'Night Stalker' gets new life on DVD

NEW YORK, May 30 (UPI) -- "Night Stalker" star Stuart Townsend blames a bad time slot and lack of promotional support from network ABC for the show's quick demise last fall.

ABC first scheduled the updated version of the 1970s suspense drama from "X-Files" mastermind Frank Spotnitz against the top-rated CBS show, "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," then dropped "Night Stalker" altogether after six episodes.

Fans will be able to watch those, plus four episodes never seen on TV, on the new DVD, "Night Stalker: The Complete Series," due in stores Tuesday. Those episodes will also be shown on the Sci Fi Channel this summer.

"I think someone high up didn't like 'X-Files' and those kinds of shows," Townsend told UPI in a recent phone interview. "We didn't get that much promotion from the get-go compared to other new shows. ... I've never watched an episode of 'CSI' in my life, so when they said, 'You're on Thursdays at 9,' I didn't realize how bad that would be."

Although the star of "Queen of the Damned" and "The League of Extraordinary Gentleman" said he loved his character and found working on the series creatively satisfying, he admitted, "It wasn't much fun doing a show nobody was really behind."