the character of Theo Kojak was introduced around a 1973 TV movie, The Marcus-Nelson Murders & was popular plenty that the series was quickly accredited. In a early episodes of the series, Kojak smoked heavy; sequentially to reflect the anti-smoking sentiment so gaining divergence in U.s. TV, it was decided that Kojak got decided to quit smoking, suck in lollipops as a substitute.

Years fallowing the series ended, Savalas reprised a role inside a TV movie adaptation of the John Loftus novel The Belarus File (Kojak is not the character within the original book); this was followed by additional TV pic & in 1989–1990 Kojak returned to television as section of the short-transitory rotating series of TV pic that as well featured fellow sleuth Columbo.

Around March 2005, the recently Kojak series debuted on the USA Network. In that "reimagined" version, Ving Rhames, an African-American actor, portrays the character. A bald head, lollipops, & "Who loves ya, baby?" catch phrase remawithin in intact, however little else remains from either a Savalas original.

Music for the series was written largely by John Cacavas (ASCAP).