Review of Kojak: Series 1

Introduction

I couldn`t resist requesting this journey back down memory lane from DVD Reviewer Towers when it was offered up for review. My memory of it was of a show full of seventies clichés, with the lollypop-sucking cop always coming out predictably on top in equally predictable scrapes. Well, for the record, it is a little cliché -ridden in a charming sort of way. But it`s a much more compelling show than I`d remembered, and one that I thoroughly enjoyed on this brief re-visit.

Telly Savalas was perfectly cast as the ultra-tough cop with a heart of gold. In fact, he looks so comfortable in the role that it becomes impossible to imagine that Savalas could have been any different in real-life.

The scripts (by a variety of top-notch TV writers including veteran Jack Laird) are witty, imaginative, gritty and believable. The direction is classy and the acting superb. (You`ll have to forgive these tough guys constantly referring to each other as `sweetheart` though. It`s a seventies thing…)

There`s much to enjoy here for nostalgia buffs who enjoy seeing New York city life circa `73 (like me who lived in the U.S at the time), though I sense that there`s no reason why younger audiences won`t enjoy what is basically good action drama well-done too. Maybe that`s why the owners of the franchise have decided to remake the series (currently airing in the U.S with Ving Rhames in the title role) - though `Kojak` without Savalas just isn`t `Kojak` in my view.

So what have we here in this Season 1 Box set? Well, your guess is as good as mine as I only received Disc 3, but I think that it`s a 6 disc set which, with four episodes per disc, will certainly be a set worth having.

I would have liked to have seen the pilot episode as, by Disc 3, the whole ensemble seem well settled in and this certainly doesn`t feel like `Season 1`. Having got a taster of the material, the full set will certainly go on my wish list, and I`ll be looking forward to subsequent series too.

The disc that I received contains four episodes - all really enjoyable, and generally pretty exciting viewing.

CONSPIRACY OF FEAR
This episode was written by Jack Laird (`Night Gallery`, `Ben Casey`, `The Lone Ranger` etc) and is a complex affair involving conspiracy and corruption. A developer has big plans for a poor part of the city that look great on paper though Theo smells a rat. Needless to say, there`s some creaming of the profits going on by the mob who are the developer`s backers and it all looks like it could end up badly for our hero. Until the property developer suddenly develops a conscience.

COP IN A CAGE
Best of the bunch and a truly sinister, edge of your seat episode where an ex-con, having done seven years of porridge, decides to take revenge on Mr. Kojak. There`s a lot of `I know my rights` about this episode, with accusations of police brutality when Theo tries to discourage the man from stalking him and his family. Still - it all ends up OK. The use of a bomb in the episode gives it a peculiarly unwelcome poignancy.

MARKER TO A DEAD BOOKIE
Kojak shrewdly fools everyone into thinking that he`s a bent cop on the make just to catch a narcotics dealer.

LAST RITES OF A DEAD PRIEST
This is a typical heist episode where a thief (played by Jackie Cooper) disguises himself as a priest so that he can pull off an amazing multi-million dollar heist during a jewellery convention. He had it all figured out - but he didn`t figure on Kojak!.

Video

Full frame 1.33:1, and surprisingly good. Despite packing four episodes to a disc and the age of the episodes, they look in remarkably good shape here - in truth in much better shape than you`d have seen them first time round. Often the prints used for vintage TV transfers have done the rounds, though here the colours are vivid and there is very little sign of wear and tear.

Audio

No better and no worse than you`d expect from early seventies television. Dolby 2.0 Mono. Sometimes the music, with its seventies use of silky strings, betrays a stretching of the audio track but this is occasional and won`t interfere with your overall enjoyment.

Features

Hey, whaddya expect sweetheart? There ain`t no extras. …but that seems fair enough when you consider how many episodes are on offer here across 6 discs. To expect more would seem surly.

Conclusion

I was pleasantly surprised by this re-tread down memory lane. I guess when this aired I would have been too young to have noticed how much better this series was than the countless other tough cop shows doing the rounds at the time.

Savalas is perfectly cast as the wisecracking New York detective. He`s a cop tough enough to take everything in his stride - sucking on a lollipop, or smoking one of those elongated brown `More` cigarettes that he single-handedly popularized at the time, he can just about get away with saying things like `Who loves ya baby…` to a mafia hit-man.

This set appears to be great value too - with six discs and nearly twenty hours of great entertainment on offer, all reproduced at surprisingly high quality. It`s on my hit list.

Who loves ya baby…