What can I say about this weeks offering. Not much that is allowable on this site. I really struggled to get through this, it's shockingly bad, ludicrous story of epic proportions,asinine and incompetent storytelling.

The motor bike rider looked like a mannequin from last week, head removed and stuck on a bike, without even a bit of blood around the neck. I actually thought it was going to be a robot and the whole thing a hoax to make Kolchak look foolish.

How this c!!p got past draft stage is astonishing

Zero out of Ten

This time the storyline was so lame it was laughable in the wrong way, but the comic relief made up for it and still made for a fun watch. The whole "headless biker" bit was just a bit too derivative from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Especially the way he stopped the phantom rider for good by throwing his head at him, or to him depending on the individual telling of the tale or some variation based on it.

The motor bike rider looked like a mannequin from last week, head removed and stuck on a bike, without even a bit of blood around the neck. I actually thought it was going to be a robot and the whole thing a hoax to make Kolchak look foolish.

Agree. The "effect" of showing the headless biker was entirely too cheap. However, I recall a lot of the TV stuff from the '70s and poor quality effects appeared to be the norm, leaving it to your imagination once they gave you the general idea. And I wouldn't have expected blood on a 20 year deceased phantom body, decapitated or not. What bothered me was how he wielded the sword when he needed his left hand to operate the clutch and his right for the throttle and front brake. After that the bike jumps without ramps went under the radar.

Larry Linville was a welcome element here. Playing the police captain as basically Frank Burns to become the butt of the jokes in similar fashion was perfect here. I loved how Carl played to his ego to extract information from him. played like a fiddle.

Also enjoyed seeing Jim Backus selling motorcycles. Was neither Mr. Howell nor Mr. Magoo and still retained his own charm to the character.

So it's awful story, but hilarious comic relief. 5 heads in old paint buckets.

This was indeed a memorable episode of the show. As I mentioned several reviews back, the show used to air at 8 and I would have college classes around 7 so I would get home, watch the remainder of the show live and then listen to the tape recorder that my wonderful family had turned on in my room earlier along with the TV so I could hear what I missed. (Oh, those pre-VCR days.) I listened to the dialogue on this one quite a few times before erasing it. I particularly loved the back and forth between Kolchak and Jay Robinson, playing the man trying to set up the museum guillotine display. (I always got a kick out of listening to Jay talk, with his accent and unique delivery.) Not all of it flowed so well; the whole funeral scene was a mess in my book.

The culprit this time is a headless biker trying to “wreak revenge on those who had decapitated him”, namely a rival biker gang in the 50’s. The foundation is laid out well with the how and why the spirit was loosed and a solid motivation for the killings. But once again the monster has “superhuman strength” with no real logic behind that, except that it makes it easier to explain how he can decapitate with a heavy sword while riding on a motorcycle.

The police presence in this is one newly promoted Captain Jonas, whom Kolchak has clearly run afoul of before. He’s played by Larry Linville, best known for playing the sniveling Frank Burns on MASH (can't use the asterisks in between; it makes the formatting go nuts). I have a soft spot in my heart for that actor, who usually played an authority figure but was often still eternally associated with Frank Burns. He was still doing MASH at the time of this episode, so you are clearly supposed to dislike him even though he’s really just trying to do his job. Carl gets a taste of that and a little karma payback when Jonas has his car towed for parking at the scene of a crime. Kolchak, however, manages to outfox him a couple of times – once by taking his film out his camera before approaching the Captain so that he doesn’t have to turn his film over. Later, he gets Jonas to fork over information by giving him a BS story about the victim being a wealthy heir so that Jonas proceeds to spill the beans about the guy’s unsavory past – which leads Carl to the biker gang.

Other colorful characters abound. Gordy the Ghoul has been replaced by another guy, Neill, who trying to earn some extra money to become a beautician. He was amusing; what was not amusing was Carl taking back some of the money he had slipped him for information. It was one thing for his to do that last week with that bogus cult, but Neil had slipped him some genuinely solid intel. Sharon Farrell is always good at playing a character having a breakdown and does so here nicely. She even at one point pretends to break down and then resumes an immediate calm countenance as soon as Kolchak leaves. We don’t just get a random motorcycle salesman – we get Jim Backus. Even an old security guard is played by lonely Maytag repairman Jesse White. (His replacement guard is played by an unfamiliar face, who runs off at the first sign of trouble. At least old Jesse tried to confront his intruder.) Art Metrano is a victim who escapes the first attempt on his life, and gets killed on the second when he is close to putting an end to the headless rider on his own. And Frank Aletter, best known for IT’S ABOUT TIME, plays a witness to the first murder who is thought to be crazy because he saw a headless cyclist. When Carl goes to visit him, one of the other patients yells out, “It’s about time you got here,” which made me laugh hysterically. I also loved the nurse’s line, “Mr. Van Gogh, go!”

And maybe there_ is _a bit of continuity between shows here. After all our concerns about Tony’s health problems in previous episodes, it turns out he has an ulcer and took some time off to get it treated. Of course, Carl doesn’t do his ulcers any favor in this episode – or in any others for that matter.

For once, the solution to killing the monster is simple. Put the head and the body back together. Once the head is located, Carl only needs to throw it at the cyclist and he returns to his unmoving skeletal form. Of course, he has to duck a couple of sword swings before he can do that, but it all makes good sense.

The weaknesses in the episode: Captain Jonas shouts, “he was wearing a costume!” Well, frankly that’s what it looks like – someone wearing an oversized neck and shoulders prop over his head to appear headless. But it also makes him look way too tall in the process. And you couldn’t show a beheading back in those days so you keep seeing the sword swinging and then being freeze-framed, and those freeze-frames are none too good, sadly. Still, we get the idea with people’s grossed-out reactions to the events.

And Kolchak’s concluding dialogue tells us that Captain Jonas was demoted to Sergeant and placed in charge of towing away parked cars. It seemed amusing the first time I saw it, but now I wonder what he did so wrong to be demoted that way. He gets his captain’s stripes by putting away a big drug dealer, then gets demoted for not solving one murder (since presumably he never tried to claim it was the ghost of a cyclist who did it.) Maybe some time had passed and he just got on people’s nerves; he didn’t seem the type who made friends easily. And Carl also talks about “those that are left” and how “they will carry the nightmare of the headless cyclist to their silent graves.” But there was only one survivor – Lila. Who is “they?”

I’ll give this one 8 condominium builders who callously buy up old graveyards to build condominiums on, forcing others to dig up the bodies and bury them someplace else. That is ghastly.

Random goof: Kolchak states that the careless mover separated the head and body on April 5th, and that the first murder took place on April 6th. But, in between, he said that the cycle was stolen on February 5th.

@mad-pac said:

Contrary to popular belief, this episode is not big and powerful about helicopters. It's more like a cross between Sleepy Hollow and Ghost Rider.

You meant "this episode is not about big and powerful helicopters." I forget sometimes that English is not your first language, because you use it so well. But nobody's perfect. Oh, and the Sleepy Hollow meets Ghost Rider comment was right on target.

CAST Larry Linville ... Lt. Frank Burns

I see you used his MASH character. Cute.

Al Mancini ... Interceptor Pilot

From UFO. Nice.

Joey Aresco ... Electric Larry

My favorite. That was hysterical. That was... oh wait, that was actually a legitimate credit. Never mind.

DIRECTED BY

Robert Zemeckis

Though the story was indeed one of his first sales, he hadn't gotten quite that far in his career yet.

Sleepy Hollow and the headless horseman are the inspiration this week.

The headless biker is a simple concept but sadly very poorly rendered on screen.
I assume the little white things sticking up is the top of the vertebral column. That was a nice touch but the oversized jacket, rigid torso and limp arms just lend the rest a comical look.
It looks like when a child wears his dads suit jacket and flails around the sleeves like arms.
We get a common Doctor Who trope to show a creatures destructiveness as cheap as possible, empty cardboard boxes. Sadly even with these the blade cut doesn't do that much.
The freeze frame for the decapitations were a poor choice but I guess they catch the action right to the end without showing us a head coming off on tea time tv.
We do get some good reactions from bystanders and the subtle chalk outline missing a head.
The end of the creature was slightly better, with it changing immediately to a skeleton on receiving it's head.

Kolchak's interactions with Captain Jonas were a highlight in the ongoing police/Kolchak dynamic. I didn't pick up on Kolchak hiding the film the first time. I genuinely thought he had forgotten it, clever Kolchak.
Kolchak also does well manipulating Jonas by feeding him bogus information about Morton and getting real information back. The scene ends amusingly with Jonas stating he doesn't work with the press, heh if only he knew.

The motorcycle dealer for me was the standout bit part:
His reminising about Matsuta making planes and how he was shot down by one of them. It is a twist of fate that he ends up later selling bikes by the same company that had such an influence on his life.
It's a nice extra that is not necessary but fleshes out an otherwise throwaway character. It's one of the repeating themes I am most enjoying about this series.

The hair care obsessed mortuary worker was entertaining. I did miss the Ghoul, but at least the new character was given something memorable.

Then we are off to the hospital to visit Kahill the dispatcher for some vital information about biking. Kolchak introduces himself as sketch artist Carl Van Damme, apparently no relation to Van Gogh due to his intact earlobes. He then flatters his way past the nurse.
Kahill is not just committed he is also restrained, seems a bit harsh.
Though having also seen the biker I would question his sanity believing it is a headless biker and not a man in an oversized jacked with big shoulder pads.

@brimfin wrote: I also loved the nurse’s line, “Mr. Van Gogh, go!”

Yep, made me laugh too

Professor Strig was also good. I appreciate that the series included references to the French revolution and the Reign of Terror.
There is a concern these days that making references like this may put off audiences which I think is a shame. It's those kind of references to historical events that would make me look things up.

@brimfin wrote: And maybe there_ is _a bit of continuity between shows here. After all our concerns about Tony’s health problems in previous episodes, it turns out he has an ulcer and took some time off to get it treated. Of course, Carl doesn’t do his ulcers any favor in this episode – or in any others for that matter.

This really impressed me. I had real concerns for Tony last week. I fully expected it to be swept away in the week to week reset.
An ulcer makes sense, turns out Tony's stomach isn't quite so cast iron at least not to Kolchak.

Again we see Tony get excited about Kolchak's potential story and with the line "when you are good you're very good".
I take this as more evidence, that for all the stories we see where Carl cannot be published he comes up with many more that do.
It makes more sense really that Carl is a great reporter, gets the big stories but occasionally goes off on crazy theories.
It is very similar to Fox Mulder later on, who is often described as a great agent, so the higher ups tolerate his pet projects.
I think it works better in Kolchak as we get very few hints of cases Mulder solves outside the X-Files.

I had to look up what a Knish was, sounds pretty tasty. Enjoy your meal Tony, wash it down with gaviscon.

It's not a bad story but let down by the very poor realisation of it's monster.
7 headless chalk outlines out of 10

I wonder one thing about this that I also wonder about Sleepy Hollow. Since the eyes are on the head, how does a headless rider see where he's riding and where to swing his sword to take a victim's head?

@BobPeters61 said:

I wonder one thing about this that I also wonder about Sleepy Hollow. Since the eyes are on the head, how does a headless rider see where he's riding and where to swing his sword to take a victim's head?

I did think this too, it's never really explained.
In terms of the stunt rider, I imagine filming these scenes was a pain.
You have to drive straight, hope the actor actually gets out of your way, while you flail a sword at them, all while balancing a shoulder pad section and a spinal column on your head.

@brimfin said:

@mad-pac said:

Contrary to popular belief, this episode is not big and powerful about helicopters. It's more like a cross between Sleepy Hollow and Ghost Rider.

You meant "this episode is not about big and powerful helicopters." I forget sometimes that English is not your first language, because you use it so well. But nobody's perfect.

This, particularly, is not an issue about first or second language, however. Sometimes the jumbled get mind in my words when I type fast, if you catch my drift. I had no idea I had confused the word order until you pointed that out.

OK, I'm back home. Back to where I can have a reliable internet connection. Straight to the point: the best thing about Kolchak TNS is that it's a pioneering show. They thought of a variety of monsters, and that template has been followed by several other shows decades later. I guess we couldn't expect much more than that really. Well, you'd better not.

Two things occur to me when I think of a headless rider like they showed. The first is that, unless the visual effects artists can use advanced CGI tools that would only be invented much later, the only way to show a headless rider is to present a weird human being with a very disproportionately big torso, with the person's arms starting way below what would be the shoulders. All this to ide the actor's head. The only competent thing that the visual effects team did in this case was show the strangely shaped rider as little as they could. The Kolchak special FX team knows (or knew) their work was poor even for the 1970s, so they always try to conceal and suggest, instead of opening showing things. And speaking of suggesting, is it part of the official editing freeze framing the scene whenever the rider was about to behead somebody? That felt like some post work for network airing. I bet the DVDs would show more. Oh, and another thing, did anybody notice how the rider on the motorcycle broke out of a garage in a superimposed "ghostly" scene in which the rider and the bike seemed transparent, and then, in the next shot, the garage door was intact? I didn't get that.

OK, the other thing I think about when they show something like a killer rider is that he can only kill in an open area, so all the victim would have to do was hide inside a car or in an office. Yet, they always face their attacker in an area with plenty of space for the motorcycle to maneuver. I remember in Pushing Daisies there was a killer that murdered his (actually, her) victims by riding a horse and trampling on the poor victims. Same problem there. Yet, all the attacks were in open areas and it never occurred the victims to hide behind a tree, or among some trees where it would be impossible for the horse to penetrate. The funny thing is that in one scene the horse entered a house with an exceptionally large door, a house with an exceptionally large living room with very little furniture. Convenient, isn't it?

Again we had the usual office banter. This time it's Vincenzo on a diet while everybody ate like gluttons. Oh, and the part in which Captain "Frank Burns" Jonas had Kolchak's car towed made me think Jonas was channeling Updyke's spirit or psychic force. Either that or the writers were running out of ideas. Whatever it was, Kolchak had it coming. I just hope for one thing: no more car-towing jokes, writers!

So, in the end all the rider wanted was his head back. And for that all Kolchak needed to do was throw the head at the rider. Nowadays I guarantee things would've been much more complicated than that.

The idea might have felt original back in '75. But the episode ended leaving a sort of bad taste in one's mouth. I think it gets 5 bowls of a suspension of eggnog, toothpaste and billiard chalk.

Oh, and another thing, did anybody notice how the rider on the motorcycle broke out of a garage in a superimposed "ghostly" scene in which the rider and the bike seemed transparent, and then, in the next shot, the garage door was intact? I didn't get that.

Actually, I thought that was good. Just a way of showing that it was a ghostly rider by using ghost standards.

OK, the other thing I think about when they show something like a killer rider is that he can only kill in an open area, so all the victim would have to do was hide inside a car or in an office. Yet, they always face their attacker in an area with plenty of space for the motorcycle to maneuver. I remember in Pushing Daisies there was a killer that murdered his (actually, her) victims by riding a horse and trampling on the poor victims. Same problem there. Yet, all the attacks were in open areas and it never occurred the victims to hide behind a tree, or among some trees where it would be impossible for the horse to penetrate.

What's worse is when somebody is run down with a car on TV or in a movie, they always run straight and try to outrun a machine designed to travel at high speed under its own power. Rarely ever do you see someone in a parking garage dive behind a building column or something, or someone just jump out of the way when the car is too close to swerve into them.

@BobPeters61 said:

Oh, and another thing, did anybody notice how the rider on the motorcycle broke out of a garage in a superimposed "ghostly" scene in which the rider and the bike seemed transparent, and then, in the next shot, the garage door was intact? I didn't get that.

Actually, I thought that was good. Just a way of showing that it was a ghostly rider by using ghost standards.

Yes, a ghost rider, a ghost bike and a ghost garage door...

What's worse is when somebody is run down with a car on TV or in a movie, they always run straight and try to outrun a machine designed to travel at high speed under its own power. Rarely ever do you see someone in a parking garage dive behind a building column or something, or someone just jump out of the way when the car is too close to swerve into them.

Yes, that's always funny.