09.00 Kojak
12.00 Jason Of Star Command
Kojak. Season 2, Episode 5. "Wall Street Gunslinger" The only witness to a mugging/murder on Wall Street during the day is a powerful broker who doesn't want to get involved.
Kojak may be my favourite cop show of all time, and this may be my first episode in several years, but my joy at seeing Telly Savalas in action can't disguise the fact that this is a weak episode, with a meandering and messy storyline.
The first quarter of the episode takes place on Wall Street and follows various members of syndicate gang as the pull off a heist. In these scenes, and for the early part of Kojak's investigation, the camera makes great use of the New York location and views of Wall Street in particular. Since the gang killed an elderly man on Wall Street, the street in cordoned off and Kojak spends several minutes taking to various people while the camera clearly shows hundreds of curious New Yorkers standing and watching the 'crime scene'. It looks spectacular, and was probably a headache to organise. Sadly, it is the high point of the episode.
The original killers of the old man are eventually killed by somebody else (on the orders of a higher up boss) and the story gets more and more unwieldly as various characters are introduced and highlighted and - eventually - abandoned. Law And Order is very good at doing these large scale stories. Kojak works best, I feel, on a more intimate level, where Theo takes a personal interest in the victim and gives 110% in his efforts to get justice for them.
By the end of the episode, where our hero has gone undercover as a Greek millionaire, things have gotten far too silly for my liking.
Telly Savalas is awesome. He owns the screen and blows everybody else off (even when there are 200 New Yorkers in shot with him!) but this is a duff script.
Jason Of Star Command. Episode 1. "Attack of the Dragonship" The action comes fast and furious in this opening episode. Jason has no sooner been given a cute robot sidekick than he has to rescue his friend Captain Davidoff from certain death, deal with an attack on his base of operations, search for his kidnapped commander and surrender his ship to a mysterious enemy.
Craig Littler and Charlie Dell make a great impression in this opening episode. Littler is the quentessential Alpha Male hero and Dell is a very amusing Normal Tuttle-esque sidekick. Sid Haig doesn't appear in this episode. Susan O'Hanlon can sure fill a space suit (yowza!) but she's fairly bland when she's asked to do anything else. James Doohan, meanwhile, appears to be asleep during his scenes. No matter is happening, he wears the exact same expression. It's really annoying since Doohan is a fantastic actor.
Anyways, it's a dumb show but the fast pace and great lead cast makes it a lot of fun.
Highlight? Jason Of Star Command (fun)
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Tue, Mar 10, 09 - Kojak, Jason Of Star Command
