Kojak was a US detective TV series which ran between 1973 and 1978 on CBS, starring Telly Savalas as bald New York City policeman Lt. Theo Kojak who had a fondness for lollipops and the catchphrase: "Who loves ya, baby?" Kojak's Greek heritage, shared by actor Savalas, was prominent in the series, which was one of the most popular television programs of the mid-1970s.
The character of Theo Kojak was introduced in a 1973 TV movie, The Marcus-Nelson Murders and was popular enough that a series was quickly commissioned. In the early episodes of the series, Kojak smoked heavily; in order to reflect the anti-smoking sentiment then gaining momentum on American TV, it was decided that Kojak had decided to quit smoking, sucking on lollipops as a substitute.
Years after the series ended, Savalas reprised the role in a TV movie adaptation of the John Loftus novel The Belarus File (Kojak is not a character in the original book); this was followed by more TV movies and in 1989–1990 Kojak returned to television as part of a short-lived rotating series of TV movies that also featured fellow sleuth Columbo.
In March 2005, a new Kojak series debuted on the USA Network. In this "reimagined" version, Ving Rhames, an African-American actor, portrays the character. Reportedly the bald head, lollipops and "Who loves ya, baby?" catchphrase remains in intact, but little else remains from the Savalas original.
