There were aspects of the show that really worked, like Kolchak being a bumbling, frenetic, intrusive and inquisitive reporter. He wasn't slick or fashionable. He lived to get answers to mysteries he explored.
A suburb of Chicago has a rash of strange black-eyed children knocking on doors and asking for entry or approaching people in store parking lots, asking for a ride. Kolchak hangs out in a grocery store parking lot after dark where Carl allows the creepy kids to take a ride in his Mustang. As he drives them away, he peers into his rearview mirror to lock eyes with them, finding himself mesmerized and obeying their orders.
"Montauk Monsters"
When strange creature wash ashore in Montauk, Carl catches a flight and heads to Long Island. Arriving as a new creepy carcass has washed ashore, Carl takes photos, asks questions and hires an outboard motorboat to head to Plum Island, believed to be the source of lab monstrosities. Once there, Carl must dodge bizarre creatures trained to guard the shorelines from outsiders.
"Alien Invasion"
When a farmer and his family pop up on a tv report claiming an alien ship over their farm, Carl heads out into the countryside to interview the family, but runs into a group of police and reporters at yet another farm where another encounter occurred. This time, one family member is missing. Anticipating the next night, a ship might show up over the next farm, Carl cowers in the cornfield when the ship comes over him, shooting a beam of light down. Carl dodges through the corn rows to escape. When he manages to evade the ship, he watches it hover over the farmhouse and miraculously, a mother, father, and two sons are lifted by a beam of light into the ship that accelerates into the distance.
"Ancient Giant"
While Carl tries to find a new story at the police station, two boys come running in hysterically, reporting there was a giant inside a cave that scared them out with a wooden club. The police officer chuckle, pat them on the heads, and send them off. Carl considers the boring news day and chases the boys down outside. They take him near the cave and point, but then run away scared. Carl enters the cave, filled with bones, smelling like rot. He turns to leave, figuring there's nothing there when he sees an enormous bare footprint in the dirt. When he hears a loud groan, Carl dives into a corridor, lost in the caverns and darkness, hearing the giant behind him, feeling the ground thump. His trembling hands put a flashbulb on his camera, he turns and takes a picture, the flash's light illuminating the caveman like face of a 10-foot tall giant.
"Bigfoot"
Carl arrives in a lumber site in the woods to report on an encounter with an ape-like creature reported by the lumberjacks. When he gets there, the lumberjacks look at their stern boss, arms crossed over his broad chest and glaring, and they retract their police report and say it was a joke. When the police leave the scene, Carl tries to make small town with the button-lipped wood cutters. They know their boss is listening and tell Carl to take a hike. When Carl begins to leave, a worker whispers, "after dark they come here and mess with the equipment." Carl waits in his car until the workers are gone for the day and keeps his eye and camera on the work site. Facing the equipment that is parked for the night, Carl doesn't realize he is being stalked from behind. When he hears a low growl, he turns to see a dark very tall and broad-shouldered silhouette. The eyes glow red. Carl trembles, drops his camera, and rushes off to the center of the clearing. The Bigfoot turns his car over. Carl stumbles blindly in the dark.
"Haunted House"
When Carl's editor is going on a trip with his wife, he can't find a housesitter/dog sitter, so he asks Carl. Carl wanders around the lonely old two-story Victorian home, feeling out of place with so much space. The dog follows him like a shadow but he isn't the petting kind of guy. Now and then, the dog sits up, looks at a corner of the room and wags its tail, even sitting up with its paws in the air as if obeying a master. Carl puzzles over the strange actions. As he turns off the lights at night, he hears foosteps up the stairway. He flicks on the light. No one is there. Over the week, Carl has more strange encounters of cabinets and doors opening and closing. When he is alone in bed, someone stands over the bed. By the time the editor comes home, Carl is sleeping on the sofa and tells him his house is haunted. The editor waves his hand and dismisses Carl as, once again, drumming up more unexplained spooks.
Of course, because it's Carl, no one believes him and his camera's film is compromised. And, his editor cusses him out.