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Woe is me, for I have run out of Kojak. Bloody television, always ending. I think I might watch some Rockford Files next, partly because James Garner, and partly because I'm rather enjoying the seventies, and don't want to leave just yet. The paint is terrible, the wallpaper is worse, but all the same there's something welcoming about the seventies. Plots develop at a sensible pace, the editing isn't done by a crazed heroin addict, and there's absolutely no stupid wobble-cam or crash zooms. All of which serves to make me sound like a complete fuddy-duddy, but I don't care.
And I've run out of Kojak. I hate it when that happens. When you watch a show, you get used to the characters and enjoy their company; and then it ends and you have to move on to different people, when you'd rather still have the old. I'm going to miss Kojak. I'll miss Crocker and Stavros more, but I will miss Kojak too. He's such a pleasingly different sort of cop. For starters he's not a maverick. Oh, he's unconventional (what TV cop isn't?!), but he's a dyed in the wool teamplayer. No rushing off alone, no stupid solo ventures. I don't know if that was as much of a breath of fresh air in 1974 as it is now, but I've certainly enjoyed it. And it's all so entertainingly vintage. Kojak with his inkwell on his desk; and Crocker was wearing a brown tweed waistcoat with a pocket-watch today. Waistcoats with pocket-watches, people! That's proper dressing, that is. Although I'm amused by the idea that this naive young cop in 1974 should think so. He and Kojak really do appear to be sharing a wardrobe.
Must admit, for all that I've enjoyed the show, I do kind of wish it had ended sooner than it did, though. For the first couple of seasons it was something really, properly good, and genuinely different. Season three was good too, though it started to repeat itself a little. By season four it had become pretty generic, and audiences apparently began to jump ship. So, bizarrely, the producers revamped the show for season five, and turned it into a comedy. Who looks at a gritty, realistic (ish, shut up) police drama, and thinks "this needs more slapstick"?! It's the equivalent of adding sex and drugs to Tom & Jerry. One episode even has Liberace in it. Now, I like Liberace, don't get me wrong; but as a pianist, not as a guest star on Kojak. Characterisation got chucked out the window, too. For four years, Kojak enthusiastically displays his willingness to bite your head off if you so much look at Crocker a bit funny. Then in season five, Crocker gets kidnapped by an armed gang, and suddenly everybody's standing around making jokes, and not being at all bothered. And Kojak goes off for a chat about frozen yoghurt with Liberace. Yeuch. Still, I watched season one last, so it all ended on a high note. And there was Antonio Fargas and Paul Michael Glaser as guests (though not in the same episode), so that was nice. And now I'm going to shut up. And possibly hunt out some Starsky & Hutch on YouTube.
But I'd rather have more Kojak, damn it.
Here, have a wilfully funky seventies theme, with slightly wobbly titles FX. Everything is so polished nowadays. Sometimes I think they're rather missing the point.
And I've run out of Kojak. I hate it when that happens. When you watch a show, you get used to the characters and enjoy their company; and then it ends and you have to move on to different people, when you'd rather still have the old. I'm going to miss Kojak. I'll miss Crocker and Stavros more, but I will miss Kojak too. He's such a pleasingly different sort of cop. For starters he's not a maverick. Oh, he's unconventional (what TV cop isn't?!), but he's a dyed in the wool teamplayer. No rushing off alone, no stupid solo ventures. I don't know if that was as much of a breath of fresh air in 1974 as it is now, but I've certainly enjoyed it. And it's all so entertainingly vintage. Kojak with his inkwell on his desk; and Crocker was wearing a brown tweed waistcoat with a pocket-watch today. Waistcoats with pocket-watches, people! That's proper dressing, that is. Although I'm amused by the idea that this naive young cop in 1974 should think so. He and Kojak really do appear to be sharing a wardrobe.
Must admit, for all that I've enjoyed the show, I do kind of wish it had ended sooner than it did, though. For the first couple of seasons it was something really, properly good, and genuinely different. Season three was good too, though it started to repeat itself a little. By season four it had become pretty generic, and audiences apparently began to jump ship. So, bizarrely, the producers revamped the show for season five, and turned it into a comedy. Who looks at a gritty, realistic (ish, shut up) police drama, and thinks "this needs more slapstick"?! It's the equivalent of adding sex and drugs to Tom & Jerry. One episode even has Liberace in it. Now, I like Liberace, don't get me wrong; but as a pianist, not as a guest star on Kojak. Characterisation got chucked out the window, too. For four years, Kojak enthusiastically displays his willingness to bite your head off if you so much look at Crocker a bit funny. Then in season five, Crocker gets kidnapped by an armed gang, and suddenly everybody's standing around making jokes, and not being at all bothered. And Kojak goes off for a chat about frozen yoghurt with Liberace. Yeuch. Still, I watched season one last, so it all ended on a high note. And there was Antonio Fargas and Paul Michael Glaser as guests (though not in the same episode), so that was nice. And now I'm going to shut up. And possibly hunt out some Starsky & Hutch on YouTube.
But I'd rather have more Kojak, damn it.
Here, have a wilfully funky seventies theme, with slightly wobbly titles FX. Everything is so polished nowadays. Sometimes I think they're rather missing the point.
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