Does anyone here remember the original run in 1974 ?

Yes, me and my high school buddies in Illinois got together almost every Friday to watch this. On Saturday night, we would sometimes watch the cheesy "Creature Feature" movies at 10:30 on a Terra Haute TV station. After the 1973 Notre Dame-Alabama "national championship" Sugar Bowl, "Creature from the Black Lagoon" came on. We were all still so hyped from the game that we started tossing handkerchiefs on the floor and penalizing The Creature for holding, unnecessary roughness and unsportsmanlike conduct. (Well we were high school freshmen acting like sixth graders.)

Whew, that was a ramble.

Love this thread , for I was a full blown 70s monster kid!
Loved Kolchak and the TV movie the night stalker that kickstarted it.
I was 10 in 1972 , so that show really spinned my wheels!
Night Gallery was on Sunday nights at 10:00 and my parents only let me watch the first half hour for it was a school night.
I also recall a short lived show called Ghost Story which was hosted by Sebastian Bach from Family Affair. I think that was on Friday nights.
Trilogy of Terror and Spielberg’s Duel were two of the best made for TV movies from that decade .
I also remember watching See No Evil with Mia Farrow in the early 70s with my mom, who loved scary suspenseful films .

Aurora monster models:
I had them all , along with some Marvel characters and later dragster & wacky hot rod kits.
Building and painting models was popular back then ... a long forgotten pastime today

Monster trading cards:
Big neighborhood hobby!
Spook Stories and You’ll Die Laughing were the most desirable series.
Classic Black & white monster photos with a joke on the back
I’ve recently collected back full sets thanks to eBay!

Movies on TV:
Creature feature and Chiller Theater on the weekends ruled!
Don’t forget the 4:30 movie on weekday afternoons !
Planet of the apes week
Monster movie week
Vincent price week
Etc
Great memories !

Famous Monsters of Filmland:
I had a subscription from 1971 - 1975. Music and girls overtook my monster obsession once I entered 7th grade.

Marvel comics in the 70s:

Their best era , I get misty watching those movies
So many great childhood memories
So simple and innocent compared to today

Also, big Kung Fu fan here and remember being on Thursday nights at 9:00?

Keep em coming monster kids!

I always liked Darren McGavin. He had Presence. Obviously he never hit A-lister status, but he was in some very good shows and made a good impression, at least on me. The gruff, somewhat flummoxed Everyman.
Saw him in a Gunsmoke ep, played a great, compassionate fellow standing up for Chinese people who were treated wrong.
Very touching.

I remember watching the first movie, The Night Stalker, when it aired and I was terrified, especially at the end when Kolchak goes into the vampire’s lair. I was only 7 and didn’t understand why the girl was tied to the bed; I just knew it really frightened me.

I enjoyed the sequel and it also frightened me. The series was something every kid had to watch, then talk about in school. I was young enough that every episode scared me! Those are wonderful memories.

I didn't see the original movie until a few years later but I did watch the original run of the series in an "interesting" way. Since I was six at the time my mom thought 10:00 was too late for me to stay up, even on Friday. My bedroom was adjacent to the living room and there was one of these huge mirrors built into the wall. My dad watched the Night Stalker and I watched it in the mirror from my bed. My dad caught me one night and rather than punish me because he saw that I enjoyed it, he let me watch it on his lap - provided I went to bed immediately after. At least one night I didn't stay awake long enough because I never saw Firefall in the original run. When the series shifted to 8:00 with R.I.N.G there was no more need to sneak around.

No, but I remember watching it on SciFi. I think.

In answer to the OP, oh yes I watched all of these first run in 1974. To me & my friends there was nothing better! Looking at it now, I find it extremely dated, & I find myself wanting more from the episodes I see now than I did before. Not that I still don’t love it, I do, but now all these years later I see the shortcomings of the series.

Can’t recall exactly what surrounded this in terms of programming. Juts knew at the time there was “The Rockford Files” which was must see viewing, & as a others have suggested there was “The Six Million Dollar Man AND The Bionic Woman” & also yes “Kung Fu” which to a kid was a hard sell but hey I’m sure some watched it.

But this will always have a special place in my childhood memories of the time. It’s a blast to watch this on ME TV & from my downloads off of Amazon after all these years!

I enjoyed it. The first movie had been great. The second... kinda repetitive. The series started off excellent but, again very repetitive--each episode a bit like the movies all over again. But it was still fun and I kept hoping it would do something more interesting. Then came "The Horror in the Heights". I watched with growing fascination a plot involving shape shifting Rakshasas and an aging monster hunter from India. The episode was clearly building towards something... I just knew this was going to be two-parter and almost certainly would change the direction of the series. And then it resolved in about half a minute.
I still love the show but it was clearly a bit before its time. The X Files is rather more what it should have been, with the protagonists able to travel so (almost) everything doesn't happen in one place and with a continuing backstory.