Chicage in the mid-1970s. Carl Kolchak is an experienced reporter with the Independent News Service. He works a lot of crime-related stories, which often puts him into conflict with the Police Department, due (a) to his "creative" ways of getting information and (b) his equally creative - one might say "crazy", given that they usually involve supernatural creatures - theories about who the culprits might be. Vampires and werewolves and witches, oh my!
Of course, this is a TV show - one that Chris Carter cited as a big influence on The X-Files - so Kolchak is invariably right about who or what is responsible, and almost as invariably manages to find and defeat them. Though somehow, of course, he always does so without finding any concrete proof of what he saw. Kolchak's inability to take a decent photograph, for instance, is one of the show's several not-as-funny-as-the-writers-think running gags.
Alas, misfiring humour is far from the only problem with this show. The writing in general is formulaic and thin, the recurring supporting cast is too divorced from the supernatural shenanigans to ever really connect, and the production values are ... not good. The last episode in particular has some very ill-advised costume work, though frankly, it may be my favourite of the season since it's one of the few times the show manages to inch toward the "so bad it is good" line, rather than just being dull.
Kolchak might indeed have been a big influence on Chris Carter, because I can't help remembering the confused, "we haven't actually got a plan or a point" mess that The X-Files descended into, and seeing a connection.
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