Kojak (TV series)

''Kojak'' is an American action crime drama television series starring Telly Savalas as the title character, New York City Police Department Detective Lieutenant Theodopolis "Theo" Kojak. Taking the time slot of the popular ''Cannon'' series, it aired on CBS from 1973 to 1978.

In 1999, ''TV Guide'' ranked Theo Kojak number 18 on its 50 Greatest TV Characters of All Time list.

The show currently airs on Sony Pictures' getTV.

Production

The show was created by Abby Mann, an Academy Award–winning film writer best known for his work on drama anthologies such as ''Robert Montgomery Presents'' and ''Playhouse 90''. Universal Television approached him to do a story based on the 1963 Wylie-Hoffert murders, the brutal rape and murder of two young professional women in Manhattan.

Owing to poor and corrupt police work and the prevailing casual attitude toward suspects' civil rights, the crimes in the Wylie-Hoffert case were pinned on a young African-American man, George Whitmore Jr., who had been arrested on a separate assault charge. After illegally obtaining a confession, the police had the suspect all but convicted until a second investigation by a different team of detectives exonerated the suspect and identified the real killer, Richard Robles, who was convicted in 1965 and sentenced to life in prison.

Mann developed the project as a gritty police procedural, but with a subtext focusing on institutionalized prejudice and the civil rights of suspects and witnesses. The result was a 1973 made-for-TV movie, ''The Marcus-Nelson Murders''. The opening and closing titles of the film emphasized the point that it was a fictional account of the events that led to the creation of Miranda rights by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1966. Selwyn Raab's book ''Justice in the Back Room'' provided Mann with some of his inspiration for the story of ''The Marcus-Nelson Murders'', and the series subsequently included a credits reference to having been "suggested by a book by Selwyn Raab".

Savalas starred in ''The Marcus-Nelson Murders'' as a police detective whose last name was spelled "Kojack". The film served as a pilot for the ''Kojak'' television series. Kojak himself was a composite character, based on a number of detectives, lawyers, and reporters who were involved in the Wylie-Hoffert murder case.

Plot

Series

The series is set in the New York City Police Department's Eleventh Precinct (the building shown was actually Ninth Precinct), Manhattan South Patrol Borough. The series was also filmed in New York City.

The show revolved around the efforts of the tough and incorruptible Lieutenant Theodopolus ("Theo") Kojak (Telly Savalas), a bald, dapper, New York City policeman, who was fond of Tootsie Pops and of using the catchphrases, "Who loves ya, baby?" and "Cootchie-coo!" Kojak was stubborn and tenacious in his investigation of crimes—and also displayed a dark, cynical wit, along with a tendency to bend the rules if it brought a criminal to justice.

In the context of the script, Kojak's was seen as typical squad room humor, which was picked up later in the TV drama ''Hill Street Blues''. Savalas described Kojak as a "basically honest character, tough but with feelings—the kind of guy who might kick a hooker in the tail if he had to, but they'd understand each other because maybe they grew up on the same kind of block." Kojak's Greek American heritage, shared by actor Savalas, was featured prominently in the series.

In the early episodes of the series, he is often seen smoking cigarettes. Following the 1964 Surgeon General's Report on smoking, cigarette commercials were banned from American television in 1971, and public awareness of the dangers of cigarette smoking increased dramatically during the 1970s. To cut down on his own deadly habit, Kojak began using lollipops as a substitute. The lollipop made its debut in the Season 1 episode "Dark Sunday", broadcast on December 12, 1973; Kojak lights a cigarette as he begins questioning a witness, but thinks better of it and sticks a lollipop (specifically, a Tootsie Pop) in his mouth instead. Later in the episode, Kevin Dobson's character Crocker asks about the lollipop and Kojak replies, "I'm looking to close the generation gap." Although Kojak continued to smoke, as he was frequently seen lighting a cigarillo, the lollipop eventually became his identifying characteristic; in fact, when the series debuted a new opening montage in season five, Kojak is seen both lighting a cigarillo and popping a lollipop into his mouth.

His longtime supervisor was Capt. Frank McNeil ( Dan Frazer), a man who never seemed to know what was going on. Later in the series, McNeil was promoted to Chief of Detectives in Manhattan. Kojak is the commander of the Manhattan South Precinct's detective squad. His squad includes one of his favorite employees, young plainclothes officer, Det. Bobby Crocker (Kevin Dobson). Detective Stavros, played by Telly's real-life brother George Savalas, used the name "Demosthenes" as his screen credit during the first two seasons. George Savalas, under his real name, also received a Production Associate credit during the first season and a Production Assistant credit for the second season. Detective Saperstein (Mark Russell), and Detective Rizzo (Vince Conti), all gave Kojak support. Roger Robinson appeared in 12 episodes as Detective Gil Weaver.

Although the show primarily focused on Kojak's police work, it occasionally veered into other areas of the character's lives, such as the first-season episode "Knockover" which included a subplot involving Kojak romancing a (much younger) female police officer. In 1976, crime writer Joe Gores received an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Episode in a TV Series Teleplay for the third-season episode "No Immunity for Murder" (first aired November 23, 1975).

The show was canceled after five seasons in 1978, due to falling ratings. Reruns of ''Kojak'' became successful in syndication and on TV Land.

TV movies

Years after the series ended, Savalas reprised the role in two CBS TV movies, ''Kojak: The Belarus File'' (1985) (an adaptation of the John Loftus book ''The Belarus Secret'') and '' Kojak: The Price of Justice'' (1987) (based on Dorothy Uhnak's novel ''The Investigation''). Kojak is not a character in either book.
Dan Frazer, George Savalas, Mark Russell and Vince Conti made their final appearances in ''The Belarus File''.

In 1989, ABC revived the series again with five additional TV movies. These films saw now-Inspector Kojak lead the NYPD's Major Crimes Squad. Andre Braugher was cast as Winston Blake, a young detective assigned to Kojak's command. Kevin Dobson returned for the fourth film ''It's Always Something''.

Telly Savalas and Dan Frazer are the only cast members to appear in every episode of the original series. Kevin Dobson appeared in all but two episodes, whilst George Savalas appeared in all but three.

Characters

* Telly Savalas as Lieutenant Theodopolus "Theo" Kojak
* Dan Frazer as Captain Francis "Frank" McNeil, Kojak's boss
* Kevin Dobson as Detective Robert "Bobby" Crocker
* George Savalas (early credited as Demosthenes) as Detective Demosthenes "Curly" Stavros
* Mark Russell as Detective Percy Saperstein
* Vince Conti as Detective Lionel Rizzo

Music

Two main title themes were used for the show. The somewhat better-known first ''Kojak'' theme, in two distinct arrangements, is the work of Billy Goldenberg, who scored the first two episodes of the series (Goldenberg also scored the series' pilot movie). The first of these two arrangements was used for episodes 1-27. The second of these two arrangements was used for episodes 28–96. Kim Richmond scored the series' third episode. John Cacavas composed the second main title theme used for the show's fifth and final season. In addition, Cacavas composed the music score beginning with the series' fourth episode and continued throughout the remainder of the series.

Goldenberg's first ''Kojak'' theme had lyrics, written by Bill Dyer. The song, entitled ''We'll Make It This Time (Theme From Kojak)'' was performed by Sammy Davis Jr. on his 1976 album ''The Song And Dance Man''.

Detective Car

In the ''Kojak'' television series, the main character would drive an unmarked police car. This sedan model, was a 1973 Buick Century Police detective car with full wheel covers and a 1974 Buick Century 455 badged sedan with small wheel covers. Both cars were in dark brown colors (GM Nutmeg Poly color.) The "1973 grille (section above the bumper) has 3 horizontal bars while the 1974 has 5 horizontal bars." A blue 1974 Century sedan was also driven. "Later in the series, the brown Century was replaced by a 1975 (copper color). " The New York orange with dark blue lettered license plate was "383-JDZ" on the ''Kojak'' brown police detective car.

Episodes

''Kojak'' aired for five seasons on CBS, from 1973 to 1978 for a total of 118 episodes. In the United Kingdom, the series premiered on 24 August 1974 on BBC1. In 1985, seven years after the series ended, Telly Savalas returned to play Kojak in seven TV movies beginning with ''Kojak: The Belarus File''. The first two were aired by CBS and the latter five were aired on ABC as part of their '' ABC Saturday Mystery Movie'' theme block. His character was promoted to the rank of captain, and later inspector. Andre Braugher co-starred as Det. Winston Blake, and for one TV movie, ''Kojak: It's Always Something'', Kevin Dobson returned as Bobby Crocker, now an assistant district attorney. Guest stars in these TV movies included Angie Dickinson, Marcia Gay Harden, Max von Sydow, Jerry Orbach and Suzanne Pleshette.

Esquire TV aired the series in multi-hour blocks Wednesdays from September to mid-October 2015. MeTV picked ''Kojak'' up for its late night lineup shortly thereafter. Today, Cozi TV airs ''Kojak'' approximately six months during a calendar year.

Broadcast history and Nielsen ratings

Remake

In March 2005, a new ''Kojak'' series debuted on the USA Network cable channel and on ITV4 in the UK. In this re-imagined version, African-American actor Ving Rhames portrays the character. The series only lasted one season.

Film

David and Leslie Newman's original script for '' Superman: The Movie'' featured a cameo appearance by Savalas as Kojak, with Superman mistaking him for Lex Luthor and accidentally capturing him. This scene was written out of the film after Richard Donner and Tom Mankiewicz became involved and shifted the film towards a less campy and more serious tone.

Universal Pictures is planning to make a film version of Kojak, with Neal Purvis and Robert Wade to write the script for the film. Vin Diesel will star as Kojak and produced the film with Samantha Vincent. Philip Gawthorne was hired to construct a new draft for the film.

On June 19, 2015 it was reported in media outlets that playwright Philip Gawthorne is on board for the new Kojak movie being written for Universal. ''Kojak'' is being produced by Diesel's Universal-based One Race Films with Scott Stuber and Dylan Clark. Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, the writing team behind James Bond films including ''The World Is Not Enough'' and ''Skyfall'', joined the project in 2012 to write a previous draft.

Spin-off media

Despite the show being ostensibly produced for an adult audience, Peter Pan Records produced an album of audio dramas based upon the series, aimed at children. This 12" album has an audio record and a story book released in 1977.

Books

There were several books titled, Telly Savalas Kojak in a numbered series. The author was Victor B. Miller of directing and writing career fame, especially the Friday the 13th screenplay and movie.

* Kojak #1: Siege. New York: Pocket Books, 1974
* Kojak #2: Requiem for a Cop. New York: Pocket Books,1974
* Kojak #3: Girl in the River. New York: Pocket Books, 1975
* Kojak #4: Therapy in Dynamite. New York: Pocket Books, 1975
* Kojak #5: Death Is Not a Passing Grade. New York: Pocket Books, 1975
* Kojak #6: A Very Deadly Game. New York: Pocket Books, 1975
* Kojak #7: Take-Over. New York: Pocket Books, 1975
* Kojak #8: Gun Business. New York: Pocket Books, 1975
* Kojak #9: The Trade-off. New York: Pocket Books, 1975.

Several re-prints from the Pocket Books were done in the U.K. by Star Books and there was one title, "Marked for Murder" published in 1976 that was not in the U.S. numbered series. Also, reprints with a different cover for "Requiem For a Cop" and "Girl in the River" were published in 1975.

Another book was published by Berkley Medallion Books in 1976. The author was Thom Racina and was titled, "Kojak in San Francisco" with a tagline, "The story that couldn't be shown on TV."

Janet Pate, authored, "Book of Sleuths from Sherlock Holmes to Kojak" in hardcover binding. The publisher was New English Library Ltd and the first edition was published on, March 3, 1977. The cover features Kojak on the telephone with a pinstripe suit. The information book indicated as 124 pages with profuse b/w photos, plates and illustrations.

There were three annuals for Kojak published in 1977 (62 pages Stafford Pemberton Publishing), 1978, and 1979.

Home media

Universal Studios released season 1 of ''Kojak'' on DVD in Regions 1, 2 and 4 in 2005–2006. Due to poor sales, no further seasons were released.

On February 14, 2017, Universal Studios re-released season 1 on DVD in Region 1.

On May 25, 2011, it was announced that Shout! Factory had acquired the Region 1 DVD rights to the series. They have subsequently released the remaining 4 seasons on DVD as well as a complete movie collection.

In Region 2, Mediumrare Entertainment has released the complete series on DVD in the UK.

In Region 4, Shock Entertainment has released seasons 2–5 on DVD in Australia.

Toys

1975

There were mini trading cards with bubble gum included in packs made in Holland and solely imported by Lemberger Food Co. Inc. in Palisades Park, NJ. A pack of 8 cards and 1 gum were sold part of the collection at 10 cents. The merchandise packaging had copyright of Universal Television, Division of Universal City Studios INC. This Monty Gum collection is a set of mini-trading cards in 1 7/8" by 2 5/8" size with 72 color images of the series on the front side with a puzzle on the back side. Another set had deckle edged 100 images of the series to arrange the puzzle, on the back was a monochrome Kojak with a lollipop and card number. Also, in the Monty Gum collection was a 56 playing card deck with double monochrome Kojak on the telephone image on the front. This is how to determine the differences in the three card sets with Kojak (on telephone or with lollipop) or none. The size of the playing cards was approximately 2" X 3" in size. The playing cards had all different images with four Kojaks as Joker Card (no sunglasses, sunglasses, lollipop, no sunglasses and no lollipop) and was made for foreign markets as K, D Q V, and J B are shown for the face cards.

Also, Milton Bradley manufactured a ''Kojak'' board game, called The Stake Out Detective. Another company, Arrow Games, Ltd, manufactured a different board game design as well in that year, calling it ''Kojak'' Detective Game. This identical play board game design had a French version by MB Jeux called "Enigmes Policieieres" and a combo English/French language board game version by Somerville Industries Lt (London, Ontario, Canada) called "Jeu de Détective" "Detective Game."

1976

Since the ''Kojak'' TV series was already showing in the UK, that Mettoy Toy Co. LTD in Northhampton, U.K., introduced Corgi Toys

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