Kolchak: The Night Stalker is een Amerikaanse serie van de zender ABC. De serie ging in première in 1974.
Kolchak was originally two made-for-TV movies that aired in the early 70's, and featured the adventures of Carl Kolchak, a down-on-the heels reporter who ran afoul of a vampire in Las Vegas and an alchemist in Seattle. These movies proved popular enough that they were spun off into a series, which placed Kolchak in Chicago with the Independent News Service. Each week for 20 weeks he investigated various supernatural and supranatural creatures, ranging from aliens to vampires to Aztec sacrificial cults. Although it only lasted one season on ABC, Kolchak has remained a cult favorite and been kept alive through the efforts of creator Jeffrey Grant Rice, Mark Dawidziak, and the folks at Moonstone Comics, who have two Kolchak comics going (see Links). There's an anthology of Kolchak stories coming out this year and discussion of a new Night Stalker (2005) series produced by The X-Files's Frank Spotnitz for ABC.
Kolchak writes an obituary for a deceased scientist, but soon becomes involved in further investigation when no one can give him a straight answer on how the scientist died. Meanwhile, a mysterious figure goes on a rampage throughout Chicago, stealing morticians' wax and Halloween masks. Kolchak eventually finds out that the scientist was working on Project R.I.N.G.: the development of an artificially intelligent robot. R.I.N.G. killed his creator rather than be shut down, and now the government is hunting it. Kolchak must find where the robot is hiding and reveal the story before the government catch up to R.I.N.G.