Kolchak: The Night Stalker
The Sentry
TV Flash files “The Sentry” as a desk essential hour — Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974–1975) on ABC, season 1, episode 20, aired 1975-03-28, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S01E20: listed hour 20 of 20 in the Kolchak: The Night Stalker guide, last listed hour of season 1. It aired 1975-03-28 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “The Youth Killer” (S01E19). No later hour is listed in this guide.
Essential hour: “The Sentry”. The Sentry is the twentieth and last. A single grumbling season closes: later X-Files hours would raid the tone, the seersucker, and the scoop that never quite made the edition.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
A humanoid subterranean lizard creature starts killing workers at a government underground archive, and Kolchak must figure out why while dodging police and government interference.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Sentry sit in the Kolchak: The Night Stalker guide?
S01E20 is listed hour 20 of 20 — last listed hour of season 1, season 1 episode 20.
When did Kolchak: The Night Stalker S01E20 air?
The Sentry aired 1975-03-28 and is listed at 60 minutes.
TV movies first or the series?
The movies launched the ratings event. The 1974–1975 series is the weekly monster beat. Either entry works; McGavin's mutter is the constant.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Darren McGavin's wire-service reporter in a seersucker suit keeps tripping over vampires the police refuse to file. One short, grumbling season of monster-of-the-week journalism that later paranormal hours raided for tone. The mutter, the flashlight, and the scoop that never quite makes page one.
The seersucker arrives before the monster. ABC, 1974–1975: Darren McGavin's Carl Kolchak in rumpled summer cloth, flashlight as jewelry, a wire-service reporter dressed like he lost the dry cleaner and found a vampire. Kolchak: The Night Stalker grew from hugely rated Night Stalker TV movies and lasted one season — twenty hours of investigative mutter while Simon Oakland's Tony Vincenzo demanded ordinary crime copy. Jack Grinnage's Ron Updyke completed the newsroom that did not want this beat. *Wrinkled…
Filed against
- Darren McGavin as Carl Kolchak
Darren McGavin’s Carl Kolchak kept tripping over vampires the police refused to file — seersucker, flashlight, a wire-service reporter in one short, grumbling season of monster-of-the-week journalism. Later paranormal hours raided the…
- Simon Oakland as Tony Vincenzo
Simon Oakland barked Kolchak: The Night Stalker as Tony Vincenzo — the editor who will not file the vampire while Darren McGavin's seersucker reporter keeps tripping over monsters the police refuse to see. One short, grumbling season. TV…
- Jack Grinnage as Ron Updyke
Jack Grinnage’s Ron Updyke filed copy while Darren McGavin’s Kolchak tripped over vampires the police would not name — seersucker monster journalism, one short 1970s season, a flashlight that later paranormal hours raided for tone. TV…