THE NIGHT STALKER debuted on this day

On this day--11 Jan.--in 1972, John Llewelyn Moxey's THE NIGHT STALKER first aired on ABC. Produced by Dan Curtis, written by Richard Matheson, based on the Jeff Rice novel "The Kolchak Papers" and directed by Moxey, who had also made the excellent CITY OF THE DEAD, the film starred Darren McGavin as past-his-prime journalist Carl Kolchak, who finds himself on the trail of a vampire in Las Vegas. A great movie, it became the highest-rated program in television history up to the time, spawned a sequel then a series, which failed but became a major cult hit, and, years later, a remake. Over half a century later, THE NIGHT STALKER and Kolchak have continued to have a significant influence on movie and television projects.