Telly Savalas as “Kojak”: “Who Loves Ya’, Baby?”
A retrospective on TV’s original bald, lollipop-loving private eye
Approximately one year after the demise of Mannix, a CBS crime-drama starring Mike Connors as one of the most popular TV detectives in history, the charismatic Telly Savalas surfaced on Kojak, one of that network’s other successful private-eye series.
From 1973 to 1978 Savalas portrayed the hairless and tough-but-lollipop-loving Lt. Theo Kojak (originally spelled “Kojack”).
Around the same time, fellow male icons Clint Walker and Darren McGavin starred in new TV shows with titles starting and ending with the letter k. Walker was Kodiak, which debuted on ABC in the fall of 1973, and McGavin was Kolchak: The Night Stalker, also on ABC, but debuting in the fall of 1974.
Decades later, in 2005, a short-lived TV reboot of Kojak, starring Ving Rhames, made it to the air. And apparently, there is a new Kojak feature film in development, starring another actor whose’s first name begins with a “v” and a “vin” — but without the “g”: Vin Diesel
But thus far, Savalas remains the best and the original in every sense of the term, while his first name, Telly, even says “television.” [Sorry, couldn’t help that.]
