While I was in Afghanistan I got the chance to buy the boxed set of the only season of the Night Stalker, and picked it up for my (then ex-) wife because she’d told me her parents would never let her watch it while it was originally on because it was late on a school night. Before delivering it to her I rewatched the series myself, and was struck by two things. First, the monsters really were embarrassingly cheesy, but the personality of Carl Kolchak (as delivered by Darren McGavin) remained a delight. Second, there had to be a Hellmouth active in the Chicago area about that time; there were just too many things happening in a short time in a relatively limited geographical space.

As for the weird look you got, well, people either get fanfic or they don’t.