Gail Foster was lovely.

Carol Lynley, who played Gail Foster in 1972's The Night Stalker, was a busy woman in the mid-1970s and may not have been able to appear in the series a couple of years later either as Gail Foster or as another character. (Larry Linville, who played a doctor in the TV movie, returned to the series as a police captain in "Chopper.")

But if the focus is on Gail Foster the character, who was in essence Carl's girlfriend in the movie, that gets to a couple of interesting points. One is that in the series, Carl does not have any kind of girlfriend, or even social life; in its simplest terms, K: TNS is about a man and his obsession with his work, which leaves him no time for romance or sexual encounters (other than as pretense for his work, such as his trip to a massage parlor in "The Ripper"). That aspect is one of the reasons why I still find K: TNS refreshing as it is such a routine expectation in all manner of series that the lead(s) must have some kind of love life, which often becomes the focus of the series. Not that K: TNS was unaware of this, putting Kolchak with Nita Talbot for the singles' cruise in "The Werewolf" and even having him flirt with Corinne Michaels in "Mr. R.I.N.G." while he flatly tells a delightful Kathleen Freeman in "The Youth Killer" that he is just too busy to date.

And if a series remake were to be made today with Gail Foster the character being a factor, I think it would go something like this: Still intent on finding her, Kolchak embarks on a cross-country search for her, pursuing tantalizing leads while landing contract/stringer work in media outlets in each of the cities and towns he visits. In the course of investigating the stories he is assigned to, Kolchak naturally uncovers the local Big Bad Monster, and the incredulity of his local boss coupled with the appearance of another lead on Gail would keep him on the move. It's an old trick (c.f., The Fugitive), but it would have the advantage of introducing monsters with a regional flavor (and not having to import them a la "The Spanish Moss Murders") while letting Chicago off the hook with its unusually large number of spookies (in the same way that anyone visiting Cabot Cove, Maine, would notice the suspiciously high murder rate in Murder, She Wrote).

One disadvantage is in trying to work in Tony Vincenzo, who is so crucial to the original series. They could travel together, which is unusual and a little dubious as you'd have to explain what Tony's motivation to wanderlust is, and if it's because he likes or believes in Kolchak--and of course the friction between them because he doesn't is part of the existing magic--then that leads to speculation about their relationship which could be distracting. Otherwise, Tony would have to manage to appear in many of the same locations as does Kolchak, which is too coincidental and contrived.

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Trump is Putin's bitch.