This surprisingly tepid show rates as my least favorite episode. Okay, a sizable number of episodes had pretty silly stories, but this one wins the grand booby prize for dumbest ever premise: None other than evil demi-goddess Helen of Troy (a game performance by Cathy Lee Crosby, who does her best in a ridiculous role) runs an elite dating agency so she can select prime candidates to drain the life out of in order to stay young, healthy, and beautiful forever. Once again it's up to Carl Kolchak (the always excellent and animated Darren McGavin) to stop her. Although Rudolph Borchert's dippy, but fairly entertaining script offers a few interesting insights about America's obsession with youth and beauty, this particular outing suffers from pedestrian direction by Don McDougall, poor make-up, a total lack of suspense, the aforementioned dopey plot, and a flat conclusion. Fortunately, the series' customary sharp sardonic humor is still present and accounted for. Moreover, the sound acting by a tip-top cast helps matters to a moderate degree: Simon Oakland is in fine huffy form as the perpetually irascible Tony Vincenzo, Dwayne Hickman contributes an engaging turn as the friendly Sergeant Orkin, Kathleen Freeman is a hoot as cheery and zealous dating service proprietor Bella Sarkof, George Savalas makes a strong and winning impression as helpful cab driver Kaz, and John Fiedler has a funny bit as merry coroner Gordy. While this episode is still watchable, it nonetheless falls short of the program's usual high standards.
Review of The Youth Killer
