- Complete Monster: Detective Theo Kojak encounters a number of nasty men and women upon the streets of crime-plagued New York City. These are the worst:
- "Justice Deferred": Keith McCallum is a former mutual fund president who enacted an embezzling scheme that required him to murder his partner Braden with the aid of Braden's wife. To cover up Braden's death, McCallum found a man who could be Braden's double and sent him to Brazil with Braden's passport — planting a bomb that killed 80 other people on the plane. In the present day, McCallum murders the man's son as well to escape justice and cover up his crime.
- "A Need to Know": Carl Dettrow is the chauffeur for an unnamed nation who uses diplomatic immunity to escape justice for being a serial child molester. Having assaulted multiple children, Dettrow forms a plan to betray his nation and murder his handler, also slipping off to molest a little boy named Peter before attempting to hold a hostage at gunpoint to escape retribution for his crimes.
- The Belarus File 1985 TV movie: Heinrich Buchardt is the man at the heart of the Operation Belarus. A former concentration camp commandant responsible for the deaths of thousands who were dumped in mass graves, Buchardt used the United States to escape justice with his co-conspirators, later assisting the US in guerilla war with the Soviets. Having been responsible for the murders of the family of concentration camp survivor Peter Barak, Buchardt tries to hunt down and kill Barak, even if he must kill Barak's daughter first.
- Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The show was so popular in Brazil that 'Kojak' became synonymous for a bald man, and "I won't get caught by Kojak" meant 'I won't make any mistakes'
- Also, in Chile we refer to lollipops as "kojaks"
- We have ''Kojak-branded'' lollipops
in Spain! - Just like in above cases, 'Kojak' became synonymous with a bald man and a type of lollipop in Poland, thanks to the immense popularity of the show. It even became a slang term for a police officer that tries to act smarter than he really is, as if trying to be just like Kojak.
- Periphery Demographic: Not only did Kojak have a toyline but also Peter Pan Records, well known for its 45 record short story adaptations of Star Trek: The Original Series, Space: 1999, and various Marvel/DC comic book characters, did a few on Kojak, despite the fact that it's a Crime Drama more geared towards adults. As with the other adaptations, it featured heavily truncated and simplified stories compared to what would be on TV (the records were typically up to only 12 minutes long), it was still surprisingly adult level and still included death, violence, adult subtext, and other mature themes. Compared to today's offerings, Kojak, like other detective shows was very tame and in those days, parents were OK with their kids watching it.note Parents could definitely enjoy this record alongside their kids.
- Retroactive Recognition:
- James Woods in "Death Is Not a Passing Grade".
- William Katt in "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Death".
- David Ogden Stiers in "Money Back Guarantee".
- Sylvester Stallone in "My Brother, My Enemy".
- William Hurt in the two-parter "Kojak's Days".
- Values Dissonance:
- At least once, Kojak ends a would-be foot pursuit of a suspect by shooting him in the leg from behind. Today that would almost certainly get him fired in an honest police department, possibly prosecuted for assault with a deadly weapon.
- In general, while Kojak's general approach to dealing with criminals doesn't really cross the line into Police Brutality, it's certainly close enough by modern standards.
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