Shark Bytes

K-O-J-A-K ... the antithesis!

I'm watching the first season of Kojak right now on DVD, and I'm surprised how good it is. I was a little kid in the '70s and knew about Kojak...Telly Savalas was a cultural icon for the '70s, on a par with John Travolta...but I don't think I ever saw one (past my bedtime, besides being violent). Now I'm able to see how really good this show was...at least in the first season.

There's a gritty, real feel to most of the episodes that isn't present on, say, McCloud or Starsky and Hutch. Plus, Telly Savalas WAS Kojak. He really created an interesting, vibrant, original character that I don't think has been matched. It went beyond gimmicks ("a baldy with a lolly"); Kojak is three-dimensional without ever sinking to displays of "vulnerability," etc. Savalas does some odd little improv'y acting things that make his character fun to watch...like he'll be having a conversation at a restaurant table and light the candle at the table...talk a bit more, then blow out the candle. Just weird little stuff that feels totally real and not scripted.

Then, there are the plots. Kojak is not your typical shoot-'em-up tire-squealer. Most of the "action" is purely procedural, and quite engrossing if you're interested in that type of thing (which I am). Just a really smart show that is always engaging. If it devolved in later seasons...and from what I'm reading here, it did...that's a real crime. But in its early incarnation, Kojak totally rocked.

From Cal: OMG. This show was good in it's early years. 1973-1978 anyway. The show after that was really not the same. Kojak was good for a while but everything after that was just a mess.

Good show,not GREAT.Typical seventies formula show.Every detective show was basically the same thing.One bald with lolly,one old,one fat,one punk with pet bird,one saccastic living in beach trailer etc.(Rockford was best...)Oh,one cowboy in NY,one police comissioner,one seemingly confused slob,one Bondesque ad nauseum.All good shows but all really the same.They did prove that no matter how worn a premise,it will work time and tome again if it's done well.

Two words: "Azure Dee"

The original 70's Kojak with Telly Savalas gets my vote for the best cop show of the 70's. It was exciting and engaging, focusing on real police work rather than overblown action or faux-coolness. When the USA network decided to make a new Kojak, I almost cried. When I sat down to watch the "new Kojak," I actually did. First, the character Kojak was inseparable from Savalas. A new Kojak made as much sense as a new 3 stooges. The plots of the new Kojak were poorly written, with the main character swinging between hokey action sequences and contrived sentiment to prove he's a sensitive, modern guy. Sorry USA Network, but shaving a cop's head and giving him a lollipop does not make him Kojak.

First of all, the NYC scenes during the opening credits are better than most SHOWS television has to offer in 2005. Second of all, when a perp mentioned something about needing a warrant, Telly whipped it out of his inside jacket pocket, simultaneously saying, "Ta Da!!" what's not to love? Kojak would have beaten Columbo's one-eyed ass.

Great Show. The somber poignant end of each episode was like no other I have ever seen. I once heard a police chief declare Kojak the most realistic cop show he had ever seen.

I think Kojak JTS with the ten years later after the show ended made for tv movies that seemed to be popping up just as often as the Columbo movies. I mean here is a washed up 70's playboy, who aged horribly, no teeth, no lollipop, and no Who Loves Ya Baby smart aleck remarks to warm the viewer heart. What network genius decided that Kojak tv movies would thrust new life into a already dated show? JTS moment.

Damn, this was a fine 70s cop show. Kojak was the best because he would haul a** on the perps. He would bust guys up without caring anything about reading them their Miranda rights or any of that. More recent cops and P.I.s are just wussies, except for NYPD Blue. I haven't seen Kojak in reruns in years, and certainly haven't seen 'em all, but I saw enough "newer" episodes to back me up...this one stayed great.

At some point Kojak was directed by Telly Savalas. In those episodes Kojak is hardly in it. But Kojak was the whole point. Also, he wasn't a very good director. I've got to get a brown 1974 Buick Century with cop shocks, cop wheels, cop engine. Kojak was one of my heroes. I love the way he disrespects the bad guys. "Tweet tweet little birdie". Great writing, and great dialogue. We miss Telly.

I recently made a post saying the show JTS'ed with Ted McGinley -- Liberace somehow got his consciousness transferred into Ted's body before he died. That was a joke. This one isn't. The Kojak producers had the brass to remake an episode of Columbo (aired a year earlier) -- with the same guest star in the same role! Hector Elizondo had played a killer on Columbo who was keeping his diplomatic immunity as a trump card in case he was found out (he was, but by the wrong people). Now, on October 24, 1976, he was playing a child molester (EEEEWWWWWW!!!!), also running a murderous spy ring, again under the cover of diplomatic immunity. (This time he was turned over to his own country and dragged off to a hideous execution.) Did they think anyone wouldn't NOTICE? The script should have gone straight into File 13. No wonder CBS started moving it all over the schedule a couple of months later, leading to its demise. (BTW, when the series returned on ABC in 1989, the first episode was a remake of the 1976 season opener, and guess who guest-starred in that one!)

Here we have a TV showing jumping the shark AFTER it made its debut as a made-for-TV flick. In this case: "The Marcus-Nelson Murder" was a solid docudrama on CBS that introduced the tough-as-nails cop Kojak. It was pretty gritty stuff for TV (remember, this was the early 70s when "French Connection" and "Serpico" were big box office. Anyway the point is the TV show never lived up to that original movie. Typical TV crap: star got too big, plots too silly. It was shark food before the first season ended.

Nothing evokes New York in the seventies like an old Kojak episode-- you half expect Mayor Beame to walk into the squad and announce, "No paychecks this week, boys!" So what inspired them to go on location in Las Vegas and bring in Liberace for a cameo? Dreadful. Unforgivable. OTOH, Telly's album was a classic-- you'll never hear country music the same way after you've heard Telly singing "Gentle on my Mind."

Kojak was a well written, gritty show. Anyone who thinks Kojak was a "stinker" from the start, as stated above, probably thinks Cagney & Lacy was a really "lovely" police drama. Who loves you baby?!!!