As The X-Files ushered in the fall TV season for Fox in 1993, Special Agent Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) had a clear and recent analogue in Jodie Foster’s Oscar-winning portrayal of Clarice Starling, the FBI trainee in Jonathan Demme’s Silence of the Lambs. However, to really unpack Scully’s partner, Fox Mulder (David Duchovny), and another vital source of creator Chris Carter’s original X-Files inspiration, you’d have to go back further in time to 1972. That’s when The Night Stalker, first broadcast as ABC’s Movie of the Week, introduced viewers to the Las Vegas vampire hunter Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin).
