3/27/2005



USA Brings 'Kojak' into a New Century

By Kate O'Hare


LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) Partly from nostalgia and mostly from a desire to mine fresh gold out of their libraries, movie studios have been digging up old titles, dusting them off and putting out shiny new versions, including "Charlie's Angels," "Starsky & Hutch," "Lost in Space," "S.W.A.T." and the upcoming "Miami Vice." The results have been mixed, proving that sometimes a show is a hit not just because of what it is, but when it was.

Most recently, on television, The WB Network tried to revive "Dark Shadows" and "Lost in Space" but wound up with failed pilots. Now, after spending several years giving second looks at titles such as "McCloud," "The Bionic Woman" and "Baretta," Universal -- now NBC Universal -- thinks it's found a winner in a 1970s icon.

On Friday, March 25, USA Network premieres "Kojak" with a two-hour pilot, which is repeated Sunday, March 27. Starting Sunday, April 3, "Kojak" starts airing as hourlong episodes for eight weeks.

Television fans have fond memories of Greek-American actor Telly Savalas in the title role of the original "Kojak," created by Abby Mann ("Judgment at Nuremberg"), which premiered in 1973.

First introduced in a 1973 TV movie called "The Marcus-Nelson Murders," Lt. Theo Kojak was an intense but softhearted New York detective with a bald head, snappy suits, a fedora and an ever-present lollipop (according to TV lore, Savalas was quitting smoking). This time around, intense but softhearted black actor Ving Rhames inhabits the role, with a bald head, snappy suits, a fedora and a lollipop.

Before getting concerned about the apparent ethnic incongruity, Rhames would like to point out, "In my research, I found out that Kojak is a Polish name. It's not Greek. I'm not sure, I didn't watch 'Kojak,' but maybe they can educate me. But I don't think that they ever dealt with the question, 'Why does a Greek guy have a Polish name?'"

In fact, in a Dec. 31, 1973, article on the show, Time magazine referred to Savalas' Kojak as a "Polish Sherlock Holmes." So much for that.

The basic framework of the character remains intact, along with the idea that Kojak's boss, Capt. Frank McNeil (first-time TV regular Chazz Palminteri), is his former partner. And yes, there's a younger detective named Bobby Crocker, played by Michael Kelly.

Rhames' Kojak also has a younger love, Assistant District Attorney Carmen Warrick (Roselyn Sanchez). In real life, Rhames is married to a former LAPD detective but says she doesn't mind the screen romance.

"No, because my wife is ... in my opinion, more beautiful than any woman on the show."

Obviously, the studio believed "Kojak" had a better chance of being updated successfully than its other properties.

"I looked at a lot of old '70s television shows," says Jeff Wachtel, NBC Universal's executive vice president of original programming. "Telly Savalas was as much of an ethnic outsider in '70s television as you could imagine. Everybody else looked exactly like Jim Garner. Then along comes this bald Mediterranean city guy, yet oddly attractive. He was never going to be an insider. He was always going to be somebody who was outside the system and yet made the system work.

"We thought, 'What's a great contemporary way to that?' The idea was to cast somebody who was strong enough to blow images of anybody else off the screen. Somebody like Ving has that presence."

Rhames also has the distinction of currently being the only black actor who's the single lead of a crime drama (UPN's "Kevin Hill," with Taye Diggs, is a legal/family drama).

"How many times," Rhames says, "do you see an Italian-American (meaning Palminteri) and an African-American, and they're not killing or robbing someone?"

Although he's tough and intimidating, Rhames' Kojak is not above shedding some tears in the pilot and allowing McNeil to comfort him. This is nothing new for Rhames, who had a few emotional moments before assembled TV critics in January while discussing his feelings about the show.

"I just want to be as honest and organic as possible," Rhames says. "My work in this, whether you love it, hate it, like it or not, it is truthful, organic, emotional. He's a different type of detective.

"God's blessed me with a certain screen presence so, most of the time, I don't have to be physical to anyone. What I've tried to do is find other colors in the character -- the vulnerability. The toughest guy does cry. The toughest guy does get scared.

"I say to a kid who's just lost his dad, 'I just want you to know that there's nothing wrong with crying. I'm much bigger than you and I cry. There's no shame in crying, ever.'"

That being said, Kojak is no teddy bear. He plays Russian roulette with a suspect in the opening sequence and later finds a roundabout way to accomplish a brutal form of justice.

"I don't have to become physical," Rhames says, "so if I do, you know it's because it's a life and death situation."

Kojak's also not afraid of bending the rules when need be, especially if the interests of children are involved.

"His father was murdered when he was a kid," Rhames says, "which led him to becoming a police officer. We deal with the fact that whenever he deals with children, he connects to them. I call him the Prince of the City. He's almost the father of New York. He's always looking out for the underdog."