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patrnlty ward and mausoleum for nost NewYork City-based
prime-time shows (the late ,,Tat-ting-er's" and "Leg Work,
included). It was hometo the upcoming "Truck 1," and now to the
re-vived 1970s hit "Kojak.'- Aristotle "Telly" Savalas, who brought
policedetective Lt. Theo Kojak to life in ttri o"igi"atbiting and
bitter TV-mbvie ,,The Ma"cus-N;lgonMlrrders" (1973), and then in
the five-vear series!t legat, is reprising the role. Kojak's been
backbefore - in the TV-movie sequels ,,Koiak: Thepelaruq File"
(1g85) and ,,Kojak The'price ofJustice" (1987) - but this time it,s
for real a two-hour, .pontlrly_series, alternating with,iCo-lumbo,"
"B.L. Stryker," and ,,Chiistine Crom_well" as pa$ o_f the revolving
,,ABC SaturdayMystery." The first "Kojak" sdgment airs Satur-day at
9 p.m. on ChannLl Z.At the 23rd Street pier this day, there's no
sense
the great steomships, it's now the combinition
HE CAVERNOUS FILM STUDIO justacross the Hudson River in
Manhaftanlas no offcial name - it,s just ,,the 23rdStreet pie1." A
warehouse in the days of
66foiat is still strugglingwith and facing all ttre ttiingshe
always did - the abuse "of power, the tentacles ofbureaucracy. So
he's goingto parties at Griicie Mansionnow. But he's still the
sameold Kojak'') - rELLy .AVALA.Savalas rehearses wlth Angle
Dlckinson foran upcomlng spisode of the new ,,KoJak.',
of the show'g history. Most of the crew are tooIogrs to have
worked on ,,Kojak" when it ran onCBS from 1973 to t9?8. Andbesides,
back thenever5rthing, with the exception of a flew exteriorsce-nes,
was shot in Los Angeles, not New york.On and around the bulletin
board in the squad-room_set hang s_napshots not of Kevin DoLson,Dan
Frazer, or the late George Savalas from theold show, but of John
Goo-dman from ,,Rose-anne," Stanley T\rcci from last season'g
,,Wise-gluy:'l--"od William Converse-Roberts of ,,MollyDodd" -
souvenirs of a different crouo.Savalas doesn't mind the upheaial.
br, moreprecisely-, he doesn't care. He'd shoot ,,Kojak" inPeoria
if he had to."New York? It's the place they decided to doit," he
says vaguely, a[ Old World smiles andcharm. Gentle and imposing, a
solid-looking 6b,he relaxes in a directorts chair behind ttre
beihiveof sets, near a phony office hallway with an eleva-tor to
nowhere. "I didn't have a say," he says, andthen amends that with,
"Well, I luess if i ,eattyminded I would've."Savalas wasn't crazy
about being awav from hiswife, Judy, and their children Ariani. 2.
andQhristian, 4, but now they're with hin in'NewYork. (He also has
four grown children from aprevious marriage.) And tliey'll
accompanv him tor,ondon and Greece, where i,Kolak" #iil lo
someshooting within the next couple of months.- The exotic
locations represi4! just one of manychanges from the old series.
Wittr ttre last TV-movie, Kojak had become a deputv
inspector:Fo1S9t the dingy-hole-where he'd suck-on loilipopsand
trade cynical asides with Lt. Crocker andbet.Stavros - nory he's
got an office like a lawyer'sand his new aide is a distrustful
black hotihotnamed Det. Winston Blake (Andre Braugher).And halgrS
ri_scn_ in_the r_anks at a time of ciony-ism in New York City,
Kojak has to deal wiihintimations that he -iV tt"ue bn tris
fi"i""p"i"t"on_ a politically smoking gun.Not that Savalas woulil
let those intimationsbecome more than that. ,,To survive in a
violentworld, as Kojak does, you must have a code ofhonor," he
expounds. "Theo wouldn't betrav that.I only know a little bit about
the political sc-andalsin New York the last few years,-but from
what Iunderstand, that's not been a problen at Kojak,slevel."
- At any rate, Savalas shrugs off the notion thatthe series
willseries will get topical."Kojak is still strugglint- l'Xojgt is_
still stru-ggling with and facing all thethings- he alyays did -
the abuse of poier, thetentacles of bureaucracy. So he's eoins to
nartiesat Gracie Mansion now. But he's sIiU tf,e sarne oldt Gracie
Mansion now. But he's sIiU tfie sarne oldKojak."And Savalas is
still the same first-generationGreek who grew up on Long Island ani
in Man-reek who grery up on Long Islandhattan, the graduate of
Cohimbia University and.TO THE RECORO WEEK OF ocToBER 22, 1989
See KOJAK Page 42
7/28/2019 "'Kojak' Keeps It Crusty" (Telly Savalas
interview)
4/4
Savalas (left) plays a down-and-out former TV detective who
takes on a real caseHollywood Detective," premidring Wednesday
night at 9 on the USA Network.
KOJAKFrom Page 41World War II veteran decorated with a
PurpleHeart.After a brief stint with the State Depart-ment's
Information Services branch, Savalasbecame senior director of news
and specialevents for ABC News in the mid-1950s.He wonthe
prestigious Peabody Award for his "YourVoice of America" series.'
In early 1959, when a casting agent called forhis help in finding
sorneone who could do anexotic accent" Savalas volunteered for a
role onthe live-TV dramatic anthology, "ArmstrongCircle
Theater."His second career took off. By his thirdmovie, "Birdman of
Alcatraz" (1962), hepicked up an Academy Award nomination.When he
shaved his head to play PontiusFilate in "The Greatest Story Ever
Told"(1965), it only heightened demand for him invillanous
character parts, WSiter-producerAbby Mann saw his leading-man
potential,cast him in the "The Marcus-Nelson Murders"(based on the
real-life Wylie-Hoffert murdersin New York in 1963), and a year
later, Savalasbrought home an Emmy for "Kojak."From the sound and
looks of things on the"Kojak" set, Savalas isn't tampering with
thecharacter who's brought him enduring recogni-42 THE RECORD WEEK
OF OCTOBER 22, 1989
"The
tion and success. Although Kojak is now anupper-echelon police
executive, he still ven-tures out into the mean streets - not
unlike acertain starship captain who never could stayon the bridge
where'he belonged. And as al-ways, Kojak still talks in staccato
growls totough guys and police commissioners alike.Yet this being a
more relationship-orientedTV era than the one in which "Kojak"
firstflourished, we'll be seeing more of Theo's pri-vate life. The
second episode, for instance,guest-stars Angie Dickinson as a
former flamewho needs his help. Call it "Kojak" by way of"The
Equalizer"; the cop who came in fromthe cold.Not coincidentally, a
lot of the New Yorkcrew from the now-canceled "Equalizer" havecome
on to "Kojak," including second-episodedirector Richard Compton.
"We call him'Cash' Compton," says one jovial crewmember,"because of
all the overtime. We hate it untilpay day. Then we love it."
Savalas says eachtwo-hour episode takes about three weeks
toproduce, or about a third again as much time astwo of the old
one-hour shows.He frankly admits he wasn't expecting that.But he's
not complaining. "It's what I love todo," Savalas says expansively.
"I could go onplayrng Theo as long as people want to seehim."Frank
Lovece writes about TV and film for a num-ber of publications and
is the author of "Hailing'Taxi."'
