kojak season 2 - Page 2

ITV3 have been repeating Kojak (along with Ironside), but the only episodes I remember seeing in the TV schedules was the second season episode "Hush Now, or You'll Die". The print quality was ok, nothing great. The pilot movie The Marcus Nelson Murders, shown a few months ago (along with the aforementioned episode) had better print quality.

 

Checked the second season episode list on EpGuides.com, and seeing that there were 25 episodes in total (but really 24 episodes, with the first two episodes being a feature length season premiere, the episode "The Chinatown Murders"), ideally the set should be a 7-disc set.

 

May consider getting Shout's Kojak: Season 2 set.

Richard, thanks for the info. I'll avoid these sets, unless Shout! stalls their Kojak releases.

Todd, the UK release date on Amazon UK and Play.com is still Monday 22nd August. Yet there's front cover artwork for both the Season 4 and Season 5 sets on Play.com when you check the DVD pre-order pages for late August.

The BBFC passed the fifth season of Kojak on Friday, giving the set a '15' certificate (like with the second and third seasons). The release date on the BBFC listing page for the fifth season set is Monday 22nd August.

 

EDIT: The release date of the Season 4 and 5 sets were pushed back a week to Monday 29th August (source: HMV.com).

Edited by WaveCrest - 9/1/11 at 2:57pm

Yesterday the BBFC passed the fourth season of Kojak, giving it a '12' certificate.

Considering getting Shout's release of Kojak: Season Two. However, what if Madman decide to release Kojak on Region 4 sometime in the future?

Does the Region 2 first season set from Universal include the pilot movie "The Marcus-Nelson Murders"? And regarding the second season premiere "The Chinatown Murders" (this question is related to Shout! Factory's DVD release of the second season), was it a two-part or feature length episode?

Richard, I don't own the R2 set, but I read online that The Marcus Nelson Murders was not included. The Chinatown Murders was a two-hour episode.

Thanks Todd. I can't find a review of the Region 2 set. I was wondering if "The Marcus-Nelson Murders" was included, because the feature length pilots of Alias Smith and Jones and The Rockford Files were included in Universal Playback's releases of their first seasons. Usually, Universal's/Universal Playback's TV season sets have pretty good picture/print quality.

 

Am still weighing up whether to pre-order Shout's Season 2 set or wait for a possible Madman release. Ideally I'd prefer Shout's Season 2 set to be a 7-disc set, with there being 25 episodes if you count "The Chinatown Murders" as two episodes.

As Todd confirms, "The Marcus-Nelson Murders" is not part of the Season 1 Region 2 set released by Universal Playback. It is however on another Universal Playback release and this DVD is still available:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kojak-1-DVD-Telly-Savalas/dp/B00005ABUH/

Thanks for your help. However, in my previous post I didn't doubt Todd's answer to my question about "The Marcus-Nelson Murders".

 

Had decided to order the Region 2 Universal set of the first season of Kojak.

Edited by WaveCrest - 9/9/11 at 12:47pm

DVD Talk review of Shout! Factory's Kojak: Season Two DVD set:

 

 

Kojak: Season Two (Region 1) - DVD Talk review

That's an excellent and spot on review there, a wonderful loving read, nothing like the terrible one given by dvdtown in stark contrast. I wonder what happened to the promised DVD extras, maybe we'll see them on future season releases.

What I would like to focus on is the picture/print quality. Based on the screenshots in the DVD Talk review it looks quite good, and they do show off the series very well.

 

 

NOTE: The quoted post is post #20 in the KOJAK --- Season Two on DVD ? thread (in the TV on DVD folder).
 

Just loving some of the conversations and one liners from Telly Savalas, had some good laughs, especially on the second episode. Despite the serious subject matter the lighter moments work well.

I noticed a change in the style of the theme music around the fourth episode, I will have to recheck for the exact one, but the original was used again after I had watched a few more. Not a big deal really but just wondering the reason behind it.

Did UNIVERSAL ever re-issue Season 1 in a smaller style case? Each time I've seen it at Barnes & Noble it is two standard DVD cases with slipcover and they usually always look like someone ran them over in a whse.

I could be that Universal re packaged the sets in slim line cases. Like Fox did with the X files sets when they finally lowered the prices by 2/3 from the stupid crazy prices they were charging , fox got into trouble in some states when they were sell them as newly manufactured/releases when they were just slim case repackaged disks from store returns and excess unsold inventory .

BTW I got my Kojak season 2 yesterday from amazon its great. Yeah its strip down set but it way better release than Universal's kojak S1. get it if your a US kojak fan.

They changed the original orchestration of the Billy Goldenberg theme from S1 at episode #5 of Season 2, although it pops up again one more time on episode #11 (a clear sign of an episode that was shot earlier but held back until later in the season). I have to admit, the newer John Cacavas arranged version of the theme I don't like because the original version had more of an authentic gritty "New York" kind of sound to it that fit the style of the show whereas Cacavas's is way too up tempo and "Hollywood" for my taste.

Jack, thank you for that bit of information, and I have to agree with you on how the original theme just fit the show much better - sometimes I find myself watching one of the earlier episodes just to hear it!

Jack, was Kojak's theme tune changed again for the fifth and final season?

Yes, Cacavas this time got to come up with an entirely new theme after simply redoing the original Goldenberg theme and having heard it, it's even worse IMO. By then, it's more about self-conscious celebration of a TV icon.

Hey thanks for the link I don't know how a missed it before , I ordered it from amazon UK for 11.74 usd including shipping and it say I should get in a week to ten days by the "post" . Ive got a region free dvd player and Ive alwasy wanted Kojak pilot forever so thats cool:D . As far as the opening theme music is concerned I like the original opening theme all of s1 and the second incarnation of the opening theme starting half way thru s2 until s4.Then s5 the new gasty upbeat Broadway musical/Disco inspired version of the opening theme was launched trying to remake/revamp the show to improve ratings. It did nothing to improve the ratings and 1978 was the shows last season. But it was great while it lasted.
Edited by BobSchneider - 10/1/11 at 3:19pm

according to www.tvshowsondvd.com more kojak is coming.

Yes, but evidently the post-series movies. I also suspect that this is the package that will also include "The Marcus-Nelson Murders" as well since it's probably more convenient to bundle that with the rest of the post-series movies than as a bonus on S3 etc.

TVShowsOnDVD's news article about Kojak: The Complete Movie Collection:

 

 

Kojak: The Complete Movie Collection - TVShowsOnDVD.com news article

3D front cover artwork now up on Amazon.com for Kojak: The Complete Movies Collection.

I'll be getting this when it comes out, but the one movie in the set I have no desire to see again is the first post-series movie "The Belarus File" which I had the opportunity to see recently on an old VHS copy. Even though it's the only post-series movie to feature some of the series regulars (George Savalas as Stavros, he died not too long afterwards; Dan Frazer as Captain McNeil but in one scene only), it totally lacks the feel of classic Kojak because they basically just shoehorned the character of Kojak into a paper-thin story designed to showcase a non-fiction book "The Belarus Secret" that has come under criticism for some dubious scholarship. Telly Savalas becomes a character whose purpose is more to make speeches then to be the Kojak who was fun to watch in the series.