EDITOR’S NOTE: This episode of Kolchak: The Night Stalker was on the CBS Late Movie on November 9, 1979, August 21, 1981, and December 11, 1987.

Directed by Bruce Kessler and written by Steve Fisher and David Chase, “Chopper” is the kind of Kolchak episode that I love, one where The Bishops biker gang member Harold “The Swordsman” Baker, was decapitated by a rival gang, The Jokers, who were dumb enough to ride around with his head until “The Swordsman’s” ghost came to chop his head off. The gang finally stopped him by putting his head inside his coffin, and everything was normal until a construction project somehow got his head separated from his body.

The old Jokers like Henry “Studs” Spake (Art Metrano) have to look over their shoulders before they lose their heads. Kolchak has to discover the truth, deal with another lousy cop (Captain Jonas, played by Larry Linville from M*A*S*H*) and get out with his head on his shoulders.

Speaking of shoulders, the headless motorcycle rider has shoulders that are a foot above normal. How else would you affect this budget?

Sharon Farrell, who would later be Lone Wolf McQuade‘s wife, as well as Lenore in It’s Alive, Mrs. Mancini in Can’t Buy Me Love and Regina and Samantha’s stepmother in Night of the Comet, is in this episode as is Jim Backus in a cameo as a motorcycle dealer.