The penultimate episode of the 'Kolchak: The Night Stalker' series is just about the furthest thing from scary or creepy. It's not that the story still isn't entertaining to some degree, but the threat this time is not that threatening. Kolchak finds that healthy young people are turning elderly in a heartbeat and then expiring. It turns out they'd joined a dating service run by a woman named Helen Surtees (Cathy Lee Crosby), who is making regular sacrifices of youth and beauty to her god Hecate so that she may retain her own appearance. With the help of well-meaning Greek-American cabbie Kaz (George Savalas, brother of and co-star to Telly S. on 'Kojak'), he learns what he has to do and what can help him.
It's hard to be completely dissatisfied with any 'Kolchak' episode, as the humour usually keeps things moving along quite nicely. And 'The Youth Killer' does have its moments. In the first place, Kolchak tries to dodge a dating service proprietress, Bella (Kathleen Freeman), who's determined to find him a girlfriend. Next, when Kolchak learns that the ring he's tried on will *need* to be taken off, Kaz tries to help by smearing mayonnaise all over his hand. And in one appreciable touch, the Gordy the Ghoul character (John Fiedler) is brought back. He's just not so ghoulish anymore, and complains to Kolchak that the reporter better start putting in money for a colour television set (Gordy and co-workers need something to alleviate their boredom) if Gordy is going to continue supplying information.
The guest stars also feature Dwayne Hickman as Sergeant Orkin, the first police detective who Kolchak thinks is going to be his friend until Orkin sees for himself why his peers dislike Kolchak, as well as Eddie Firestone, James Murtaugh, and Reb Brown. Firestones' conventioneer character only serves to make a particular exposition scene awkward with his complaining.
All things considered, when looking at this episode, one can see that the series was starting to run out of steam and how it may have ended prematurely. A shame, really, as certainly more decent ideas could have been concocted, but it just wasn't to be. 'The Youth Killer' is relevant enough in the way that it touches upon the obsession some people have with youth and beauty, but it represents one of the lower points during Kolchaks' brief run.
Six out of 10.
It's hard to be completely dissatisfied with any 'Kolchak' episode, as the humour usually keeps things moving along quite nicely. And 'The Youth Killer' does have its moments. In the first place, Kolchak tries to dodge a dating service proprietress, Bella (Kathleen Freeman), who's determined to find him a girlfriend. Next, when Kolchak learns that the ring he's tried on will *need* to be taken off, Kaz tries to help by smearing mayonnaise all over his hand. And in one appreciable touch, the Gordy the Ghoul character (John Fiedler) is brought back. He's just not so ghoulish anymore, and complains to Kolchak that the reporter better start putting in money for a colour television set (Gordy and co-workers need something to alleviate their boredom) if Gordy is going to continue supplying information.
The guest stars also feature Dwayne Hickman as Sergeant Orkin, the first police detective who Kolchak thinks is going to be his friend until Orkin sees for himself why his peers dislike Kolchak, as well as Eddie Firestone, James Murtaugh, and Reb Brown. Firestones' conventioneer character only serves to make a particular exposition scene awkward with his complaining.
All things considered, when looking at this episode, one can see that the series was starting to run out of steam and how it may have ended prematurely. A shame, really, as certainly more decent ideas could have been concocted, but it just wasn't to be. 'The Youth Killer' is relevant enough in the way that it touches upon the obsession some people have with youth and beauty, but it represents one of the lower points during Kolchaks' brief run.
Six out of 10.