The Norliss Tapes and The Night Stalker: a comparison
Well after having watched The Norliss Tapes on YouTube the other night, it definitely seemed to me like The Night Stalker, v.2.0 (but not as good). Turns out there's a reason for that, and I did some homework on the matter. After Dan Curtis produced the sequel The Night Strangler, there were plans for a third Kolchak movie set in NYC. Darrin McGavin wanted to do a TV series instead, but only if he was the Producer. ABC agreed and that left Curtis out in the cold ... but not for long. Instead he moved on to The Norliss Tapes, which was intended as a pilot, but NBC didn't pick it up.
On Norliss, Curtis used many of the same people from Stalker, namely Robert Cobert for his instantly recognizable music. In addition, there was Hoyt Bowers (Casting), Trevor Williams (Art Direction), Charles L. Campbell, Harold Lewis and Roger Sword (Sound), Dick Ziker (Stunts), and John S. Perry (Costume & Wardrobe). Not to mention Claude Akins as a local Sheriff in both films! The fact that story-wise Norliss is so close to Stalker is obvious that Curtis wanted to catch lightning in a bottle twice, since Stalker was the highest rated TV-movie up until that time. To be honest, I'm surprised nobody got sued over this, because the similarities are quite obvious to any horror buff. Here are a few I've noticed.
Both Carl Kolchak and David Norliss are professional writers investigating the supernatural. Both recorded their story on cassette tapes, which served as narration for the rest of the movie. What's particularly interesting is how both Kolchak and Norliss describe, in voice over, the events leading up to a victim's death. Both Janos Skorzeny (NS) and James Cort (NT) belong to the Undead with typical blood shot eyes, wear a black suit and tie (Cort had recently died and was probably buried in it), drain their victims of blood and even kill an attacking dog. Btw, both Gail Foster (NS) and Ellen Cort (NT) as the female leads are blonde, but I know that's stretching it a bit. I've already mentioned Claude Akins playing the Sheriff in both films (maybe they're twins!) Stanley Adams has a minor role in both who has contact with either the killer (NS) or the victim (NT). I'm sure there are more but these are the ones that come to mind first. One of the main differences, however, is that while the police in NS have a big showdown with Skorzeny's vampire more than once, in NT the police never even come in contact with Cort at all.
Having said that, this is to take nothing away from Roy Thinnes, who I've always liked since "The Invaders". While the story may be similar, the lead characters are like night and day. You laughed along with Kolchak's wise-cracking jokes toward his Editor, Tony Vincenzo, whereas Norliss was a much more serious person who barely cracked a smile.
Check out this link for an excellent look into the back-story of these two films: http://www.braineater.com/norliss.html.
Also there is a book called "The Television Horrors of Dan Curtis - Dark Shadows, The Night Stalker and Other Productions, 1966 - 2006" by Jeff Thompson. Chapter VI is titled "In the Night Stalker Vein: The Norliss Tapes and Scream of the Wolf". Scroll down to Page 131 for an in-depth look. https://books.google.com/books?id=K99vOihPFtAC&pg=PA129&lpg=PA129&dq=the+night+stalker+and+the+norliss+tapes&source=bl&ots=wMwvFoWjQY&sig=ia_54vSC4H0xy-MfKG_LW6Q1Hww&hl=en&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0CEIQ6AEwB2oVChMIvPOAzI20xwIVgtOACh33lQP6
Btw, the book also mentions that William F. Nolan, who did the screenplay for Norliss Tapes, also wrote a sequel called The Return, where David Norliss travels back in time to meet his boyhood self. Unfortunately it was never turned into a script or produced. Might have been the first episode had Norliss Tapes gone to series.