Another Friendship/Character Analysis: Carl Kolchak and Tony Vincenzo
Now that I've seen all of the original Kolchak: the Night Stalker episodes, it's time for another one of my character analysis pieces. Character interactions/friendships are one of the most important things for me when I get into a fandom, and the friendship dynamic between the two main characters, Carl Kolchak and Tony Vincenzo, is unlike anything I've seen in any of my other fandoms.
Analysis of a Friendship: Carl Kolchak and Tony Vincenzo
First, let's look at the characters themselves. On the one hand, you have Tony, who is a generally successful editor. He's made a good living for himself--good enough to own his own house in Chicago (as stated in "Firefall"). We also know he has a family, though we never actually see them. On the other hand, we have Carl. Nobody knows exactly where he's from (while it's implied that Tony is from the Brooklyn/NYC area, there is no such implication as to Carl's hometown), and, for the most part, he's completely a loner (he never socializes outside the office like the other characters, in "Demon in Lace," he says that he has no family, and in "Horror in the Heights," he flat-out says that there isn't anybody he trusts).
It's unclear exactly when Tony and Carl first crossed paths; the first Night Stalker movie has already established that Carl was working under Tony's supervision for a paper in Las Vegas, but they didn't exactly appear to be interacting all that much. Yet, at the end, Tony does compliment Carl on his abilities as a reporter, and, as insaneladybug pointed out, his tone of voice makes it clear that he knows all too well about the humiliation that the Las Vegas bigwigs have in store for Carl after the whole vampire fiasco. That's also supported in the Night Strangler sequel movie, when Tony insists that he wasn't the one who had wanted any of that said humiliation to fall upon Carl.
It's definitely clear that Tony does have either sympathy or pity (or both?) for Carl. For one thing, in the beginning of Night Strangler, he recognizes Carl's voice in a Seattle bar after not having seen him since the Las Vegas incident, and though he is exasperated, he walks over to him and greets him, and then gets him a job at the Seattle paper he's currently serving as editor for. Carl's reaction to seeing Tony again is interesting, too; he cheerily blurts out, "Vincenzo!!!" ...An interesting reaction from someone who claims not to trust anyone (then again, he was half-drunk at the time...). And throughout the movie, Tony does try to defend Carl, while also trying to warn/remind him of Las Vegas, and even then, he does try to get the story on the Strangler published--which lands them both in hot water. They actually do get into a fight over this--more on that later. But even after all that--the trouble and the fight--Tony still has Carl in his employ in the series proper, when they're both in Chicago. Tony is understandably more adamant about not publishing anything that could get them in trouble again, and though the majority of stories that Carl writes for him have to be thrown out, Tony still keeps him around, in spite of all the headaches Carl causes him and in spite of all the threats to fire him.
Pity or sympathy? Maybe, but it could also be Tony's unspoken way of saying that Carl is a friend. And their friendship is very much unspoken and not obvious. But it's certainly not visible on the surface; most of the time, they are arguing with each other, or swapping insults/banter--which is not new to me, as there's a lot of that in my favorite fictional friendship, Louis LeBeau and Peter Newkirk. But there is a fundamental difference between LeBeau and Newkirk's banter-counterbanter and Carl and Tony's. For one thing, when they're not bantering or arguing, LeBeau and Newkirk are inseparable and obvious buddies--they hang out in the barracks together, talk about stuff together, and have their arms around each other a lot. Tony and Carl... not so much. They don't talk about anything other than work, they don't really hand out outside of the workplace (and that's more because of Carl's loner personality, because Tony does repeatedly invite him to lunch or to have a drink), and they certainly don't have their arms around each other--the only time it ever happened was when Carl accidentally aggravated Tony's ulcer, and felt bad about it, and only then did he put his arm around him.
I'm a little bit disappointed to see that Carl tends to be apathetic towards Tony at times, taking him for granted. Their fight in Night Strangler is the most obvious example--after his story on the Strangler gets rejected and Carl is guaranteed to lose his job, he blames Tony for it (an unfair accusation, I should add), which Tony vehemently denies (and he's telling the truth, even showing Carl the 20 copies that were printed before his superiors stopped it). Carl accuses him of being a coward, which Tony does not take well--he calls Carl ungrateful, which... he was, at least in that case. It was... pretty bad. But, thankfully, they managed to bury the hatchet fairly quickly and start roadtripping together, since Tony ended up getting fired, too. Eventually, between Night Strangler and the series proper, they both did find that niche with the INS in Chicago, but it's still sad to see that Carl does tend to take Tony for granted--in "Mr. R.I.N.G.," Tony is getting a lot of pressure to get Carl off a story surrounding a government secret, and even though he's practically pleading with Carl to stop so that the suits will get the pressure off of him, Carl still presses on, and he still does tend to blame Tony for not publishing some of his other stories. However, I think Carl is partly aware that he is unfairly blaming Tony--the villain in "The Devil's Platform" reminds him of it, and it's an angle I definitely want to explore in my own fics, along with the angle of taking him for granted.
Like how Newkirk worries for LeBeau, Tony does show his concern for Carl a lot. He's screaming with worry at him in "The Trevi Collection," he leaves a small champagne party in his office to check on Carl when he hears Carl cry out in fear in "The Spanish Moss Murders," and he... well, I can't really give it away, but there's a very sweet scene at the end of "The Energy Eater." Unfortunately, Carl once again does not seem to reciprocate the concern. True, Tony is not in the thick of danger like Carl is, but it would be nice to see Carl more sympathetic to the pressure that Tony is under from his superiors. However, Carl is concerned for Tony's state of well-being, thankfully, like when he feels terrible for aggravating his ulcer in "Chopper." But I would've liked to have seen more of that. Well, that's what fanfic is for, right?
So, there you have it. An unlikely and subtle friendship, and one that has definite possibilities in the fandom--possibilities that I intend to write about.
Analysis of a Friendship: Carl Kolchak and Tony Vincenzo
First, let's look at the characters themselves. On the one hand, you have Tony, who is a generally successful editor. He's made a good living for himself--good enough to own his own house in Chicago (as stated in "Firefall"). We also know he has a family, though we never actually see them. On the other hand, we have Carl. Nobody knows exactly where he's from (while it's implied that Tony is from the Brooklyn/NYC area, there is no such implication as to Carl's hometown), and, for the most part, he's completely a loner (he never socializes outside the office like the other characters, in "Demon in Lace," he says that he has no family, and in "Horror in the Heights," he flat-out says that there isn't anybody he trusts).
It's unclear exactly when Tony and Carl first crossed paths; the first Night Stalker movie has already established that Carl was working under Tony's supervision for a paper in Las Vegas, but they didn't exactly appear to be interacting all that much. Yet, at the end, Tony does compliment Carl on his abilities as a reporter, and, as insaneladybug pointed out, his tone of voice makes it clear that he knows all too well about the humiliation that the Las Vegas bigwigs have in store for Carl after the whole vampire fiasco. That's also supported in the Night Strangler sequel movie, when Tony insists that he wasn't the one who had wanted any of that said humiliation to fall upon Carl.
It's definitely clear that Tony does have either sympathy or pity (or both?) for Carl. For one thing, in the beginning of Night Strangler, he recognizes Carl's voice in a Seattle bar after not having seen him since the Las Vegas incident, and though he is exasperated, he walks over to him and greets him, and then gets him a job at the Seattle paper he's currently serving as editor for. Carl's reaction to seeing Tony again is interesting, too; he cheerily blurts out, "Vincenzo!!!" ...An interesting reaction from someone who claims not to trust anyone (then again, he was half-drunk at the time...). And throughout the movie, Tony does try to defend Carl, while also trying to warn/remind him of Las Vegas, and even then, he does try to get the story on the Strangler published--which lands them both in hot water. They actually do get into a fight over this--more on that later. But even after all that--the trouble and the fight--Tony still has Carl in his employ in the series proper, when they're both in Chicago. Tony is understandably more adamant about not publishing anything that could get them in trouble again, and though the majority of stories that Carl writes for him have to be thrown out, Tony still keeps him around, in spite of all the headaches Carl causes him and in spite of all the threats to fire him.
Pity or sympathy? Maybe, but it could also be Tony's unspoken way of saying that Carl is a friend. And their friendship is very much unspoken and not obvious. But it's certainly not visible on the surface; most of the time, they are arguing with each other, or swapping insults/banter--which is not new to me, as there's a lot of that in my favorite fictional friendship, Louis LeBeau and Peter Newkirk. But there is a fundamental difference between LeBeau and Newkirk's banter-counterbanter and Carl and Tony's. For one thing, when they're not bantering or arguing, LeBeau and Newkirk are inseparable and obvious buddies--they hang out in the barracks together, talk about stuff together, and have their arms around each other a lot. Tony and Carl... not so much. They don't talk about anything other than work, they don't really hand out outside of the workplace (and that's more because of Carl's loner personality, because Tony does repeatedly invite him to lunch or to have a drink), and they certainly don't have their arms around each other--the only time it ever happened was when Carl accidentally aggravated Tony's ulcer, and felt bad about it, and only then did he put his arm around him.
I'm a little bit disappointed to see that Carl tends to be apathetic towards Tony at times, taking him for granted. Their fight in Night Strangler is the most obvious example--after his story on the Strangler gets rejected and Carl is guaranteed to lose his job, he blames Tony for it (an unfair accusation, I should add), which Tony vehemently denies (and he's telling the truth, even showing Carl the 20 copies that were printed before his superiors stopped it). Carl accuses him of being a coward, which Tony does not take well--he calls Carl ungrateful, which... he was, at least in that case. It was... pretty bad. But, thankfully, they managed to bury the hatchet fairly quickly and start roadtripping together, since Tony ended up getting fired, too. Eventually, between Night Strangler and the series proper, they both did find that niche with the INS in Chicago, but it's still sad to see that Carl does tend to take Tony for granted--in "Mr. R.I.N.G.," Tony is getting a lot of pressure to get Carl off a story surrounding a government secret, and even though he's practically pleading with Carl to stop so that the suits will get the pressure off of him, Carl still presses on, and he still does tend to blame Tony for not publishing some of his other stories. However, I think Carl is partly aware that he is unfairly blaming Tony--the villain in "The Devil's Platform" reminds him of it, and it's an angle I definitely want to explore in my own fics, along with the angle of taking him for granted.
Like how Newkirk worries for LeBeau, Tony does show his concern for Carl a lot. He's screaming with worry at him in "The Trevi Collection," he leaves a small champagne party in his office to check on Carl when he hears Carl cry out in fear in "The Spanish Moss Murders," and he... well, I can't really give it away, but there's a very sweet scene at the end of "The Energy Eater." Unfortunately, Carl once again does not seem to reciprocate the concern. True, Tony is not in the thick of danger like Carl is, but it would be nice to see Carl more sympathetic to the pressure that Tony is under from his superiors. However, Carl is concerned for Tony's state of well-being, thankfully, like when he feels terrible for aggravating his ulcer in "Chopper." But I would've liked to have seen more of that. Well, that's what fanfic is for, right?
So, there you have it. An unlikely and subtle friendship, and one that has definite possibilities in the fandom--possibilities that I intend to write about.