I have great affection for this episode of Kojak.
I first saw it in the late 1980s when Kojak was being rerun on Tuesdays at 12.30am. I had seen the show as a kid (younger than ten), but it had not been repeated since it had ceased production and I had gone (maybe) eight years without seeing it. That’s a long time to a child. A lifetime. So when reruns started up as part of ITV’s new ‘Night Time’ service I wasn’t particularly excited. I wanted to see it, of course, but I would have been just as interested in any cop show from the 70s.
I sat up late one night and watched an episode called “A Long Way From Time Square” (which was one of the first to be shown in my region).
It’s a light, fun story. And not really representative of the series.
But it’s a great showcase for the characters of Kojak and Crocker. And that was enough to bring me back the following week. And every week thereafter.
And Kojak is now my favourite police series, and I have a passionate affection for the character of Theo Kojak and what he stood for. Some fictional characters are very real to me. A small number. And Theo is one. The moral ambiguities of the world were often paramount in the high-quality stories on this show, and how Theo navigated those waters is an inspiration to me.
And it all started with this one episode, late one Tuesday night long, long ago…
