Remember the Las Vegas Vampire?

Danny Tyree on Dec 29, 2021

Filmgoers addicted to today’s standards of gore might bemoan the restrained nature of the movie, but the Network Standards and Practices people had spent 20-plus years protecting viewers from disturbing elements. (“Quick! More parents with dead spouses! More people smoking cancer sticks! But no karate chops!”)

Some fume that vampire Janos Skorzeny wasn’t given a more nuanced, sympathetic treatment. They wouldn’t be satisfied unless Kolchak took along a social worker to coax the vampire into experiencing a “Wow! I could’a had a V8!” moment.

Like every year, 2022 will be a buyer’s market for columnists wishing to write about cultural anniversaries; but I couldn’t in good conscience pass up this occasion.

Not when “The Night Stalker” left such an indelible mark.

My trip to Las Vegas in the mid-90s is still a blur, but I was supposedly screaming, “Don’t show me the room with the HIGH stakes – show me the one with the WOODEN stakes!”

Danny Tyree welcomes email responses at tyreetyrades@aol.com and visits to his Facebook fan page “Tyree’s Tyrades.”