Talk:Kojak

Name shortening

In the new series, the character is still called Lt. Theo Kojak, but a portrait from his early days in the police captions "Captain Theocrates Kojakias", suggesting that he shortened his (probably Greek?) family name.

Early in his career he was a captain but now he's a lieutenant? This sounds rather unlikely, especially since the contributor doesn't mention a demotion. Is there any way to verify this statement? The paragraph could also use some copyediting for clarity. Canonblack 22:48, 25 November 2005 (UTC)

The picture turns out to be his Father not an earlier picture of himself, hence why his Father is a Captain and he is a Lieutenant. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.25.251.234 (talk) 13:08, 31 July 2013 (UTC)

I'd like to offer a screenshot of the image, unfortunately I can't. I might offer a reference: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0439375/board/nest/19497277 , previous-to-last post (Mon Sep 26 2005 19:43:07). Might be wrong. Monkeycheetah 10:25, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

Unfortunately message boards are not suitable sources for wikipedia. I've removed the section for now but if it can be better explained and referenced please feel free to reinsert it.--Opark 77 11:33, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

I have found two different references to Theo Kojak's full name. In the season 4 episode titled "The Godson," (episode 86) a character is introduced as Kojak's Godson (he was arrested) and his full name is given as "Theodopolous Kojak Moore". It is explained that early in his police career Kojak delivered a baby in a dirty apartment and the family was so thankful that they named the child after him and asked him to be godfather. I have edited the main article to reflect this. However, on a message board, someone claiming to be Telly Savalas' nephew Nicholas refers to the character as "Theodorus Kapsalis Kojak" http://wiki.answers.com/.... I'm going with the reference in episode 86, but there is clearly some debate. Rhavasy (talk) 01:41, 24 February 2011 (UTC)

In one of the novelisations Theo Koak is irritated that someone addresses him as Theodore Kojak, but lets their error slide. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.5.158.39 (talk) 22:51, 28 July 2014 (UTC)

Language

This page needs to be translated into English...badly. Can anyone make heads or tails of any of the run-on sentences in this article?

Sign your posts. Barely, but I did what I could. Unfortunately I had to jettison a lot of verbiage that was completely unparsable, so if someone notices something missing or if I "mistranslated" the garbage that went before, please replace.--Canonblack 19:16, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

Much of the unreadable nature of the article was the work of Gcollinsii, who is now attempting to add more gibberish to the article under the guise of "more information". I've reverted his most recent changes, but I suspect he will continue to crap this article up until it's as unreadable as it was yesterday. The material he tried to add was a near duplication of two unparsable run-on sentences that I removed last night. I'm sorry, but I can't be diplomatic about this. I'm sure he knows what he's talking about, but he has demonstrated here and in other articles that he has zero ability to communicate it to others. --Canonblack 19:30, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

I've made another attempt to copy edit the article.--Opark 77 11:33, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

car

What car is Savallas driving? Maybe a 1970 Buick Skylark? I just can't make it fit... -- 790 09:48, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

It was a Buick Century as it was seen in many of the episodes —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.45.183.19 (talk) 18:34, 20 September 2008 (UTC)

I agree that it was a Buick Century. The earlier Skylark looked quite different. You can also see the resemblance between the Century and the Olds Cutlass and Chevy Monte Carlo of the same era. There were other GM cars sharing the same platform, but I had close friends who owned the Century, Cutlass, and Monte, and those are what I remember best. 2602:306:CC05:3740:EADE:27FF:FEB0:F180 (talk) 16:15, 19 February 2017 (UTC)

Car changes between 73 Buick Century brown and 74 Buick Century 455 brown in different episodes, then there is a 74 Buick Century blue, and later 75 Buick Century copper. The brown cars can be determined by different grilles, side tail lights, and badges on the fenders...

New York Police Shows?

"This show set the tone for three popular 1990s New York City crime dramas, Law & Order, NYPD Blue and Homicide: Life on the Street." - Wasn't Homicide a Baltimore crime drama? We should reword this. Celebith 11:40, 17 April 2007 (UTC)Celebith

• Yes it was Sochwa (talk) 05:16, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

THIS ARTICLE NEEDS SERIOUS REWRITING

This article needs SERIOUS cleanup .It is very poorly written. Ernst Stavro Blofeld 19:47, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

I have re-worked this article, modelling the style after the Fantasy Island article, which also features 2 series with the same name. I cleaned up some grammatical errors, divided article into relevant sections and also inserted infobox so it is inline with other TV show articles. I think it is much improved from before but if there are still some complaints post them here and I will see what upgrades I can make. HeMan5 03:58, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

• I'm not a Kojak fan, but I'm sure that a real fan is able to get rid of the trivia section. The irrelevant information needs to be weeded out, and all the relevant info needs to be worked into the article proper. Kusonaga 16:11, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

Article assessment

I've had a look over this article as requested by Ernst Stavro Blofeld on my talk page. I have rated this article as start class because of the relatively short length and lack of important sections like critical response, production etc. and as mid importance because of the awards recognition mentioned. These categories are arbritrary and are subject to review by any editor who feels confident to do so. Please note that a more formal assessment by other editors is required to achieve good article or featured article status. I used criteria from the television wikiproject guidelines here, article about TV series guidelines here and the assessment guidelines here.

I think the first step to improving the article is to get some sources. Reviews are a good place to start as they often contain citable background information along with critical commentary. With the recent release of DVD boxsets there should be some around on the internet. The section on the reimagined series needs to be expanded. Some important information is missing regarding the original series - how many series were there in the first run? How many episodes in each run? --Opark 77 11:33, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

What does word *kojak* mean

Elvis Costello has an album named Kojak Variety, which I assume derives from some earlier meaning of the word *kojak*. I checked the [[[1]|Urban Dictionary]] but most of the definitions derived from the show, e.g. a bald white guy or to drive into an impossibly convenient parking space. Does anyone have an answer to this? Carl Ponder (talk) 18:39, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

"Kojak" itself has no meaning. Many Greek-Americans bear this surname which is the abbreviation for both Greek family names "Kozakis" and "Kozakopoulos". My grandfather, who knew some of Telly's relatives from Greece told me that is is the abbreviation for "Kozakis" who was a friend of theirs. Greek-Americans always shortened or "anglo-saxonized" their surnames seeking for integration (Billy Zane is in fact Zanetakos and Elia Kazan is in fact Kazantzoglou). Greek letter "Z" (zeta) is often translated in foreign languages (French and English) like "j" (as in "jour" or "jam"), therefore Kojak. In Greek language, the word "kozak" means "cossak" (Periptero (talk) 16:39, 14 March 2009 (UTC))

Well it fits to Theo. He is very focused and stubborn, but caring and patient. --88.153.182.146 (talk) 03:24, 15 July 2012 (UTC)

Elvis Costello took the name of his album from a convenience store he saw in passing, and thought it sounded both interesting and, as it was an album of covers, appropriate to have “variety” in the title; ‘Kojak” the character was incidental. Jock123 (talk) 14:31, 30 July 2013 (UTC)

Request for comment on articles for individual television episodes and characters

A request for comments has been started that could affect the inclusion or exclusion of episodes and characters, as well as other fiction articles. Please visit the discussion at Wikipedia_talk:Notability_(fiction)#Final_adoption_as_a_guideline. Ikip (talk) 11:26, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

Kojak's office. In his office behind his desk was a picture of someone. Does anyone recall seeing that, and if so, who do you think the person was in the picture? It never did say. I was just curious who it was and why that picture was used in the set? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.119.198.224 (talk) 21:16, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

Kojak's Father - Lt. Theo Kojak (Telly Savalas), Chief of detectives on the police drama KOJAK/CBS/1973-78/ABC/1989-90 exhibited a family portrait on the wall behind the desk at his 13th Precinct police office in New York. City. The military painting was a portrait of Kojak's Greek father, Capt. Theocradus Kojakzakilas. From TV Acres Woogaus (talk) 03:57, 1 April 2011 (UTC) Woogaus

File:Kojaktelly.jpg Nominated for speedy Deletion

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1980s movies

Are the 1980s movies also available on DVD? --88.153.182.146 (talk) 03:25, 15 July 2012 (UTC)

Separation film -> TV series

The whole mixing up of the film into the series seems a little strange. Indeed, there is more written here about the film than on the film page!

It seems that the film is treated as the pilot episode for the series, and yet it is based on true events and uses the characters and settings from the Career Girls Murders (CGM), albeit with different names for the characters - it is a documentary, in effect; even down to "being the cause for the Miranda rights."

• "Selwyn Raab's book Justice in the Back Room also provided Mann with some of his inspiration for the story of The Marcus-Nelson Murders"

Really? As the book is solely about the CGM I would suggest that Raab's book is entirely the inspiration behind it. Almost as if Kojack becomes the narrator. As the film and the book are both about the CGM, surely that is what provided the basis for the Kojak series.

• "the series subsequently included a credits reference to having been "suggested by a book by Selwyn Raab""

Maybe the film did not have the credit because RL inspired the film and Raabs book was simply additional perspective, rather than the inspiration:

"Universal Television approached him to do a story based on the 1963 Wylie-Hoffert Career Girls Murders"

... and so it goes on. I will start tagging with cns and maybe some chopping up/out.

My main concern is the mixing up of the two.

Yes, it is possible that the series was born from the film, and if the book has a narrative that includes a "Kojack" character, then they would need to credit him in the series.

I will research further, including ordering a copy of the book at my local library. Chaosdruid (talk) 22:45, 19 February 2015 (UTC)

Kojak's "cigarillos"

The article claims that Kojak smoked cigarillos and I don't agree. To me it looks like he smoked unfiltered cigarettes from Nat Sherman, which were available with brown paper, amongst other colors. In on of the early episodes you can see the gold imprint reading lengthwise towards the end of the cigarette. The video I have doesn't allow you to clearly read the imprint, but the placement and gold color matches what I remember of Nat Shermans. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2602:306:CC05:3740:EADE:27FF:FEB0:F180 (talk) 16:23, 19 February 2017 (UTC)

Filming

Just how much of the series was actually shot in New York? I believe the principal actors did film a number of episodes in Manhattan, but looking carefully at many episodes it looks as if most of the NYC footage was shot second unit with occasional doubles, and any exteriors with the main actors were made in downtown LA and backlot locations. This is of course a common enough technique, but can somebody confirm/deny and maybe add the info to the article if considered relevant? Lee M (talk) 00:07, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

Detective car

The Buick Century sedan has been neglected as being an iconic television car until "Kojak" used a 1973 Buick Century and 1974 Buick Century 455 in brown color. Personally owned the model and color. The 73 Century has a side marker light straight lined to the front bumper, whereas the 74 Century is above the front bumper.

This vehicle was used by the main character throughout the series plots and car chases, that toys followed.

Toys

The vehicle, a brown Buick Century sedan was shown numerous episodes. It was part of the main character using it on the show. Toy manufacturers made different scale versions during the show was airing and decades later introduced different scale version of the car. Kojak and Crocker figures were included with a toy car.

During the time, cop shows had cars, but they were more popular. Examples: Rockford Files – Pontiac Firebird ('74 – '78), Starsky & Hutch – Ford Gran Torino ('74 – '76), Charlie's Angels - 1976 Ford Mustang Cobra II ('76 - '81) But, never mentioned the Buick Century correctly for Kojak.... Anyway, toy manufacturers confused the 74 Century with the 74 Regal. The 74 Regal was introduced as a sedan in 1974 as an upscaled Century Luxus and there was a special badge on the fender opposed to the Century or 455 nameplate on a 1973 or 1974 Century. When you watch the show, you can see these differences on the car...

Further research... revealed trading cards that were color images, poster, playing cards, and puzzle. There were board games in different languages and action figures. A metal cap pistol, a siren, license plate for model car, and a Kojak head for action figures. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Antonio cruz wiki (talk • contribs) 10:33, 2 November 2021 (UTC)

Seems there are more toys than ever were noticed to be listed... found fans that trade or had these items...descriptions and looking at the packaging is what brings the item and the trademark year it was produced. Hopefully, when you read the items, either you state... wow, never saw it or never heard of it, until you search for it on selling sites... — Preceding unsigned comment added by Antonio cruz wiki (talk • contribs) 02:27, 5 November 2021 (UTC)

Commercial Products

During searches of Kojak, noticed a burglar alarm system. It was reviewed in an electronics magazine and was a commercial product for home, office or commercial building. Seems the television show character had shown his image of "protection" beyond television... the details of what was included came from seeing an image of the package of item. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Antonio cruz wiki (talk • contribs) 04:51, 3 November 2021 (UTC)

Mark or Percy?

This article says Mark Russell played the character of Detective Mark Saperstein. But the Mark Russell article says his character's name was Percy Saperstein. I checked IMDB and they only list the character as Detective Saperstein. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.49.144.180 (talk) 06:59, 13 May 2023 (UTC)

"Kojak Budapesten" and possibly other media?

Should this page make a mention of this Hungarian movie that portrays a different story of this character? Was this unofficial? Was there other media that used Kojak character? HelpMeChoose55 (talk) 20:31, 26 March 2024 (UTC)