OFF in the store! (Link In Bio!!)⠀⠀⠀⠀ Search "One Winged Anngel" On Threadiverse.com And get yourself one Today⠀⠀⠀⠀ Design by the awesome @Trulyepic!⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ Like @threadiverse for more Geekdom Fashion, for buying Tees, Tanks, Leggings, Clothes and more⠀⠀⠀⠀ -⠀⠀⠀⠀ -⠀⠀⠀⠀ -⠀⠀⠀⠀ -⠀⠀⠀⠀ -⠀⠀⠀⠀ #kingdomhearts #finalfantasy #ffxiv #squareenix #finalfantasy7 #finalfantasyxiv #finalfantasy14 #finalfantasy #finalfantasy7 #rpg #square #squaresoft #squareenix #rpgbros #nintendo #nintendogram #nestalgia #retro #retrogaming #cloudstrife #finalfantasyvii — view on Instagram https://ift.tt/2w14lMQ

[scottpvaughn]

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A post shared by Scott P 'Doc' Vaughn (@scottpvaughn)

My latest #tardis #console video. I'd like to add a column to the time rotor #patreon scottpvaughn Vaughn-media.com #etsyshop docvaughnart #doctorwho #retro #prop #fandom #geekdom #supportlocal #fanbuild #steampunk #drwho #dalek #vintage (at Glendale, Arizona)

[annasarcticadventure]

Living as a Nerd in the Arctic

Norway. The country of vast beautiful sceneries, mountains, fjords, the sea, the forests, mother nature’s whole pride. Everything is a hiking trail in summer. Everything is a cross-skiing trail in winter. It’s heaven for the sporty outdoor fan, the trained Norwegian and the active, freedom-loving human being. 

But what if you’re not like that? What if you really like your bed, your couch, your tv-screen and your various video game consoles and you make use of the concept of physical movement only to switch from one of these things to another? What if you’re me? Well, why would you go to Norway then? - is what pretty much everyone asked me. It’s probably not the first place you would come up with when your heart and mind only focuses on gaming and watching Anime. In fact, none of my publisher colleagues could come up with even one bigger developer in Norway, and when they came up with one, it was Swedish. Well, it just doesn’t seem to be a thing up here in the far north. Or is it?

Nerdy things are a niche in Norway. Very niche. So niche, that it is really not that easy to find that beautiful second-hand bookstore in Tromsø, that’s stuffed with Manga, Lego, action figures, toys, board games and merchandise to the roof. It also has second-hand books.  Even though the facade is pretty striking and hard to not notice and the store is located close to the city center, it is really hard to find this pearl if one does not know where it is. If anyone wonders, it’s right behind to the Tromsø gift shop at the Lutheran Domkirke, but you have to go through an alley between two buildings. But what am I saying? Just use Google Maps.

Tromsø even has something to offer for the hungry video game enthusiast. Burgr is just as central and easy to miss as the bookstore, but once you found it, you enter a different world. This burger store is as retro as it can possibly get. Pixel decoration, posters of ancient video games, huge SNES controllers as tables, an arcade machine in the back and a PlayStation connected to a small CRT-TV in the front.  The menu drips of video game references just like the burgers drip of grease. No matter if you are Team Nintendo or Team Sega you will feel right at home. 

Other than the few and small nerd establishments in Tromsø, there are some happenings from time to time that might help to sooth the bleeding geeky heart. After we had sadly missed the Arctic Con in the beginning of September, because we had our Senja road trip, we wanted to make up for it at least a bit at Kulturnatta. Kulturnatta is an event in Tromsø where various organizations offer free or at least cheap entertainment and the possibility to culturally broaden your horizon. How that has anything to do with geekdom? Not that much, honestly, but at least the Japanese community here organized a small Matsuri, where you could have tea, play some Japanese games and look at girls in Yukata. We folded some Origami cranes while sipping our tea and moved on. When the My Little Pony movie hit the theaters, I couldn’t let myself be restrained by the fact that I’m an adult woman incapable of the Norwegian language to go watch it. Luckily, there was one single screening in English for the bronies. Well, there weren’t many of us. It was awkward. In the beginning, I sat in the screen for at least 10 minutes all by myself and I wanted to die. Friendship is magic, but no magic is strong enough to get my friends to go to the MLP movie with me. Well, in the end, some more people came, so it was okay.

In conclusion, there is some kind of underground nerd movement up there in the Arctic and one can somehow survive. But is any of these mentioned things a reason to actually move there when video games and manga are your life source? Well, hell no. But, actually, I have one.  Norway is super expensive. Everything, literally everything is way more expensive than in the rest of Europe. Wait ... really everything? No, there is one thing that is actually cheaper. Steam. I kid you not, computer games are cheaper here. When I first noticed it, I could barely trust my eyes, but I can’t tell you how quick I was to change my region to Norway. And I’ll never change it back. 

[joekennedy]

Renton Expands Celebration of Geekdom

Renton Expands Celebration of Geekdom

Renton Retro Game and Toy Expo a RenCon Fundraiser – April 9th

In 2016, Renton embraced the geek culture like never before. It all started with a few Downtown clean ups, escorted by Star Wars Storm Troopers. Then came the rumor of a RENCON (Renton City Comic Convention) revealed during the Renton River Days parade. Suddenly Storm Troopers, Super Heroes, and geek fandom from across the region were…

[8bitmagnetsco]

Adventurer Niles! I know I asked this in my last post but who is your favorite Fire Emblem character?? (Clearly I’m on an FE kick)

[scottpvaughn]

#doctorwho #fandom galore in my #library er... #tardisconsole room #tombakerscarf #fez #7thdoctor #umbrella #fedora #retro #antique #geekdom #hatstand #drwho #tardis #patreonartist scottpvaughn Vaughn-media.com (at Glendale, Arizona)