A cult classic, Kolchak: The Night Stalker began as two made-for-television movies—the first aired in January 1972; the second, a year later. These two showings proved successful enough to warrant the launch of a TV series in the fall of 1974. Darren McGavin played Carl Kolchak, a down-on-his-luck reporter who pursued stories pertaining to the supernatural and the extraterrestrial, more often than not placing himself in mortal danger to solve the mystery before the authorities. In 2002, Moonstone began publishing Prestige Format one-shots that pick up where the television show left off in 1975.