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I find myself missing these days the ethnic vibe that so often informed stories told in years past. In the character of Kolchak, even though he isn't said to be and isn't coded as Jewish, there is a hint of that Talmudic question-and-answer dynamic that is key to the Jewish faith and the shrewdness and relentlessness associated with the merchant class. (There's a thin line between archtypes and stereotype, but it bears remembering that many stereotypes inflate and exaggerate fact rather than create it whole cloth.) There's a little bit of Sam Fuller in Carl Kolchak, with his obsession to chase something down to the nugget of truth even at the cost of health and happiness. (Detective Columbo is another non-Jewish character who nonetheless gives off the same vibe, the schlemiel as avenger. Columbo never kicked a door down and always got his killer with the sad smile of a tailor collecting his bill.) The old Kolckak did what he did because it was all he knew how to do; reportage was his stock in trade. His relationships to his various sources-- the Monk, Gordie the Ghoul, the various telephone operators and desk clerks-- mark Kolchak's beat as a neighborhood where everybody knows everybody, where resources are shared towards the greater good of the community.

Anything like that is absent in the new NIGHT STALKER; we're supposed to consider it progress that Gabrielle Union's character isn't written as black but in integrating her so seamlessly, we also lose any sense of place or tradition or texture, so she winds up being a series of outfits, a clothesrack with dialogue. I miss the Jewishness of Kolchak now, as I miss the Italianness of Tony Vincenzo. I don't remember if biographical information on these characters was provided on the show (I have half a memory of Tony invoking his sainted mother) but you can almost smell their lineage; Kolchak's grandfather as a Lower East Side bargainer, Tony's old man as the permittee of some little Sullivan Street joint with candle wax stuck on the checked table cloths. I miss characters with history all over their faces and in their voices.