Kojak: Season One DVD Review:

With a style and attitude like no other cop on television in the early seventies, which few have matched to this day, Telly Savalas stars as the bald-headed, lollipop-licking, no nonsense title character in Kojak. In a role that brought him two Golden Globes, Savalas blasts his way into your homes again with the release of season one of Kojak on DVD. This three-disc set is bare bones Kojak, with no frills to make the purchase any more exciting, but the show proves to hold up to today’s standards of entertainment, even from the very first episodes with guest star Harvey Keitel.

Kojak is a tough New York City cop who isn’t afraid to put everything on the line in order to make certain justice is served. Unlike many other shows of the time, there is no specific pattern to a Kojak episode. Each episode seems to go in an entirely new direction, whether it is stopping bank robbers, finding a serial killer, clearing a cop’s name, or stopping a rich thief, it seems like the show never runs out of good ideas. It is also fun to watch as Savalas develops the character of Kojak through the season. The trademark for Kojak is the lolly-pops he sucks on, and yet he doesn’t develop this habit immediately in the first season. He is seen to be smoking much more than eating sweets in the first third of the season.

Season one of Kojak boasts some impressive guest stars such as Harvey Keitel, James Woods, and John Ritter, and one episode directed by filmmaker Richard Donner. Although it is often difficult to notice because of how commanding the presence of Savalas can be, Kojak also has a great supporting cast. Not many of the actors are in each episode, but there are a few key cops in the station, which re-appear from episode to episode. At times it feels as though the show would be more interesting if Kojak were to have more relationships to build on throughout the season. At times it feels too much like a one-man show and there is nothing to connect one episode to the next.

The video transfer on each episode looks good, and although it definitely looks as though it was shot in the seventies, the images are clear and without scratches. The audio is decent as well, although just slightly below the quality of image. The twenty-two episodes come on three double-sided discs, each in their own DVD case, all wrapped up in a box set. There are no special features, but there are subtitles available and a few trailers, including the teaser for the new Kojak, starring Ving Rhames.

There is little about this series that a younger audience will have an attention span for, but anyone who enjoyed Kojak when it was on television will certainly enjoy it all that much more without commercial interruption.

Ryan Izay

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