Was anyone in here familiar with his show "The Night Stalker"?
It was scary when I watched the re-runs in the mid 80's...
Darren McGavin's biggest hits weren't measured by ratings or box-office grosses, but by something more enduring: Devoted fans.
McGavin, who stalked monsters on the short-lived, but influential 1974-75 TV series Kolchak: The Night Stalker and groused as the besieged father in the latter-day Yuletide classic A Christmas Story, died Saturday in Los Angeles. He was 83.
Son Bogart McGavin told the Associated Press that his father died of natural causes.
McGavin was a onetime Emmy-winner, claiming his trophy for playing Candice Bergen's TV father on a 1989 episode of Murphy Brown.
In a way, it was atypical of McGavin to be recognized in such a timely fashion. It would take the rise of The X-Files in the 1990s for the greater public to come around to the work that McGavin did on The Night Stalker in the 1970s. And it would take repeated airings on cable TV in the 1980s and 1990s to make a hit of A Christmas Story, a relative underachiever at the box office in its initial 1983 run.
Born May 7, 1922, in Spokane, Washington, McGavin's career spanned more than 50 years. His breakthrough role came in the 1955 drug drama, The Man with the Golden Arm.
On TV, McGavin became a leading, if irascible, leading man when he donned reporter Carl Kolchak's hat and seersucker suit for The Night Stalker, a 1971 made for TV movie about a vampire on the loose in Las Vegas. It was both popular and acclaimed.
The telepic spawned a sequel, 1972's The Night Strangler, pitting Kolchak against an ageless killer in Seattle, and the 1974 series, formally known as Kolchak: The Night Stalker.
Up against the juggernaut that was Police Woman, Night Stalker was among the lowest-rated prime-time series of the 1974-75 season. If its mix of headless motorcycle riders, killer voodoo zombies and cruise ship roaming werewolves didn't win over Nielsen families, it did win over the likes of Chris Carter. The writer-producer cited the Night Stalker series as the inspiration for his own sci-fi/horror franchise, The X-Files.
The X-Files team did not soon forget their forefather. McGavin appeared on two episodes of The X-Files and cameoed last fall in the pilot for ABC's failed Night Stalker revival, a project hatched by two former X-Files producers.
McGavin's other initially underrated hit was A Christmas Story. Based on the stories of humorist Jean Shepherd, who narrated, the comedy about a boy's Christmas gift dreams in the 1940s starred child actor Peter Billingsley as Red Ryder-obsessed Ralphie, and McGavin as Ralphie's "Old Man." According to Movies.com, the film was the 39th highest-grossing movie of 1983, behind such classics as Staying Alive, High Road to China and Porky's II: The Next Day. The latter was directed by Bob Clark, who in a stunning show of range made A Christmas Story the very same year.
In a 1999 interview with E! Online, Billingsley, now a movie producer, said A Christmas Story became a hit upon repeated viewing because it "crosses the financial board."
"It doesn't matter if people are rich or not," Billingsley said. "It was just sort of one of those movies that grew on you."
McGavin's other credits included two 1970s Disney movies costarring Don Knotts: 1976's No Deposit, No Return; and 1978's Hot Lead and Cold Feet. Knotts died Friday at the age of 81.
It was scary when I watched the re-runs in the mid 80's...
Darren McGavin's biggest hits weren't measured by ratings or box-office grosses, but by something more enduring: Devoted fans.
McGavin, who stalked monsters on the short-lived, but influential 1974-75 TV series Kolchak: The Night Stalker and groused as the besieged father in the latter-day Yuletide classic A Christmas Story, died Saturday in Los Angeles. He was 83.
Son Bogart McGavin told the Associated Press that his father died of natural causes.
McGavin was a onetime Emmy-winner, claiming his trophy for playing Candice Bergen's TV father on a 1989 episode of Murphy Brown.
In a way, it was atypical of McGavin to be recognized in such a timely fashion. It would take the rise of The X-Files in the 1990s for the greater public to come around to the work that McGavin did on The Night Stalker in the 1970s. And it would take repeated airings on cable TV in the 1980s and 1990s to make a hit of A Christmas Story, a relative underachiever at the box office in its initial 1983 run.
Born May 7, 1922, in Spokane, Washington, McGavin's career spanned more than 50 years. His breakthrough role came in the 1955 drug drama, The Man with the Golden Arm.
On TV, McGavin became a leading, if irascible, leading man when he donned reporter Carl Kolchak's hat and seersucker suit for The Night Stalker, a 1971 made for TV movie about a vampire on the loose in Las Vegas. It was both popular and acclaimed.
The telepic spawned a sequel, 1972's The Night Strangler, pitting Kolchak against an ageless killer in Seattle, and the 1974 series, formally known as Kolchak: The Night Stalker.
Up against the juggernaut that was Police Woman, Night Stalker was among the lowest-rated prime-time series of the 1974-75 season. If its mix of headless motorcycle riders, killer voodoo zombies and cruise ship roaming werewolves didn't win over Nielsen families, it did win over the likes of Chris Carter. The writer-producer cited the Night Stalker series as the inspiration for his own sci-fi/horror franchise, The X-Files.
The X-Files team did not soon forget their forefather. McGavin appeared on two episodes of The X-Files and cameoed last fall in the pilot for ABC's failed Night Stalker revival, a project hatched by two former X-Files producers.
McGavin's other initially underrated hit was A Christmas Story. Based on the stories of humorist Jean Shepherd, who narrated, the comedy about a boy's Christmas gift dreams in the 1940s starred child actor Peter Billingsley as Red Ryder-obsessed Ralphie, and McGavin as Ralphie's "Old Man." According to Movies.com, the film was the 39th highest-grossing movie of 1983, behind such classics as Staying Alive, High Road to China and Porky's II: The Next Day. The latter was directed by Bob Clark, who in a stunning show of range made A Christmas Story the very same year.
In a 1999 interview with E! Online, Billingsley, now a movie producer, said A Christmas Story became a hit upon repeated viewing because it "crosses the financial board."
"It doesn't matter if people are rich or not," Billingsley said. "It was just sort of one of those movies that grew on you."
McGavin's other credits included two 1970s Disney movies costarring Don Knotts: 1976's No Deposit, No Return; and 1978's Hot Lead and Cold Feet. Knotts died Friday at the age of 81.
