One of my favorite television series in my High School years was Darren McGavin in Kolchak:The Night Stalker.  The main cast of the show was simple there was the star Darren McGavin, his long suffering boss Simon Oakland, his insufferable co-worker Jack Grinnage and the sweet advice/puzzle columnist Ruth McDevitt.  There was an attempt to add another co-worker played by Carol Ann Susi for three episodes.  John Fiedler played "Gordy" the morgue worker in three episodes.  The roles of police officers were often given to solid character actors such as Keenan Wynn (2 episodes), John Dehner, William Daniels, Charles Aidman and James Gregory among others.   Richard Keil played the monster in two episodes.  Sadly there were only 20 episodes of the series and two movies.  There was an ill advised attempt to do a remake of the series that bore no resemblance to the classic original.  

Here is Darren McGavin: