Aired Sept 20, 1974
Directed by Alex Grasshoff
Written by David Chase and Zekail Marko.
IMDB SUMMARY: Carl follows up on a series of murders where key figures in the Chicago numbers racket are turning up dead, their spines snapped by someone with incredible strength. The body of a murdered numbers runner keeps turning up at the scene of each crime, and Kolchak soon learns that someone is using voodoo to gain revenge on the criminals in the form of a murderous zombie.
Monique knocks over Carl’s coffee which he’s not supposed to have in the office.
With the second episode Kolchak has found his legs. We have all of the trappings down now and we’ve expanded the base cast with the addition of intern Monique (played by Carol Ann Susi who would go on to play the unseen mom in THE BIG BANG THEORY) who here is the niece of the owner of INS news service who has forced Bureau Chief Tony Vincenzo to give her a job. She becomes a semi regular in the series and rounds out the oddball cast.
Carl calls on Gordie the Ghoul
This episode introduces another semi regular, Gordon Spangler aka Gordie the Ghoul played by John Feidler who is better known for his appearances on THE ODD COUPLE and for being the voice of Piglet in Winnie the Pooh. Gordie runs a lottery based on the birthday of the corpses he’s charged to watch over. He acts as an informer in his appearances.
“What’s a Kolchak?” The Mob discovers Carl eavesdropping on their meeting.
The oddball supporting cast goes full tilt in this one, besides the aforementioned Monique and Gordie, we’ve also got a pair of Italian Mafia bosses who throw around some Italian babbling which is laugh out loud funny, played by veteran actors Joseph Sirola and Val Bisoglio.
Sweetstick
Sweetstick Weldon is their black gangster competitor played by Huggy Bear from STARKSY AND HUTCH Antonio Fargas.
Scatman Crothers plays a voodoo shop owner and numbers runner who leads Kolchak to the person behind the Zombie, who, by the way is played by a former NFL lineman Earl Faison who stood 6’5” and weighed 260lbs.
The Monk is a secondary informer who has no lines but meets Kolchak in a dark alley to give him information. The character’s face is never shown. Ben Frommer played the character.
Mentioned but never seen for the length of the series is Charlie Creech, who is the obituary writer for INS and Kolchak reveals that the last time Vincenzo asked him for a favor it was to fill in for Charlie who was off on “one of his benders”.
J. Pat O’Malley as the county grave digger reveals all to Carl Kolchak
Lastly J. Pat O’Malley is the grave digger and you’ll know him from many Disney films.
KOLCHAK EXCERPT: The mob catches Kolchak easedropping on them when his tape recorder malfunctions;
Mobster Friese: (Holding Kolchak by his neck) It’s a Kolchak.
Mobster Sposato: What’s a Kolchak?
Mobster Friese: He’s a reporter.
Kolchak: That’s right Mr Sposato, I’m a reporter for INS.
Mister Sposato: What’s an INS?
Carl resists Tony’s charm in trying to convince him to take Monique on a story with him.
HOW’S THE MONSTER: Wow. Great job on the Zombie here. Probably the best makeup in the series.
Captain Winwood Hates Carl.
HOW’S THE SEASONED COP/AUTHORITY FIGURE WHO HATES KOLCHAK: Captain Winwood (Charles Aidman) might hate Carl more than any other cop in the series. He seems to have a more personal hatred, and Aidman was well versed at playing seasoned cops.
A middle of the night call to Captain Winwood’s office to bail out Carl finds Tony in his slippers.
Interestingly this is one of the few episodes without Ron Updyke.
Despite no Ron, this one ranks a perfect
This one hits on all cylinders. This one is a serious contender for BEST EPISODE of the series. The monster is great, the characters are great and there are plenty of great Kolchak/Vincenzo bits.
NEXT up: The Longest Title in a Kolchak Episode