Add a Review

  • Plot In A Paragraph: Rick Daly (Sly Stallone) is a young cop with good intentions to help people. In response to a knife-killing, he gives chase and accidentally kills a young boy. Kojak (Telly Savalas) attempts to protect Daly when the public reacts furiously, demanding revenge, but he gets suspicious when cracks appear in Daly's story. Now the tables are turned, the cops feel Kojak is persecuting Daly, but Kojak is intent on finding out the truth.

    In possibly the best episode of "Kojak", Telly Savalas, does what Telly Savalas does as Kojak, Future Rambo 2 co star Charles Napier, is here and in great shape, it must be said. But this episode is all about Sly Stallone. He gives the best performer of his career so far. (Including his great turn in "Lords Of Flatbush") this is a million miles away from his performance in "Death Race 2000". He is displaying the sort of acting talent that got him nominated for an Oscar a year and a half later for "Rocky". Which he should have won in my humble opinion, but the Academy sympathetically decided to give Peter Finch a posthumous Oscar. The scene on the rooftop with Telly Savalas is some of the finest acting of his career, and he shows great promise for more important roles.
  • Superstar Sylvester Stallone guest-stars here as a young, trigger-happy cop. He has a good intentions to help people but "Det. Rick Daly" is a little quick to pull the trigger and he winds up killing a young boy.

    Some of the scenes afterward are, of course, very dramatic.

    Stallone doesn't really have a lot of lines in this but he handles what he has well. After he is declared innocent in the shooting, things pop up here and there which begins to make Theo doubt whether the cop is innocent or is trying to cover up his tragic mistake.

    There also is a knife killing in here which seems to spark all the trouble. That killer is played by Charles Napier, a familiar face to TV and movie buffs.

    Other than the above two, a lot of actors and actresses are a part of this story and all perform well. The show turns out to be more of a drama than anything else, but it's well-done.
  • schwa8826 February 2023
    Warning: Spoilers
    What is the picture on the back of Daly's jacket in the early scene on the roof? Looks like some type of madonna figure.

    Lady painting nails is totally unbelievable, she's not watching what she's doing, multiple strokes per nail, that's not how it's done. Also later, there's a TV-style putting out of a cigarette.

    Not sure the kids outside the dead boy's building would be so jocular, mugging for the camera. They'd probably feel pretty vulnerable at this point.

    Very dramatic and sad ending. When Daly is on the roof and his eyes are darting about it's clear he is on guard and while "trigger happy" also very alert to sounds. I don't think he was a bad cop as Kojak says, just a different one.
  • Warning: Spoilers
    As usual, an excellent Kojak episode. Kojak was the best detective series, in my opinion. Pre-Rocky Stallone is excellent as Rick Daly, a cop with honesty issues. He did a very convincing portrayal, displaying acting talent that would soon earn him a Best Actor nomination at the Oscars a year and a half later, which he was robbed of when they gave a posthumous tribute Oscar to Peter Finch instead. The scene on the roof where Daly lets out his emotions is comparable to anything Brando ever did. One thing you'll notice here: Stallone is a very small guy. I know he's got huge muscles, but he is very short and diminutive. All of his films compensate for this - lifts in his shoes, camera angles, etc. Telly Savalis towers over him.
  • Warning: Spoilers
    ***SPOILERS**** Responding to a call on the east side of Manhattan Det. Rick Daly, Sylester "Sly" Stallone, jumps the gun and instead of waiting for back-up rushes to the roof of the building where a man was stabbed to death. That's where the knife wielding attacker Marty Vaughan, Charles Napler, was hiding and in the confusion a number of shots go off one of them hitting and killing 10 year old boy Arthur Stronik, Todd Gross, who was tending his pigeons. Claiming that Vaughn who was still on the loose had fired at him and his response was in self defense not knowing that young Arthur was there has Det. Daly exonerated in court but Arthur family members as well as all or most of the public doesn't buy it.

    It's Let. Kojak, Telly "Love Ya Baby" Savalas, who despite Det. Daly being found innocent who goes on his own to find if Det. Daly is really innocent of shooting young Aurther and finds a number of very disturbing facts in the case. It's that Vaughan after he was later caught in the attempted knifing of a policeman never carried a gun on him making Det. Daly's claim of him shooting at him, and him responding with deadly force, a lie!

    ***SPOILERS*** With Let. Kojak confronting a very nervous and sweaty Det. Daly at the scene of the crime he lets him have it and has Det. Daly tearfully admit that he not only shot Arthur by accident but used a throw away gun that he had on him, that he later threw down the incinerator shout, to get off two more shot at random to make it look like he was in fact shot at. In what was a precursor to his famous mental breakdown scene at the end of the movie "Rambo" some eight years later Stallone as Det. Daly goes into his famous crybaby act blaming everyone including Let. Kojak for his actions and coming across looking and sounding like a first class jerk in doing it! It was bad enough in what he did in shooting young Arthur which under the circumstances was a tragic accident but it was his trying to cover it up with a second gun that ended up cooking his goose.
  • Joining the Manhattan South Detectives in this episode are Detectives Sylvester Stallone and Stephen Pearlman. They hear a radio call of someone being stabbed in the hallway of an apartment. Stallone gives chase up to the roof, but when he sees a shadow he shoots and it's just a 10 year old kid attending to his pigeons.

    Although he hates to admit it, Telly Savalas has lingering doubts about the veracity of Stallone's story. Even Theo Kojak can make a mistake in judgment about who should be on his squad. Has he made one here?

    A nice performance from Sly Stallone in his pre-Rocky days. Great confrontation scene on the rooftop where it all happened with Stallone and Savalas.
  • This episode drags terribly and is made even worse by having the moronically Neanderthal Stallone as the main player, with all of his wooden acting included. Oh my god, so so so boring.

    This episode is undeniably the worst Kojak episode up to this point. Avoid watching it and you will not regret it.

    How this actor rose to such heights really beggars belief.

    The only purpose this episode could possibly serve is its "dilation of time" effect, by making 45 minutes seem like three hours.

    If you have the box set, I highly recommend that you just burn the disk containing this episode. You can thank me later.