Perhaps getting less notice in the wake of the death of Don Knotts (more on that later), Darren McGavin has passed away.
Darren was one of those actors who just automatically brought a ton of character to the parts he played. His face and inflection spoke volumes. These days, he’s probably most seen playing Ralph’s dad (the “old man”) in A Christmas Story when TBS blankets the airwaves with it at Christmastime. However,of more cultural importance is his title role in Kolchak: The Night Stalker. His reluctant hero in the fight against the oogy-boogies echoes loudly through the oogy-boogy shows that followed; there’s a lot of Kolchak in Buffy (arguably, more than there was in the more recent official remake of the series.) And yes, the little fanboy in me would’ve liked to have seen McGavin do an episode of Buffy (and had it been as Kolchak, oooooooh!), but I’m glad he added to the language of the form.
