"Kojak" was a fairly tough police drama series that wasn't exactly known for being flamboyant or pretentious. The feature length pilot episode proved all this, thanks to its rather grim but realistic plot. Telly Savalas was given the role of his career as the title character. He had been very successful in portraying some villainous characters. Finally, he had the chance to be cast against type for this television show. The actor proved he could play honest and decent characters and Kojak is that, plus tough. He is very good at his job as police officer in a Manhattan precinct but was also quite harsh when necessary. Telly Savalas gave a sterling performance. The writing was very good on the whole as the show lasted five seasons and over a 100 episodes. There are all kinds of cases that were covered during the series, from police corruption to drug trafficking, armed robbery, problems within the department etc. The show lent itself to some gritty realism and it served its purpose very well. There wasn't a good deal of location shooting and the studio backlot came in useful. This caused "Kojak" to look slightly artificial at times but I can overlook this. Another winner from "Universal" studios.
Review of Kojak
